In a move that comes as part of an overall corporaterestructuring, TSI Corp.'s James Sherblom has resigned hispositions as chairman, president and chief executive officer, theWorcester, Mass., company announced Thursday.

Sherblom will remain at the company as vice chairman and"focus on non-operating issues ... with a continuing role interms of corporate strategy," he told BioWorld.

Board member Robert Baldridge is taking over as chairman ofthe executive committee of the board, and will oversee TSI'soperations until a new CEO comes on board.

While Sherblom, TSI's biggest shareholder, will stay on as afull-time employee, several corporate managers departed thecompany at the end of last week: Cary Garner, senior vicepresident of TSI's Life Sciences Group; Lisa Pisano, senior vicepresident of TSI Biologics; and Anderson Kurtz, vice presidentof human resources.

But Steven Niemi, formerly president of TSI Mason, remains asa company vice president in charge of TSI Testing Services inthe U.S., while Paul Morrison, formerly chairman of TSI Europe,becomes the vice president of TSI Testing Services in Europe.And Daniel Petree, vice president of business development, alsogains a corporate vice presidency.

The resturcturing means that it's back to basics for TSI -- thecore business of providing preclinical and clinical testingservices, including advanced toxicology tests and transgenicanimal models of human diseases to pharmaceutical producers.

TSI (NASDAQ:TSIN) announced in June 1992 that it wasrestructuring its operations, and predicted at the time that itwould incur additional losses of about $4.5 million to a fourth-quarter loss estimated at close to $7 million. TSI's stockdropped by 56 percent in 1992, from a 1991 close of $13 ashare to a 1992 close of $5.75. The stock closed at $1.50 a shareon Thursday, down 50 cents.

On Thursday the company said that it expects to report a netloss of approximately $26 million in the quarter just ended, or$1.24 per share. Most of that loss -- $21 million -- is associatedwith the ongoing restructuring, including the sale or closure ofsome of its divisions.

Sherblom said he was brought in to the company four and ahalf years ago to "grow the business." But now "the condition ofthe market, our cash position and the extent of our operationsare no longer conducive to continued rapid growth," Sherblomtold BioWorld. "We need to grow more slowly" and realize solidprofits, he added.

-- Jennifer Van Brunt Senior Editor

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.