ZURICH, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG named Pascal Soriot to head its drugs operations, by far its largest business, replacing veteran William Burns who retires at the end of the year.
Here are five facts about the new chief operating officer of Roche's pharmaceuticals unit, which accounts for nearly 80 percent of group sales of 45.6 billion Swiss francs ($43.14 billion):
* Born in 1959, Soriot has French nationality.
* He trained as a veterinary surgeon in France before taking an MBA with a major in finance in Paris and started his career in the pharmaceuticals industry with Roussel.
* Became chief operating officer of Aventis' U.S. operations in 2002, before it became part of Sanofi-Aventis. * Joined Roche in 2006 as head of strategic marketing.
* He is currently CEO of Genentech and has been co-leading, with former Genentech chief Arthur Levinson, the integration team which is designing the future set-up of the combined company. ($1=1.057 Swiss Franc) (Reporting by Sam Cage; editing by Simon Jessop)