Alexander Liolios is a consultant in Spencer Stuart’s Financial Officer Practice. Companies seek him out when they are looking for a CFO or another critical member of their financial leadership team, or to accelerate the performance of a first-time CFO. He works with public and private multinational corporations, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and startups.
A former pharma executive, CFO and startup entrepreneur himself, Alexander connects finance leaders with valuable networks and can act as a sparring partner to provide insightful external perspectives on key topics. He has a depth of experience in building, running and transforming effective finance organizations, with a history of both local and global responsibilities, and believes in fully supporting the transformation of individuals and businesses.
An experienced executive leader with strong finance expertise
- With nearly 20 years of executive leadership experience in the finance sector, predominantly in healthcare and medtech, Alexander brings deep expertise across the entire value chain in industry companies.
- Prior to joining Spencer Stuart, he co-founded a medtech startup and led the company as CEO.
- He had an impressive career at Novartis as part of the company’s top 350 executive leaders, holding positions such as CFO for the biopharmaceuticals business unit at Sandoz and CFO for the Asia Pacific region of the oncology division, with a responsibility of more than $2B in sales for each.
Alexander’s extensive educational roster includes a master’s degree in law from the University of Innsbruck, along with a second master’s in business administration from the same institution. He is certified by Deutsche Börse AG for non-executive board roles in listed companies, in accordance with the German Corporate Governance Code. Alexander is also a certified sustainable finance expert via the Steinbeis Institute for Effective Management and has pursued leadership training in finance excellence and finance leadership from Harvard Business School.