GLOBAL  IMPACT  SPEAKER  SERIES

Sebastian Fries is the Director of Strategic Planning for Canada/Latin America/Africa and the Middle East, at Pfizer Inc. 

He was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University from 1994-1997 where he studied at the Center for International Affairs and the Kennedy School of Government.  Initially Sebastian had planned to pursue a career in politics. In order to explore his interests in the business world Sebastian joined a small strategic consulting firm, Vertex Partners, in Boston and worked on projects mainly for Future 100 pharmaceutical companies as well as clients from the biotech and software sector.  After six years in consulting, Sebastian decided to switch over to industry and joined Pfizer’s Strategic Planning Group in May 2003 where he initially focused on the Northern European Region, Italy, UK and Spain.  In 2006, he shifted his focus on emerging markets in Africa, Middle-East and Latin America. He moved to Cairo, Egypt in 2006 for eight months and started up the Middle-Eastern Region’s Strategic Planning and New Product Planning departments.  During this assignment, Sebastian shifted his interest to developing business models at “The Base of the Pyramid.”  Upon his return to Pfizer Headquarters in New York, he led the company’s Global Access to Medicines strategy project and is currently leading the team’s Healthcare Financing and New Commercial Models group.

Sebastian Fries holds a Masters degree in International Relations and European History from the University of Cologne and received a PhD in International Affairs from the Free University of Berlin in 1999.  

Pfizer Inc. is a pharmaceutical company committed to helping people improve their health by discovering and developing medicines

For more information about the Global Impact Speaker Series, contact wdi-spss@umich.edu.