Director, Commercial Italy/greece

**Position**:Director, Commercial Italy/Greece**

**Reports to: General Manager Italy/Greece**

**Location: Milan, Italy**

**Position Summary**

Apellis is entering into an exciting time with its first ever product launch in ophthalmology, and a host of additional launches to follow, including the first ever medicine to be available in eye care for geographic atrophy. The company is looking to build out a comprehensive team and is looking to hire a strong commercial leader for its newly established affiliate in Italy and working across the country cluster of Italy and Greece.

Reporting to the General Manager Italy/Greece, the Director Commercial Italy/Greece is a key member of the Italy/Greece leadership team and will be directly responsible for leading the launch and commercialization of APL-2 in ophthalmology. This is a pre-commercialization position, creating an opportunity to build and structure the Commercial approach and build the Sales and Marketing function from scratch while aligning to the goals of the Italy/Greece business affiliate. This includes as well the development of a fully integrated commercial plan and effectively managing the evolution from pre-marketing to launch whilst leading the commercial sales and marketing organization. This will require, amongst other things, strong strategic skills with a practical knowledge of taking insights through to strategy and then how this presents itself in execution.

Managing the first commercial launch for Apellis in the Italy/Greece will furthermore require strong leadership and exceptional commercial acumen. It will need a competitive mindset anchoring on an exceptional customer experience.

**Key Responsibilities include**:

- In partnership with the in country cross functional teams and regional functions prepare for a best-in-class launch ensuring accountability to all elements of the plan and executed in a manner that aligns to the Apellis International strategic direction and exceptional customer experience
- Develop and deploy cross functional plans to achieve business's goals, maintain/improve sales, profit, and market share consistent with goals of the Italy/Greece and the long-term strategic plans of the company.
- Bring innovation/entrepreneurial thinking to build novel approaches to bringing this treatment to market.
- Develop and strengthen strategic relationships with customers in the therapeutic area to support commercial activities in alignment with compliance guidelines.
- Review business performance of commercial teams and ensure management actions are taken to secure adherence to agreed plans.
- Additional responsibilities will include collaborating with multiple cross functional partners to ensure the commercial strategy and brand uptake in the short and long term are understood and aligned to
- Build a best-in-class commercial team to become an admired and respected leader in the Biotech industry while cultivating an inclusive high-performance environment that values and leverages integrity and diversity.
- Provide personal leadership to inspire and motivate the marketing and sales teams to continuously strive for excellence.
- Select and develop key talent and ensure retention of high-performers, to strengthen the team and the company by creating a winning spirit and by developing excellence-oriented and customer-focused culture, fostering innovation, and building best in class teams.

**Education, Registration & Certification**:

- Undergraduate degree in business or science or related discipline required.

**Experience**:

- A seasoned and well-rounded executive with at least 8 years of demonstrated success in a variety of marketing and sales roles at an Affiliate/country level of progressively greater scope and responsibility.
- Recent product launch experience in the Italy/Greece is desired and would be a distinct advantage.
- Experience in complementary commercial roles (e.g., sales, market access, business insights etc.)
- Experience building and leading teams in a pharmaceutical/biotech industry environment.
- Experience in ophthalmology is welcomed and would be an advantage but is not essential.

**Skills, Knowledge & Abilities**:

- Deep understanding of building strategies that can be taken through to execution and knowledge of how to appropriately track the impact of a given strategy in the market.
- Track record of field force management and proven ability to create and lead a country selling organization capable of achieving the country sales forecasts.
- Proven ability in collecting and deciphering key trends and insights to uncover areas of opportunity or barriers and creating a plan to address the opportunity or issue.
- Ability to think beyond a typical route of action with experience in bringing innovative approaches to the business.
- High degree of professionalism, maturity, and confidentiality
- Superior written and oral communication skills in Italian and English, and the ability to work with different