Tina Sandmann

Group General Counsel, Executive Vice President
Merck KGaA
Germany

“A great General Counsel is a strategic thinker who understands the business whilst operating in a cost sensitive environment which needs quick adaption.”

Since August 2023, Tina serves as the Group General Counsel at Merck KGaA, where she is responsible for Group Legal Affairs, Compliance, Data Privacy, Trademarks, and non-technical IP rights directly reporting to the Group CEO. Merck is a dynamic science and technology company that uniquely combines three specialised, innovation-driven business sectors: Life Science, Healthcare, and Electronics.

Tina is leading more than 270 employees in 35 countries. Over the past two years she has led the organisation through significant transformation including installing a Legal shared service team and setting up a regional Legal, Compliance and Data Privacy support structure. She has a particular interest in value creation in strategy work, ethical leadership, people development and the establishment of strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

Prior to becoming Group General Counsel, Tina has served as Head of Group Internal Auditing for four years, as CFO for the Healthcare Business in Germany for three years and was a member of the Integration Office for the 17 bio. USD Sigma Aldrich integration. Tina joined Merck in 2008 as a member of the Legal Department where she was in charge of Legal M&A, Finance, Corporate Governance and Corporate Law. Before joining Merck 18 years ago, she worked for 3 years with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in the M&A Team in Frankfurt/Main and in the Antitrust team in Düsseldorf. She studied and earned a doctorate at the University of Frankfurt/Main and a diploma in French Law from the Université de Lyon 2.