David King, Adam Schechter

David King is retiring from Laboratory Corporation of America as its president and CEO on Oct. 31 and will become its executive chairman of the board, effective Nov. 1, the company said this week. Adam Schechter will succeed King as president and CEO on that day.

King became CEO of LabCorp on Jan. 1, 2007. Prior to that he was the firm's executive vice president and COO, as well as its executive VP of strategic planning and corporate development. He joined the company as senior VP, general counsel, and chief compliance officer in 2001, and was LabCorp's principal outside legal counsel for several years before that.

The company noted that it has tripled in sized under King's leadership. It does business in more than 100 countries now, employs almost 61,000 employees, and recorded revenue of more than $11 billion in 2018.

Schechter is currently the lead independent director of LabCorp's board, which expects to choose another board member to be the lead independent director at a later date. Schechter, who has been a LabCorp director for six years, was formerly Merck executive vice president and president of global human health.