Perrigo Announces Leadership Changes

DUBLIN, Feb. 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Perrigo Company plc (NYSE; TASE: PRGO), a leading global provider of Quality Affordable Healthcare Products^®, today announced that Ron Winowiecki, Senior Vice President, Business Finance, has been appointed acting Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately, following the resignation of Judy L. Brown, Executive Vice President, Business Operations and Chief Financial Officer, who is leaving Perrigo to take a position with another company in the pharmaceutical industry, beginning on April 1, 2017.  Perrigo is conducting a thorough search process to identify a permanent Chief Financial Officer, which includes Mr. Winowiecki as a key candidate.

Perrigo's CEO John T. Hendrickson commented, "Following the departure of Judy Brown, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Ron Winowiecki as acting Chief Financial Officer. Ron has almost thirty years of accounting and finance experience, devoting nearly fifteen years to leading global public company finance organizations in the capacities of Corporate Controller, Treasurer and Chief Accounting Officer, including eight years at Perrigo, most recently as Senior Vice President, Business Finance. I am confident that this will be a seamless transition and that Ron will provide Perrigo and our financial team with strong leadership. I look forward to continuing to work alongside Ron."

Hendrickson continued, "Judy's leadership has been instrumental in developing a high caliber Finance team at Perrigo and assisted our efforts to drive growth across our global platform. On behalf of the Board of Directors and management, I would like to thank Judy for her contributions to Perrigo over her more than 15-year tenure with the Company, and wish her all the best in her future endeavors."

Ron Winowiecki has served as Perrigo's Senior Vice President, Business Finance since January 2014. Before serving as Senior Vice President, Mr. Winowiecki was Perrigo's Vice President, Treasury and Accounting Shared Services from September 2011 to December 2013 and Corporate Vice President, Treasurer from October 2008 to August 2011. Prior to joining Perrigo, he served as CFO for Innotec Company, Vice President Corporate Controller for SPX Corporation, and the Corporate Controller and Chief Accounting Officer at Donnelly Corporation. Mr. Winowiecki graduated with a B.S. in Accounting from Hope College and received a M.B.A. in Finance from Western Michigan University.

Perrigo also announced today that Svend Andersen has been appointed Executive Vice President and President, Consumer Healthcare International ("CHCI"). The CHCI segment comprises the Branded Consumer Healthcare business as well as Perrigo's legacy international businesses. Mr. Andersen will be responsible for a portfolio mainly consisting of store brand and branded over-the-counter ("OTC") medicines and products, with annual sales of more than $1 billion, and operations across multiple countries. He will report directly to CEO John Hendrickson and join Perrigo's Executive Committee.

Commenting on the appointment, Hendrickson said: "The Executive Committee and I appreciate Sharon Kochan providing leadership to the branded healthcare team through a critical period. His efforts to enhance the segment's leadership team, instill process discipline and drive execution have prepared the team to thrive under new leadership. As Svend transitions into his role, Sharon will continue to be a key executive for our Company and businesses in Australia and Israel."

Hendrickson continued, "Svend brings a proven track record of commercial execution in Europe within the consumer, generic and prescription pharmaceuticals industries, including driving process optimization and ensuring supply chain and value chain alignment. He will continue to focus on building and further innovating our OTC portfolios with the clear goal of enhancing profitability. I look forward to working closely with Svend and his leadership team to grow this business in the next phase of our transition."

Most recently, Mr. Andersen served as Executive Vice President – Europe for LEO-Pharma, where he successfully initiated restructuring efforts for its 35-country European business designed to introduce a new OTC strategy and country-cluster approach, as well as drive process and governance improvements. Prior to that, he led Hospira, Inc.'s Europe, Middle East and Africa ("EMEA") business, where he enhanced its go-to-market strategy and drove expansion efforts. While at Actavis, Mr. Andersen was responsible for the Western European division's pharmaceuticals, generics, OTC and hospital products businesses, and also led Alpharma's EMEA businesses prior to its acquisition by Actavis.

About Perrigo

Perrigo Company plc, a leading global over-the-counter ("OTC") consumer goods company, offers patients and customers high quality products at affordable prices. From its beginning in 1887 as a packager of home remedies, Perrigo, headquartered in Ireland, has grown to become the world's largest manufacturer of OTC healthcare products and supplier of infant formulas for the store brand market. The Company is also a leading provider of generic extended topical prescription products in the U.S., and receives royalties from sales of the multiple sclerosis drug, Tysabri®. Perrigo provides "Quality Affordable Healthcare Products®" across a wide variety of product categories and geographies, primarily in North America, Europe, and Australia, as well as in other markets, including Israel, China, and Latin America. Visit Perrigo online at (http://www.perrigo.com).

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements." These statements relate to future events or the Company's future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements of the Company or its industry to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or the negative of those terms or other comparable terminology. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While the Company believes these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, including future impairment charges, the ability to achieve its guidance, the ability to timely execute and achieve the desired benefits of its announced restructuring plan and initiatives, future asset sales and the timing, amount and cost of share repurchases. In addition, there can be no assurance that the Company will be able to file its 2016 Form 10-K within the fifteen calendar day extension provided by Rule 12b-25, or that the Company may not identify one or more material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting, need to restate its financial statements or conclude that investors should no longer rely upon previously issued financial statements. These and other important factors, including those discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Form 10-KT for the six-month period ended December 31, 2015, as well as the Company's subsequent filings with the SEC, may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release are made only as of the date hereof, and unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Perrigo Company plc