The board of directors of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has appointed Marc N. Casper president, chief executive officer and a director of the company, effective 15 October 2009.

Casper currently serves as executive vice president and chief operating officer. This announcement follows the decision of Marijn E. Dekkers to resign as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board, in order to become chief executive officer of Bayer AG.

spectroscopyNOW and separationsNOW took the opportunity to speak to Marc Casper during a recent visit to the UK and recorded the following video interview.

Marc Casper has served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Thermo Fisher since May 2008. Prior to being named COO, Casper served as president of Thermo Fisher's analytical technologies businesses following the merger of Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific in November 2006.

Casper joined the company in December 2001 as president of its Life and Laboratory Sciences Sector. Previously, Casper served as president, chief executive officer and a director of Kendro Laboratory Products. Before Kendro, he was president-Americas for Dade Behring Inc.

Casper began his career at Bain & Company as a strategy consultant and later joined Bain Capital, where he oversaw business development, strategy and business integration in select companies owned by Bain.

Casper earned an MBA with high distinction from Harvard Business School, and is a graduate of Wesleyan University, where he received a bachelor's degree in economics.