This is a great opportunity for Loescher, but presents Merck with a quandary. The 49-year-old Austrian joined Merck only last year - in April 2006 - at the behest of Merck’s board, particularly Larry Bossidy, who has just retired after years of being a key behind-the-scenes orchestrator.

Loescher, who was widely viewed as Clark’s successor, quickly put his stamp on the drugmaker. Within months, US marketing chief Brad Sheares resigned as Loescher began reorganizing Merck’s structure to resemble GE, where Loescher worked previously, although he also spent several years at Aventis.

Now, Clark must be prepared to tinker with his game plan, which has largely met with praise by Wall Street and big pharma rivals, thanks to several FDA product approvals and aggressive defense of the Vioxx litigation, despite the stumble over pushing Gardasil mandates. Loescher will remain for a little while, and will be replaced ‘’soon,” according to a Merck statment.

The timing will test Clark, 61. He was just named chairman, after two years of being closely supervised by Merck’s board, and must move quickly to plug the big hole in his management team. His choice will be doubly important because Loescher occupied the No. 2 spot, which means Clark will be seeking a successor as well.

For Siemens, Loescher represents a chance to put a new face on a sorry body. Rocked by a bribery scandal, the electronics giant was seeking new leadership following the resignation of its non-executive chairman and its chief executive last month. Klaus Kleinfeld will step down as Siemens president and chief executive on June 30.

Siemens is being investigated by German and U.S. authorities in several separate cases of suspected bribery involving hundreds of millions of dollars. Speculation on who would fill Kleinfeld’s post has been running high in recent weeks with a number of names mentioned in media reports but not that of the Austrian-born Loescher.

Further reading:
Reuters;
Merck’s statement.

[tags]Dick Clark, Merck, Peter Loescher[/tags]