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Now Shire loses finance chief after deal fails(City A.M. (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) SHIRE'S chief financial officer (CFO) James Bowling is leaving the company at the end of the first quarter of 2015 to take up the top finance role at water company Severn Trent, replacing retiring CFO Mike McKeon. Flemming Ornskov, Shire's chief executive, said: "James has helped build and lead a high-quality finance team at Shire. We are very grateful to him for his interim leadership over the past seven months, and his many contributions to Shire in almost ten years with the company. We wish him well in his future endeavors." Liv Garfield, chief executive at Severn Trent, commented: "I am very excited that we have been able to attract such a high calibre person as James to Severn Trent. I am really looking forward to working with him to build on our success; he has a great track record at Shire and many qualities from which we will benefit." The company said it would begin the search for a new chief financial officer immediately. Bowling, a member of the Shire executive committee, had been with the company since 2005, and before that worked at Ford. His departure comes less than one week after the Dublin-based pharmaceutical company's $54bn (£32bn) deal with AbbVie was called off due to the introduction of new US Treasury rules designed to curb the practice of companies making strategic foreign purchases in order to avoid tax. Since the deal fell through, Shire's share price has fallen by almost 30 per cent. Following the news of Bowling's departure, shares dipped slightly, by one per cent. (c) 2014 City A.M. |