David Stout, the Philadelphia-based chief of GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C.'s pharmaceutical division, is not taking the consolation prize. He is leaving GSK, turning down a board seat and evidently leaving a pile of cash on the table after losing the oddly explicit and distracting managerial showdown with his colleagues to succeed retiring J.P. Garnier of Devon. (See Reuters here and GSK's statement is here.)
The company announced his departure last week in a statement about a board reshuffle as part of the succession plan. No word on Stout's destination. Says a spokeswoman dutifully: "He's evaluating his options."
The London Daily Telegraph had reported earlier (and so did the Times of London) that GSK had offered Stout and Chris Viehbacher, head of GSK's other HQ in North Carolina, the equivalent of about $4 million in stock and cash and board seats as retention bonuses after they lost the CEO race against Andrew Witty. Viehbacher took the board seat. Stout evidently wasn't moved by the money. Ed Silverman at Pharmalot gives some of the board ramifications of Stout's departure here.
Garnier, who apparently devised the competition, said in the statement: "I would like to thank David sincerely for his significant contribution to GSK and for the support he has given me over many years. We wish him well in his future endeavors."
