John Hammergren: Leading McKesson To New Heights

John Hammergren was born in 1959 in St. Paul, Minnesota.  His early exposure to the healthcare industry was through his father who was a traveling salesman in the healthcare business. John often tagged along on business trips.

He was awarded a scholarship to the Institute of Technology engineering program at the University of Minnesota but later on found his interest in human interaction and business and not technical engineering courses.   John wound up graduating with a business degree in 1981. He would later on complete (through employer sponsorship) an MBA degree at Xavier University in 1987.

John’s career began at American Hospital Supply where he worked for 10 years.  It was acquired by Baxter Health Care and the new environment led him to work briefly for Lyphomed.  John joined Kendall Healthcare Products in 1991. Since the company was in the midst of a leveraged buyout it was in some degree of turmoil. Although John belonged to the last batch of people hired he was undeterred and helped turn the company around.

He then joined McKesson as president of McKesson Health Systems in 1996. This was a newly organized business unit focused on the pharmaceutical supply management needs of healthcare institutions.  He literally built the unit from ground up. With the needed financial support it became a huge success within only two years.

To further strengthen their business McKesson acquired HBOC in a $13.9 billion deal in January 1999. HBOC was the nation’s largest healthcare software vendor. John was appointed executive vice president of the new company and president of McKesson’s supply-management business. As things turned out HBOC’s books were fraudulent.  Earnings were inflated.  This caused share prices of the company to drop sharply. Top executives resigned or were fired.

John ended up being co-CEO of the company. After much hard work they were able to turn things around.  For his work he was eventually elected president and CEO of McKesson in 2001 and Chairman in 2002. Under John’s leadership McKesson has increased its revenue to $123 billion, entered new markets, and became the number 14 company in the Fortune 500 list.  He has contributed a lot to the success of America’s oldest and largest healthcare services company.