Julie Kim | Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Julie Kim is CEO-elect of Takeda. She was appointed by the Takeda Board of Directors to succeed Christophe Weber as president & CEO of Takeda in June 2026. In this role, Julie is focusing on activities that will help set the future direction for the company. She is also serving as the interim head of the Global Portfolio Division.
Julie joined Takeda in 2019 through the acquisition of Shire and has held several diverse roles with increasing responsibility, including president of the Plasma-Derived Therapies Business Unit and president of the U.S. Business Unit.
With three decades working in health care and leadership positions at global, regional, country and functional levels, Julie’s experiences have spanned a variety of therapeutic areas, international market access, country and regional general management, marketing and emerging market development.
Julie is known for her strong, collaborative and inclusive leadership style that enables Takeda to meet the needs of the people the company serves, while also driving innovations that will improve patients’ lives. Her global outlook, a result of having worked in many countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America, as well as having lived in the U.K., Switzerland, Hong Kong and the U.S., has helped her foster diverse teams to enable inclusive decision-making that keeps the patient at the center.
A committed community leader, she served on the Massachusetts Governor’s Economic Development Planning Council in 2023 as the lead for the life sciences working group and will serve on the Governor’s newly created advisory commission for the Discovery, Research, Innovation for a Vibrant Economy (DRIVE) initiative to advise on ways to strengthen the Massachusetts research and innovation ecosystem. She was appointed by the Mayor of Boston to the Board of Trustees of the Boston Public Library, one of the most iconic and respected institutions in the city. She also serves on the board of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and is a member of the Council of Korean Americans.
Julie earned an MBA from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Dartmouth College. Julie splits her time between Boston and Tokyo, where Takeda is headquartered.