Health Care Company Picks New President

Bergen Brunswig Corp. on Tuesday named Donald R. Roden, a 25-year veteran of the health care industry, as its president and chief operating officer.

Analysts said the appointment of Roden, who has extensive marketing experience, may signal that the large pharmaceutical supplier is seeking to become more aggressive in marketing itself to drug suppliers, managers of drug benefit programs for employees, and allied providers of health care services.

The company’s chairman and chief executive, Robert E. Martini, said the company aims to improve its profit margins. “I was looking for somebody who could make a difference,” he said in an interview.

Roden, 49, who once worked in a Bergen Brunswig division, said he’ll be looking for ways to help the company’s pharmacy and hospital customers run more efficiently in the cost-conscious era of managed care.

Roden succeeds Dwight Steffensen, who resigned for personal reasons early last month. Steffensen remained as a director. Martini had assumed the additional duties of president and chief operating officer in the interim.

Roden also has been named a director, and the company expanded its board membership to 13.

Bergen Brunswig, the largest publicly held health care company based in Orange County, has not been as profitable as top industry performers, analysts say.

In an industry where profits are generally slim, Bergen Brunswig’s pre-tax operating profit amounted to 1.7 cents on every dollar it took in during its quarter ended June 30, said Kevin Silverman, an analyst at Everen Securities. By contrast, rival Cardinal Health, in Dublin, Ohio, took in 2.15 cents.

Roden worked for Bergen Brunswig in the mid-1970s as group vice president of its prior Health Applications Systems unit, which handled claims processing for health-care payers. He left in 1977 to start a consulting firm, Pracon Inc. in Arlington, Va. He sold the firm in 1989.

He was chief executive of Reed Elsevier Medical’s North America division for four years, and has worked as an industry consultant the last two years.

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Profile: Donald R. Roden

New title: President and chief operating officer, Bergen Brunswig Corp.

Age: 48

Hometown: Moulton, Ala.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in business administration, University of Wisconsin; master’s degree in pharmaceutical marketing, Fairleigh Dickinson University

Career highlights: Vice president of a Bergen Brunswig division; chief executive of North American operations at Reed Elsivier Medical; health industry consultant

Family: Wife and two adult children

Activities: Golf, skiing, mountain biking

Source: Bergen Brunswig Corp.