PPD Hires Pfizer Exec Simmons as CEO

PPD's new CEO David Simmons

Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) has hired Pfizer executive David Simmons as its next chairman and CEO.

Simmons will take the helm of the Wilmington-based global contract research organization June 4. The company has been run by a four-person committee since December 2011, when former CEO Raymond Hill resigned with the company’s purchase by global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group and private equity firm Hellman & Friedman.

Simmons was president and general manager of Pfizer’s emerging-markets and established-products business units, which represent some $18.5 billion of Pfizer's annual revenue.

He was also responsible for Pfizer’s biosimilar development program after various positions of increasing responsibility in information technology and pharmaceutical operations, including roles in several countries around the world.

Simmons earned his degree in applied mathematics and industrial management from Carnegie-Mellon University. He will live in Wilmington.