Raymond V. Gilmartin
Chairman, President &CEO
Merck &Co., Inc.
Revenue: $26.9 billion
Employees: 57,300 worldwide
As chairman, president and CEO of Merck &Co., Inc., the largest drug company in the world, Raymond Gilmartin takes seriously his responsibility, not just to the bottom line, but to ethical care. Case in point: in Africa, millions of people were left blind by a parasitic disease called river blindness. Merck discovered a cure and then distributed it for free throughout the continent, ending the scourge.
The grandson of an Irish immigrant from Co. Sligo, Gilmartin joined Merck in 1994 at a time when, in the words of Business Week, the company was “stumbling badly” and where “a bunker mentality had taken hold.” After five years under Gilmartin’s leadership, Merck is now hailed by Fortune magazine as one of the most admired companies and was ranked ninth in Fortune’s list of the “100 Best Companies to Work for in America.” Merck is proof that huge profits and good working conditions are not mutually exclusive.
Prior to joining Merck, Gilmartin was chairman, president and chief executive officer of Becton Dickinson, a medical supplies firm. After earning his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Union College in 1963, he launched his career as a development engineer at Eastman Kodak. He went on to earn an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1968.
Active in both the corporate and civic realms, Gilmartin serves on the board of General Mills, Inc., the College Fund/UNCF and the Alliance for Healthcare Reform. He also serves as chairman of the Valley Health System, Inc., the Board of Associates of Harvard Business School and as vice chairman of the Healthcare Institute of New Jersey. He is a member of the Business Council, Business Roundtable, the Committee for Economic Development and the Healthcare Leadership Council.
Raymond Hannigan
President &CEO
Kinetic Concepts Inc.
Revenue: $325 million
Employees: 2,100
In 1975, a trauma physician named Dr. Jim Leininger believed that the healing properties of a special support surface should be available to every patient who needed it and Kinetic Concepts Inc. was founded. Twenty years later, KCI is a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of therapeutic products.
Company president and chief executive officer Ray Hannigan joined KCI in 1994, having worked in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries for over 16 years. Prior to that he worked with Sterling Winthrop and SmithKline Beecham.
He has extensive U.S. experience together with over 20 years of international responsibilities and has resided in nine different countries.
KCI International, Inc., the company’s second largest business unit, is a leading provider of therapies in the growing international health care industry. KCI delivers healing therapies worldwide with direct operations in 11 countries, and manufacturing and engineering capabilities in Ireland.
Hannigan is an honors graduate of Texas A &M University. He also completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.
He is currently an advisory council member on international programs with the College of Business Administration at Texas A &M, board member and secretary of the Texas Healthcare and Bioscience Institute and a trustee of the Southwest Research Foundation.
A second-generation Irish American, he traces his roots to Counties Clare and Tipperary. He and his wife Patty reside in San Antonio, Texas, and have three children.♦
Colleague of Ray who would love to get in touch by email
hannigansa@gmail.com