Maziar Mike Doustdar: Novo Nordisk's New CEO
Since Novo and Nordisk merged in 1989, the company has only had 4 CEO's, with the latest assuming the position on the 7th of August 2025. His name is Maziar “Mike” Doustdar, and he takes the helm at a critical time for Novo as the company re-establishes itself as the leader in obesity medication in the United States. This is the story of his career so far, and what he has planned for Novo Nordisk.
Key insights
From clerk to CEO: Maziar “Mike” Doustdar is a company man. He has risen from an entry-level office clerk in 1992 to become the CEO of Novo Nordisk in 2025.
Global operator: With experience managing operations across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and emerging markets, Doustdar brings deep international expertise to the top role.
Turning point: He steps in during a pivotal moment as Novo Nordisk tries to reclaim leadership in the U.S. obesity drug market, following a tumultuous and difficult year.
His priorities: Doustdar has pledged to increase operational urgency, streamline decision-making, and improve execution to reignite Novo's growth.
Early life and career
Maziar “Mike” Doustdar was born in August 1970 in Iran and spent his formative years across three continents. He was born to Iranian parents, is an Austrian national, and grew up in the United States. For his higher education, he pursued a Bachelor of Arts in International Business at Webster University's Vienna campus, graduating in 1994. Years later, as his career progressed, he would go on to study at Harvard Business School, focusing on Leadership & Strategy for Pharmaceutical and Biotech. This, combined with fluency in English, Farsi, and German, prepared Doustdar for a career that would span the globe.
Despite his cosmopolitan background, Doustdar's story is also one of humble beginnings and steady self-made progress. He joined Novo Nordisk in 1992, taking a summer job as an office clerk in Vienna, Austria, while he was still at university. While he started out by copying paper and doing various tasks around the office, it was the first step in what would become a remarkable three-decade ascent through the ranks of the Danish pharmaceutical giant.
Doustdar's early career at Novo Nordisk was characterized by a willingness to take on diverse roles and challenges, often far from its headquarters in Copenhagen. During these years he also developed a reputation as someone who understood Novo Nordisk's values inside out. After graduating, he held a variety of positions in finance, IT, logistics, operations, and marketing, largely within Novo Nordisk's emerging markets operations.
His career really took off in 2007, when he was appointed General Manager of Novo Nordisk Near East, working out of Istanbul. At the time, this role placed him in charge of seven challenging Middle Eastern markets, including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Syria. Despite the often turbulent geopolitical environment, Doustdar steered the Near East business to impressive results.
Rising through the ranks
Doustdar's success set the stage for a swift rise through Novo Nordisk's management ranks. In 2010, he was promoted to Vice President of Business Area Near East, with an expanded remit that now included Turkey and Israel in addition to the other markets. This promotion dramatically increased the scope of his responsibilities: he suddenly found himself overseeing operations across nine countries with 550 employees. Despite the challenges, Doustdar thrived in the expanded role.
Just two years later, in 2012, Doustdar took on a new international challenge, relocating to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to head Novo Nordisk's Business Area Oceania & South East Asia. In this capacity, he orchestrated the company's operations across another nine-country region, managing around 750 employees in markets stretching from Australia to Southeast Asia. This posting in Asia-Pacific added yet another continent to Doustdar's portfolio of experience, while also proving (yet again) that he could handle large teams in challenging markets.
By 2013, he was promoted again. He was named Senior Vice President, tasked with overseeing Novo Nordisk's operations in 150 countries across emerging markets. In the role, Doustdar was effectively responsible for nearly all of Novo Nordisk's business outside of its traditional strongholds, managing a workforce of about 4,500 employees. Although he had managed large teams spread over large markets before, this was a massive step up. It saw him coordinating strategy across several continents, in markets that can often be very difficult to navigate. If it were a test, Doustdar passed with flying colors.
Executive Vice President of Internal Operations
The last promotion before becoming CEO came in April 2015, when he was named Executive Vice President (EVP) of International Operations. Doustdar joined Novo Nordisk's Executive Management and took full charge of all commercial business outside of North America.
Under Doustdar's time, the geographical scope of IO was progressively expanded, and by 2016, just a year into his EVP tenure, the unit had grown to encompass virtually all of Novo Nordisk's markets worldwide except the United States and Canada. (Canada was later added to Doustdar's remit in 2025, completing the global span of his division.)
Over the next decade, Doustdar presided over astonishing growth in Novo Nordisk's international business. Today, International Operations comprises nearly 20,000 employees across five regions, and its annual sales have more than doubled. Yes, this was in large part driven by the rise of Ozempic and Wegovy, but nevertheless, Doustdar has consistently demonstrated a talent for strong commercial execution and building high-performing teams. Those qualities not only delivered business results but also positioned Doustdar as a natural candidate for even higher leadership roles.
During his time as EVP, Doustdar also became an influential voice in the broader pharmaceutical industry. He served on the board of directors of Orion Corporation, a Finnish pharmaceutical company, giving him further experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, from 2017 to 2021, he was a member of the board of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) and chaired its Patient Access Committee.
Becoming CEO and the challenges ahead
After more than 30 years at Novo Nordisk, Doustdar's transition to the top job came at a critical juncture for the company. In May 2025, Novo Nordisk's then-CEO, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, stepped down after a joint decision with the board. The reason? A tumbling share price and the perception that Novo Nordisk had lost its first-mover advantage in the obesity market and was now trailing Eli Lilly. Ultimately, on July 29, 2025, the company announced that Doustdar would step up as President and Chief Executive Officer.
This is what he had to say when he was introduced as Novo Nordisk's new CEO:
“We need to increase the sense of urgency and execute differently. But we'll do that by building on the core strength that makes this company so unique. I take this job very seriously. You can expect me to be a CEO that combines strategic clarity with operational urgency. Soon I'll be working closely with my management team, the Board and the entire organization to move forward. We will sharpen our focus and move faster. We will operate more efficiently. We will advance our pipeline and keep pushing the boundaries of innovation and we will invest to accelerate growth and deliver shareholder value. That is my promise to you.”
– Maziar Mike Doustdar, Novo Nordisk CEO, at the Guidance call on the 29th of July, 2025 (sourced through Quartr Pro).
He was also asked what he would have done differently over the past two years, and what he saw as the main catalyst in order to ensure that growth rebounds:
“I would say in the tumult of high growth, we sometimes can overlook things, and that's probably a bit what has happened. As we go forward, my promise is that we're going to accelerate the growth and the shareholder value creation by predominantly 2 big things. One, we need to progress our pipeline and the innovation that helps us mid and longer term but also short term, get more out of what we have, the assets that we have and predominantly, we do that by improving the commercial execution. We will focus more on some of the things that matters most in terms of that growth. I have no doubt we're going to be faster and become more clear in our decision-making, reducing the white space in various different processes that we have. We'll bring the performance culture that I'm very well aware of from my part of the world and try to do that across the whole organization. And then we will invest competitively in finding in the areas where we really need to invest and we will try to find efficiency and savings in the so-called less important areas.”
Closing thoughts
Novo Nordisk has a long road to walk ahead, and it's no longer the leader in the U.S. obesity market. Is Doustdar the person who's going to be able to get the Danish pharmaceutical giant back on even keel and heading towards growth? He certainly has the experience and mindset needed, but time will tell how well he manages to tackle the challenges Novo Nordisk faces.
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