Health Decisions names interim CEO as company deals with plane crash | Raleigh News & Observer

Health Decisions has named an interim chief executive in the wake of last week’s plane crash in Maryland that claimed the life of founder and CEO Michael J. Rosenberg.

G. Stephen DeCherney, a clinical professor of medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill and formerly a senior executive at Quintiles and PRA, has been named interim CEO effective immediately. He will serve in that capacity until a new CEO is named and also will play a role in the CEO search, according to the Durham company.

“Our executive team knows Steve very well and I know that he will keep Health Decisions on a successful path consistent with our company DNA,” James Higgins, executive vice president and director of biometrics, said in a prepared statement.

Rosenberg and five others – two people on board and three on the ground – were killed when his plane crashed while approaching an airport in Gaithersburg, Md. The passengers who were killed where Chijioke “Chiji” Ogbuka, a project manager at Health Decisions; and David Hartman, a vice president at Nuventra Pharma Sciences in Durham.

Health Decisions employs 90 workers. It’s a contract research organization, or CRO, that helps pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies conduct and analyze clinical trials of experimental drugs.