McKesson promotes specialty head to lead U.S. pharmaceutical division
SAN FRANCISCO — McKesson on Monday named Mark Walchirk president of its U.S. pharmaceutical division, effective immediately. Walchirk, who most recently was chief operating officer of McKesson Specialty Health, has held numerous leadership roles at McKesson over the past 11 years, including COO of McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical.
Walchirk succeeds Brian Tyler — who recently was appointed to serve as McKesson EVP corporate strategy and business development — and will report to Paul Julian, EVP and group president at McKesson. Walchirk will oversee McKesson's largest business, which supplies branded, generic and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and value-added business, clinical and connectivity solutions to more than 40,000 customers, including retail chains, independent retail pharmacies, hospitals, health systems, integrated delivery networks and long-term care providers.
“With past roles as chief operating officer of McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical and McKesson Specialty Health, Mark Walchirk has deep leadership experience in our pharmaceutical distribution business and a proven track record of delivering results for our customers,” Julian said.
Walchirk joined McKesson in 2001 and spent more than eight years in progressive leadership roles within McKesson's U.S. Pharmaceutical business before being appointed president of McKesson Specialty Care Solutions in 2009. He led McKesson's integration of US Oncology and assumed the role of COO for the newly combined organization, McKesson Specialty Health. In this role, he helped lead the business to record growth and introduce new solutions that empower the community patient care delivery system.
As SVP and COO of McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical, Walchirk led the integration of regional distributors D&K Healthcare and McQueary Bros., contributed to the growth of McKesson's Health Mart franchise, led the expansion of McKesson's pharmaceutical distribution business in the institutional market, and guided McKesson to industry-leading levels of accuracy and efficiency across the company's nationwide distribution network.
Before joining McKesson, Walchirk spent 13 years in medical-surgical distribution and manufacturing with Baxter Healthcare, Allegiance Healthcare and Encompass Group, holding various leadership positions in sales, marketing, operations and business development.
Walchirk earned his B.S. in business administration from the University of Illinois in 1988 and currently serves on the board of the Center for Healthcare Supply Chain Research and GS1 Healthcare US.
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