Daniel O’Day is the chief operating officer of the pharmaceutical division of Roche, the world’s leading biotech company, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and with offices in more than 150 countries, including Ireland. O’Day was appointed COO in 2012 having previously been the COO for the diagnostics division of Roche since 2010. Beginning in 1987 as part of Roche’s commercial and sales team Daniel later moved to Switzerland for roles in global marketing and lifecycle management team in 2001. Since then, he has been head of corporate planning in Japan, general manager in Denmark, and president of Roche Molecular Diagnostics in California.

Daniel was born in Texas and is a third generation Irish American with family from Ennis, County Clare on his father’s side. “The perseverance of my Irish ancestors is a daily motivation to me professionally and personally,” O’Day says. O’Day’s first job was performing the “hard physical labor” of landscaping, which, he says, “inspired me to pursue my education.” Daniel attended Georgetown University and Columbia University receiving a B.S. in biology and an M.B.A. Daniel currently lives in Switzerland with his wife Mara and children Tierney, Meghan, and Brendan.