Sidney Taurel, chairman, president and CEO of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., will deliver this year's Hatfield address at Cornell Thursday, Sept. 20, at 4:30 p.m. in Schwartz Auditorium of Rockefeller Hall.
Taurel is the 2001 Robert S. Hatfield Fellow in Economic Education, the highest honor Cornell bestows on outstanding individuals from the corporate sector. His talk is titled "The Future of Aging: Social Consequences of the Biomedical Revolution" and is free and open to the public.
Under Taurel's leadership, the company has invested aggressively in research and development -- nearly $2.06 billion last year, or close to 20 percent of sales -- in its search for medicines that improve people's lives. The company hopes to set an industry record by launching 10 new pharmaceutical products within the next three to four year. Among them will be medications that:
The company currently markets two top-selling antidepressants, Prozac and Zyprexa. United States sales for Prozac were at $2.8 billion last year but Taurel anticipates challenges following the expiration of Eli Lilly's U.S. patent. The company plans to counter with a newer extended-release version that needs to be taken only once a week, instead of once a day and to expand into such overseas markets as Japan.
Taurel has helped make the company more global "to tap into talent wherever it comes from," he said. A global executive himself, he was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and speaks four languages -- French, English, Portuguese and Spanish. He has worked all over the world for Eli Lilly, including stints in Brazil, Austria, England and France.
Taurel graduated from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Paris in 1969 and earned an MBA from Columbia University in 1971, the same year he joined Eli Lilly International as a marketing associate. He was named general manager of the company's Brazilian affiliate in 1981, became head of Eli Lilly International's London-based European operations in 1983 and president of International in 1986. He was named executive vice president of International's pharmaceutical division in 1991, executive vice president of parent firm Eli Lilly and Co. and president of its pharmaceutical division in 1993. He rose to chief operating officer in 1996 and assumed his current responsibilities in 1998-99.
The Hatfield Fund for Economic Education was established in 1981 by the Continental Group Foundation to honor former Continental chairman Robert S. Hatfield, the first speaker. The fund supports campus visits by distinguished business leaders, who deliver major addresses on economic issues of national importance.
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