Kenneth Carleton Frazier (born December 17, 1954) is the Chairman, President and CEO of Merck & Co., and is the first African American to serve as the CEO of a pharmaceutical company.
Frazier, who joined Merck in 1992, became general counsel of the company in 2006.[1] As the company's general counsel, he was credited with overseeing the company's defense against Vioxx-related litigation[2]
From 2007 to 2010, he served as executive vice president and president of the company's global human health unit.[1] In 2010, he became president of Merck[1] and on January 1, 2011 became its CEO.[3] He was educated at Pennsylvania State University, graduating in 1975 with a BA in Political Science, and Harvard Law School. He is a native of Philadelphia.[4]
On November 11, 2011, the Penn State board of trustees named Frazier, a trustee, chairman of a blue ribbon commission empaneled to investigate a child sex abuse scandal involving a former assistant football coach and allegations of a cover up by university officials.[5]