Bristol-Myers CFO Bonfield leaving drug maker

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N) said on Wednesday Chief Financial Officer Andrew Bonfield is leaving the drug maker to seek new career opportunities.

Bonfield will be succeeded by Jean-Marc Huet effective March 31. Huet previously served as CFO at infant nutritional company Royal Numico N.V. in Amsterdam.

Bonfield, 45, joined Bristol-Myers about six years ago amid an accounting scandal. In a statement, Chief Executive Officer James Cornelius credited Bonfield with helping strengthen the company's internal controls and modernizing Bristol-Myers' financial reporting.

In January, however, the drug maker reported a $275 million write-down from securities with subprime mortgages as a component, becoming one of the first companies outside the financial sector to disclose its exposure to the worldwide credit crisis.

A Bristol-Myers spokeswoman denied any connection between Bonfield's departure and the company's hit from so-called auction-rate securities. "The timing of Andrew's departure is completely unrelated to the ARS issue," spokeswoman Tracy Furey said.

Bonfield will stay on to help with the transition to Huet, whom Bonfield helped identify as a potential successor last year when he began to discuss new challenges to further develop his career, according to Cornelius.

Bristol said Huet, 38, is credited with initiating and developing Numico's acquisition strategy within the baby food sector and its resulting acquisition by Groupe Danone

(DANO.PA).

Bristol also elevated Lamberto Andreotti from chief operating officer of worldwide pharmaceuticals to chief operating officer of the entire company.

Andreotti, 57, will expand his oversight to responsibility for Bristol's Mead Johnson nutritionals unit and ConvaTec wound-healing unit, for which the company is exploring strategic alternatives.

(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; editing by Mark Porter and John Wallace)