He also welcomed John Browett, senior vice president in charge of retail, to the company as the replacement for Ron Johnson, who left to become CEO of J .
Groupon's executive chairman Eric Lefkofsky and vice chairman Ted Leonsis are stepping in as temporary joint chief executives until a replacement for Mr Mason can be found.
In the early 1990s, as executive vice president of American Home Products, he helped devise a strategy to defend the firm's Premarin hormone-replacement therapy--derived from pregnant mares' urine--against generic competition.