Beckman Chief to Head Daily Operations

FULLERTON — Beckman Instruments Inc. said Tuesday that its new president will run the laboratory-equipment manufacturer day to day while the chairman concentrates on long-range strategy.

Prodded nearly a year ago by powerful new shareholders, Beckman has been reorganizing: Last month it appointed Vice President John P. Wareham, 52, to the new post of president and chief operating officer. His mandate is to focus on boosting the company’s disappointing profits.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Louis T. Rosso, 60, is relinquishing the president’s post after 11 years.

Since joining the company in 1984, Wareham has run a unit that makes devices for testing blood. The company said in October that it will combine that unit with its other division, which makes centrifuges--the whirling mechanical arms that labs and hospitals use to separate liquids in a test tube.

As a result, the company said then, it is laying off or retiring 11% of its work force, or 750 people--as many as 200 in Orange County.

A group including Texas millionaire Lee Bass bought 5% of the Fullerton concern last year at a time when its stock was languishing. Bass requested that Beckman give shareholders more say in the company’s operations by appointing more independent directors to the board, which Beckman did.

Bass also asked that the company streamline its corporate structure to improve profits.