Sara Mathew, the former chief executive of Dun & Bradstreet, has joined Shire, the FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals group, as a non-executive director.

Mathew, currently on the boards of Avon Products, Campbell Soup Company and Freddie Mac, joins the audit, compliance and risk committee.

Shire has just emerged from an ultimately unsuccessful effort in August to acquire US drug company Baxalta for £19bn. According to reports from The Daily Telegraph and Bloomberg, the deal appeared blocked when Baxalta moved to make its own acquisition of Ariad, maker of leukaemia and lung cancer treatments.

In July Shire reported half-year results showing sales up 4% to $2.89bn (£1.89bn).

Mathew headed Dun & Bradstreet for 12 years until retirement in 2013, moving the company from being a data provider to working on big data and analysts.

Susan Kilsby, Shire’s chairman, said: “Sara is a highly skilled global leader who has demonstrated success in driving strategy and transformation to deliver value for stakeholders. Sara also understands first-hand the power of disruptive technologies to substantially influence business in the future, an emerging dynamic in healthcare.”