Merck CEO mulls successor after merger

By Bill Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merck & Co (MRK.N) CEO Richard Clark, who just completed a transformational $41 billion purchase of Schering-Plough Corp, said investors will be expecting the company by mid-2010 to announce who will succeed him the following year.

Clark, who will reach the mandatory retirement age of 65 in March 2011, has led Merck since Ray Gilmartin stepped down in 2005 in the wake of the withdrawal of blockbuster arthritis drug Vioxx.

Clark's most immediate challenge is to shape what last week became the world's second largest drugmaker. But as the 38-year Merck veteran contemplates a far richer pipeline of drugs in development and a more geographically diverse company, Wall Street will be anxiously awaiting word of who will next lead the company.

"When I became CEO in 2005 my primary objective was to make sure that I had a very robust CEO succession plan in place that was approved by the board," Clark said on Tuesday at the Reuters Health Summit in New York.

"If the CEO succession planning does not go the way I think it's going to go, then my time as CEO will be a failure. That's how strong I feel about getting this right," he said.

Clark, who headed manufacturing at Merck before taking the helm, expressed confidence in his leadership team and said he is also seeking outside advice on the succession.

He would not comment on whether the next CEO might come from outside the company, saying that would ultimately be a decision for the board.

"But there will be plenty of internal talent to select from," Clark said.