Julie Kim | Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Profile Section

Julie Kim

Julie Kim


President, U.S. Business Unit, and U.S. Country Head

Julie Kim is president of the U.S. Business Unit, U.S. country head and member of Takeda’s Executive Team. The U.S. Business Unit portfolio encompasses gastroenterology, neuroscience, plasma-derived therapies and rare diseases.

She joined Takeda in 2019 through the acquisition of Shire, where she held several diverse roles with increasing responsibility. Julie became the president of the Plasma-Derived Therapies Business Unit, the position she occupied until April of 2022, when she became president of the U.S. Business Unit and U.S. country head.

With three decades working in health care and leadership positions at global, regional, country and functional levels. Julie’s experiences have spanned a variety of therapeutic areas, international market access, country and regional general management, marketing and emerging market development.

Julie is known for strong, collaborative and inclusive leadership style that enables Takeda to meet the needs of the people the company serves, while driving innovations that will improve patients’ lives. Her global outlook, a result of having worked in many countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America, as well as having lived in the U.K., Switzerland and the U.S., has helped her foster diverse teams to enable inclusive decision-making that keeps the patient at the center.

A committed community leader, she participated in the Massachusetts Governor’s Economic Development Planning Council in 2023 as the lead for the Life Sciences working group to advise the administration on how the life sciences industry can continue to drive economic growth for the state. She was also appointed by the Mayor of Boston to the Board of Trustees of the Boston Public Library, one of the most iconic and respected institutions in the city. Further, she is a member of the Council of Korean Americans and serves on the boards of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and Croda International.

She earned an MBA from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Dartmouth College. She resides with her family in the Boston area.