John Potthoff has stepped down as chief operating officer of CRO INC Research to become president and CEO of Theorem Clinical Research, succeeding James Pusey, who now becomes Theorem’s executive chairman to the board of directors.

Potthoff came to INC when Tanistry, a CNS-focused CRO he founded, was bought by the company. During his time at INC, Potthoff led CNS therapeutics, global business development and clinical development in North America. Prior to founding Tanistry and serving as its president and CEO, Potthoff spent seven years with PPD.

Theorem is the new company formed when publicly-traded Omnicare spun off its CRO holdings, selling them to equity investment firm Nautic Partners in April 2011. Pusey became president and CEO of the Omnicare CRO in 2009, tasked with fixing the ailing division and transitioning it through its spin off and sale. Before that, he had turned around MDS Pharma Services’ late-phase CRO operations, which were then sold to INC. 

Theorem has about 900 employees, and in the last nine months has seen a significant increase in backlog, with the majority of growth in North America and Asia Pacific, as well as in the CRO’s technical services and medical device business units, Pusey said in a release.

--Suz Redfearn