Ratos AB: Daniel Spasic leaves his position as CEO of TFS

Daniel Spasic has chosen to leave his position as CEO of Ratos’s subsidiary TFS, an international Contract Research Organisation (CRO), which conducts clinical trials for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medtech companies. James Utterback has been appointed acting CEO until a permanent CEO has been recruited.

In recent years, TFS has focused on therapeutic expertise, internationalisation, organisation and service offerings. Daniel Spasic, founder of TFS and the company’s CEO since 1996, has been an important contributor to this strategic focus. Daniel has now chosen to leave the company and James Utterback, an advisor to the Board of Directors of TFS with extensive experience in the pharmaceuticals industry, has been appointed acting CEO as of 14 August. The recruitment process to find a permanent replacement has begun.

“As the founder of TFS and for his 20 years as CEO, Daniel has applied his industry expertise to successfully build and develop TFS into an international clinical contract research company. Under Daniel’s leadership, TFS has positioned itself as a company with a focus on small and medium life science customers. Now, at a natural point in time, when TFS is taking the next step on its growth journey, with a clear set of goals and a well-defined strategy, Daniel has chosen to leave his position as CEO of the company,” says Mikael Norlander, Senior Investment Director at Ratos and company executive for TFS. 

Daniel will remain as a key owner of TFS, with 40% of the shares.

Ratos became a part-owner of TFS in 2015. On behalf of its customers, the company now conducts clinical trials in more than 40 countries and works with a broad international customer base of leading research companies. The company has approximately 750 employees and professional fee revenues for the rolling 12 months at 31 March 2017 amounted to EUR 60.6m and EBITA was
EUR 6.5m.