Thanks to our speakers, panelists, partner organizations and the attendees for making the 2008 Maryland Biz/Bio Event a success!
Mr. Watkins joined Human Genome Sciences with nearly twenty years of experience at Abbott Laboratories and its affiliates in the U.S. and Asia. He most recently served as President of TAP Pharmaceutical Products Inc., which is jointly owned by Abbott Laboratories and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.
As President of TAP from September 1998 to August 2004, Mr. Watkins led the growth of the business from approximately $2 billion to $4 billion in annual revenue. He also revamped TAP's approach to compound in-licensing and product development to move product candidates through the late stages of development and into the marketplace more rapidly.
Mr. Watkins joined Abbott in 1985 as Business Unit Director, Physicians Office Diagnostics, with responsibility for starting a business to commercialize rapid tests and small instrument-based testing systems for physicians' offices. In 1988, Mr. Watkins was appointed Divisional Vice President, Pharmaceutical Products Division. In early 1993, he was named Divisional Vice President and Sector General Manager, Benchtop Systems, Abbott Diagnostics Division, with responsibility for worldwide design, development and manufacturing of small laboratory instrument systems and related reagents, and with supervisory responsibility for approximately 450 people. In 1994, Mr. Watkins was appointed Area Vice President, Asia/Pacific, Abbott Diagnostics Division, with responsibility for all activities of Abbott's Diagnostics Division affiliates in Japan and Asia, including overall supervision of approximately 1300 employees. In this capacity, Mr. Watkins also served as President of Abbott's Japanese subsidiary, which included diagnostics R&D and manufacturing operations. He was promoted to Corporate Vice President in 1996, and, in 1998, was named Vice President of Abbott HealthSystems, Abbott's corporate marketing and distribution division. Later that year, Mr. Watkins was appointed President of TAP.
Mr. Watkins began his career in 1974 with Arthur Andersen & Co. From 1979 to 1985, he was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company, Inc., working with multinational companies in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Mr. Watkins holds a bachelor's degree from the College of William and Mary, and a master's degree in business administration from the University Of Chicago Graduate School Of Business. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Lake Forest Hospital Foundation and Lake Forest Hospital, Lake Forest, Illinois. He also serves as a Trustee of the William and Mary Business School Foundation at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.
