Miles White, who was one of the longest-tenured, non-founding CEOs of an S&P 100 company when he stepped down as Abbott Laboratories Inc.'s chief executive last year, has made his exit from the Chicago-area company complete with his retirement as executive chairman last week.
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), the Abbott Park, Illinois-based health care giant that at one point was the largest private employer of Kenosha County residents, announced White's retirement from the board Dec. 10. Current CEO Robert Ford was elected to replace him as executive chairman. Both moves were effective immediately.
White's retirement ends a 38-year career with the company, including 21 as CEO. White oversaw some of Abbott's biggest accomplishments, including the spinoff of North Chicago-based AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV), its research-based pharmaceutical business, in January 2013. He also spun out Hospira in 2004 (which was acquired by Pfizer in 2015).
In April 2017, Abbott finalized its plans to acquire Alere Inc. in a deal that valued the medical testing company at $5.3 billion. A year earlier, Abbott agreed to buy St. Jude Medical Inc. for about $25 billion.
In 2005 and 2006, Abbott Labs began buying land for a health care and pharmaceutical research campus in Pleasant Prairie. There was anticipation for up to 12,000 jobs, but the expansion never happened. Instead, the village of Pleasant Prairie acquired the 458 acres of land from Abbott to develop a business park, now known as Prairie Highlands Corporate Park.
The business park has since become an attractive site for other companies. Nexus Pharmaceuticals Inc. recently completed a $100 million manufacturing facility there as part of a planned $250 million drug production campus, gummy bear maker Haribo of America Manufacturing LLC is building its first U.S. plant on the site, and Advocate Aurora Health Care has opened a $130 million surgery center in the business park.
