Dave Ricks is chairman and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company. He was elected chairman of the company’s board effective June 2017.
A Lilly veteran for more than 20 years, Ricks served as president of Lilly Bio-Medicines from 2012 to 2016. Previously, he was president of Lilly USA, the company’s largest affiliate, from 2009 to 2012. He served as president and general manager of Lilly China, operating in one of the world’s fastest-growing emerging markets, from 2008 to 2009. And he was general manager of Lilly Canada from 2005 to 2008, after roles as director of pharmaceutical marketing and national sales director in that country. Ricks joined Lilly in 1996 as a business development associate and held several management roles in U.S. marketing and sales before moving to Lilly Canada.
Ricks earned a bachelor of science degree from Purdue University in 1990 and a master of business administration degree from Indiana University in 1996.
Ricks is president of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA). He serves as treasurer on the board of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Ricks is also on the boards of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership and Adobe, and he chairs the Riley Children’s Foundation board of governors.
Eli Lilly and Company is an American global pharmaceutical company with headquarters located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States. The company also has offices in Puerto Rico and 17 other countries. Their products are sold in approximately 125 countries. The company was founded in 1876 by Col. Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical chemist and veteran of the American Civil War, after whom the company was named.
Among other specialties, Lilly was the first company to mass-produce penicillin, the Salk polio vaccine, and insulin, including one of the first pharmaceutical companies to produce human insulin using recombinant DNA. Lilly is also the world's largest manufacturer and distributor of psychiatric medications.
In 2009, Eli Lilly pleaded guilty to illegally marketing the drug Zyprexa for off-label uses not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, particularly the treatment of dementia in the elderly. The company paid a $515 million criminal fine, at the time the largest in history.[2]
