William L. Lister
2005 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient
William L. Lister, who holds a bachelor's degree in management and a master of science in marketing, enjoyed a distinguished career of more than 30 years' duration in the pharmaceutical field. Prior to beginning that career, he served as associate alumni director at his alma mater.
His career in that field began in 1973 when he took a position as a sales representative with Eli Lilly and Company. He subsequently held a variety of positions with the company, including director of market research, new product coordinator and district and area manager.
In 1987, Lister took joined the Boehringer Mannheim Corporation as director of a newly formed unit responsible for marketing and sales of the company's cholesterol screening equipment. During the next nine years, he was a member of the Boehringer Mannheim management, marketing and research teams, holding the positions of vice president of sales and marketing and senior vice president of marketing and sales. He also was senior vice president of diabetes care, commercial operations, for North America and was senior vice president and general manager on the team responsible for overseeing all diagnostic and biochemical operations in the United States.
In the late 90s, Lister oversaw the integration of Boehringer Mannheim and Roche Diagnostics Corporation as well as Desetronic Medical Systems into Roche Diabetes Care. He ultimately served as senior vice president and general manager, patient care, for Roche Diagnostics. He retired from Roche earlier this year.
He is a board member of the American diabetes Association Research Foundation and the Linden Life Science Management Research Board. In July 2005 Indiana governor Mitch Daniels appointed him to the board of the Indiana Health and Educational Facility Financing Authority. He was honored by Indiana State's College of Business in 2001 as its Outstanding Alumnus. In 2004 Roche created the William L Lister Award in his honor.