SmithKline Beecham

CEO Jan Leschly will retire following the annual general meeting for shareholders April 28, five months before he reaches mandatory retirement age. Leschly, 59, became chief exec of SB in 1994; he joined the company in 1990 as chairman of the worldwide pharmaceutical business. Under Leschly, SmithKline's consumer healthcare division moved to number two worldwide with the 1994 acquisition of Sterling Winthrop. It has grown recently with the company's launch of the NicoDerm CQ and Nicorette OTC smoking cessation products. Chief Operating Officer Jean-Pierre Garnier will succeed Leschly; the company does not expect to name a new COO