Philips appoints new ANZ manager

Royal Philips has appointed Kevin Barrow as both Country Manager for Philips Australia and New Zealand, and General Manager for Philips Healthcare for Australia and New Zealand. 

Barrow oversees the Philips businesses in Australia and New Zealand, leading a team of more than 700 employees. He is tasked with capitalising on societal trends and growth opportunities to further strengthen Philips’ market leadership and with building innovation through new business models as well as solutions and services.

In his combined role as country manager and general manager for healthcare, Barrow reports to Harjit Gill, Chief Executive Officer Philips ASEAN Pacific and to Arjen Radder, President Philips Healthcare Asia Pacific, respectively. He is based at the organisation’s Australia and New Zealand corporate office in Sydney. 

Barrow has more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry across a broad range of business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies. He joins Philips from Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), a global medical technology firm where he was the Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand since 2006. Prior to this, he held several senior sales and marketing management roles at pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly Australia.

Barrow holds an MBA from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney, Australia and has a Master of Science (Hons) from the Waikato University, Hamilton, New Zealand. “I’m pleased to join Philips at this important time in the company’s transformation as it focuses on solving complex challenges through meaningful innovations which address people’s needs. I look forward to the opportunity to lead a dynamic team, partnering and collaborating with stakeholders across the public and private sectors.

“Only through these collaborations can we seize the opportunities and confront the challenges that face our society today and tomorrow,” said Barrow.

In his healthcare portfolio, Barrow will spearhead Philips’ efforts to address top societal challenges in Australia and New Zealand, such as the fact that more than seven million, or one in four Australians, are affected by chronic health conditions or that impaired alertness contributes to serious workplace and road-crash injuries in Australia, costing the health system $5 billion dollars each year. These circumstances strain existing healthcare infrastructure and increase the need to use scarce healthcare resources more efficiently. Philips is working with a broad coalition of industry and government stakeholders through several research initiatives to help Australia’s healthcare system include different models of care.