Virbac announces Giovanni Abruzzini’s appointment as president and CEO of Virbac North America, effective March 27, 2023. His main mission is to lead and develop all North American Virbac activities, in line with Virbac’s global strategy.
Giovanni’s priority will be to durably develop and profitably grow Virbac’s business activities in North America. With great experience from Johnson & Johnson and long-standing experience in the healthcare industry, he will seek to gain market share and visibility in the North American market through additional market penetration in the companion animals category (pet food included), and in livestock health, accelerating in close collaboration with the local teams the different initiatives that have already been implemented to transform the North American business. Among additional priorities will be the need to improve overall product margin, focusing in particular on the St. Louis site profitability. Giovanni will report to Sophie Favini, head of Global Business Operations for Virbac.
“Giovanni will bring his experience, skills and energy to accelerate the commercial development, and through that, the improvement of the profitability of our North American operations, giving our teams and business the visibility and the critical size we need now”, said Favini.
Giovanni holds a Superior degree in Business and Economics from the University of Rome. Throughout his career, he has worked in Italy, France, Sweden, England and the United States. Prior to joining Virbac, Abruzzini held the position of vice president of Johnson & Johnson Med Tech since 2019. With a career spanning more than 26 years within Johnson & Johnson, including regional head Northern Europe, general manager UK, Ireland, and Nordics, global sr. franchise director, and marketing director in Italy, Giovanni was integral to the success of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. Under his tenure, among other successes, Giovanni created a model for excellence in commercial execution. He started his career as product manager at J&J Consumer Italy in 1997. Before joining J&J Vision Care, he had been taking increasing local and regional responsibilities for skincare and personal care brands.
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