Kevin W. Sharer: Reaching His Goals

Kevin Sharer always wanted to lead. Following his father’s footsteps he entered the U.S. Naval Academy and earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering, and a master’s degree. Like his father we wanted to be a naval pilot but poor eyesight prevented him from reaching that goal.

He joined the submarine service as a lieutenant and left the navy in 1978 as a lieutenant commander in a nuclear submarine. He wanted to rise quickly and realized it would take some time before he would be heading the submarine service.  He worked AT&T from 1978 to 1982 while obtaining an MBA from the University of Pittsburg in 1982.

Wanting to improve his career Sharer joined McKinsey & Company as a consultant from 1982 to 1984. He was then recruited by General Electric (GE) in 1984 as an executive.  Later on he was offered to head the GE jet engine division. He left the company because he felt the position was not high profile enough.

In his quest to lead his own company Sharer joined MCI in 1989 as an executive vice president in marketing. He once again left this company because he felt he would never get the top position of CEO given the internal politics in the company.

He moved to Amgen in 1992 as president and COO because he felt it gave him a good chance to becoming the company CEO.  Amgen was a biotech company. This was not a field Sharer was an expert in. To his credit he took a crash course in biotechnology to learn more about it.

His lack of technical background left some in doubt about his qualification to lead the company. His predecessor thought that the company had enough scientists and what it needed was a leader who had business experience since the company was getting more commercialized.

While Amgen was the largest biotech company in the world it was at best a mid-size firm. In 2000 Sharer finally reached his personal goal, he was appointed CEO. Sharer is not just a man with a goal to reach the top post but he is also a competent leader. His company goal is to make Amgen not just the top biotech pharmaceutical firm but also one of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world.  Under his leadership he is turning this goal into a reality. Sharer also became chairman in 2001.