Ebb & Flow

Choosing the right CEO to turn around a troubled biotech company is hardly a science, but the general wisdom is that a minimum requirement is experience building a drug company. Thus it came as a surprise last week when Elan (ELN) picked Wall Streeter G. Kelly Martin to run the company.

ELN said it chose Martin for his experience in operations and finance at Merrill Lynch, where he was a member of the executive management and operating committee, as well as president of the international private client group. And Martin cited his work at Merrill, in which he turned around the money-losing non-U.S. private client business, as an example of his operational experience...