Amgen Announces New First Vice President

Dennis M. Fenton has been named Amgen’s first executive vice president, with responsibility for heading research, quality control and operations.

Fenton had been a senior vice president over operations since 1995. In assuming responsibility for research, he succeeds Lawrence M. Souza, who is retiring as senior vice president for research after 19 years at Amgen.

Fenton joined the Thousand Oaks-based Amgen in 1982.

“Dennis has played a major role in providing Amgen with the manufacturing and operations infrastructure [needed] to grow into the successful biopharmaceutical company that we are today,” said Gordon Binder, chairman and chief executive.

Binder said Souza led Amgen’s work in the development of recombinant human G-CSF, which became the company’s second blockbuster drug, Neupogen.

Souza will be a special advisor to the company after his retirement.

Fenton, who received his PhD in microbiology from Rutgers University in 1977, is a member of the American Society for Microbiology, the Society for Industrial Microbiology, the American Chemical Society and the Parenteral Drug Assn.