Giovanni Caforio

Giovanni Caforio
Born	1964
Nationality	Italian, American
Occupation	Pharmaceutical executive
Title	Chairman of the Board, Novartis
Known for	Former Chairman and CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb
Education	Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)

Giovanni Caforio (born 1964) is an Italian-American pharmaceutical executive who served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), one of the world's largest biopharmaceutical companies. During his tenure as CEO, which began in 2015 and ended on November 1, 2023, Caforio oversaw a period of significant strategic transformation at BMS, including the landmark $74 billion acquisition of Celgene in 2019 — one of the largest mergers in pharmaceutical industry history. With an international career in the healthcare industry spanning more than 35 years, Caforio holds a Doctor of Medicine degree and has occupied senior leadership positions across multiple global pharmaceutical organizations. Following his retirement from BMS, Caforio was nominated and subsequently elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Novartis, the Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company, a position he assumed in 2024 and was re-elected to in 2025.

Early Life

Giovanni Caforio was born in 1964 and holds both Italian and American nationality. Details regarding his upbringing and family background are not extensively documented in public sources. He pursued medical training, earning a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree, which provided him with a clinical foundation that would inform his subsequent career in the pharmaceutical industry. His medical background distinguished him among pharmaceutical executives, many of whom come from business or scientific research backgrounds rather than clinical medicine.

Career

Early Career in Pharmaceuticals

Caforio built an international career in the healthcare industry that spans more than 35 years. Prior to joining Bristol-Myers Squibb, he held various positions in the global pharmaceutical sector, accumulating experience across different markets and therapeutic areas. His medical training provided him with a distinctive perspective on drug development and commercialization that would prove central to his leadership approach in later years.

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Rise to CEO

Giovanni Caforio rose through the ranks at Bristol-Myers Squibb, one of the largest biopharmaceutical companies in the world, ultimately being named Chief Executive Officer in 2015. He also served as Chairman of the Board, holding both the CEO and Chairman titles concurrently during the latter portion of his tenure at the company.

Strategic Transformation and the Celgene Acquisition

Caforio's tenure at BMS was defined by a series of strategic decisions that reshaped the company's portfolio and competitive position within the pharmaceutical industry. The most notable of these was the acquisition of Celgene Corporation, which was completed in 2019 for approximately $74 billion. The deal was one of the largest mergers and acquisitions in the history of the pharmaceutical industry and fundamentally altered BMS's product pipeline and therapeutic focus. The Celgene acquisition brought several significant assets into the BMS portfolio, including the blockbuster cancer drug Revlimid and a pipeline of next-generation therapies in oncology, hematology, and immunology. The deal was not without controversy at the time of its announcement, as some investors initially questioned the valuation and strategic rationale. However, the combined company emerged as a leader in several high-growth therapeutic areas.

Caforio became known within the industry for his willingness to pursue large-scale mergers and acquisitions as a means of driving growth and refreshing the company's drug pipeline. Under his leadership, BMS also invested in areas such as immuno-oncology, cardiovascular disease, and immunoscience, seeking to build a diversified portfolio of innovative medicines.

Leadership Transition and Retirement

On April 26, 2023, Bristol Myers Squibb announced a leadership transition plan under which Caforio would retire as CEO, effective November 1, 2023. The company stated that Caforio would continue to serve as Executive Chairman following his departure from the CEO role. Christopher Boerner, who had been serving as Chief Operating Officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb, was named as Caforio's successor as CEO.

The transition represented the culmination of a succession planning process that BMS had undertaken over a period of time. In an exit interview with STAT News published on October 30, 2023, Caforio discussed his tenure and the trajectory of the company as he prepared to step down. The interview was published on the eve of his departure from the CEO role, with Boerner set to formally replace him.

Compensation

In his final year as CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb, Caforio received total compensation of approximately $19.7 million, according to the company's proxy filing. This represented a slight decrease from the $20.1 million he had collected in 2022. The compensation figures reflected the standard structure for chief executives of major pharmaceutical companies, typically comprising a base salary, annual incentive awards, and long-term equity-based compensation.

Novartis

Nomination as Board Chairman

In April 2024, Novartis announced that it would propose Giovanni Caforio to serve as the next Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Swiss pharmaceutical company. The announcement, reported by multiple industry outlets on April 23, 2024, marked Caforio's return to a prominent leadership role in the pharmaceutical industry following his departure from Bristol-Myers Squibb.

The nomination attracted attention within the industry in part because of Caforio's track record of pursuing large mergers and acquisitions during his time at BMS. Industry observers speculated about whether Caforio's arrival at Novartis might signal a shift toward a more aggressive M&A strategy at the Swiss company.

Noncompete Considerations

Caforio's move from Bristol-Myers Squibb to Novartis raised questions about potential noncompete issues, given that both companies operate in overlapping therapeutic areas within the global pharmaceutical market. Fierce Pharma reported on July 1, 2024, that the transition raised the question of whether noncompete agreements from his time at BMS could come into play. Novartis had recently confirmed it would propose Caforio as its next board chairman, and the move from one major pharmaceutical company to a direct competitor attracted scrutiny regarding any contractual restrictions that might apply.

Election and Re-election

Despite the scrutiny surrounding his transition, Caforio assumed the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors at Novartis. At the company's 2025 Annual General Meeting, held on March 7, 2025, Novartis shareholders approved all resolutions proposed by the Board of Directors, including the re-election of Caforio as a member of the Board. The same meeting saw shareholders approve the company's 28th consecutive dividend increase to CHF 3.50 per share for the 2024 fiscal year, representing a 6.1% increase and a 3.5% yield.

As of 2025, Caforio's biography on the Novartis corporate website describes him as having had an international career in the healthcare industry spanning more than 35 years.

Personal Life

Giovanni Caforio holds both Italian and American nationality. He holds a Doctor of Medicine degree, reflecting his original training as a physician before transitioning into pharmaceutical industry management. Beyond these publicly documented facts, Caforio has maintained a relatively private personal life, with limited public information available about his family or personal interests outside of his professional activities.

Recognition

Caforio's leadership of Bristol-Myers Squibb during a period of significant transformation earned him recognition as one of the more consequential pharmaceutical industry executives of his era. The Celgene acquisition, valued at approximately $74 billion, remains one of the largest transactions in the history of the pharmaceutical sector and is closely associated with Caforio's strategic vision for BMS.

His appointment as Chairman of the Board of Novartis, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies by revenue and market capitalization, further underscored his standing within the global healthcare industry. The fact that Novartis selected a former CEO of a major competitor to lead its board reflected the company's confidence in Caforio's experience and strategic judgment.

Caforio's compensation during his final year at BMS — approximately $19.7 million — placed him among the highest-compensated executives in the pharmaceutical industry, consistent with the scale and complexity of the organization he led.

Legacy

Giovanni Caforio's legacy in the pharmaceutical industry is most closely tied to his leadership of Bristol-Myers Squibb during a critical period of strategic repositioning. The $74 billion acquisition of Celgene in 2019 was the defining transaction of his tenure and one of the most significant mergers in the history of the pharmaceutical industry. The deal transformed BMS from a company facing significant patent cliffs on several key products into a diversified biopharmaceutical organization with a broad portfolio of oncology, hematology, and immunology assets.

The succession process at BMS, which resulted in Christopher Boerner taking over as CEO on November 1, 2023, was managed as a planned transition rather than an abrupt departure, suggesting a deliberate approach to leadership continuity.

Caforio's subsequent appointment as Chairman of Novartis represented a notable career move that positioned him at the helm of another major global pharmaceutical company's governance structure. His dual Italian and American nationality and his medical training have been cited as elements that distinguish his profile among top pharmaceutical executives, many of whom lack direct clinical backgrounds.

Industry observers have noted that Caforio's track record of large-scale M&A activity at BMS may influence the strategic direction of Novartis during his tenure as Chairman, though the extent of any such influence remains to be seen.