Robert Wessman

Róbert Wessman is chairman of Adalvo. He is also the founder, chairman and CEO of Alvotech, the founder and chairman of Alvogen and the chairman of Lotus Pharma.

Róbert is a global leader in generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars. Over the past 25 years he has founded and grown numerous enterprises with a singular purpose: to make life-changing medicines more affordable and readily available to people and patients around the world.

Alongside Adalvo, Róbert has founded and led multiple 'unicorns' — enterprises scaled to be worth more than $1bn — in this space worldwide. His other companies include generics makers and distributors Actavis, Alvogen and Medis, as well as Iceland-based biosimilars pioneer Alvotech. His achievements and business strategies have been the subject of three Harvard Business School case studies.

Róbert was born and raised in Iceland. He attended public schools in the Reykjavik area and received his BA in business administration from the University of Iceland. In 1999, at the age of 29, Róbert left his position in the Hamburg office of an Icelandic shipping line and returned to Iceland to become CEO of a near bankrupt local drugmaker, Delta. Merged with another local pharmaceutical company, Actavis was born, and by the time Róbert stepped down as CEO in 2008 to found Alvogen, it had grown to be one of the world's largest generics companies. He has been leading force for growth and innovation in the sector ever since.

Róbert built Alvogen around a struggling drugmaker in upstate New York, and within a decade had grown it into one of the world's leading generics companies. With the company's growth, Adalvo, which began as its B2B licensing division, was spun out as a standalone company led by Róbert's investment firm Aztiq, and continues to serve partners worldwide.

Róbert and his wife have six children. An avid and formerly competitive cyclist, he enjoys spending all the time he can at his vineyard in central France