Lars Viksmoen

Lars Viksmoen, President and CEO of GN ReSound, began his career as a medical doctor, working mostly in trauma surgery. After 10 years in surgery, he began working for the global pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Inc., initially as a medical director, and later as managing director in Norway. In Scandinavia he was a core member of a clinical development team conducting mega-trials with remarkable clinical outcomes and corresponding revenue impact at a global level for the mother company. After six years in Norway he moved on to the US. “I had two jobs in the US: head of global marketing for cardiovascular products, and in addition I worked in the US subsidiary of Merck & Co., helping the president of US Human Health with a reorganisation, moving from a regional to a therapeutic business group set-up,” Lars says, “basically being responsible for a majority of the sales in the US domestic organisation.

“After spending close to four years in the US, I went back to Scandinavia, heading up the Scandinavian region for Merck & Co., followed by the Eastern European (including Austria and Turkey) region and later the mid-European (including Israel and South Africa) region. All together I spent around 10 years in leading regional-management functions before retiring from Merck & Co.”

Prior to joining GN ReSound, Lars was CEO of small listed Norwegian biotech company, Biotec Pharmacon. “We were developing a pharmaceutical product that unfortunately failed in phase three. We identified the problem with the product and were able to put the product back on the development loop; however, for cash reasons I was forced to significantly downsize the company. I had spent three years with the intention of taking a pharmaceutical product to the market, and was not motivated to spend another three years on the same project track, so I identified a very qualified and motivated successor and left the company and moved on to the med-tech business, joining GN ReSound, one of the leading Danish hearing-instrument manufacturers. I have been here now for around three and a half years, managing a major turnaround operation.”