Roy Jakobs will be the next president and CEO of health technology giant Philips.

Since joining Philips in 2010, Jakobs has held various positions, starting as chief marketing and strategy officer for Philips Lighting. In 2012, he became market leader for Philips Middle East & Turkey across health systems, consumer, and lighting.

In 2018, Jakobs joined the executive committee as chief business leader of the personal health businesses.

Previously, Jakobs worked at Royal Shell, where he held various management positions across Europe. After Shell, he joined Reed Elsevier, where he formulated and executed the digital transformation strategy, focused on data solutions and services.

Jakobs has international experience, having lived in Amsterdam, Bologna, Lisbon, Dubai and Shanghai.

Feike Sijbesma, chair of the supervisory board of Royal Philips, said Jakobs: “has an impressive track record in driving performance improvements and value creation across a broad range of businesses – both within and outside Philips – including in health technology, coupled with extensive global leadership experience across Philips’ health systems and consumer businesses throughout the company’s transformation.

“He is also deeply involved in Philips’ continuous quality improvement initiatives and is fully committed to patient safety. We are convinced that he is the ideal CEO to take Philips to the next level of performance.”