Albrecht invites alumnus as the graduation speaker
L. John Wilkerson is taking a breather from his busy career advancing medical care through business mediums to be USU’s commencement speaker at its 124th graduation ceremony, May 7.
He developed a company focusing on service opportunities and strategic reviews, and also collaborates with health product companies on Wall Street. At the ceremony, Wilkerson will join a group of four other prominent individuals who will receive honorary doctorates, and said he is honored to speak to the graduating students of USU.
“John Wilkerson truly is one of the university’s most accomplished graduates in both his professional and personal life,” said USU president Stan Albrecht. “He has been extremely successful in the business world, but he also is an unparalleled ambassador of humanitarianism and a model for how good people take action and make this world a better place. We are honored to have him speak to our students.”
Those who both graduated with Wilkerson and continue to work at the university echoed Albrecht’s comments on Wilkerson’s achievements.
“You know, we have many, many great alumni and a lot of people who have achieved a lot of great things, but his combination of his career in trying to create better health care, him and his wife assisting in educational issues and his fantastic abilities to care deeply about the arts make him plenty qualified,” said Vice President of Advancement Ross Peterson. “He and his wife Barbara have really done quite a lot to preserve a world that is very very powerful, but at the same time, he has been involved in trying to create a lot better world for a lot of people.”
Wilkerson said Albrecht and Peterson contacted him last month with an invitation to have lunch in New York City, a reunion Wilkerson said happens a couple times per year. That rendezvous included another invitation.
“The invitation to be the Commencement speaker is not what I was expecting,” Wilkerson said. “I thought I was going to have a wonderful dinner, talk about solving the problems of the world, and tell jokes like we usually do. We did that, but then he invited me to be the commencement speaker, so we didn’t solve any world problems this time, I think.”
The invitation was given to a personality Wilkerson said typically doesn’t take any offer deliberately.
“I didn’t hesitate when asked. I said I would be honored and thanked (Albrecht) for the invitation,” he said. “Utah State has a warm spot in my heart. I am very thankful, and in fact very surprised, so I am honored.”
Wilkerson was born and raised in Elko, Nev. He received his bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from USU in 1965 and continued his education at Cornell University, receiving both a master’s and a doctorate in managerial economics.
In 1972 he joined Johnson & Johnson, where he was recruited by White Weld and Co. to be its health industry analyst responsible for covering rapidly growing diagnostics, device and pharmaceutical companies.
When Merrill Lynch acquired White Weld in 1978, he joined the Smith Barney health industry team, with responsibility for an expanded list of health product companies as well as the emerging medical services sector. He spent four years on Wall Street, which gave him an opportunity to interact with senior industry leaders and understand capital markets.
Over the next few years, Wilkerson recruited several extraordinary diagnostic, pharmaceutical and medical device industry veterans. Together, they re-branded the firm The Wilkerson Group, which focused on advising managements on product and service opportunities, strategic reviews and merger and acquisition analysis. By the time IBM acquired the firm in 1996, its staff of 175 was completing more than 300 assignments per year.
In 1990, Wilkerson began dividing his time between The Wilkinson Group and his current venture, Galen Partners, a healthcare private equity firm he co-founded with William Grant, a former president of Smith Barney. The firm’s vision was to work collaboratively with their CEOs and build important companies that would advance medical care. Over the last 19 years, the firm has managed $1 billion and invested in more than 80 companies.
As a representative of Galen, he has served on numerous private and public boards in the United States and abroad, including British Biotechnology, Stericycle, MedAssets and JDS Pharmaceuticals. Wilkerson helped start two of these successful companies, Stericycle and MedAssets. Both are now the leaders in their market sectors.
Wilkerson also works on the executive committee of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, and until recently he was chairman of the board of Atlantic Health Systems, New Jersey’s leading hospital system.
Wilkerson’s successes are something that he said can be largely attributed to the opportunities he was provided in Logan. After obtaining the bachelor’s in biological sciences, he said he was approached by many professors he had come to know over his years in Logan who suggested for him to enter graduate school. Though he said he had never thought of doing so before, the suggestion parlayed into the degree in managerial economics from Cornell.
“When I came to Utah State, I was looking for a place to break out into the world,” he said. “It definitely helped socialize and prepare me for the bigger world, and Logan was probably a perfect transition spot for someone who grew up in a town of 3,500 people. I’m grateful that both students and faculty embraced me.”
– rhett.wilkinson@aggiemail.usu.edu