Novartis announced the appointment of Karen L. Hale as Chief Legal Officer. She will report to Vas Narasimhan, M.D., CEO of Novartis and become a member of the Executive Committee of Novartis (ECN), effective May 15, 2021. Ms. Hale will be based in Basel, Switzerland and succeeds Shannon Klinger. Tom Kendris will continue as Chief Legal Officer ad interim until Ms. Hale joins. Ms. Hale brings to Novartis over 20 years of deep, global legal and compliance experience in the pharmaceutical industry. She joins Novartis from AbbVie where she held the role of Vice President, Deputy General Counsel. Prior to this, she held the position of Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer at AbbVie for 6 years, leading the global compliance program and acting as a trusted advisor to AbbVie’s Executive Leadership Team and Board of Directors.