Chairman and chief executive officer Joe Herring of the Princeton, New Jersey-based CRO Covance ran the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Thursday. The event was to honor Covance's tenth year as a publicly traded company. On the company 1st day of opening trading in 1997, Covance's stock was worth $19.25 per share. Ten years later, the stock is worth more than $60 per share; closing Friday at $63.36.

The company has annual revenues of more than $1.3 billion, operates in 18 countries and employs over 7,000 employees. The company was born in 1997 after being spun off, along with the global laboratory services giant Quest Diagnostics, from Corning Inc.

A video of the event can be seen on the NYSE opening bell schedule website. Or watch it here.