PPD CEO Raymond Hill resigns

Raymond H. Hill, CEO of the Wilmington-based drug-research company PPD, has resigned.

Hill's resignation took effect Monday, company spokesman Ned Glascock said.

Hill took over as CEO Sept. 16. His resignation came exactly a week after PPD was acquired by two private equity firms, The Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman, for $3.9 billion.

"Our new board of directors and our entire team want to thank him for his leadership and his contributions during this transition period of going from a public company to a private company," Glascock said.

Glascock said the board would hire a new CEO in the near future. In the interim, PPD will be led by a four-person executive committee that includes the company's COO, CFO, chief medical officer and general counsel.

Fred Eshelman, who founded Pharmaceutical Product Development 25 years ago and briefly returned to run the company last summer, has also agreed to act as a senior advisor to the new board and the executive management team in 2012, Glascock said.

"We do not anticipate other major changes in the day to day operations of the business," he added.

PPD is part of a group of companies active in the Triangle, along with Quintiles and INC Research, that are known as contract research organizations. CROs help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies research, test and market new medicines.

PPD is one of the world's largest CROs, with more than 11,000 employees and $1.47 billion in revenue last year.

The company is based in Wilmington, where it has about 1,500 employees, along with roughly 1,400 workers in the Triangle.