Working Her Way To The Top

Deirdre Connelly was born San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1960 to an Irish-American father and a Puerto Rican mother. She spent the first 18 years of her life in San Juan before she headed for mainland U.S.A. to study and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics and marketing from Lycoming College in Pennsylvania in 1983.

That same year Deirdre joined Lilly as a sales representative and started her upward trajectory in the pharmaceutical corporate world. She moved to San Juan a year later in 1984 as a marketing associate. Deirdre then progressed through higher positions in the sales and marketing area. In 1995, she became general manager for Eli Lilly Puerto Rico, SA.

More promotions followed then in 2005 Deirdre became the President of US operations. This was a high point in her career but it was just the beginning of a new chapter. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was interested in her and she joined the company in February 2009 as President, North America Pharmaceuticals.  This was a huge responsibility given that GSK is a British multinational company. She is basically the right-hand person in the U.S. to GSK’s CEO.

While Deirdre is the first woman to hold the position she does not feel any discomfort and believes there will even be more diversity (including nationality) at GSK given its own diverse customers. 

Recently GSK bought Human Genome Sciences for $3.6 billion. Using human genome data to help produce curing drugs has always been a challenging yet potentially rewarding combination. Deirdre has been appointed as president and CEO to lead this company.