PDI CONTACT: INVESTOR
CONTACTS:
Jeffrey
E. Smith
Lippert/Heilshorn & Associates, Inc.
Chief
Financial
Officer Kim
Sutton Golodetz (kgolodetz@lhai.com)
(201)
258-8451
(212) 838-3777
jesmith@pdi-inc.com Bruce
Voss (bvoss@lhai.com)
www.pdi-inc.com
(310) 691-7100
PDI
Announces Retirement of CEO
SADDLE RIVER, N.J. (June 20, 2008) –
PDI, Inc. (NASDAQ: PDII), a provider of commercialization services to the
biopharmaceutical industry, announced the retirement of Michael J. Marquard as
Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Company’s Board of Directors,
effective today. The Company will immediately begin a search for a
new CEO. While the search is underway, John P. Dugan, Chairman
of the Board, former CEO and founder of the Company will play a more active role
in overseeing operations. Additionally, Jeffrey E. Smith, PDI’s
Executive Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer, has been named
interim CEO. Mr. Smith has more than 30 years of broad-based finance
and general management experience including having served as interim President
at Alpharma, Inc. James Farrell, Vice President, Controller, will be
assuming Mr. Smith’s CFO duties on an interim basis.
Mr. Dugan
stated, “I would like to thank Mike for his dedicated service to
PDI. Working closely with the Board, Mike was instrumental in
developing our strategic plan and the launch of many of the plan’s key
initiatives. The Board and the executive management team remain fully
committed to the successful execution of this plan. We wish Mike well
in his retirement.”
Mr. Dugan
continued, “We are fortunate to have someone with Jeff’s capabilities and
experience to assume the role of interim CEO to lead PDI’s day-to-day operations
until we have completed our search. I am confident that Jeff and our
seasoned and talented leadership team will continue with their excellent
management of PDI.”
A CEO
search committee headed by Jan Martens Vecsi, a member of PDI’s Board of
Directors, has been formed and will engage the services of a retained search
firm. Ms. Vecsi has considerable experience hiring senior-level
executives throughout a successful career including as senior human resources
officer at Citibank.
About
PDI
PDI
provides commercialization services for established and emerging
biopharmaceutical companies. The Company is dedicated to maximizing the return
on investment for its clients by providing strategic flexibility, sales,
marketing and commercialization expertise.
PDI
currently operates in two business segments: Sales Services and Marketing
Services. Our Sales Services include Performance Sales Teams™, which
are dedicated pharmaceutical sales force teams for specific customers; Select
Access™, our targeted sales solution that leverages an existing sales force and
infrastructure; and PDI ON DEMAND, a suite of innovative sales services that
provide rapid, customized sales force solutions tailored to meet the local,
regional and seasonal needs of our customers. Our Marketing Services
include marketing research and consulting services through TVG, and medical
communications services through Pharmakon. In addition, PDI is a
high-quality provider of continuing medical education through Vital Issues in
Medicine (VIM®). PDI also provides Product Commercialization, where
we utilize our considerable sales and marketing expertise to promote certain
pharmaceutical products on behalf of our customers through revenue-sharing
arrangements. PDI's experience extends across multiple therapeutic
categories and includes office- and hospital-based initiatives.
For more
information, please visit the Company’s website at www.pdi-inc.com.
Forward-Looking
Statements
This
press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and
financial performance. These statements involve a number of risks and
uncertainties and are based on numerous assumptions involving judgments with
respect to future economic, competitive and market conditions and future
business decisions, all of which are difficult or impossible to predict
accurately and many of which are beyond PDI's control. Some of the important
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those
indicated by the forward-looking statements are general economic conditions, the
termination of or material reduction in the size of any of our customer
contracts, the loss of our or our customers' intellectual property rights, our
ability or inability to secure new business to offset the recent loss of
customer contracts and the terms of any replacement business we secure, changes
in our operating expenses, FDA, legal or accounting developments, competitive
pressures, failure to meet performance benchmarks in significant contracts,
changes in customer and market requirements and standards, the impact of any
stock repurchase programs, the adequacy of the reserves PDI has taken, the
financial viability of certain companies whose debt and equity securities we
hold, the outcome of certain litigation, PDI's ability to implement its current
and future business plans, and the risk factors detailed from time to time in
PDI's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including
without limitation, PDI's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December
31, 2007, and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K.
The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon management's
reasonable belief as of the date hereof. PDI undertakes no obligation to revise
or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.