Gil Y. Roth10.08.09
Where Are They Now?
Catching up with our first issue’s contributors
By Gil Y. Roth
Most of our first-issue contributors managed to stay in the industry, if not at the same company where they were working in 1999.
Paul Josephs remains at DPT (and is a member of our Editorial Advisory Board), and his co-writer Emily Lesica is still at Novartis Consumer Health.
Michael Valazza was at International Processing Corp., which was bought by R.P. Scherer, a division of Cardinal Health, in 2000. Mike is working for Cardinal successor Catalent Pharma Solutions, so technically he’s with the same company. And he's a member of our board, too.
Dilip Parikh, also on our board, left Atlantic Pharmaceutical Services and is now president of DPharma Group.
Michael Martorelli moved from Pennsylvania Merchant Group to Fairmount Partners. As far as I can tell, he’s the only person besides me who’s managed to write in every single issue we’ve ever published.
That said, a couple of our first-issue contributors did manage to escape pharma, so where are they now?
Laura Macdougall, vice president of marketing at Patheon when she wrote Making the Leap from Tactical to Strategic Outsourcing, writes:
It is hard to believe it has been 10 years (and I thought the summer went quickly)! I am happy to report that I have moved away from Pharma back to my true calling - healthcare management. I now work for Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada where I am responsible for Capital Projects. In the last five years, I have taken a $200 million redevelopment project from vision to reality! Construction is currently underway while we are gearing up the planning on a subsequent project (double the size) involving the Operating Rooms, Emergency Department and pretty much the balance of the hospital. Planning hospitals is complex and rewarding work. I love it!
When Contract Pharma started out it seems it was the darling days of the industry — in many ways the industry was young and just getting its legs. The magazine came in filled an unmet need, providing information where little existed. It quickly gained momentum and credibility. Congratulations on your 10-year celebration — wishing you and the industry lots of success in the future!
When Contract Pharma started out it seems it was the darling days of the industry — in many ways the industry was young and just getting its legs. The magazine came in filled an unmet need, providing information where little existed. It quickly gained momentum and credibility. Congratulations on your 10-year celebration — wishing you and the industry lots of success in the future!
Our Capitol Comments writer Mitchell Prothero left Washington, D.C. for the not-so-green fields of Afghanistan, embedded with American troops in the early phases of the war. He tried to pitch me on a column called Kabul Comments. I rejected that idea, and when he moved on to a series of embed assignments in Iraq, his Kirkuk Comments pitch met with the same fate.
Mitch lives in Beirut, where he reports on events in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, especially the Palestinian regions. He once e-mailed me what I can only describe as Best Practices for When a Gunfight Breaks Out in the Lobby of Your Hotel in Gaza. He congratulates us for reaching our 10th anniversary. I congratulate him for surviving the past 10 years.
Sarah W. Falcone (née Madley) was our first associate editor. She joined us with our July/August 2000 issue and stayed through the September 2004 edition. I asked her how the intervening years have treated her, and she writes:
After leaving the great family at Contract Pharma and Rodman Publishing, I spent time doing PR work for some pharma contract manufacturing clients, among others. So it seems I didn’t fall far from the Contract Pharma tree! After that, I decided to go into nonprofit work. In 2006, I joined the fundraising team at Millennium Promise, an organization founded by economist Jeffrey Sachs, which is focused on alleviating extreme poverty in Africa through village-led economic development. During my time there, I raised money for the organization’s main focus, the Millennium Villages, located in 10 countries in Africa. I traveled to Tanzania and Malawi to see first-hand the tremendous progress being made with simple yet cost-effective improvements to agriculture, health, water, education and infrastructure.
About a year ago, I joined the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, which is the American nonprofit set up to raise funds and awareness of the United Nations Children’s Fund. I am now a Program Officer and, using the writing skills I honed at Contract Pharma under Gil’s helpful guidance, I compose proposals, reports and other stewardship materials for the organization’s major donors. On a personal note, not long after leaving Contract Pharma I got married and my husband Gerard and I are expecting our first child in February. I’m so happy to see Contract Pharma celebrating 10 years of success. It is thanks to the the vision, leadership and commitment of Gary, Damaris, Gil and Rodman Publishing that have truly made it what it is today. Cheers to another 10 years!
About a year ago, I joined the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, which is the American nonprofit set up to raise funds and awareness of the United Nations Children’s Fund. I am now a Program Officer and, using the writing skills I honed at Contract Pharma under Gil’s helpful guidance, I compose proposals, reports and other stewardship materials for the organization’s major donors. On a personal note, not long after leaving Contract Pharma I got married and my husband Gerard and I are expecting our first child in February. I’m so happy to see Contract Pharma celebrating 10 years of success. It is thanks to the the vision, leadership and commitment of Gary, Damaris, Gil and Rodman Publishing that have truly made it what it is today. Cheers to another 10 years!