Mylan names chief financial, legal officers
Mylan Laboratories Inc. has tapped an executive from one of its pharmaceutical competitors to be its new chief financial officer.
But the company has yet to hire a new heir apparent for company cofounder Milan Puskar, who along with the late Roy McKnight founded the generic drug titan in 1961.
Edward J. Borkowski joins Mylan from Pharmacia Corp. where he was most recently vice president of global finance and information technology. Borkowski held numerous finance positions at American Home Products from 1992 to 1999.
He will assume duties for Mylan's books from Gary Spahr, vice president of Mylan's main generic arm, who has been interim CFO since June.
John Hanson, the former CFO, left the company last June along with Richard Moldin, the man who had hired him. Moldin, who had been hired in early 2000 as president and chief operating officer and was seen as being groomed to eventually become chief executive, resigned for what the company said was "cultural differences."
Moldin had been recruited to implement Mylan's strategy of moving away from reliance on generics by building its branded arm, Bertek Pharmaceuticals. Moldin helped consolidate Bertek's far-flung facilities into a single headquarters in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
At last July's annual shareholder's meeting, Puskar said Moldin refused to move to Morgantown, W.Va., where most of the company's top executives work, which created a strain.
Mylan Vice President Patricia Sunseri said Tuesday that the company is comfortable with the performance of Clarence "Sonny" Todd, who came out of retirement last year to fill Moldin's position.
"We are in a continuous search to add qualified talent to our management team," Sunseri said. "We have some dynamite people inside the company whom we are very confident in."
Mylan announced three other moves yesterday. Stuart A. Williams, who was elected to the company's board of directors in July, has been hired away from DKW Law Group to be the company's chief legal officer.
He will be responsible for Mylan's internal legal affairs, while also overseeing outside firms who represent the company in the increasingly litigious atmosphere surrounding expiring drug patents, which are the lifeblood of a generic drug company.
Mylan also named Randall L. "Pete" Vanderveen, dean of the School of Pharmacy at Duquesne University, to the board of directors. Finally, the company said that Robert J. Coury, who joined the board last month, has been named vice chairman.
Coury said during a conference call yesterday that Mylan, with more than $600 million in cash on hand, is in a position to make strategic acquisitions that fit within the company's business plan.
"You can see from our balance sheet we are postured to put some capital to use," he said.
The company also forecast earnings for fiscal 2003 of $2.05 to $2.09 per share.
