Steenkamp took on the position from Wednesday 1 May, reporting to Sanjiv Patel, vice president, Emerging Markets. Steenkamp succeeds Gerald Seftel who was Allergan South Africa’s first employee in 1983 and built the organisation’s presence in South Africa from scratch.

Steenkamp joined Allergan in 2009 as head of the Ophthalmology business, built up a dynamic team and created a positive growth trajectory for the division, including one of the world’s highest market share in ‘tears’ products. He then moved on to head the Medical and Neuroscience businesses in 2011, where he had overall responsibility for the distribution and marketing of products such as facial injectables, dermal fillers and breast implants.

“Morné has built successful businesses in all our franchises focusing on building teams to leverage the large potential of the local markets,” says Seftel.

Prior to working at Allergan, Steenkamp worked for Boston Scientific in both South Africa and the USA. He holds a PhD from the University of Pretoria.

“Over the past two years, we have built a robust succession plan,” says Seftel. “Allergan’s sales continue to grow in South Africa and Morné is well equipped to drive the company’s future growth.”

During his time at Allergan South Africa, Seftel led the company as it grew into a thriving business.

Allergan first invested in South Africa in 1984 and later divested when it sold the business to General Optical in 1998. After the decision was made to consolidate Allergan’s entities in 1998, Seftel identified and integrated Allergan into a local distributor, Genop. Between 1998 and 2011, Allergan’s sales through its distributor continued to grow and Seftel oversaw the spin-out of AMO in South Africa. He built a business of such size that in 2011 Allergan made the decision to re-establish a direct presence in South Africa and launched the new entity in July 2011.

Allergan now sells a full range of products through pharmacies to consumers, as well as through distributors. It is one of the biggest suppliers of ophthalmic treatments to both the public and private sector in the South African market.

Having established this solid platform for the future, Seftel is now retiring from the country manager role. “But we look forward to him continuing to work with Allergan as Chair of the South African legal entity and with him on specific projects for the emerging market team,” says Steenkamp.

“This is an exciting time to be taking the reins at Allergan South Africa,” says Steenkamp. “Over the past two years, the company has embraced the advantages of a direct Allergan presence in the country and grew 17% in 2012. In 2013, it is estimated that the company is growing at around 30% year-on-year.”

Concludes Steenkamp: “On behalf of Allergan and the many employees Allergan South Africa has had over the last 30 years, we would like to thank Gerald for his immense contribution to the success of the company.