John Dawber

Corporate Vice President & Managing Director - Global Business Services Novo Nordisk

John Dawber is the Corporate Vice President leading the Global Business Service (GBS) centre at Novo Nordisk in Bangalore since September 2022. He leads a growing organisation of over 3700 employees where he collaborates with cross-functional teams to promote innovation, improve operational efficiencies, and support the company's overall growth plan. With more than 25 years of expertise in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, he has a demonstrated track record of fostering business expansion and achieving beneficial outcomes for both the organization and its clients. A strong leader, and communicator, John is driven by a passion for success through people, and people development. He is also a strong proponent of employee experience and engagement at workplace, In his previous role as General Manager of Novo Nordisk Thailand, he led the organisation to deliver previously unparalleled growth, and despite the challenges of the pandemic the company was certified as a Best Place to Work. Under his leadership, Novo Nordisk GBS has reduced rolling annual attrition from 18% in September 2022 to 7.5% in February 2024 and was ranked #1 Best Place to Work in India across all sectors and all sizes of company and amongst the top 25 workplaces for career growth by LinkedIn.In his nearly three-decade career in the pharmaceutical industry, John has led several functions including Sales, Marketing, Market Access, Pricing, and latterly General Management. As a UK national, during his tenure in Novo Nordisk, he has lived and worked in 5 countries, including UK, Denmark, Japan, Thailand, and India, and is fascinated by the cultural dimension of these experiences and understands how local cultural norms can both help, and hinder progress. Driving change for the patient is at John’s core, and delivering this change through people is his passion.