MPI Research appoints Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing

Sep 3 2009

MPI Research announced today that Thomas Laughlin will join the company as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing and will be a member of the company’s Corporate Management Team. Laughlin’s 30+ years of executive experience span several of the world’s largest and most successful healthcare products companies.

Laughlin was most recently President and CEO of SunHealth Solutions, LLC, a company he founded that marketed a novel ultraviolet ray monitoring skin patch worldwide. Prior to that, he was Executive Vice President and COO of Zila Pharmaceuticals, where he led several major healthcare and biotechnology marketing initiatives. He also served as Senior Vice President for Global New Business at Bayer, Inc., where he developed new business opportunities for the global Consumer Care Division. For 10 years prior to his work at Bayer, Laughlin performed key leadership roles at Pharmacia & Upjohn, Inc., serving most of his time as Corporate Vice President and General Manager for Upjohn’s Consumer Healthcare Division, a division he built from its inception. He launched both the Motrin^® pain relief and Rogaine^® hair growth non-prescription product lines to consumers. Earlier in his career, Laughlin served at Procter & Gamble/RVI as Vice President of Marketing in the Personal Care Products division, where he was responsible for the pivotal Oil of Olay^® brand. Previously, Laughlin worked at Pfizer, Inc., as Group Marketing Director and New Products Manager for major brands within the Consumer Healthcare Division including Visine^®, Unisom^®, and Ben-Gay^®. Laughlin started his career in sales, and later, product management, at The Gillette Company in the Toiletries and Safety Razor Divisions.

Laughlin has been active for many years in the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (formerly the Nonprescription Drug Manufacturers Association) and served as board chair from 1995-1996. He earned his MBA from Boston University and a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College.

MPI Research Chairman and CEO, Bill Parfet, a former Upjohn colleague of Laughlin’s, says, “With his wealth of knowledge and legacy in key organizations, Tom Laughlin is the right person to take our company to the next level. MPI Research has focused on growing into our current position as the third largest CRO in the world over the past decade; now we look to someone with Tom’s sound business acumen and leadership talent to help us solidify our position as the best CRO worldwide."