Agilent names next chief executive officer

Agilent Technologies has announced that Mike McMullen will be promoted to the post of chief executive officer (CEO) of the company on March 18th 2015.

Prior to this announcement, Mr McMullen served as senior vice-president of the organisation and president of its chemical analysis group. He has been appointed as president and chief operating officer of Agilent with immediate effect as the first stage of the transition.

He has been named as the successor to outgoing CEO Bill Sullivan, who will remain as an advisor through to the end of the company's fiscal year concluding on October 31st 2015, when he will retire.

Mr Sullivan has led Agilent since 2005, having originally joined the firm's predecessor company Hewlett-Packard in 1976. He has helped to drive considerable growth for the business in the last decade.

James Cullen, chairman of Agilent's board of directors, said: "This transition is the culmination of our succession planning, and comes at a time of strength as Agilent begins to deliver the shareholder benefits of the recent spinoff of its electronic measurement business."

The new spinoff business, Keysight Technologies, formally commenced operations on August 1st 2014. It will officially separate from the rest of Agilent in November.