Squibb’s President Quits After Merger

Jan Leschly has resigned as president of Squibb Corp., saying his personal goals “are not realistic” under the company’s merger with Bristol-Myers Co.

“The combination of the two companies makes it difficult for me personally to realize my own career objectives,” said Leschly. “The near-term personal goals that I had hoped to achieve at Squibb as an independent company are not realistic within the same time frame with Bristol-Myers Squibb.”

Squibb, based in Princeton, N.J., became a wholly owned subsidiary of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. under a merger approved by stockholders last week that created the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical firm.

With Leschly’s resignation, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced a number of organizational changes.

Reporting directly to Richard M. Furlaud, president of Bristol-Myers Squibb and former chairman and chief executive of Squibb Corp., will be William T. Comer, who will assume the new position of president, Bristol-Myers Pharmaceutical Research & Licensing Group, and Edgar Haber, president, Squibb Institute for Medical Research.

All of the company’s pharmaceutical operations will now report to Wayne A. Davidson, executive vice president of Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Abramo Virgilio, president of Bristol-Myers Science & Technology Group, will head a new organization, Bristol-Myers Squibb Technical Operations, the company announced. Louis T. DiFazio, president, Squibb Technical Operations, will become executive vice president, Bristol-Myers Squibb Technical Operations.

W. Michael Barnes, 46, has been named corporate vice president-business development and planning for Rockwell International Corp., El Segundo.

Consolidated Freightways Inc., Menlo Park, has named Sanchayan Ratnathicam as corporate vice president-internal control. Ratnathicam, 41, was most recently director of financial accounting, based at Consolidated’s data center and administrative office in Portland, Ore.