{"id":4283,"date":"2025-02-20T06:31:56","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T06:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/bristol-myers-squibb-gc-to-retire-after-33-years-with-drugmaker\/"},"modified":"2025-02-20T06:31:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T06:31:56","slug":"bristol-myers-squibb-gc-to-retire-after-33-years-with-drugmaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/bristol-myers-squibb-gc-to-retire-after-33-years-with-drugmaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol Myers Squibb GC to Retire After 33 years With Drugmaker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sandra Leung, one of the longest-serving legal chiefs in the pharmaceutical industry, plans to retire from Bristol Myers Squibb in 2025 after nearly 33 years with the company. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Leung will be succeeded by Cari Gallman, the company’s executive vice president of corporate affairs, Bristol Myers CEO Chris Boerner told employees on Wednesday. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gallman has been in that role since October 2023 and before that was senior vice president and chief compliance and ethics officer. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She also served in assistant general counsel roles in oncology and commercial legal and compliance. Gallman joined the company in 2015 as senior counsel after working as a litigation associate at Debevoise & Plimpton for nearly seven years. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gallman “is an accomplished leader with extensive experience in policy, pharmaceutical law and compliance, and an unwavering commitment to BMS and our patients,” a company spokesperson told Law.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gallman earned her law degree from Harvard University in 2008 and has a bachelors in political theory from Princeton University. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Sandy’s leadership has been instrumental in shaping Bristol Myers Squibb into the innovative and patient-focused organization it is today. The company is grateful for her leadership and anticipates completing the transition later this year,” the company said in a statement. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Leung joined the company as a senior staff attorney in 1992. She was named senior vice president, general counsel and secretary in 2007. She was promoted to executive vice president and general counsel in December 2014. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After earning her law degree from Boston College in 1984, Leung spent eight years as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“To go from prosecuting homicides to defending Clairol hair cases was a stretch, but what kept and what keeps me at Bristol Myers Squibb is our mission and pledge to extend and enhance human life,” Leung told the Minority Corporate Counsel Association<\/a> in 2007.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She said the experience at the DA’s office taught her “to motivate people without the luxury of a lot of money. But more importantly, I learned to make decisions quickly and to be accountable for those decisions. It surprises me how lawyers who’ve been in law firms most of their lives write memos and push things up without making a call.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Leung could not be reached for comment Wednesday. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The daughter of immigrant parents from Hong Kong and Canton, China, has tackled a number of issues at the company, including protecting intellectual property throughout the expensive and high-risk drug development process. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Leung was Bristol Myers’ fifth-highest-paid executive in 2023, with compensation totaling $5.9 million, the company said in its March 2024 proxy statement<\/a>. It has not yet released executive pay for 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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During her more than three decades at Bristol Myers, Leung socked away more than $13 million in her non-equity deferred compensation savings plan, the proxy statement shows. Her pension benefit plan was valued at $7.3 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Leung has been a big proponent of diversity and inclusion efforts at Bristol Myers, including a program that supports students who are the first in their families to go to college or law school.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bristol Myers generated sales of $48.3 billion in 2024, a 7% increase from a year earlier. It mustered that increase even though sales of its cancer drug Revlimid have fallen by half since peaking at nearly $13 billion in 2021, its final year before patent expirations unleashed generic competition. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The company is tightening its belt to prepare for looming patent expirations on other key medications. Last year, Bristol Myers said it aims to cut costs by $1.5 billion<\/a>. It recently bumped-up that efficiency goal to $2 billion, by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“These savings will be removed from our cost structure to contribute to a leaner, more efficient company while investing behind growth brands and promising areas of science,” the company said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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