Cardinal Health hires new executive VP of strategy and corporate development

US-based drug delivery and healthcare company Cardinal Health has hired Mr Vivek Jain as executive vice-president of strategy and corporate development.

Jain will be responsible for long-range planning and mergers and acquisitions that complement the company's organic growth goals. He will report to R Kerry Clark, Cardinal Health's CEO.

Jain will join Cardinal Health on 20 August 2007. He previously served as senior vice-president at Philips Medical Systems. He replaces Brendan Ford, who is retiring from the company after 16 years in the legal and corporate development functions.

Jain is a 13-year veteran of the health-care industry with a broad range of strategic planning and merger experience for pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Prior to Philips, he was an investment banker at JP Morgan Securities or its predecessor companies for more than a decade. In 2002, he was named co-head of the global health-care investment banking group and has been primarily focused on the pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics sectors for his entire career.