Belén Garijo joined Merck in 2011 as chief operating officer of its biopharma division. She swiftly rose the ranks to CEO of its health care business sector in 2015, before taking the group’s ...

Merck KGaA CEO Belén Garijo is well aware that she’s the first female CEO in its 355-year history, and she’s spent the past two years working on making sure gaps like that don’t happen again.