GE Healthcare appoints Kieran Murphy as Life Sciences CEO

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) announced today that on 1 April 2011, Kieran Murphy will be promoted to succeed current Life Sciences President and CEO Peter Ehrenheim who will retire from GE after a transition period on July 31 2011. Kieran is currently GE Healthcare’s Head of Global Commercial Operations, Life Sciences.

GE Healthcare President and CEO John Dineen said: “Peter is handing over the Life Sciences business to Kieran in great shape, with record 2010 results, a strong portfolio and ambitious growth plans. We thank Peter for his leadership, his 28-year contribution to the business, and we look forward to a smooth transition into Kieran’s hands.”

“Our Life Sciences business is a key part of GE Healthcare and its strategy. Peter has been instrumental in growing and reshaping it since taking charge in 2006. Kieran’s energy, imagination and commercial focus make him ideally suited to continue driving the business forward,” Dineen said.

Kieran joined GE upon its acquisition of Whatman plc, where he was CEO, in 2008. Since then he has helped grow GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business, initially as Commercial Leader for EMEA and Asia Growth Markets, and then in his current role. With more than twenty years’ commercial experience in the life sciences sector, Kieran began his pharma career with Janssen Pharmaceutical, a division of J&J. Following this with roles at Mallinckrodt and veterinary medicines business Vericore, Kieran was also served as CEO of Adprotech, Innovata plc and of Novartis’s vaccines division.

Peter Ehrenheim is retiring after a career with the company beginning in 1983 as a mechanical designer in R&D with Pharmacia, which was acquired in 1997 by Amersham International. In 2003 Peter was appointed to the Amersham executive team and upon its acquisition by GE in 2004, he was promoted to Vice President and CEO, Life Sciences.