roy jakobs-philips ceo
Roy Jakobs is slated to become Philips’s president and CEO, effective October 15. [Image courtesy of Royal Philips]

Philips‘ (NYSE:PHG) today announced that Roy Jakobs is proposed to success Frans van Houten as president and CEO, effective October 15.

The Amsterdam-based company’s supervisory board and CEO van Houten have agreed that it is time for a change in leadership as his third term in the corner office comes to an end. The board unanimously decided to propose Jakobs succeed van Houten.

“On behalf of the entire Supervisory Board, I would like to thank Frans for his transformational leadership of Philips over the last nearly 12 years,” said Feike Sijbesma, chairperson of the supervisory board of Royal Philips. “Guided by his vision and the execution of the strategic roadmap, he has successfully led the company’s transformation from a diversified industrial conglomerate into a focused, global solutions leader in health technology. Building on its 131-year heritage, he repositioned Philips to significantly enhance the future value-creating prospects of the company. Frans led Philips with genuine care for its customers, patients, and its employees.”

As Philips’s chief business leader of connected care, Jakobs has been responsible for handling the voluntary recall notification and field safety notices for specific Respironics devices on behalf of Philips. He has made progress in the execution of a comprehensive program that delivers a resolution to affected patients as quickly as possible in consultation with relevant competent authorities.

An Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders will be held on September 30 to officially appoint Jakobs as president and CEO, to be effective October 15. Van Houten will remain as an advisor to the company and support the CEO transition until April 30, 2023.

Jakobs joined Philips in 2010 and has held varying leadership roles over the years, including chief marketing and strategy officer for Philips Lighting and market leader for Philips Middle East and Turkey across health systems, consumer and lighting. He was appointed to chief business leader of personal health in 2018 and was at the forefront of managing the company’s COVID crisis response in early 2020. Jakobs took responsibility in June 2021 to address the Respironics recall notification on behalf of the company. The recall notably affected more than one million ventilator and CPAP devices and was linked to 124 deaths.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead Philips to improve people’s health and well-being through innovation,” Jakobs said in a news release. “I aim to build on the company’s strong foundation as a purpose-driven health technology leader with deep innovation and clinical expertise, to serve the needs of patients and consumers today and in the future. I look forward to working with Philips’ teams across the world to deliver a strong value creation trajectory for shareholders and all our other stakeholders. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Frans for his trust and the great support he has given me over the years.”

Shares in PHG were up 1.39% to $20.38 apiece at market open. MassDevice’MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — was up slightly.