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According to Steve Boren, vice president of sales and marketing for the Novartis Animal Health U.S. Farm Animal Business, this sales force expansion is a demonstration of Novartis Animal Health’s long term commitment to the U.S. swine industry.“Despite the current economic challenges, we believe in the long term viability of the U.S. swine industry,” Boren says. “We are investing in its future. And, in addition to our sales force expansion, which will allow us to work more closely with our customers, we will also continue to collaborate with organizations like the National Pork Producers Council – and its state and local affiliates – the Pork Board and the American Association of Swine Veterinarians.
“Novartis Animal Health’s goal is to help swine producers improve the overall health and profitability of their swine production units. The sales force expansion helps us deliver valuable animal health technical information and useful animal solutions to a larger proportion of the U.S. swine industry,” Boren adds.
Sean O'Hare, Novartis Animal Health pig and poultry key account sales manager, adds that this strategic initiative will allow Novartis to better serve larger integrators, as well as independent pork producers.
“Large- and mid-sized producers will play an increasingly important role as the market returns to profitability,” O’Hare says. “We see an opportunity to add value to these operations by working more closely with these producers, and their veterinarians and nutritionists, to better diagnose and treat respiratory, enteric and reproductive diseases.”
According to Dr. Gunter Schuele, Novartis Animal Health pig and poultry marketing manager, the eight new sales team members bring the backgrounds and experience necessary to help swine producers, veterinarians and nutritionists succeed, and is one element of Novartis’ overall strategy to improve producer profitability.
“Working with veterinarians and nutritionists to develop a swine herd health program is one of the most important steps producers can take to achieve profitability,” Schuele says. “Our newly expanded swine sales team will provide producers, veterinarians and nutritionists with greater access to the herd health tools they need to be successful in the years ahead.”
The new Novartis Animal Health Swine team members include the following:
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Carisa Curry
, territory manager, Illinois and Missouri, who joins from Johnson & Johnson, where she was a pharmaceutical sales professional. Curry is a past pork ambassador from Henry County, Ill.•
Dana Drake
, territory manager, Minnesota, who joins Novartis from Lextron Animal Health, where he was a field sales representative. Previously he was gilt development supervisor for Schwartz Farms, Inc. in Sleepy Eye, Minn.•
Aaron Gilbertie
, territory manager, Eastern Corn Belt, who was previously with Truffle Media Networks, where he was director of business development. Gilbertie has also been a market researcher for global swine and poultry at Elanco Animal Health.•
Lindsay Grace
, territory manager, Northwest Iowa and South Dakota, who joins Novartis from John Morrell & Co. in Sioux Falls, S.D., where she served as product manager for processor sales. She previously worked for United Feeds, Inc.•
Brent Green
, senior territory manager, Southwest Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, who was formerly with Boehringer-Ingelheim, where he served as a territory sales manager. Previously, he was international sales manager for Prima Tech.•
Greg Lage
, key account manager, who will be responsible for working with key swine accounts in the Eastern Corn Belt. Lage joins Novartis from Prairie Agri-Enterprises Inc., where he was general manager. Previously, he was U.S. swine business unit sales manager for Schering-Plough Animal Health.•
Jeff Lindaman
, territory manager, Eastern Iowa and Wisconsin, who previously served as a field sales territory manager with IVESCO Animal Health. Lindeman was also a team leader for inside sales and an inside sales representative at IVESCO.•
Andy Smythe
, key account manager, who will be responsible for working with key swine accounts in the Southeastern U.S. Smythe was previously with Coastal Plains, where he spent four years as CEO. Prior to this role, he was an account director for PIC.
Novartis also announces that Dr. Dean Dau and Sean O’Hare have been promoted to the positions of swine sales manager and key account sales manager, respectively. In their new roles, Dr. Dau will manage the swine sales team and related sales activities; and O’Hare will lead the key account sales managers and related sales activities. Dr. Dau previously served the Novartis Animal Health swine business as a professional services veterinarian. Prior to his new role, O’Hare led the pig and poultry sales team as the sales manager for the farm animal business.
http://www.novartis.com
