Bethel Finance: Shlomo Yanai to resign as Teva CEO in May

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Bethel Finance news:
Shlomo Yanai is to resign as president CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) in May. He will be replaced by Dr. Jeremy Levin, a former senior executive at Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY). The announcement was made by Teva chairman Phillip Frost today. Yanai will continue as a consultant to Teva.

Teva's share price is up nearly 3% on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange this morning, at NIS 160.10.

Market sources suggested a number of reasons for Yanai's departure today. Among other things, they mentioned that Yanai had probably decided that the time had come to step down after ten years in which he has managed chemicals company Makhteshim Agan (recently taken over by ChemChina) and Teva. They also said that Yanai had received some "interesting offers" both in business and in politics. Others pointed out that 2012 is expected to be a good year for Teva, and therefore an appropriate time to leave.

Yanai was brought to Teva by the legendary Eli Hurvitz, then chairman of the company, who died last November. Yanai succeeded Israel Makov in the post. In 2006, when Yanai took the helm, Teva had annual revenue of $8.4 billion. For 2012, the company expects revenue of $22 billion.

Dr. Jeremy Levin, 58, was born in South Africa and has lived in the US since 1986. He received an undergraduate degree from Oxford University in Zoology, masters and doctoral degrees from Oxford University in Molecular Biology, and a medical degree from Cambridge University. Among numerous honors, he was the 2005 recipient of the Albert Einstein Award for Leadership in Life Sciences, awarded by Shimon Peres. He joined Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2007. He has had direct responsibility for strategy, alliances and transactions, and managed its portfolio of alliances.

Before joining Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dr. Levin served from 2003 to 2007 as Global Head of Business Development and Strategic Alliances at Novartis. Earlier, he was CEO of Cadus Pharmaceuticals, a company he took public.