Healthcare >> CEO Interviews >> November 24, 2003
JOHN P. WAREHAM is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of
Beckman Coulter, Inc. Mr. Wareham became CEO in September 1998 and was
named Chairman in February 1999. Prior to these changes, he had served
as President and Chief Operating Officer since 1993. During his tenure
as President and COO, he successfully managed a corporate restructuring
plan that resulted in significantly improved margins for the
corporation. He also led an aggressive acquisition strategy that
ultimately resulted in the union of Beckman and Coulter as a new
industry leader in diagnostics. Mr. Wareham joined Beckman Instruments,
Inc. in 1984 as Vice President ' Diagnostics Systems Group, a position
he held through October 1993. In this capacity, he propelled the
company's diagnostic business to a leadership position in the clinical
laboratory market, making it one of the most profitable entities in the
industry. The move to Beckman was preceded by a 15-year career with
SmithKline. He entered that company as an operations research analyst
and held positions of increasing responsibility, ultimately serving as
Director of Business Planning at SmithKline & French Laboratories-
Worldwide, and finally, President of Norden Laboratories. Mr. Wareham
began his career as a Pharmacist, working in his family's business. He
holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from Creighton University
in Omaha, Nebraska and a Master's degree in Business Administration from
Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. In addition to being
Chairman of the Board of Directors at Beckman Coulter, Wareham also
serves on the Boards of STERIS Corporation in Mentor, Ohio; the Advanced
Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) in Washington, DC; the
Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI in Arlington, Virginia; the National
Association of Manufacturers (NAM) in Washington, DC, and the California
Healthcare Institute (CHI) in San Diego, California. Additionally, he is
on the Advisory Board for The John Henry Foundation in Garden Grove,
California and is a member of the Center for Corporate Innovation in Los
Angeles, the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Executive
Roundtable, and the Advisory Council of the Keck Graduate Institute of
Applied Life Sciences in Claremont, California. Profile
Mr. Wareham: Let me start off by saying that we're in the business of
enabling biomedical testing. We're involved with medical
