NORTHBROOK, Ill., May 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Astellas today announced two senior-level promotions within its commercial organization. Mark Schwitzenberg was named vice president, Marketing, Urology and Hospital Business Unit, and Paul Kang was promoted to executive director, Marketing Sciences.

"These promotions reinforce our continued commitment to bring innovative medicines to patients," said Walt Johnston, senior vice president, Urology and Hospital Business Unit. "I am pleased that Mark and Paul will be leading our sales and marketing efforts to support programs that bring value to patients." 

In his new role, Schwitzenberg will report directly to Johnston and will have responsibility for all Urology, Hospital and Transplant products. Kang will report directly to Mark Niemaszek, vice president, Commercial Operations, and will take on additional responsibilities of further advancing Astellas' analytic competencies to support the U.S. commercial organization.

Schwitzenberg began his career at Astellas in 2004 and later moved to Strategic New Product Planning in 2009. Most recently, Schwitzenberg was the executive director for Urology Marketing. During his time at Astellas, Schwitzenberg has been involved in the successful launch of two urology products.

Schwitzenberg received his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his master's degree in international economics from the University of Colorado Boulder. Schwitzenberg went on to receive a Master of Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business-Department of Accountancy.

Kang joined Astellas in 2013 to lead Marketing Sciences. Over the past several years, he has expanded the overall scope and impact of the Marketing Sciences organization, including introducing advanced analytical capabilities and big data platforms to the U.S. Commercial organization. Previously, Kang served as senior director, Marketing Sciences.

Kang has nearly 20 years of strategic business planning and analytics experience. He joined Astellas in 2013 from Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was vice president, Strategy and Analytics. Additionally, Kang held leadership positions in Oncology and Primary Care at Pfizer, Inc., and was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, working with clients in healthcare and other industries on strategy, business development and operations projects. 

Kang received a Bachelor of Science degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and went on to receive Master of Science in Technology and Policy and Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering at the same institution.

About Astellas
Astellas is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products. For more information on Astellas, please visit our website at http://www.astellas.us/. You can also follow us on Twitter at @AstellasUS, Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AstellasUS or LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/astellas-pharma.

SOURCE Astellas