Ken Frazier, president and CEO of Merck & Co., speaks during a meeting of the Economic Club of New York, October 3, 2018.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Merck’s frank CEO Ken Frazier is retiring from the company starting June 30, after nearly 30 years in the pharmaceutical business, Merck announced on Thursday.
Frazier, 66, will be replaced by the company’s CFO, Robert Davis, and will continue to serve on Merck’s board of directors as chief executive “for a transition period to be determined by the board,” the company said in a statement. Frazier, one of the few black corporate leaders in the United States, has served as head of Merck since January 2011.
“It has been a privilege to serve as Merck’s CEO for the past decade and to work with the most dedicated and talented employees and management teams in the industry,” said Frazier in a statement on Thursday. “As an executive chairman, I look forward to collaborating with Rob and our board of directors to help Merck achieve even higher levels of success.”
A former lawyer, Frazier led an uprising among CEOs as the first to step down from President Donald Trump’s American Manufacturing Council shortly after Trump’s supportive comments to white, “alt-Right” and neo-Nazi nationalists in a violent protest in Charlottesville , Va. In 2017.
Frazier is one of the most prominent black CEOs in the country. Before joining Merck, Frazier helped free a black death row prisoner who was falsely accused of murder.
Davis will become president of Merck from April 1, the company said. He joined the New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company as its chief financial officer in 2014.
Two years later, Davis’ work was expanded to include “the company’s global support functions, which include corporate business development, investor relations, information technology, purchasing, real estate operations and corporate strategy”.
“Rob has been instrumental in helping Merck take the right actions to adapt to the ever-changing healthcare environment, while remaining committed to investing in the scientific innovation that we hope will drive our future growth.
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