Hospira Names Zena G. Kaufman Senior Vice President of Quality; Strengthens Quality and Compliance Capabilities With Addition of Top Industry Talent

LAKE FOREST, Ill., Feb. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Hospira, Inc. (NYSE: HSP), the world's leading provider of injectable drugs and infusion technologies, today announced the hiring of several new leaders to strengthen the company's quality and compliance capabilities, including the appointment of Zena G. Kaufman as senior vice president, Quality, effective Feb. 27, 2012. In this role, Ms. Kaufman will have overall responsibility for Hospira's global quality systems and serve as a member of the company's senior leadership team, reporting directly to F. Michael Ball, chief executive officer.

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"Zena is a recognized global expert in pharmaceutical quality systems, and her proven experience will help establish quality as a strategic, competitive advantage across our global operations," said Mr. Ball. "Hospira remains fully dedicated to restoring our long-established reputation for the highest-quality products and best possible service for our customers, and I'm confident we now have the right team in place to deliver against these imperatives."

Under Ms. Kaufman's leadership, Hospira will advance its global quality and compliance strategies, drive the continuous improvement of established quality procedures to ensure that processes and products meet high internal standards and regulatory requirements, and ultimately deliver high-quality, cost-effective products to customers.

Ms. Kaufman, who brings 24 years of experience to Hospira, most recently served as divisional vice president, Global Quality Systems, Global Pharmaceutical Operations, for Abbott Laboratories, where her tenure included diverse roles across the company's corporate and divisional quality functions. Prior to Abbott, she held various roles of progressive responsibility in the quality organizations at Pfizer Inc., Pharmacia Corporation and G.D. Searle & Company.

Today, she continues to hold active leadership roles in many industry organizations, including serving on the board of the Parenteral Drug Association as well as having represented Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) on the International Conference of Harmonization Guideline: Pharmaceutical Quality Systems.

In addition to Ms. Kaufman, Hospira has welcomed the following new operations and quality leaders, who average more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry:

• Matt Stober – corporate vice president, U.S. Pharma Operations
  • As corporate vice president, U.S. Pharma Operations, Mr. Stober, who joined Hospira late last year, has primary responsibility for Hospira's Rocky Mount, N.C., facility as well as Hospira plants in McPherson, Kan.; Austin, Texas; and Clayton, N.C. He joins Hospira from Johnson & Johnson, where he served as the vice president and global platform leader for Solids, Parenterals & Vaccines. Mr. Stober brings to Hospira experience managing transformational change in business-critical settings, as well as leading global and multi-company development projects, new product launches and large-scale organizational transformations. He has been in the pharmaceutical industry for 22 years, having held significant leadership roles at Novartis and Merck.
• Shane Ernst – vice president, Quality, Rocky Mount
  • Mr. Ernst serves as vice president of quality at the Rocky Mount plant, where he is accountable for all site quality as well as site remediation operations. He started at Hospira on Jan. 30, and has 16 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently serving as vice president of Quality Operations and Regulatory Affairs at DSM Pharmaceutical Products. Mr. Ernst has extensive experience working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), having directly managed FDA inspections successfully, and with multiple global regulatory agencies.
• Marty Nealey – vice president, Operations, and plant manager, Rocky Mount
  • Mr. Nealey recently joined Hospira as plant manager for the Rocky Mount facility, where he is accountable for leading manufacturing and remediation efforts. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 22 years, covering tenures with Merck and AstraZeneca, and brings extensive experience in sterile pharmaceutical manufacturing, having worked closely with the FDA to maintain top quality standards. Most recently, as executive director and plant manager for Purdue Pharmaceuticals L.P. with responsibility for manufacturing sites in North Carolina and New Jersey, Mr. Nealey was responsible for operating facilities in compliance with the FDA, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and international regulatory agencies. During his tenure there, he was responsible for delivering significant branded and generic products to markets including the United States, Canada and Latin America. Mr. Nealey also oversaw the implementation of a proactive annual site-compliance improvement plan, as well as a new investigation process using multiple root-cause analysis tools.
• Andrew Knudten – vice president, Operations, and plant manager, McPherson
  • Mr. Knudten has been named the site leader for the McPherson, Kan., plant where he will be responsible for the facility's operations, effective March 5. He joins Hospira from Novartis where he served as the global head of contract manufacturing and operations strategy. In this role, Mr. Knudten was responsible for the technical operations manufacturing strategy of a global multi-site vaccines division as well as its contract manufacturing business. Mr. Knudten, who brings more than 20 years of experience, has also held roles of increasing responsibility with Amgen, Inc. and CoDa Therapeutics, Inc.
• Thomas Templeman, Ph.D. – vice president, Pharma Operations Excellence
  • Dr. Templeman recently joined Hospira in the newly created position of vice president, Pharma Operations Excellence. This role was created to ensure that process change is systemic across the company's U.S. plants. Dr. Templeman, with 22 years of pharmaceutical experience, most recently worked as senior vice president, Integrated Supply Chain, at Liquidia Technologies, where he focused on developing and refining proposed products concurrently with the manufacturing process, along with establishing Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) manufacturing and quality systems to support clinical trials. He previously held leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson, where he worked for 13 years and assisted in two remediation efforts.

"In their previous roles, our new team members have successfully delivered the highest standards of quality and regulatory compliance," said Mr. Ball. "These seasoned industry veterans will work with Hospira's current leadership to remediate the Rocky Mount facility and extend improvements there across all Hospira sites. I'm confident that their extensive backgrounds in operations and quality, expert knowledge of FDA regulations and strong leadership abilities will help take Hospira to the next level of operational excellence."

About Hospira
Hospira, Inc. is the world's leading provider of injectable drugs and infusion technologies. Through its broad, integrated portfolio, Hospira is uniquely positioned to Advance Wellness™ by improving patient and caregiver safety while reducing healthcare costs. The company is headquartered in Lake Forest, Ill., and has approximately 14,000 employees. Learn more at www.hospira.com.

SOURCE Hospira, Inc.