Ownership and leadership

Carl-Åke Carlsson

Carl-Åke has held various positions within Xellia, where he started in the finance function in 1988. In 1995 he was appointed Vice President Finance, Business Development and IT, and in January 2000 he took on the role as President Alpharma Human Pharmaceuticals Division. From 2003 to December 2004 he was President of the U.S. Branded Pharmaceuticals Division and was appointed President of the Alpharma API Division in 2005. Today Carl-Åke is Chief Executive Officer and President of Xellia.

Carl-Åke holds an MBA from Heriot-Watt Business School, United Kingdom and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Oslo Business School in Norway.

Craig Boyd

Craig joined Xellia in April 2018, bringing more than 20 years’ experience in various global pharmaceutical markets, having worked extensively in the US, Asia, Europe and Australia and across numerous product categories such as brands, biosimilars, devices, generics and specialty generics.

Craig joins Xellia from his most recent role as Chief Commercial Officer at Envigo having also held leading commercial roles prior in companies such as Merck, Novartis, Mylan, Hospira and Mayne. Craig holds an MBA from Deakin University and a Bachelor of Education degree in Physical and Health Education from Wollongong University.

Bjorn Thonvold

Bjørn joined Xellia in January 2007 as HR Manager Norway. In September 2008 he also took on the position as Director HR Development. Before joining Xellia he has held various international positions within organizational leadership and employee development at Hewlett Packard, working in Vienna, Geneva and Oslo Norway over a 12 year period.

Bjørn has a degree within Business Economics and HR from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Hanne Junggreen

Hanne originally joined Xellia in Norway in March 1997 and has since then assumed the role of Corporate Vice President Global Quality in the Xellia Leadership Team in January 2023.

Hanne has more than 25 years’ senior leadership experience from various global roles within Quality and Production in Xellia, having worked extensively with Xellia’s US, Asia, and European based manufacturing sites and CMO’s. Hanne has led throughout her period at Xellia, the development of Xellia’s Global Quality Strategy and lead the manufacturing sites through many successful national and international health authority inspections.

Hanne has most recently held the role of Vice President Quality International based in Copenhagen. Hanne is a Chemical Engineer holding a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Denmark.  

Hera Bragadóttir

Hera joined Xellia in April 2011 and has held various positions with increasing complexity in the company. She first joined Global Technical Support in Sales and Marketing and took on different roles within the department, including Director of Global Business Operations. In 2016 she was promoted to Senior Director of Global Strategic Projects and Launches, overseeing strategic cross functional projects across the Xellia organization. In January 2020 she was promoted to additionally oversee R&D as Corporate Vice President R&D and Strategic Projects.

Hera is a pharmacist, holding a Bachelor´s degree from the University of Iceland and a Master´s degree, Cand.Pharm, from the University of Copenhagen. She is a certified Project Manager and has attended various finance and management courses, most recently from London Business School.

John Stewart

John re-joined Xellia in January 2023 having been with the company previously from 2009 to 2013 as Site Director for the Copenhagen site. John has more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, much of which has been spent in the anti-infectives space and has covered all aspects of commercial product supply with responsibility for API’s, sterile finished products and devices. In addition, John holds extensive experience in products' full lifecycle, from development of novel molecules to product discontinuation.

John joins Xellia from his most recent role as Vice President of Biologics & External Supply at LEO Pharma and has previously worked for companies such as GSK, Ascendis and Centrient. John holds an Honors Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Paisley, Scotland, and a management diploma from the Institute of Leadership & Management, England.

Kristin Lund Myrdahl

Kristin joined Xellia in 1996 in the International Pharmaceuticals Division of Alpharma. From 2000 she has been responsible for overseeing projects and activities initiated by the Leadership Team as well as heading the Corporate Communications and Branding department. Prior to Xellia, Kristin worked for Gemini Consulting, where she ran the program office for major consulting projects.

Kristin has a background within Project Administration and Management from the Norwegian School of Management (BI).

Matthew Anderson

Matt joined Xellia in 2018. He has over 20 years of corporate accounting and finance experience in life science companies of various stages. He served as Chief Financial Officer, Vice President and Treasurer at PharMEDium Healthcare where he was responsible for all aspects of corporate accounting and finance. Prior to joining PharMEDium, he held various positions of increasing leadership responsibility within the Medical Products and Services business of Cardinal Health, Inc.

Matt holds an MBA from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a Master’s degree in Accountancy from DePaul University and Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Western Illinois University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant and Chartered Global Management Accountant.

Mikkel Lyager Olsen

Mikkel joined Xellia in 2005 as Commercial Counsel and was appointed Division Counsel for the API Division later that year. Today Mikkel is General Counsel and Vice President of Xellia. Prior to this, Mikkel worked as an attorney with one of Scandinavia’s largest commercial law firms.

Mikkel holds a Master's degree in Law from the University of Copenhagen and an LL.M. from King's College, London