President, European Operations
Karim Bitar was named president, European operations, for Eli Lilly and Company in May, 2008. He had previously been president and general manager of Lilly Italy since 2003. Bitar is a member of the senior management council.
Born in New York City, Bitar earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987 and an MBA with honors from the University of Michigan Business School in 1992.
Bitar joined Lilly in 1996 as business development manager, and in 1998 he was named director of sales in Chicago. Before leading Lilly Italy, he had been executive director of global marketing for new products. Prior to joining Lilly, Bitar had been a consultant with McKinsey & Co. following roles in sales and marketing management with Dow Chemical and Johnson & Johnson.
Bitar is fluent in English, Arabic, French and Italian and is proficient in Spanish. He served on the boards of the International School of Florence and Eyetel, a venture backed medical diagnostics company. Currently he is a member of the board of directors of MagCanica Inc., an electronic sensor start-up based in California.
