Belén Garijo

Belén Garijo is a Spanish business executive. Since May 2021, she has been the CEO and chair of the executive board of Merck Group.

Early life

Garijo was born on 31 July 1960 in Almansa, Spain. She graduated from the University of Alcalá in 1983 with a degree in medicine.

Garijo was a physician at Hospital Universitario La Paz.
In 2003, Garijo became managing director of Aventis Spain, leading the merger with Sanofi. In 2011, she became chief operating officer of Merck Group, until being promoted to president in 2013 and elected a board member in 2015. In May 2021, she was named chief executive officer of Merck, following Stefan Oschmann.
In her capacity as CEO, Garijo accompanied Chancellor Olaf Scholz on state visits to China in 2022 and 2024.
Garijo has been included in the list of "World's 100 most powerful women" by Forbes in 2023.
She was ranked 30th on Fortune list of Most Powerful Women in 2023.

Garijo joined the boards of BBVA in 2012 and L'Oréal in 2014.

Garijo is married to a urology specialist, with whom she has two daughters.