Alexion names exBiogen exec new CFO

Company officials said Paul J. Clancy will join the company July 10 and take over the CFO job July 31.

NEW HAVEN » Alexion Pharmaceuticals has hired a veteran executive to become its new chief financial officer.

Company officials said Tuesday that Paul J. Clancy will join the company July 10 and take over the CFO job July 31. Clancy is replacing Dave Anderson, who announced last month that he would leave New Haven-based Alexion in August after having just joined the company in December 2016.

Clancy has been chief financial officer at Cambridge, Massachusettsbased Biogen for the last 10 years. Ludwig Hantson, who took over as Alexion’s chief executive officer last December, described Clancy as “a world-class CFO who has distinguished himself in the biopharmaceutical industry.

“He brings deep experience and a proven track record of managing a global organization, executing successful financial and capital allocation strategies to deliver long-term shareholder value, and cultivating strong relationships with the investment community,” Hantson said in a statement. “He is an outstanding addition to our team and we look forward to his leadership, insights and partnership as we position Alexion for its next stage of growth.”

Clancy said in a statement that he has been “consistently impressed with Alexion and the life-changing therapies the company has brought to patients with rare diseases.”

“I’m very excited to join Alexion and look forward to working with the leadership team and leading the finance organization to build upon the company’s strong fundamentals and drive future growth and shareholder value,” he said.

Clancy joined Biogen in 2001 after spending 13-years at PepsiCo. in a variety of management positions.

Clancy’s hiring comes just three weeks after Alexion received a double dose of bad news over a 48-hour period.

First, it was announced that Anderson, along with Alexion’s head of research and development, its top compliance officer and the executive in charge of human resources all were leaving the company. That was followed the next day by the release of a Bloomberg Businessweek story that provided a very unflattering portrayal of the company,

David Cadden, a professor emeritus at Quinnipiac University’s School of Business, said in hiring Clancy, Hantson and Alexion’s board of directors are “looking for someone who will bring stability and a sense of gravitas to the company.”

“They are probably giving him a great deal of latitude to do what he feels needs to be done because the survival of the company is at stake,” Cadden said.

For Clancy’s part, Cadden said he likely is coming to Alexion for two reasons.

“I would imagine they are offering him a tremendous financial package that is guaranteed regardless whether the company succeeds or fails,” Cadden said. “The other factor, I would think, is ego. To go into a company that is experiencing difficulty and turn it around makes someone who is already a strong executive look even more spectacular.”

Alexion stock trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol ALXN. The company’s stock prices increased by $1.12, or 1.05 percent, in trading Tuesday to close at $108.