Salisbury native Alex Azar II, president of Lilly, USA, Eli Lilly biopharmaceutical company’s largest affiliate, returns to his roots April 13 for a motivational presentation on business and personal success.
The 3 p.m. talk in the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s Student Services Center Theater is the inaugural event in the Dr. Nicholas R. Blanchard Health Care Speakers Series. Blanchard is the founding dean of the university’s School of Pharmacy and Health Professions. A reception follows at 4 p.m.
“We are pleased to welcome Dr. Azar to the UMES campus,” said Kimberly Dumpson, UMES’ executive vice president and a 1986 graduate of James M. Bennett High School. “I am personally delighted that one of my fellow local high school graduates is returning to the Shore to inspire our students and guests from the community.”
“Succeeding On Purpose: How Purpose is Helping Institutions Win in the 21st Century,” is the 
topic of Azar’s address. The event is free and open to the public.
“Anyone with an interest in health care trends, branding or leadership should attend,” Dumpson said.
Azar, “skipped” his senior year at Parkside High School in Salisbury for early admittance to Dartmouth College but returned to walk for his class’ commencement. He went on to earn a bachelor’s in government and economics from Dartmouth and a law degree from Yale University. After law school, he clerked for the late U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.
Azar has spent the past 15 years in health care, nine with Lilly and prior to that six with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — including two as deputy secretary, the number two official and chief operating officer for the federal government’s largest civilian cabinet department.
“During the response and recovery efforts for Hurricane Katrina, I commanded two camps in Baton Rouge that housed hundreds of deployed Public Health Service responders and volunteers,” said Dr. James Bresette, retired U.S. Public Health Service captain and UMES’ associate dean for development and external relations in the pharmacy school. “I recall then Deputy Secretary Azar providing decisive leadership and sound counsel regarding personnel and logistical issues in that dynamic and challenging environment.”
As president of Lilly USA, the legal entity that houses the sales and marketing operations of the company’s U.S. business, Azar oversees the U.S Biomedicines, Diabetes and Oncology units. U.S. Biomedicines, which he directs, includes neuroscience, cardiovascular health, men’s health, musculoskeletal, autoimmune disease, Alzheimer’s, pain and managed health care services.
The business executive now lives in Indianapolis with his wife and two children. His father, Dr. Alex Azar, practiced ophthalmology in Salisbury for more than 30 years and taught medical students at Johns Hopkins’ Wilmer Eye Institute for 15 years and physician assistant students at UMES.
Call 410-621-3089 for more information.
