After sale, CEO will move on

Talecris Biotherapeutics CEO Larry Stern, who helped orchestrate the company's IPO in 2009 and its $4 billion sale to Spain's Grifols, plans to step down as the deal closes.

He certainly won't leave empty-handed.

Under various "change in control" terms, Stern could receive a payment of up to $8.1 million if he leaves after the Grifols deal, Talecris reported in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

He also owns 5.36 million shares, including options and restricted stock, worth about $154 million before taxes, based on Talecris' closing price of $28.80 on Tuesday. About 2.1 million options have an exercise price of $1.39.

Last year, Stern received total pay, including base salary, options and other compensation of $3.87 million, Talecris reported. That includes more than $50,000 related to his use of a Talecris-chartered aircraft.

In an internal memo to workers after Grifols announced Wednesday that it would complete the acquisition, Stern wrote that with the change in ownership, "there will be change in leadership."

Stern, 54, is traveling this week for his daughter's wedding and could not be reached for comment. On May 26, he met with employees at Talecris' Clayton drug-manufacturing facility to discuss the pending acquisition by Grifols.

"As I mentioned last week in our employee meetings, the heart and soul of Talecris is the part I'll miss the most as a departing chairman and CEO," he wrote in his memo.

Stern's history with Talecris started in 2003 when he began working with investment firms Cerberus and Ampersand on a deal to buy Bayer's blood-plasma business. After they bought the business, he became executive chairman of the newly formed Talecris in 2005, and then CEO in June 2007.

After leaving the company, he plans to "take some time to reflect, recharge and give back," Stern wrote in the employee memo.

In April, Stern was one of several business leaders who made presentations at a Durham event for Gov. Bev Perdue's campaign finance team. That suggests some of his retirement may be spent raising money for Perdue's re-election efforts in 2012.

Last year, Talecris gave $10,000 to the Democratic Governors Association, according to an IRS disclosure report. Perdue is vice chairwoman of the association, which is registered as a nonprofit charity under federal law, allowing it to legally collect unlimited donations directly from corporations, bypassing the usual limits on political donations.

In November 2009, Perdue joined Stern in announcing Talecris' plans to expand its Clayton facility and add more than 250 jobs, in exchange for state and local incentives worth as much as $20 million.