LONDON (ShareCast) - James Bowling, the interim chief financial officer (CFO) of pharmaceutical group Shire, is to leave the company for water provider Severn Trent.
Bowling will replace Severn Trent's current CFO Mike McKeon, who gave his notice to the board on Monday that he wants to retire in spring 2015.

Shire's chief executive Flemming Ornskov said he was "very grateful" to Bowling for his "interim leadership over the past seven months, and his many contributions to Shire in almost 10 years with the company".

Shire is to start the search for a replacement "immediately".

The move comes just a few days after US giant Abbvie dropped its $54bn pursuit of the UK pharmaceutical firm due to changes by the US government over rules concerning tax-inversion deals.

In a separate announcement, Severn Trent revealed that it would be reducing the size of its board from 11 directors to eight from January 2015, comprising two executive directors and six non-executive directors.

The utility company said this move would "further drive the effectiveness of the board".

As such, Tony Ballance, Martin Kane and Andy Smith will cease to be executive directors going forward. Non-executive director and chairman of the remuneration committee, Richard Davey, will also step down.

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