New board members

Pharmaceutical Representative welcomed two new members to its editorial advisory board in 1999: Mark Osborne, director of sales training at Chicago-based Searle and Professor Mickey Smith, professor of pharmacy administration and the director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management at the University of Mississippi.

Mark Osborne began his career in pharmaceutical sales 14 years ago, when he accepted a position with G.D. Searle as a territory rep in Akron, OH. After three years in the field, the University of Akron graduate was promoted to a position as medical education manager in Columbus, OH. He did this job for only a year before he was promoted to district sales manager in Cincinnati, a position he stayed in for seven years.

Four years ago, Osborne moved into Searle's sales training department and began training and developing the company's sales reps and sales managers. Just last year, he was promoted from associate director of sales training to director of training and development. He is also the current president of the National Society of Pharmaceutical Sales Trainers.

Osborne resides in the Chicago area with his wife and two children.

Mickey Smith, who earned his Ph.D in pharmacy administration from the University of Mississippi 34 years ago, is an expert in issues relating to pharmacy and pharmaceutical promotion. A one-time marketing manager for Pharmacia, Smith also briefly taught pharmaceutical marketing at Rutgers University. When he found that there was no text on the subject matter for his class, Smith decided to write one, and he published "Principles of Pharmaceutical Marketing."

Now a professor at his alma mater, Smith has been the primary driver behind an innovative new program called the Center for Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management. Offering a combined curriculum of business marketing and clinical pharmacology courses, the program aptly prepares undergraduates for a career in pharmaceutical sales or marketing, among other things. An advisory board composed of industry leaders helps Smith guide the program's curriculum and direction, and several pharmaceutical companies have agreed to sponsor scholarships for students going through the program.

Smith lives in Oxford, MS with his wife. He has two children and two grandchildren. PR