Apria Names Local Executive as President
Apria Healthcare Group Inc. said Wednesday it hired a well-known local executive, Lawrence M. Higby, as president and chief operating officer.
Higby, 52, replaces Steven T. Plochocki, who quit five weeks ago.
Higby previously was president of Unocal Corp.’s 76 Products division. He departed last spring when Tosco Corp. bought the Costa Mesa-based unit and moved its headquarters to Phoenix.
In an interview, Higby acknowledged that he is stepping into a professionally risky post at Costa Mesa-based home health giant Apria, which is seeking possible merger partners.
“I’ve been in lots of businesses in turmoil,” Higby said. He said his new boss, Apria Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Jones, “offered me a chance--a chance not without risk--and I’m very pleased.”
Jones would not comment on the odds that Apria will be acquired soon. “Apria has a very good chance of surviving intact,” he said.
The only bid so far is from a group that includes former Apria executive Timothy M. Aitken, who now runs New York-based Transworld HealthCare Inc. Transworld’s major investor, Hyperion Partners, also is part of the group.
Higby said he will focus on reinvigorating Apria’s far-flung sales and marketing forces, which have had to deal with extensive glitches in the company’s computerized accounting systems.
Before joining Unocal’s 76 Products unit, Higby was executive vice president of marketing of the Los Angeles Times. He previously was president of the Times’ Orange County Edition.
Higby, a UCLA graduate, started his career as a White House aide during the Nixon administration. He later joined PepsiCo Inc., eventually becoming the top marketing executive in charge of its Taco Bell chain. He also headed Caremark Inc.’s mail-order pharmacy unit for a year.
Last year, Orange County Volunteer Center named Higby and his wife, Dee, as the county’s top volunteers for the year. He is vice chairman of the Orange County Performing Arts Center and a director of the Discovery Science Center.
