A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (LabCorp; Burlington, North Carolina) reported that its board has approved the appointment of David King to succeed Thomas Mac Mahon as CEO on Jan. 1, 2007, in accordance with the company's succession plan. King will also join the board of directors on that date.

Mac Mahon will serve as chairman of the board for a period expected to last until the annual shareholders' meeting in 2008. He also has agreed to provide additional transition assistance to the company during this period.

King joined LabCorp in 2001 after working for many years with the company as an outside counsel. Since 2005, he has served as executive vice president and chief operating officer; prior to that he served as the head of the company's Esoterix and US Labs businesses and executive vice president of strategic planning and development. King is a member of the company's executive and management committees.

Mac Mahon said, "Over the past several years, Dave has led the effort to update and implement our successful strategic plan by focusing on expanding our managed care relationships and furthering our scientific leadership with a concentration on our cancer testing offerings."

With annual revenues of $3.3 billion in 2005, about 24,000 employees nationwide, and more than 220,000 clients, LabCorp offers clinical assays ranging from routine blood analyses to HIV and genomic testing.