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Gavin Herbert’s Vision

During a recent lunch at the Farmhouse at Roger’s Garden, Gavin Herbert pointed to a key that enabled him to build Allergan – hiring.

“We spent an inordinate amount of time interviewing and spending time with the applicants,” Herbert told the Business Journal.

“Candidly, I’d rather have one employee who was a star rather than three average people.”

That practice helped turn Allergan into the juggernaut that became famous for Botox and a host of other pharmaceuticals. More than 50 hires at Allergan have gone on to top executive roles at other companies.

It’s a reason why several local executives consider Herbert the founding father of Orange County’s aesthetic, ophthalmic and pharmaceutical industries.

Along the way, Herbert also has built Roger’s Garden into one of nation’s premier gardening centers and started environmental remediation firm Regenesis, which Time Magazine in October said had one of the nation’s 200 best inventions of 2024. At age 93, Herbert is not done innovating. In 2021, he started a biotech company called TechImmune to research a better vaccine for COVID-19.

For all these reasons, Herbert is the recipient of the first ever Orange County Business Journal’s Lifetime Achievement Recognition.

“I appreciate it – it’s a surprise,” Herbert said. “It’s an exciting time. I’ve been very lucky.”

The 12-Year-Old Entrepreneur

Herbert’s fascinating history as an entrepreneur began as a 12-year-old selling apricots from his family farm.

“If I was to write a book about my life, the title would be ‘Serendipity,’” he said. “One of the things that helps with serendipity is to become a good listener. With Botox, we listened to the physicians. Literally, all 20 of the indications came from the physicians. It was their ideas.”

He also knew how to treat his employees, such as giving them equity ownership instead of options.

Herbert often talked to his employees, teaching them by example how to be leaders, recalled Thomas Burns, who was a sales representative who “carried the bag” for seven years at Allergan. Herbert is the reason Orange County developed into a “Mecca for ophthalmology,” said Burns, who is now chairman and chief executive of Aliso Viejo-based Glaukos Corp., inventor of the world’s smallest medical device that is injected into an eye.

“Allergan has been a font for successful entrepreneurs, and they all settled here in Orange County,” Burns told the Business Journal.

“When people discuss Gavin, they consider him an icon in the industry.”

Burns himself is one of the winners this year of the Business Journal’s annual Businessperson of the Year for his role in building a company that now has an $8.5 billion market cap.

UC Irvine in 2013 opened the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, which has become one of the nation’s biggest ophthalmology research institutes. Herbert along with noted OC ophthalmology executives like Jim Mazzo, James Cavanaugh and Bill Link decided to create the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, whose first chairman was the late Dr. Roger Steinert, who pioneered new laser surgery techniques to stave off blindness.

The institute has made several notable achievements, such as providing ocular stem cell transplants for patients with severe cornea damage and a stem cell-based therapy for retinitis pigmentosa. It also provided more than 25,000 free vision screenings for children at Orange County schools.

“At Allergan, Gavin taught us to have a strong empathy for the customer and a keen understanding for their needs,” Mazzo, who is now chairman of biotech company Neurotech, told the Business Journal. “Through this knowledge, he was able to create new markets in ophthalmology such as dry eye treatments and so many more sight saving therapies.

Gavin created a culture of employee engagement and believes in celebrating success and lives by the philosophy of creating balance and the importance of spending time with family.

“As my mentor, Gavin taught me one of the most transformative lessons in my career and that is that the most important thing is to always think of the patient and put them first in everything that you do.”

“I think there are 50 people from Allergan who have become presidents or CEOs at other companies over the years,” Herbert told the Business Journal.

“If someone were to ask me what I’m most proud of, that would be it – the team that we created.”

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Sonia Chung
Sonia Chung
Sonia Chung joined the Orange County Business Journal in 2021 as their Marketing Creative Director. In her role she creates all visual content as it relates to the marketing needs for the sales and events teams. Her responsibilities include the creation of marketing materials for six annual corporate events, weekly print advertisements, sales flyers in correspondence to the editorial calendar, social media graphics, PowerPoint presentation decks, e-blasts, and maintains the online presence for Orange County Business Journal’s corporate events.
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