Beckman Coulter Inc.’s top executives serve as a Cabinet of sorts for Chief Executive Scott Garrett.
Four executives at the Brea-based medical testing products company serve alongside Garrett in what Beckman calls its Office of the President.
“Scott has built his team by bringing in members of the Office of the President who have skills beyond their specialized skills,” said Arnold Pinkston, Beckman’s senior vice president, general counsel, secretary and Office of the President member.
Garrett, who also is president and chairman, has “deputies who can essentially be him,” Pinkston said.
“He can reach more people, handle more decisions and be confident that there will be a consistency about how those decisions and messages can be taken,” he said.
Beckman, which has annual sales of more than $3 billion and a recent market value of $4.7 billion, makes instruments and supplies used in medical testing and research.
Of course, the buck stops with Garrett, who has been chief executive for five years and earlier ran the company’s largest unit and was president and chief operating officer.
But Office of the President members “are the senior vice presidents that run the most significant staff functions,” Garrett said.
Besides Garrett and Pinkston, the other members are: Chief Financial Officer Charles Slacik; Bob Hurley, senior vice president of human resources; and Paul Glyer, senior vice president of strategy, business development, investor relations and communications.
The members are part of a larger 11-person executive team reporting to Garrett.
The Office of the President was an idea Garrett said he had in mind for a while.
But Beckman “really hadn’t had the talent to really do it the way we do it now,” he said.
Garrett said he looked for experience, including general management backgrounds, in selecting the members.
“I told them in this Office of the President, their No. 1 priority is to help me run the whole business,” Garrett said. “Their No. 2 priority is to lead their function, like law, finance, IT, strategy, etc.”
No No. 2
Beckman doesn’t have a traditional No. 2 official such as a chief operating officer.
“I don’t think we need one,” Garrett said.
The company has senior and executive vice presidents who are responsible for profits and losses on Beckman’s product lines and in its geographic markets.
Garrett “doesn’t get at all involved in the day-to-day,” human resources head Hurley said.
“I keep him informed of what we do, and he knows the big stuff we’re working on,” he said.
The Office of the President members have a lot of face-to-face interaction, according to Hurley.
“You don’t build relationships unless you do it,” he said.
The Office of the President tends to run in a “very virtual way,” financial chief Slacik said. Members rely on BlackBerrys and other technology to keep in touch while traveling, he said.
“Just about every technology we can find, we use,” Slacik said. “We all kind of feel like we’re always on the job all the time—whether it’s weekends, during the week, at night.”
There are formal meetings two to four times a month with specific topics and objectives, general counsel Pinkston said.
The members also work closely on major Beckman projects. They were key players in last year’s $800 million acquisition of Olympus Corp.’s diagnostics business.
Hurley, Glyer and Pinkston spent a lot of time going between the U.S. and Japan as talks took place.
“We brought in Scott when we needed him for certain things,” Hurley said. “Then Charlie Slacik was more the guy who was kind of holding down the home fort while we were doing the negotiating.”
After the deal closed in August, Hurley took over integrating the former Olympus business into Beckman and now serves as chairman of Beckman’s Japan operations.
“I’m the top person in Japan, so right now, I’m running it,” Hurley said on a conference call from Japan. “When I finish getting it put together, I’ll turn it over to somebody else.”
Garrett is a hands-off boss, according to executives.
His style reflects his low-key, Midwestern personality. Garrett, who just turned 60, hails from Milwaukee.
“In the three years I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him get mad,” Slacik said.
“It never really helps things for a leader to get angry,” Garrett said. “Outbursts of temper are dysfunctional, not positive.”
Pinkston, who joined Beckman in 2005 after a stint at Indianapolis-based drug maker Eli Lilly & Co., called Garrett “rigorous and disciplined.”
“There’s little left to the imagination. You know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing,” he said.
In some ways, Garrett’s style echoes that of company founder Arnold Beckman, who died in 2004 at the age of 104 and still has an influence on the company.
Beckman, too, was a humble Midwesterner.
Garrett never got to meet Beckman but said he considers the late scientist and entrepreneur a role model.
Executive Suite
The company’s executives share a suite at Beckman’s headquarters off the Orange (57) Freeway. The suite is made up of two rows of offices that face each other in the northeast corner of one of the buildings.
“I can see whether Charlie (Slacik’s) head’s bobbing up and down,” Pinkston said.
Beyond the Office of the President, Beckman has a group of executives charged with running individual functions, rather than assisting Garrett with running the overall company.
The company emphasizes what it calls “talent management,” or developing leaders for the future.
Beckman isn’t big on off-site retreats for executives.
“I’m personally not a big believer in these retreats where you’re doing something distant from your day-to-day work,” Pinkston said.
Having a hand running Beckman has helped members of Office of the President bond, he said.
Executives have taken part in various charity events, including fixing and cleaning up the Children’s Museum at La Habra and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America in Fullerton.
“We’ve done our share of cleaning bathrooms together,” Pinkston said.
Outside Beckman, executives are busy with different activities.
Hurley, who has homes on Balboa Island and in Big Bear, enjoys golf, reading and spending time with his grandchildren. He has four and one on the way. He’s also learning to sail.
“Faith is an incredibly important part of my life,” Glyer said.
He works on community projects with his church in La Habra and mentors college students.
THE TEAM
• Scott Garrett, 60, chairman, chief executive, president. With Beckman since 2002, CEO since 2005. Earlier, ran Beckman’s dominant clinical diagnostic division, served as company president, COO. Previous experience includes running Dade Behring Holdings, Garrett Capital Advisors. Graduate of Indiana’s Valparaiso University. Business master’s from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. Married, two children.
• Charles Slacik, 55, chief financial officer. Oversees finance, information technology. With Beckman since 2006. Previously with Watson Pharmaceuticals in Corona. Bachelor’s in accounting, finance from University of Connecticut, Storrs. Married, one daughter.
• Arnold Pinkston, 51, senior vice president, general counsel, secretary. With Beckman since 2005. Oversees 40-member legal department, which includes some 15 lawyers. Previously with Eli Lilly. Bachelor’s in geophysics, Yale. Law degree, Yale Law School. Married, three children.
• J. Robert “Bob” Hurley, 60, senior vice president, human resources. With Beckman since 2005. Also oversees Japanese operations. Previously with Baxter International. Bachelor’s in political science, University of Georgia. Served as U.S. Army captain. Married, three daughters, four grandchildren, one on the way.
• Paul Glyer, 53, senior vice president, business development, investor relations, communications. With Beckman since 1989. Previous positions include treasurer, vice president, corporate development. Bachelor’s in business administration, California State Los Angeles. Business administration master’s, Claremont. Married, three children, two grandchildren.
• Pamela Miller, 55, senior vice president, supply chain. With Beckman since 1997. Previously worked with Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur, Kallestad Laboratories. In charge of supply chain, manufacturing and facilities for the company across the globe. Married, four children.
• Clair O’Donovan, 52, senior vice president, quality, regulatory affairs. With Beckman since 1997. Previous jobs include serving as vice president, supply chain, director of reagent manufacturing in Miami. Married.
• Scott Atkin, 46, executive vice president, chemistry, discovery, Instrument Systems Development Center. With Beckman since 1996. Previously ran Sagian, company Beckman bought in 1996. Degrees in chemistry, computer science from Indiana’s Butler University.
• Robert Kleinert, 58, executive vice president, commercial operations. With Beckman since 2003. Oversees sales, service, customer administrative support, tactical marketing, sales support. Previously chief executive of Lifestream International. Bachelor’s, University of Miami. Married, two children.
• Cynthia Collins, 51, group vice president, cellular analysis. With Beckman since 2007. Previously chief executive of Sequoia Pharmaceuticals. Bachelor’s in microbiology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Business master’s, University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
• Richard Creager, 58, group vice president, immunoassay and molecular diagnostics business group. With Beckman since 1997. Previously with Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur. Bachelor’s, masters, doctorate from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Married, two children. Lives in Minnesota, Newport Coast.
• Peter Heseltine, vice president, medical director. With Beckman since 2005. Oversees medical side of regulatory processes, scientific oversight of products, development. Previously with Quest Diagnostics’ Nichols Institute. Teaches clinical medicine at UCI. Medical degree, Trinity College, Dublin. Married, two kids.
