The cog in the Wyeth drugmaking machinery is leaving. One day after the annual meering, Ken Martin has resigned.

The cfo, who steered Wyeth through some tumultuous times with his matter-of-fact approach to chatting with investors, is leaving to pursue “personal interests” at the end of June. That’s all the extremely brief statement says this morning.

“Ken Martin has played key roles at Wyeth for many years and has been an important contributor to our success,” says Bob Essner, Wyeth’s ceo and chairman. Notice that Bob gives no indication that Martin will be missed. Where’s the lavish praise for a vice chairman who was also cfo for the past seven years?

Usually, the Wyeth board meets right after the annual meeting, which was held in Morristown, NJ, yesterday. Obviously, this was a topic of discussion. As an aside, in recent months, the drugmaker has been working on succession plans and Bernie Poussot, the No. 2, was given added titles.

Meanwhile, Martin told a local newspaper in a recent interview that a good cfo is just ‘a cog in the machinery.’ His comments appeared mostly upbeat, but one can really never tell.

Here’s the statement;
The Martin interview with The Daily Record.[tags]Ken Martin, Wyeth[/tags]