Richard T. Clark

Board of Directors

Richard T. Clark is the retired chairman of Merck, serving in this role from April 2007 until December 2011. Mr. Clark was CEO of Merck from May 2005 through December 2010. He also was president of Merck from 2005 until May 2010. Merck is a global leader in the pharmaceutical industry.

Previously, Mr. Clark held the position of president of the Merck Manufacturing Division, with responsibility for Merck’s global network of manufacturing operations, information services and operational excellence organizations worldwide.

In a career spanning 39 years with Merck, Mr. Clark also held a broad range of senior management positions within the company’s manufacturing organization. Mr. Clark joined Merck in 1972 as a quality control inspector, and he progressed through a series of increasingly responsible roles. In 1997, Mr. Clark joined the Merck-Medco Managed Care subsidiary as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He later served as chairman, president, and chief executive officer of the newly named Medco Health Solutions, overseeing plans to prepare that organization to become a publicly traded company. He returned to the Merck Manufacturing Division as president in June 2003.

From 2008 to 2009 he served as board chairman of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which represents the country's leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies.

He is chairman of the Catholic Foundation of Greater Philadelphia, the Catholic Leadership Institute and Penn Medicine’s Cardiovascular Institute Leadership Council. He is a former member of the Penn Medicine Board of Trustees. Mr. Clark also serves on the Corning Board of Directors and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Doylestown Health System.

He is a former member of the Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) Board of Directors. He served as a member of the Washington & Jefferson College Board of Trustees from 2007 to 2019 and as board chairman from 2012 to 2018. He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in 2017 from Washington & Jefferson. He is chairman emeritus of Project Hope, an international health care organization that works in developing countries to help eradicate infectious diseases, train health professionals, and educate parents and their children on how to prevent and treat diseases.

Mr. Clark earned his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Washington & Jefferson College, and his

M.B.A. from American University. He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army from 1970 to 1972 before joining Merck.

In 2016, Pope Francis named Mr. and Mrs. Clark a Dame and Knight in the Order of St. Gregory the Great for their dedication and exceptional service to the World Meeting of Families Philadelphia and the pastoral visit of the Holy Father to Philadelphia.