Royal Philips announced the appointment of Sophie Bechu as Chief of Operations and Executive Vice President. Sophie Bechu, who joins Philips as of September 1, 2016 from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), becomes a member of Philips’ Executive Committee and reports directly to Philips CEO Frans van Houten. Sophie Bechu succeeds Pasquale Abruzzese, who left Philips in May of this year for personal reasons.

“I am delighted that Sophie Bechu comes on board and she joins our company at an enormously important time as we extend our leadership in health technology,” said Frans van Houten. “Sophie has extensive experience in operations, service delivery, procurement, supply chain, quality, engineering and strategic outsourcing, and I am confident that she will use her experience to further drive operational excellence across the company.” 

Royal Philips announced the appointment of Sophie Bechu as Chief of Operations and Executive Vice President. (Photo courtesy of Philips)

Sophie Bechu (French/American, 1960) joins Philips from IBM, where she worked for more than 30 years and where she was most recently Vice President, Strategic Outsourcing, North America Delivery. In this role, she was responsible for the IT services delivery for clients in North America and this portfolio included Healthcare and Life Sciences businesses in the U.S. Her key responsibilities included customer satisfaction, compliance and service level. Sophie holds a degree in Engineering from the Ecole Superieure d’Electricite, Paris, France.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Philips and building upon much of the great work that has already been achieved,” said Sophie Bechu. “I am convinced that my experience in operations, procurement and quality will help drive Philips’ ambitions to extend its leadership in health technology.”

The appointment of Sophie Bechu is the latest example of Philips’ efforts to align its organization in order to better capitalize on the HealthTech market opportunities. It follows other recent appointments, including Jean Botti, who became Philips’ Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer as of April 1, and Pieter Nota’s appointment to the newly-created position of Chief Marketing Officer, a role he fulfills next to his function as Leader of the Personal Health businesses.