Whitehouse Station, N.J., USA - April 29, 2010, Whitehouse Station, N.J., USA - Merck & Co., Inc., a pharmaceutical company, announced changes in responsibilities for three of its top leaders.
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Richard T. Clark, currently chairman, CEO and president, will continue leading the company as chairman and CEO. Kenneth C. Frazier, currently president of the company's Global Human Health worldwide sales and marketing division, was elected company president by the Merck Board of Directors, reporting to Mr. Clark. Adam H. Schechter, who currently leads the company's pharmaceutical business in the United States, was elected to succeed Mr. Frazier as president of Global Human Health.
As company president, Mr. Frazier will lead Merck's three largest worldwide divisions responsible for pharmaceutical and vaccine sales and marketing, research and development, and manufacturing and supply. He will ensure the effective collaboration among these global and interdependent divisions, which is critical to the success of the November 2009 merger of Merck and Schering-Plough and the company's long-term performance.
In addition to Mr. Schechter, also reporting to Mr. Frazier will be Willie A. Deese, president of Merck Manufacturing Division and Peter S. Kim, president of Merck Research Laboratories.
Mr. Frazier played a key role in the company's merger with Schering-Plough, and led the implementation of important improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of the company's worldwide sales and marketing organization.
As president of Global Human Health since 2007, Mr. Frazier helped design and implement a ground-breaking commercial sales model in the United States and in key markets in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific, while maintaining solid sales momentum during merger integration, dramatically improving the division's cost structure, and redeploying resources into key emerging markets to take advantage of future growth opportunities.
Since joining Merck in 1992, Mr. Frazier has held a number of key leadership positions, including serving as the company's general counsel from 1999 through 2007, first as senior vice president and then as executive vice president. In that role, Mr. Frazier was responsible for overseeing the company's legal and public affairs functions and The Merck Company Foundation.
Mr. Frazier serves on the boards of Exxon Mobil Corporation and The Pennsylvania State University and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Frazier earned a B.A. in political science from Penn State in 1975 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1978.
The board also elected Adam H. Schechter as president of the company's Global Human Health division. He currently leads the unit's U.S. market. ■