ZURICH Novartis on Monday named the intended new board members of Sandoz, the generics business it plans to spin off to shareholders later this year.

The Basel company approved the recommendations of Sandoz Chairman-designate Gilbert Ghostine for the 10 members of the board, which will start preparatory work in June.

The new members include Francois-Xavier Roger, currently CFO at Nestle, Urs Riedener, former CEO of dairy group Emmi and Shamiram Feinglass, who has worked as Chief Medical Officer for Life Sciences at medical technology company Danaher.

Others to be appointed to the board include former Novartis executive Karen Huebscher, Aarti Shah, who worked at Eli Lilly, and Deutsche Lufthansa CFO Remco Steenburgen.

Unilever Chief Legal Officer Maria Varsellona, and former Procter & Gamble executive Yannis Skoufalos, complete the nominations to the committee.

"The Sandoz Board of Directors will start preparatory work from June onwards and will be effective following the planned spin-off of Sandoz in the second half of 2023, subject to Novartis Board of Directors and shareholder approval," Novartis said on Monday.

(Reporting by John Revill; editing by Uttaresh Venkateshwaran)