I suspect there will be more news to come on these two positions. I also suspect this signals a significant restructuring in the finance/corporate reporting/corporate audit groups at Whitehouse Station. Or. . . something more(?). We shall see.
Add to the surprising coincidence above, that Mr. Davis is getting around $13
And to be fair, Rob leaves a huge pile of cash on the table -- by walking away from Baxter, in the middle of a split transaction to boot. All his unvested stock options, restricted stock and bonus payments (and pension enhancements) will not vest. I doubt he really left a $15 million opportunity though. I guess Mr. Parkinson could have been pushing Rob out -- at Baxter, so that Parkinson himself would have the seat as head of the Med biz, post-split, too. But that seems unlikely. No, Rob was likely at the height of his powers at Baxter. And he likely convinced Merck's team that he needed. . . additional inducements -- last night I didn't count his additional $3 million, in PSUs. . . so the total is $13 million to walk in the door at Whitehouse Station. Wow.]
Of course, it could be that both senior Merck finance and audit executives decided that when they hit 58, they'd take stock of their priorities -- and cash-out their respective many years of options -- and call it. . . a pair of careers. It is possible. But unusual -- to be so close in time. [UPDATE: Unrelated NCAA bracketology -- going into tonight's games, Mr. Obama is ahead of me by 48 points. I can catch him if Michigan State stumbles, otherwise it will likely be his to win.]
3 comments:
Cuong Do - Executive VP and Chief Strategy Officer is also leaving the company. No specifics were given.
Popular thinking is that Canan was told he would not be CFO that sent him to the exit. He was a lifer at Merck and I cannot imagine he'd be happy one step from the pinnacle of finance. I worked as one of his directs for several years about 10 years ago. He would have made a great CFO.
Cuong Do was hired to essentially install the China presence. This was back when we had more than PD-1 in waiting. No surprise at all that he left/was let go considering the new strategy will be licensing deals.
The Consumer sale will be public before the end of 2Q, very likely by tax day. This money is to feed the PD-1 piggy. Last I heard the assets alone are being bought - the staff will not transition to the buyer, at least not a majority. One potential buyer is likely not to take manufacturing assets, either.
Thank you so so much!
This is now an entirely new post.
Great lead. I assume you were there when it was announced, right?
Namaste!
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