Victor Grifols Roura announces retirement from the Board of Directors; Albert Grifols Coma-Cros appointed as new Board Member

Barcelona, Spain Dec. 19, 2023 – Grifols (MCE:GRF, MCE:GRF.P, NASDAQ:GRFS), a global healthcare company and leading manufacturer of plasma-derived medicines that has been enhancing people’s health and well-being for more than 110 years, today announced that Victor Grifols Roura, grandson of the company’s founder and the man whose entrepreneurial hustle captained the company to the top tier of the plasma industry, has said he is retiring from the company’s Board of Directors.

He relinquishes his seat on the Board on which he has made his presence felt since becoming a director nearly 40 years ago, first as CEO in 1987, then continuing in 2017 with the sole title of Chairman and, from October 2022, as Chairman of Honor and proprietary director. His retirement comes exactly 50 years after joining Grifols as Export Director, beginning an illustrious career at the only corporate employer he would ever have.

“With the company once again on a sustainable growth path it’s time for me to turn the page and begin the next chapter, exceedingly proud, humble and awed by what we’ve been able to do for patients and society during the last decades,” said Mr. Victor Grifols Roura. “I am a lucky man in having been able to combine during my lifetime, as my father did during his, the two things that have been my passion, my family and my career.”

Mr. Grifols Roura was the mastermind behind Grifols’ international expansion and built consensus with his teams through the power of his convictions. When his father, Victor Grifols i Lucas, handed him the CEO reins after building the business and positioning it for global growth, Mr. Grifols Roura and his team seized the opportunity.

Five years after listing Grifols on the Spanish stock exchange in 2006, Mr. Grifols Roura engineered perhaps his most defining tour de force, the acquisition of Talecris Biotherapeutics, Inc. The daring purchase – Talecris was larger – instantly catapulted Grifols into an international leader in the plasma industry. In 2014, Mr. Grifols Roura made Grifols an instant global player in Diagnostics when he engineered the acquisition of Novartis’ transfusion medicine business unit.

He stepped down as CEO in 2017 when he was 67, the same age his father had when Victor Grifols Roura assumed the role from him 30 years earlier. This began a series of well-timed and orderly transitions in the Grifols Board and executive suite.

A tireless champion for universal access to plasma medicines and the need to increase their availability around the world, he is roundly hailed as a sector statesman. Victor Grifols Roura has received several awards. These include the 2010 Global Business Leader Award from the United States Chamber of Commerce in Spain and, one year on, Business Leader of the Year from the Spain-U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In 2017, he received a Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Mr. Grifols Roura’s open board seat will be filled by Albert Grifols Coma-Cros, who until September 2023 was the company’s Chief Scientific Innovation Officer. He is the grandson of Josep Antoni Grifols i Lucas, the developer of the plasmapheresis technique. Since 1951, it has been the gold standard for safely and effectively collecting large amounts of plasma for subsequent manufacture into lifesaving plasma therapeutics.

“Being appointed a member of the Grifols Board is an absolute honor for me, and I look forward to being able to contribute to the company’s continued growth and leadership in the plasma sector,” said Albert Grifols Coma-Cros.

He joined Grifols in 2004 as an analyst in the company’s Planning and Control Department, before taking a similar role in the Finance Department in 2007. In 2013, he became Director of the Corporate Treasury Department, a unit he helped create. Five years later, he was named General Manager of Grifols Ireland, where he built a global plasma logistics and supply hub. In 2021, he assumed the role of Chief Scientific Innovation Officer, in which for two years he reorganized the team, established future priorities and created important partnerships with Google, Barcelona Health Hub and others to enhance how Grifols applies data and new technologies.

“Over the more than 25 years I have had the privilege and honor of calling Victor Grifols Roura my colleague and friend, he has truly been an inspiration to the organization and the global plasma community,“ said Thomas Glanzmann, Grifols Executive Chairman and CEO. “We will miss his piercing intelligence, sharp wit and experienced perspective, but we know that as Chairperson of Honor he will always be there with his sound advice. I also know Albert well and I am pleased to welcome him and his unique experience and point of view to the Board.”