Ulf Mark Schneider: Fresenius CEO

Ulf Mark Schneider who’s also known as Mark was born in 1965, in Germany.  Academic-wise Mark  has achieved what has basically has to be achieved, from the University of St Gallen, he earned a degree in finance and accounting and a PhD in economics. He also holds an MBA from Harvard. 

Mark began working for Franz Haniel & Cie in 1989. He held a number of senior executive positions then rose to the rank of Group Finance Director for the Coventry-based Gehe UK plc, a pharmaceutical wholesale and retail distributor which is part of the Haniel group, in 1995. 

In November 2001, Mark joined Fresenius as chief financial officer of the Fresenius Medical Care.  On May 28, 2003, less than two years, since joining he became the CEO of the entire group. Mark was the choice of no less than his predecessor Gerd Krick. He was 37 years of age at that time and a relative newcomer to the company. Many were surprised by the decision and Mark himself did not expect it. 

He hasn’t been a disappointment but on the contrary has increased the firm’s revenue and helped expand the company’s global presence. In the first five years of heading the company Mark was able raise sales by 50 percent to $14.5 billion and operating profit by 85 percent to $1.9 billion. In turn the price of share in the company quadrupled. 

He has expanded the firm to a significant extent through acquisition with the objective of strengthening all three of the firm’s major divisions with small and medium purchases. Mark knows the importance of acquiring small and medium companies. Yet he also does big acquisitions like in 2006 when he led the purchase of Renal Care Group Inc and Helios Kliniken GmbH for around $6 billion. Buying Helios Kliniken made Fresenius one of the top three hospital operators in Germany.

Fresenius is a global healthcare group offering high-quality products and services for dialysis, hospitals, and outpatients treatment. It has over 200,000 employees in over 100 countries and annual sales of over €20 billion. 

Joseph Swedish: WellPoint CEO

Joseph Swedish earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1973.  He also obtained a Master’s Degree in Health Administration from Duke University in 1979.  Joseph has over 40 years of wide ranging healthcare leadership experience which he has brought to WellPoint. This includes 24 years as the CEO of major health and hospital systems.

From March 1994 to January 1999 Joseph served as President and CEO of the East Florida Division of Columbia and Central Florida Division at HCA Healthcare Corporation (Hospital Corporation of America). He has been the President and CEO of Centura Health, Inc. from January 1999 to January 2005. Upon joining Centura Joseph concentrated his effort on ensuring the financial stability and service excellence of its core operations.

Before leading WellPoint Joseph served as President and CEO of Trinity Health Corporation, an integrated health care delivery system operation doing business in multiple states. At Trinity, he accelerated financial and operational performance. Under his leadership revenue grew from less than $6 billion in 2005 to around $9 billion in 2012. Operating margins also doubled resulting in Trinity becoming the fourth largest Catholic healthcare system in the country.  

Joseph in 2012 negotiated and initiated the merger of Trinity Health and Catholic Health East which now represents the country’s second largest non-profit health care system.

In March 2013, Joseph was appointed CEO of WellPoint. He was named President by the Board of Directors in May 2014. Joseph upon assuming leadership immediately focused on refining the company’s strategic direction and positioning WellPoint for long term success. He improved operations by aligning the firm’s organizational structure around two primary operating segments, namely: the Commercial Business Division and the Government Business Division. Under Joseph’s stewardship the firm completed successful integration with Amerigroup, launched over 1,000 products in 14 states in support of the health insurance exchange marketplace and the stocks of WellPoint achieved an all-time high.

WellPoint is one of the country’s largest health benefit firms serving 37 million Americans and had operating revenue of $70 billion in 2013.

Kenneth Frazier: Merck CEO

Kenneth Frazier earned his bachelor’s degree from The Pennsylvania State University and obtained a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Kenneth practiced law and was a partner with the Philadelphia law firm Drinker Biddle & Reath. While still in the field of law he made a change in his career joining Merck in 1992 as vice president, general counsel and secretary of the Astra Merck Group.

Since joining Merck Kenneth’s only direction has been up. He was appointed vice president of Public Affairs in 1994, and in 1997, assumed the additional responsibilities of assistant general counsel, corporate staff.  In January 1999 he went up the ladder as vice president and deputy general counsel. By the end of the year he was promoted senior vice president and general counsel. He oversaw the legal and public affairs functions of Merck and The Merck Company Foundation.

Kenneth was promoted to executive vice president and general counsel in November 2006. From 2007 to May 2010 he service as executive vice president and president, Global Human Health. Kenneth then served as president of Merck overseeing the company’s three major division: Global Human Health, Merck’s sales and marketing division for pharmaceutical and vaccine products; Merck Manufacturing Division, Merck’s manufacturing and supply; and Merck Research Laboratories, Merck’s research organization. With his performance he became CEO and member of the board of directors in January 1, 2011 and was elected chairman of the board on December 1, 2011.

Some may have expected a trained business executive or someone with a pharmaceutical background to be heading Merck. Yet when we deal with healthcare we also have to deal with a host of rules and regulations governing the industry. So having someone with a law background has its own advantages.

Merck is a leading global healthcare company and one of the largest in the world. Its scientists have helped to find new ways to treat and prevent illnesses such as the discovery of vitamin B1 and the first measles vaccine. 

Dr. Severin Schwan: Roche CEO

Dr. Severin Schwan was born in Austria, in 1967.  He studied economics at the universities of Innsbruck, York and Oxford earning a degree in 1991. He obtained a Doctorate in Law at the University of Innsbruck in 1993.

 Dr. Schwan has been a Roche company man all his life. He began his career as a trainee at Corporate Finance at Roche in Base, Switzerland.  Dr. Schwan earned a promotion in 1995 when he became Head of Finance & Administration at Roche Brussels.

He continued his rise through the ranks becoming Head of Finance and Informatics at Roche Grenzach, Germany and Member of the Executive Board of Roche Deutschland Holding GmbH in 1998. Dr. Schwan continued his fast rise in the organization becoming Head of Global Finance & Services, Roche Diagnostics, Basel in 2000.  

In 2004 Dr. Schwan became had Head of Region Asia Pacific, Roche Diagnostics, Singapore. In 2006 he was promoted to Chief Executive Officer Division Roche Diagnostics. Dr. Schwan finally got the prized job of Chief Executive Officer, Roche Group in 2008.

While company employees can work their whole life and not be promoted to the top position, Dr. Schwan reached the top post in around 15 years.  The company he leads it by no means a small one. Roche is one of the largest firms in the world.

Roche is a researched-focused healthcare company which discovers, develops and provides diagnostic and therapeutic products and services. The pharmaceutical company was founded on October 1, 1896. The founder Fritz Hoffman-La Roche, was among the first to recognize that the industrial manufacture of standardized medicines would be a major advancement in the fight against disease.  The firm today, has more than 80,000 employees and its products are sold in over 150 countries.

Roche is among the world’s leading healthcare companies with two strong core businesses: diagnostics and pharmaceuticals. In 2012 group sales was at 45.5 billion Swiss francs coming from oncology sales, and clinical laboratory businesses.

Dr. Schwan continues to lead the company through more milestones.

George S. Barrett: Top Notch Healthcare Executive

You can tell how good an executive is if he performs well in different environments or in other words has worked for different companies. While there’s nothing wrong with climbing up the ranks in only one company, working for different companies means making adjustments especially when dealing with a new set of co-workers.

George S. Barrett is one executive who has move in different companies while at the same time scaling the corporate ladders in the companies he has worked for. At the executive level he was the president of NMC Laboratories before it was taken over by Alpharma in 1990. The takeover did not negatively impact in his career as he served in various positions with Alpharma Inc. including as president of US Pharmaceuticals from 1994 to 1997. He then became president and CEO of Diad Research, a technology start-up based at John Hopkins School of Medicine.

Barrett then joined TEVA Pharmaceuticals and was president and CEO of Teva Pharmaceuticals USA from March 1999 to December 2004. He assumed bigger responsibilities when he became the CEO of Teva North America and corporate executive vice president of Global Pharmaceutical Markets of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd.

 He’s biggest move came in 2007 when he joined Cardinal Health as vice chairman and CEO of the firm’s Health Supply Chain Services segment. In this position Barrett was responsible for all of Cardinal’s supply chain businesses, which includes pharmaceutical distribution, medical/surgical distribution, nuclear pharmacy services, Presource®surgical kitting services and the Medicine Shoppe international pharmacy franchise operations.  As has been the typical pattern of his career Barrett moved up the latter and eventually became the Chairman and CEO OF Cardinal Health, Inc.

Cardinal Health is a Fortune 500 health care services company which aims to improve the cost-effectiveness of health care. It is huge company by any measure with annual revenues in excess of $100 billion and an employee headcount of 30,000.

Barrett obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1977 from Brown University and an MBA degree from New York University in 1988. He is also an Ellis Island Medals of Honor recipient in 2009.