Mr Casady will oversee all commercial activities for South America, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. He succeeds Jorge Sole, who retires effective October 1, 2012. Mr Casady will be based in the Merial offices in Campinas, Brazil.

His career in animal health spans more than 30 years. Most recently, he was General Manager, USA, for Merck Animal Health. He joined Intervet in 1991 as National Sales Manager for the USA and has rose to increasing levels of responsibility including Area Manager for Asia-Pacific, Managing Director for Australia, Managing Director for the United Kingdom and Area Manager, the Americas. Mr Casady has served on the boards of the animal health industry associations in Australia, UK and the United States.

“Latin America has the potential to become one of the world’s most important food-producing engines necessary to feed a growing global population,“ he said.

“Merial’s further expansion of business operations in both the developed and emerging markets in Latin America are key elements of our overall growth strategy for the next several years,“ said Mr Casady. “One important driver will be our abilities in specialized local manufacturing and product production to match the specific needs of local country markets.

“While a major Merial focus will continue to be the expansion of our already established market leadership in products for cattle and poultry in Latin America, we also intend to serve the growing needs of the growing companion animal sectors in these countries with new products and services for those customer veterinarians,“ Mr Casady added.