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Thanks to Lucas Hässig, Switzerland’s Journalist of the year 2018 for this story.
This was one of Vasant Narasimhan first tests of leadership as a CEO.
In the corporate world, obtaining a job through deception with false degrees and titles is usually a ground for instant dismissal. In Q2 2018 the Board of Samsonite discovered that the CEO of Samsonite had padding his resume, using a Doctor title, though never having earned a Dr. title. He was immediately released. It is a trust issue at its most basic level. This is the standard way companies deal with this issue.
In Switzerland in certain circumstances using false titles is a prosecutable offence.
Just before the Samsonite scandal, it was discovered by a leading Swiss Journalist – Lucas Hässig, that the Head of Ethics and Compliance at Novartis, Shannon Klinger was using a Dr. title that she had never earned. She was promoted to Head Legal Counsel, given a seat on the executive leadership team. After the article by Mr. Hässig, all appearances of the Dr. title on the internet and official documents were rapidly changed to Ms. Shannon Klinger.
Even the Swiss Stock Exchange where she was on the Advisory board quickly corrected the attribute.
The comment from Novartis was that this was an honest mistake in the misunderstanding in translation of the USA law degree that she had earned. It is a law degree without any doctoral dissertation.
Lucas Hässig’s question was; a few hundred lawyers at Novartis and no one caught this basic misrepresentation. Or have all USA qualified lawyers at Novartis been calling themselves “Dr.” Searching through the internet and LinkedIn a second case was not discovered.
Even with the rapid scrubbing of the Dr. title across all media some questions remain. Obtaining a job based on the fact that a person has a Dr. title immediately puts them on a higher pay and bonus level than a “normal” employee.
Having possibly been given higher remuneration through an alleged honest misunderstanding, has Novartis clawed back the excessive amount that Ms. Klinger has previously received by being perhaps placed on a higher Salary / Bonus / Benefit band than she would have had she not had a Dr. title?. If it was an “honest” mistake then this step should have been taken – even by Ms. Klinger herself without prompting. Has this repayment happened? We do not see any mention of this in the Annual Report?
Why did it take a journalist to discover this? This is not just a storm in a teacup. The optics are bad. Novartis needs to present a ultra clean image, particularly now facing possible huge law cases in Greece, South Korea and particularly USA, as well as heightened media scrutiny due to these and other issues. Even assuming this honest mistake made by the top legal expert of Novartis, this may still place Novartis at a perception disadvantage.
Ms. Klinger has undoubtedly an incredible skillset and spectacular intellect, but Vasant Narasimhan should have made a decision on what is holistically best for Novartis.
The Novartis Board apparently rewarded Vasant Narasimhan for this personnel decision. „Taking his job was Shannon Thyme Klinger, who had just been promoted to the executive committee. That promotion earned Narasimhan kudos (from the Board) in the filing as well.” (Source:https://www.fiercepharma.com)
Here the original article: https://insideparadeplatz.ch/2018/04/18/ethik-chefin-novartis-blufft-mit-falschem-titel/
https://www.six-group.com/en/home/company/governance/board-of-directors.html
