Merck & Co. announced that Richard Bowles III is retiring after 35 years with the company and the former Schering-Plough. Bowles last held the position of chief ethics and compliance officer.

Bowles was employed at Merck starting in 1974 and steadily rose to higher levels of responsibility. From 1992 to 1997 he was vice president for quality in Merck’s manufacturing division, then became vice president for the company’s Latin American and Puerto Rican manufacturing operations. In 2001, Bowles moved to Schering-Plough Corporation, first serving as vice president of pharmaceutical manufacturing, followed a few months later as senior vice president of worldwide quality, then of global quality operations.

In November 2009, the two pharmaceutical companies merged under the name of Merck & Co. where Bowles continued to lead global compliance.

Bowles received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton in 1983. He remains connected to that engineering department as a member of its Advisory Council.