Róbert Wessman

Over the past 25 years, Róbert has built a global reputation as a leader in generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars, creating and growing enterprises with a singular purpose: to make life-changing medicines more affordable and readily available to people and patients around the world. He has founded and led a number of 'unicorns' —- global enterprises worth more than $1bn — in this space. His companies include generics makers and distributors Actavis, Alvogen, Medis, Adalvo and Lotus, as well as Iceland-based biosimilars pioneer Alvotech. His achievements and business strategies have been the subject of three Harvard Busines School case studies.

Róbert was born and raised in Iceland. He attended public schools in the Reykjavik area and received his BA in business administration from the University of Iceland. In 1999, at the age of 29, Róbert left his position in the Hamburg office of an Icelandic shipping line and returned to Iceland to become CEO of a near bankrupt local drugmaker, Delta. Merged with another local pharmaceutical company, Actavis was born, and by the time Róbert stepped down as CEO in 2008 to found Alvogen, it had grown to be one of the world's largest generics companies. He has been leading force for growth and innovation in the sector ever since. 

He puts his mission in simple terms: "We live in an age of incredible medical progress, but a wonder drug is only worthy of the name if it's accessible to everyone that needs it. I work to make that happen."