He began his career with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, (Basel) in the IT department (1973). He worked for Roche Belgium, Brussels as Head of IT and with Citrique Belge in charge of systems integration (1975-1978). He rejoined F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Basel (1978), taking European leadership of its IT coordination, moving then to the Roche subsidiary Roure-Bertrand-Dupont in Argenteuil, France as Head of Group IT (1982) before becoming Givaudan-Roure's Head of Group IT (1992).

Born in 1952, Adrien Gonckel is a French national. He completed a Masters in IT at the University of Belfort and Lyon, France.