Frank D‘Amelio, who held top financialand operations posts in the telecom industry, is Pfizer’s pick for CFO.
He replaces former CFO Alan Levin, who resigned in May.
The new hire’s credentials speak volumes about Pfizer’s priorities.CEO Jeffrey Kindler, just past the year mark as chief executive, is in themidst of orchestrating a turnaround for the company. Near the top of his list isfinding a way to replace the $12 billion in annual revenue for Lipitor, Pfizer’stop-seller which is set to lose USpatent protection in 2011. Thus far the company has sought to do that through cost-cuttingand seeking to beef up the pipeline.
D’Amelio will help address the challenges. In a statementtoday, the company hailed his 30 years of experience at AT&T, LucentTechnologies and Alcatel-Lucent, including serving as both COO and CFO at Lucent. During his tenure there, he helped steward Lucent’ssale to French firm Alcatel.
“Frank was a senior executive in global companiesundergoing the kind of rapid and complex changes we have undertaken at Pfizerin response to our own rapidly changing markets,” Kindler said in a statement.
Kindler also cited D’Amelio’s experience working with theinvestment community. Kindler reached out to analysts early on in his tenure,in a marked departure from the more stoic approach of his predecessor, former PfizerCEO Hank McKinnel.
