Knut Mager

Knut Mager is a senior industry leader and strategist with over 30 years of experience in strategy, legal, compliance and governance in the pharmaceutical industry. He served as Novartis’ Head Global Data Privacy and Group Data Protection Officer from 2016 to January 2023.

Knut joined Novartis in 2003 as General Counsel and Head of Legal of Sandoz, and held various leadership positions in multiple cities, including Basel, Vienna, Munich, and New York. He started his career in 1990 at Schering AG in Berlin and held positions as Head of Patents and Head Corporate Strategy.

Knut has contributed to legal and policy developments in various areas of law, including IP, anti-corruption, and privacy. He chaired the Data Protection working group of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations from 2015 to 2019 and represented the pharmaceutical industry in the Multi-Stakeholder Expert Group on GDPR of the European Commission. He received his legal education in Berlin and executive education at Harvard, MIT, Cranfield University, and INSEAD. He is also a member of the editorial board of the Global Privacy Law Review.