Merck senior executive Clyburn to leave for top job at chemicals firm IFF

Jan 20 (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc said on Thursday Frank Clyburn, president of its human health business, will step down after less than a year in the role to become the top boss of chemicals company International Flavors & Fragrances Inc .

At Merck, Clyburn has been leading all human health marketing and commercial operations since March last year. He joined the drugmaker in 2008 and was previously its chief commercial officer.

His departure comes less than a year after Merck's former Chief Financial Officer, Rob Davis, took the helm at the Dow component, replacing longtime CEO Kenneth Frazier.

Clyburn's appointment at IFF, which supplies scents and tastes for products that are household names, comes after it closed a reverse merger with DuPont's Nutrition and BioSciences Business in February last year, a $26 billion bet on the market for plant-based meat.

Since the merger, IFF has been divesting assets it has deemed non-core to the combined company. (Reporting by Manas Mishra and Shariq Khan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Arun Koyyur)