• Wall Street Journal, Monday, December 6, 2010 10:26 AM

Ian Read, 57, head of sales and marketing for the pharmaceutical giant, is its new CEO after Jeffrey Kindler suddenly retired, citing the demands of the job as his reason. Read has been with the company for more than 30 years, working his way through the ranks to become a corporate VP in 2001.

Since 2006 he has headed the businesses that sell pharmaceuticals, accounting for about 85% of Pfizer's revenue and 40,000 of its employees. He said in a statement he "will be looking at the performance and potential of all of our businesses to ensure we are delivering value to our customers and shareholders. We have all the elements for success."

Kindler, 55, was at the helm during some of Pfizer's most trying times, as it prepared to lose patent protection for Lipitor, its best-selling drug, and as it tried in vain to find profitable new therapies. It dropped inhalable insulin in 2008 after spending nearly $3 billion to bring it to market. Before joining the company in 2002, Kindler was an executive at McDonald's.

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