SAN DIEGO (dpa-AFX) - Royal Philips (PHG) announced the appointment of Sophie Bechu as Chief of Operations and Executive Vice President. Sophie Bechu, who joins Philips as of September 1, 2016 from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), becomes a member of Philips' Executive Committee and reports directly to Philips CEO Frans van Houten. Sophie Bechu succeeds Pasquale Abruzzese, who left Philips in May of this year for personal reasons.
Separately, Royal Philips and Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) through its subsidiary, Qualcomm Life, Inc., announced a strategic technology collaboration to advance connected health across the health continuum -- from healthy living and prevention to chronic care management and home care.
The companies are teaming up to leverage each other's respective leading capabilities - Philips' leadership in connected health informatics and regulated health care cloud data management and analytics, and Qualcomm Life's expertise in secure, medical-grade device connectivity and integration. The collaboration will enable both companies to offer care providers enhanced, scalable, connected care solutions and services within a secure global ecosystem.
Qualcomm Life's 2net Platform will serve as the medical device connectivity solution for Philips HealthSuite, the company's cloud-enabled health ecosystem of devices, apps and digital tools.
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