Ken Frazier: Great Guy. Period. Now, Watch This... Space.

I will make this quick, for now only.

You see, I was going to write a long post -- as the wholly-fascinating story of his rise -- from a decidedly humble start, growing up with a single dad who was a janitor, in a rough patch of Philly -- to enroll at Penn State, and from there, to law school at Harvard. . . becoming a top flight corporate law partner at Drinker Biddle [all while consciously making himself, as a Black Man "white-user friendly" -- to all his white peers, counterparts, clients and bosses. . . (as he has said in his own words), something none of them ever had to struggle with]. . . as an outside lawyer/partner for Merck (among many others); then to lead Merck's internal legal department -- and then become Chairman and CEO, is a truly, uniquely. . . American story of success.

But his saving "Bo" (James) Cochran, from death row in Alabama, in his spare time. . . is the way I'll most remember him. While other pharma GCs -- including two of the former Merck, and Schering-Plough GCs -- spent most weekends. . . at private golf clubs, and at wine tastings and GOP infused fund-raising galas. . . about nothing at all, really. . . Mr. Frazier flew down to Alabama state prison's death row, to meet and strategize, in the dank corners of that hideous facility with a man wrongly convicted and left by the authorities of Alabama. . . to be executed. Mr. Frazier quite literally saved Bo's life (on a pro bono basis), over the course of three years of appeals.

CNBC is calling Mr. Frazier an "outspoken, activist" CEO -- for his role in ending Trump's "executives' council" -- but that ignores the fact that the core of what Mr. Frazier did was say racism in America is real -- even inside 1600 Penn, at that time. So. . . for my money, CNBC gets the narrative backwards: Mr. Frazier simply said (and engaged in the practical application of the same, by his direct actions) "all humans must be treated as such."

I will stop here, for now -- as I am also keenly interested in the apparently emerging ground-swell, among Merck shareholders, to open up the search for his replacement, to all qualified people, inside and outside the company. That portends to be as interesting a story as any, here. And we will pursue that narrative arc, here.

To be sure, Rob Davis is a. . . competent executive (and, I may say that I know this from deep first hand experience) -- but as of June, when Mr. Frazier retires, there will be only three black CEO/Chairs of larger US public companies.

And yes, representation. . . matters. So too, should the board of Merck consider an open search -- for all the best and brightest -- not just the next (white) guy in line. As I say. . . watch this space.

नमस्ते