Waltham, MA 12/10/18; Washington, DC 12/13/18—PerkinElmer has named Prahlad Singh as president and COO, effective January 1, 2019. He assumes the role of president from PerkinElmer Chairman and CEO Robert F. Friel. Mr. Singh is currently president of the company’s Diagnostics business, a position he has held since 2014 when he joined the company. He was named executive vice president in March. “It is clear that technologies, applications and customer needs are converging across DAS [Discovery and Analytical Solutions] and Diagnostics as our customers’ businesses evolve and the lines between therapeutics, diagnostics, food and digital health are intersecting,” stated Mr. Friel. “The opportunities for DAS to become an enabler of the sciences of Diagnostics, and vice-versa, continue to grow.” The company highlighted opportunities between the businesses for incremental growth, operating efficiencies and faster innovation. 

Mr. Singh is charged with further integrating PerkinElmer’s business segments. Similarly, the company cited integration of capabilities as behind its 2016 creation its Discovery & Analytical Solutions unit (see IBO 9/30/16), bringing together its Environmental Health and Life Science Solutions divisions. Discussing the convergence of the DAS and Diagnostics businesses on its third quarter earnings call, Mr. Friel specified potential collaborations around assay development, genomics, workflow automation and digital offerings; for example, food testing using genomics techniques, and AI.