2nd QUARTER 2014
15
to move forward with the studies,”
says Landry. “We have to be flexible
enough to have the resources to
pursue the unexpected and
unbudgeted opportunity.”
Landry’s belief in the importance
of clearing the way for innovation
and ensuring that he is there to
support the innovators is an
especially good fit for his new com-
pany. Since CEO Leonard Schleifer,
M.D., Ph.D., founded Regeneron in
1988 with Chief Scientific Officer
George Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D.,
opening the labs, the company has
been researching, developing, and
manufacturing medicines from its
labs just over the Tappan Zee Bridge
in Tarrytown, NY. Despite a number
of near-successes, the company
posted losses for its first two decades
in business, but its leaders contin-
ued to believe in the work they were
doing by applying science to the
successful pursuit of new
medicines and, in the process,
building a vibrant enterprise.
Then, in 2011, the company
received approval from the FDA
to sell EYLEA, a treatment for wet
age-related macular degeneration
— a major cause of blindness in the
elderly. At a time when many
analysts thought the days of block-
buster pharmaceutical products had
passed, EYLEA generated $838 mil-
lion of U.S. sales in 2012, in its first
full year on the market, and forecasts
for 2014’s U.S. sales soar to $1.7 to
$1.8 billion as additional uses for the
drug may receive FDA approval.
“Len and George are really
brilliant and have assembled a group
of the most talented scientists in the
world who are working within this
shop,” says Landry. “What they’ve
created here is just a juggernaut of re-
search and development and product
A Wealth of
Experience
I
t’s unusual for a large
publicly traded company
to hire a CFO who has not
already served in that role.
But Regeneron did just that
with Robert Landry.
“I am convinced that
my success stems from
the breadth of opportuni-
ties I have been afforded,
obviously coupled with
working hard, day in and
day out,” says Landry, who
has worked in finance
since graduating from the
University of Notre Dame
about 27 years ago.
“[But] taking on new
challenges ... created
stress, as you are frequently
asked to operate outside
your comfort level.” Adding
to that, Landry relocated
his family several times
throughout his career.
As a Group CFO of
Pfizer’s Diversified Busi-
nesses, he worked on
its recent organizational
transition. This segment
included four operating
business units, which
included the former nutri-
tion business, animal health
business, Capsugel, which
made gelatin caps for
drugs, and the consumer
health business.
In the two years he was
there, Landry “worked
around the clock splitting
off and divesting three out
of the four businesses,”
selling Capsugel to
KKR and the nutrition
business to Nestlé. The
animal health division split
off from Pfizer and is now
traded on the NYSE under
the ticker Zoetis.
Each of these was a
mammoth transaction, and
he had the responsibilities
of being the transactional
finance lead for them all in
a very short period of time
— and for the most part,
concurrently.
Now he believes that
becoming the CFO of a
public company seemed
to be the natural next step.
Having operated within
treasury, controllership,
internal audit, and FP&A,
stepping into a position
that oversees it all “simply
made sense.”
Robert Landry once served as transactional finance lead
in divesting three business units almost concurrently
