Merck KGaA has announced the appointment of Dr Maria Rivas as Senior Vice President, Head of Global Affairs.

Dr Rivas, a board certified endocrinologist, has joined Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany where she will be responsible for bridging the gap between R&D and the commercialisation of products, as the launch of several new products comes onto the horizon.

Rivas will join the German drug maker as she comes from her previous role at MSD, in which she held a position as Senior Vice President, Head of Medical Affairs. In her previous role the experienced leader oversaw 2,000 employees from 90 different countries as she took responsibility for establishing strong collaboration between Medical Affairs and R&D organisation.

Previously Rivas acted as Vice President and Head of Global Affairs at American biopharmaceutical company AbbVie. Rivas has also worked at Bayer in which she served as Vice President, Global Medical Affairs, Oncology, and Vice President, General Medicine and Diagnostic Imaging.

Dr Rivas graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Brandeis University before gaining an MD in Medicine from Columbia University, where she later completed her post-doc clinical training.