CSL CEO Paul Perreault to step down after 10 years, with Paul McKenzie to take over

Paul Perreault will leave the $143.80bn biotechnology giant in March and hand over the reins to veteran Paul McKenzie.

CSL chief executive Paul Perreault has announced he will step down from his role in March after a decade at the helm of the biotechnology giant.

Chief operating officer Paul McKenzie – whose career in biotechnology spans 30 years – will succeed Mr Perreault, who will stay on at CSL until next September in an advisory capacity to ensure an “orderly transition”.

Mr Perreault said it was his intention to retire after joining the company in the late 1990s, initially serving as president at CSL Behring and executive president of worldwide commercial operations and business development, before becoming chief executive and managing director in 2013.

During his tenure, CSL briefly became the biggest company on the ASX – overtaking Commonwealth Bank and BHP Billiton – excluding the mining giant’s then London-listed shares – in early 2020.

“Leading CSL during the last decade has been a privilege as we grew, innovated, and globalised to new levels – all while fostering a values-based culture focused on our promise to patients and public health around the world,” Mr Perreault said.

“In working closely with Dr McKenzie for more than three years, I am confident he will continue to innovate and build on CSL’s track record of growth for years to come.”

CSL incoming CEO Paul McKenzie. Picture: Supplied

Mr McKenzie said he was proud to lead an Australian company with 107 years of history, as well as a global player that delivers lifesaving medications around the world.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, US, he said a key mission for him as the new CEO would be to continue the work started by his predecessor on CSL’s 2030 strategy to mould the global biopharmaceutical company into a growth business.

“So over the last three and a half years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with Paul (Perreault) and his leadership team to develop and execute our 2030 strategy, that’s the foundation for us, that’s what we’re going to continue to deliver, and I look forward to accelerating our sustainable profitable growth journey over the next couple of months.

“I’ll continue to work with Paul. I’ll go out on a listening tour, but really, we are focused on delivering on our fiscal year 2023 priorities and goals that we’ve shared with the market,” Mr McKenzie said in an interview.

Mr McKenzie will also take the reins at CSL at a time when it is integrating its recent $19bn acquisition of Swiss pharmaceutical business Vifor, and he said so far CSL has had a “great start” to merging the businesses.

“Vifor is off to a great start on our integration, we got the keys in August, we’re continuing to work with them and really bring the best of the two companies together to deliver for patients – so it’s on track, and we’re making good progress.”

Mr McKenzie said apart from the 2030 strategy, he would also like to see CSL further invest “aggressively” in R&D and expand into other geographies.

“So we are building off the great foundation of our 2030 strategy, which is really geared on being a sustainable and profitable growth company. In addition to that, though, I’d like to see as part of that we want to make sure our R&D agenda continues aggressively,” he said.

“We want to make sure our geographic expansion continues, and we want to make sure our most important critical asset, our people, have that promising futures. Sustainable and profitable growth allows you to have people get compelling opportunities to diversify themselves to diversify your workforce, which is incredibly important for success in today’s modern world.”

Under Mr Perreault’s leadership, CSL also was at the vanguard of Australia’s fight against Covid-19, producing more than 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine at its factories in Melbourne and helped spearhead the development of University of Queensland’s vaccine candidate, which was later aborted after it triggered false positives for HIV.

Mr Perreault announced his departure from the company almost a year after CSL revealed its intention to buy Swiss renal treatment company Vifor Pharma for $16.4bn – a deal which was finalised earlier this year and renewed CSL’s investor “buy” status. Morgan Stanley said the acquisition could even send CSL’s shares surging above $400.

His retirement also follows the US Food and Drug Administration approving its next blockbuster drug Hemgenix – the world’s first gene therapy and one-time only treatment for haemophilia B, which will replace routine prophylactic infusions to control the rare blood disorder – two weeks ago.

Mr Perreault and Dr McKenzie – who are both based in the US – flew to Australia this month to open the company’s new $1bn plasma fractionation facility in Broadmeadows. Mr Perreault said the factory would turbocharge production of CSL’s lifesaving therapies, processing up to 9.2 million plasma equivalent litres a year – a nine-fold increase on CSL’s current capacity – and export to more than 100 countries.

The plant is part of $2bn capital works program CSL is currently completing in Australia, which also includes a next generation influenza vaccine factory at Tullamarine – using cell-based technology – and a new head office and biotechnology precinct in Melbourne’s CBD.

Dr McKenzie – who has a PhD in engineering – joined CSL in 2019 after previously serving in senior roles at Biogen, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck.

He will be paid a base salary of $US1.75m a year – with the ability to lift that figure to $US3.85m under the CSL’s short-term incentive program and $US9.2m under the company’s long-term incentive plan, which would take effect from 2014.

CSL chair – and former chief executive – Brian McNamee said in the past three years Dr McKenzie has led the “optimisation” of CSL’s operations as well as growing its vaccine business CSL Seqirus and CSL Plasma, and CSL Vifor divisions.

Dr McNamee said Dr McKenzie “transformed CSL’s global end-to-end operations, advanced CSL Seqirus’ differentiated portfolio strategy, and led CSL Plasma through Covid-19 challenges while surpassing plasma collection volumes beyond pre-pandemic levels”.

“Paul McKenzie is a patient-focused global leader with a demonstrated track record of leading complex organisations and delivering outstanding business results. With his deep understanding of CSL’s strategy, culture and operations, Paul is well positioned to lead CSL to its next level of sustainable growth for our shareholders and the patients we serve around the world,” Dr McNamee said, while also paying tribute to Mr Perreault.

“The board and I want to acknowledge the remarkable leadership of Paul Perreault as CEO for 10 years. With Paul at the helm, CSL delivered sustainable growth and innovation with a patient-focused culture. Thanks to Paul’s leadership, CSL today has grown to become a global leader, delivering shareholder value and industry-leading lifesaving medicines to people in more than 100 countries.”

Dr McKenzie said he was “excited and humbled for the opportunity to continue building CSL’s legacy following the strong foundation established by Paul Perreault over the last decade”.

“I look forward to continuing our momentum and engaging closely with the board, our leadership team, 30,000 colleagues, and other stakeholders to serve patients and public health around the world,” he said.

“We will continue focusing on executing our 2030 strategy, investing in innovation, and continue achieving sustainable and profitable growth.”

CSL shares were down 0.8 per cent to $295.95 on the ASX late Tuesday morning, giving it a market capitalisation of around $142.75bn.