Tom Pike, the CEO who led Quintiles to a multi-billion dollar merger earlier this year with IMS and accepted a demotion as part of the deal, is retiring.

QuintilesIMS announced Wednesday morning that Pike was leaving as part of several post-merger closing management changes.

The decision will cost Pike millions of dollars since he had initially agreed to stay with the merged company through 2017 as part of an employment contract.

Ari Bousbib, chairman and chief executive officer of the combined company, had been the top executive at IMS before the merger.

Pike had taken a role as vice chairman and president of R&D Solutions when the deal closed in what was called a merger of equals. He had led Quintiles since 2012.

“The integration is coming along quickly,” Pike said in a statement.

The merger closed in October, the deal being valued at some $17 billion.

Taking over as head of the R&D group is Richard Staub III, whocurrently president of Novella Clinical, a Quintiles company. He also has led QuintilesIMS’s Global Functional Resourcing business.

“I have worked with Richard extensively in the past few years and am highly confident in his ability to drive R&D Solutions forward.” Pike said.

Under Pike, Quintiles acquired Triangle-based Novella in 2013.

Other changes also were announced Wednesday in moves that QuintilesIMS said were enabled by “rapid implementation of strategic and operational changes.”

The company noted that “the management transition … had always been anticipated and is part of a planned succession.”

The other major move is the naming of Paul Spreen as executive vice president and chief customer officer. Spreen, a long-time Quintiles executive, had left the company.

Bousbib offered his thanks to Pike:

“We are grateful to Tom Pike for his stewardship of Quintiles and commitment to getting this merger moving in the right direction,” said Bousbib in a statement. “I am really excited by our opportunity to lead the evolution of the CRO industry and am confident Richard and his world-class management team from R&D Solutions are poised to drive that change.”