Bob has more than 30 years of experience as a lawyer and international business executive in the Twin Cities and in New York, Boston, and India. He offers our firm’s clients strategic and international perspectives; a practical, business-oriented approach to legal issues; and front-rank transactional skills.
Bob, who joined Lindquist & Vennum in 2006, focuses his practice on corporate and business law, mergers and acquisitions, and antitrust law, with particular emphasis on the life sciences industries. He chairs Lindquist & Vennum’s Life Sciences group, serves on the board of directors of LifeScience Alley, and is a member of the advisory board of the University of Minnesota’s joint-degree program in law, health, and the life sciences.
Just prior to joining Lindquist & Vennum, Bob served as vice president and general counsel of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Inc., in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In that role, he helped relocate the global drug-discovery organization of the Novartis Group from Europe to Cambridge; established corporate structures, procedures and controls for the new organization; handled the legal aspects of creating a new Novartis research institute in China; and represented the company in a variety of research-collaboration and strategic-alliance transactions with biotech companies, academic institutions, and research hospitals.
In 2001 and 2002, Bob served as vice chairman, president, and managing director of Novartis India Limited in Mumbai (Bombay), India, a publicly traded pharmaceutical and healthcare company listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
In his early career, Bob represented agribusiness, pharmaceutical, nutrition, and specialty chemical companies in a wide range of business law matters and strategic transactions. In 1996, he played a key role in the merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz, which formed Novartis. On completion of the merger, he became executive vice president and general counsel of the Swiss firm’s U.S. affiliate, Novartis Corporation, in New York.
Presentations
Corporate Social Responsibility: Beyond Charity (Panelist), World Economic Forum, India Economic Summit
Antitrust Issues in High-Tech Industries (Panelist), American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law
Markets and Brainwaves: Antitrust and the Novartis Merger (Lecture), Minnesota State Bar Association Corporate Counsel Section
How to Become and Remain General Counsel (Panelist), Association of the Bar of the City of New York
Legal Career Opportunities in Corporations (Lecture), University of Oregon School of Law
Antitrust Developments in Health Care (Panelist), Minnesota State Bar Association