Richard Gonzalez: AbbVie Chairman & CEO

Richard Gonzalez who is in his early 60s is one of a very few CEO who does not have a college degree but this did not prevent him from rising in the highly competitive pharmaceutical industry. He rose to become Executive Vice President, Pharmaceutical Products Group, of Abbott Laboratories where he led the global pharmaceutical business, including commercial operations, research and development and manufacturing. Richard also served as President and Chief  Operating Officer, before he briefly retired. 

This was in 2007 when he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He retired for about two years then went back to work for Abbott. What was fortunate for Richard was the decision that the company would be split in half to better address the future environment. The company AbbVie was spun off from Abbott Laboratories 2013, where it used to be part of the medical devices and nutrition business.He became Chairman & CEO of AbbVie. The company has as its prized asset the anti-inflammatory drug Humira. With sales of $12.5 billion in 2014, its is one of the biggest drugs in the world.

One of his boldest move was buying cancer drugmaker Pharmacyclis Inc for $21 billion. The key drug of Pharmacyclics is Imbruvica, a cancer drug that may possibly match Humira with its worldwide sales promise. AbbVie is forecasting its portion of peak sales from Imbruvica to be approximately $7 billion. Since the drug is being marketed with Johnson & Johnson, total end-suer sales for may be as high as $12 billion for Imbruvica. 

AbbVie, Inc. is a research-based biopharmaceutical company headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. It engages in the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of a broad line of proprietary pharmaceutical products. The company’s products are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, HIV, cystic fibrosis complications, low testosterone, thyroid disease, Parkinson’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and complications associated with chronic kidney disease, among other indications. It also has a pipeline of new medicines, including various compounds or indications in Phase II or Phase III development. 

The company that Ricard leads employs 26,000 people and has annual sales in excess of $19 billion. 

Miles D. White: Abbott Dark Horse

Early in life there was no indication that Miles D. White would wind up in the pharmaceutical industry. He did exhibit traits of leadership in his high school years being club president and the like. In his college days he was the first undergraduate to be the financial manager for all student businesses at Stanford University.

Obtaining a degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford in 1978 he then continued and got an MBA degree in 1980. McKinsey and Company was his first job after graduating and he stayed there until 1984 as a management consultant.  With an engineering background his next career move was supposed to be in Silicon Valley.

A job interview with Abbott Laboratories which wasn’t really his priority ended up with him being offered a management position. He became sales manager in the domestic diagnostics division of Abbott.  White rose through the ranks and became the division head in 1994. He made his mark in this division by increasing its sales to 11 percent in 1998 which was four times the industry average. He also led in the acquisition of a company that gained Abbott entry into the area of blood-glucose monitoring for diabetics.

A management change took place in 1998 with the retirement of the Chairman and CEO and the president and COO.  While the company produced profits if was lagging behind competitors and was becoming a takeover target. The race was on for the top company position. White was the dark horse in the competition, he did not have a pharmaceutical background and his division was not a top earning unit.

His detailed planning on how to rejuvenate the company and his ability to handle pressure won the board over and White became the company CEO in 1999. He went to work stream lining the number of products under research while constantly increasing overall budget for research and development.

As was his hallmark in his early days with Abbott he began acquiring companies to further growth and gain access to new products and research capabilities.  Early on he made over 60 acquisitions in his drive to grow the company. He also increased employee benefits and compensations.

Today Abbott has regained its place as a major industry player and much of the credit goes to White.