Less than a year after a reorganization put him in charge of Charles River Laboratories International Inc.’s (NYSE:CRL) global preclinical services in North American and China, senior vice president Christopher Perkin is planning to leave the company to become CEO of Montreal-based Algorithme Pharma Holdings Inc.

Perkin will step down some time in May, according to a regulatory filing and Amy Cianciaruso, CRL’s associate director of public relations. Perkin is slated to begin his new job north of the border in June, Cianciaruso told MassDevice, and is working in the meantime on ensuring smooth transition, she said.

Nancy Gillett, executive vice president of the Wilmington, Mass.-based contract research organization‘s global PCS division, will "take a hands-on leadership role with Mr. Perkin’s direct reports" until a replacement can be found, according to the filing.

"We’re currently in the process of identifying an individual to fill Chris’s role," Cianciaruso
told us, adding that she wasn’t sure if the search was internal, external or both.

CRL re-shuffled the deck last summer, announcing a raft of changes that put Perkin in charge of site operations in North America and China for the PCS division. Algorithme Pharma is a privately held, generic Phase I CRO, Cianciaruso wrote in an email.