Tariq Farooq of Sanofi leads the Top 28 Supply Chain Executives Europe in 2021

The number 1 professional in the 2021 edition of the Top 28 Supply Chain Executives in Europe is Tariq Farooq, SVP Global Supply Chain at Sanofi based in Geneva, Switzerland. He has climbed the ranking from 26th place in 2019 to 4th place in 2020 and now to the top spot in 2021.

For this year’s edition, Supply Chain Media, KPMG Advisory and Inspired-Search scanned the top European executives and compiled a longlist of 65 supply chain executives residing and leading in Europe. All the executives have either global responsibility or responsibility within the European or EMEA region.

The methodology for the Top 28 is based on analysis of published company data and financial reports, in combination with peer voting and an executive survey to determine each professional’s responsibility, span of control and impact within their organization. The ranking is based on four quadrants: 1) Financial Results, 2) Personal Responsibility, 3) Personal Visibility, and 4) Peer Voting. The first and second quadrant each have a weighting of 30%, and the third and fourth quadrants count for 20% each. The scores per quadrant are indexed according to the weighting factor to arrive at a total final score.

Tariq Farooq, SVP Global Supply Chain at Sanofi

Farooq has been Senior Vice President Global Supply Chain at Sanofi, based in Geneva, Switzerland, since April 2017. He joined the company from Danone as VP Global Manufacturing and EMEA Operations, where he worked for seven years. His impressive progress from the 26th position in 2019 to 4th place in 2020 and the top spot this year is the result of a combination of peer votes, responsibility, scope and company success.

Farooq has described himself in the European quarterly magazine Supply Chain Movement as naturally curious and driven to learn, collaborate and make a difference. He is currently responsible for the global supply chain across a diverse US$35 billion Pharma & Biotech business. Over the past four years, the company has transformed the supply chain, and the organization has delivered in terms of performance, pace of product launches, customer connection and satisfaction and, ultimately, what it can deliver to the top and bottom line, Farooq noted. “During the last year we have demonstrated our resilience as we’ve continued to serve patients and customers, despite all the challenges, which has elevated the appreciation of supply chain within the company even further.”

When asked about how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the pace of product innovation, he stated: “Things are changing fast; we’ve just seen the development of vaccines move from ten years to ten months. The way that pharma and healthcare companies have responded to the pandemic has been phenomenal. The genie is out of the lamp. The question ahead is, how can we live up to this new expectation of speed to market?”

“Also, the amount of collaboration across the industry has been phenomenal. For example, Sanofi is collaborating with GSK and Translate Bio to develop two different COVID-19 vaccines. Plus, as recently announced, we are working with Pfizer/BioNTech to produce a hundred million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in our facilities in Frankfurt. It’s great to see this level of collaboration amongst competitors, as we all work together in the service of patients and humanity.” This underlines the company’s agility.

Top 28 of Supply Chain Executives in Europe 2021 (2020)

1 (4) Tariq Farooq, Senior Vice President Global Supply Chain, Sanofi
2 (-) Sami Naffakh, Chief Supply Officer, Reckitt
3 (13) Gustavo Burger, Senior Vice President Operations, EMEA, APAC & LATAM, Kraft Heinz
4 (23) Ewan Andrew, President, Global Supply and Procurement & Chief Sustainability Officer, Diageo
5 (-) Ivanka Janssen, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Executive Vice President, Philips
6 (2) David Prinselaar, Chief Manufacturing Officer, AkzoNobel
7 (24) Fares Sayegh, Senior Vice President Supply Chain Europe, Procter & Gamble
8 (18) Emer Cunningham, Vice President Internal Medicine Global Supply Chain, Pfizer
9 (7) Vineet Khanna, Senior Vice President Global Head of Supply Chain, Nestlé
10 (-) Silke Maurer, Chief Operating Officer, BSH
11 (-) Magne Setnes, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Heineken
12 (10) Harald Emberger, Head of Supply Chain, Beiersdorf
13 (3) Francesca Gamboni, Senior Vice President Supply Chain, Stellantis
14 (9) Regis Simard, President Pharmaceutical Supply Chain, GSK
15 (12) Sikko Zoer, Vice President Global Supply Chain, Distribution and Logistics, Medtronic
16 (27) Isabelle Conrot, Head of Global Logistics & Supply Chain Operations, Roche
17 (15) Paul Campbell, Senior Vice President Supply Chain Europe, PepsiCo
18 (17) Thomas Panzer, Sr. Vice President Head Supply Chain Management Pharmaceuticals, Bayer
19 (-) Padraig Healy, Vice President Supply Chain, Nokia
20 (-) Stephan Gotthardt, Senior Vice President Europe Supply Chain, Teva
21 (-) Martin Shankland, Executive Board Member, Global Operations, Adidas
22 (22) Frederic Brut, Head of Supply Chain EEMEA & APAC, MSD
23 (-) Peter Puype, Global Head of Supply Chain, Biogen
24 (28) Volker Schmitz, Vice President, Head of EMEA Supply Chain, HP
25 (-) Richard Oosterhoff, Senior Vice President DSM Operations & Responsible Care, Royal DSM
26 (16) Ralf Busche, Senior Vice President European Site Logistics, BASF
27 (-) Stéphanie Rott, Supply Chain and Manufacturing Group Director, LVMH
28 (-) Bruce Edwards, Vice President Supply Chain EMEA, Kellogg Company

Hall of Fame

Marc Engel, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Unilever, was the first person to be added to the Supply Chain Movement Hall of Fame of Supply Chain Executives Europe in recognition of him being named the No. 1 executive in two consecutive years (2017 and 2018). Carsten Rasmussen, Chief Operating Officer at LEGO Group, was the second person to be added to the Hall of Fame after winning the 2019 edition. Dirk Holbach, Corporate Senior Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer at Henkel, was the third person to join the Hall of Fame after topping the 2020 ranking.