Following some costly corporate compliance missteps at Novartis, Klaus Moosmayer will take over as Chief Ethics Officer.

The Swiss healthcare giant’s image has been tarnished in recent years by corruption cases in China, South Korea and the United States, including a questionable $1.2 million contract with former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. Novartis Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan, who replaced retired CEO Joseph Jimenez earlier this year, pledged to restore the company’s reputation. “We must hold ourselves to (the) highest ethical standards and always aim to win and maintain the trust of society and our many stakeholders,” Narasimhan said in a statement.

On August 14 Novartis announced the appointment of Klaus Moosmayer as Chief Ethics, Risk and Compliance Officer, effective December 1. He will report directly to Narasimhan and join the executive committee. Moosmayer replaces Shannon Thyme Klinger, who was appointed Group General Counsel in May following the resignation of Felix Ehrat related to the Cohen agreement. Novartis has acknowledged culpability in light of what former CEO Jimenez called a “results-oriented” culture. Reshuffling in its senior leadership team is not unexpected.

Moosmayer was Chief Compliance Officer at German engineering and manufacturing conglomerate Siemens for more than four years. He had been a Siemens lawyer since 2000, and previously served as Chief Counsel Compliance for four years. Moosmayer is credited with playing a key role in building Siemens' comprehensive compliance system, including policies governing internal investigations, disciplinary sanctions, remediation and compliance risk assessment.

Siemens revised its corporate compliance practices following its own series of scandals, Reuters reports, which Moosmayer was involved in managing. In 2008 Siemens was ordered to pay a settlement of around $1.6 billion to resolve bribery allegations. Moosmayer was tasked with handling other ramifications of the matter, which the company referred to as a “compliance crisis.” He was also involved in managing Siemens’ response to a breach of EU sanctions against Russia.

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