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Frans van Houten
Photo: EVA PLEVIER / REUTERS
After more than a year of massive price losses, the Dutch medical technology group Philips is parting ways with its boss.
Frans van Houten is leaving the company with immediate effect, the company announced on Tuesday.
Roy Jakobs, who currently heads the Connected Care division, will be his successor on October 15.
In view of the impending end of his term of office, the supervisory board and van Houten had agreed that now was the time for a change, according to a company statement.
Van Houten's contract actually ran until the end of April 2023.
Jakobs has worked for Philips since 2010.
After the recall of millions of ventilators, he restarted production, knew a lot about product quality and safety and was therefore the right man for the job, said Feike Sijbesma, chairman of the supervisory board.
An extraordinary general meeting is to decide on Jakob's appointment on September 30th.
Van Houten headed Philips for twelve years.
During this time, he transformed the company from a conglomerate into a medical technology specialist.
On the Amsterdam stock exchange, Philips shares rose 2.3 percent after the announcement of his departure.
Nevertheless, they are still more than 50 percent lower than in June 2021, when Philips had to recall 5.5 million ventilators because of possible health risks.
dab/Reuters