CEO and President Named at FHI -- January 16, 1998
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC -- Albert J. Siemens, PhD, and Willard Cates Jr., MD, MPH, have been named to key leadership positions at Family Health International, a not-for-profit scientific research and technical assistance organization that specializes in reproductive health.
Dr. Siemens will join FHI Feb. 1 as chief executive officer and vice chair of the board. Dr. Cates, who was FHI's senior vice president of biomedical affairs, becomes president today, Jan. 16. The appointments follow the decision by Theodore M. King, PhD, MD, to retire, which he announced to FHI's board earlier this month. Dr. King, 66, a former Johns Hopkins Medical Center vice president, has led FHI since 1991 as president and chief operating officer.
"Al Siemens has substantial corporate management experience, especially in pharmaceutical research and development," said Torrey C. Brown, MD, of Baltimore, MD, FHI's board chairman, who announced the appointments. "Ward Cates' internationally recognized scientific reputation and his long experience with government agencies have already contributed to our recent successes. These two extraordinary talents complement each other and will be of considerable value to FHI."
Dr. King will serve as an advisor to FHI's board, said Dr. Brown. "He has had an outstanding impact on FHI, leading staff in the development and application of the highest scientific standards to our work," Dr. Brown said.
Dr. Siemens was vice president for research at FHI in 1987, when he joined Clinical Research International, Inc., which later was acquired by ClinTrials Research, Inc. Before his previous tenure at FHI, he was involved in clinical product development in New York at Pfizer, Inc., a pharmaceutical company. Prior to that, he was a research scientist at the Research Institute on Alcoholism in Buffalo, NY and an adjunct assistant professor in pharmacology at the State University of New York, Buffalo. He and his wife, Judy, who is president of the UNC Hospitals Volunteer Association, live in Chapel Hill, NC.
Dr. Cates joined FHI in 1995 after serving for more than 20 years at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, where he was director of the Division of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, then director of the Division of Training. He currently chairs a National Institutes of Health steering committee that guides research on new HIV prevention strategies at a network of institutions. He has authored or co-authored more than 400 scientific publications, and is co-editor of two widely used textbooks on reproductive health, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Contraceptive Technology. Dr. Cates lives in Chapel Hill, NC, with his wife, Joan, who is director of advocacy programs for the American Social Health Association based near Research Triangle Park.