Thursday, November 07, 2013

A Tale of Two Wholesaler CEOs

Imagine that you are the just-retired CEO of a major pharmaceutical wholesaler. How should you live your life?

Should you:
  • Spend your days visiting your grandkids, hanging out with your wife of 40+ years, and sitting on a few boards?
  • Divorce your wife and go on an unhinged, hedonistic bender filled with girls, guns, and sex tapes?
Put another way, should you follow the example of Dave Yost, former CEO of AmerisourceBergen, or Stewart Rahr, former CEO of Kinray Drugs? Read on for the just-published mundane and/or salacious details of their respective post-wholesale retirements.

Which one is the cautionary tale? Well, that's between you, your conscience, and your spouse.

DAVE YOST

The Wall Street Journal recently featured CEO Quits to Spend Time With Family—Really. It's a heart-warming look at family man and all-around nice guy Dave Yost, who appears to be having a dream retirement. Well done, Dave.

If you're a CEO who's thinking about retiring, then I highly recommend Dave Yost’s nine “Guidelines for Successful ‘Rewirement’ aka Retirement.”

A notable quote: The new CEO has done deals "I wouldn't have been comfortable doing." I guess he means this one.

RAH-RAH

And now for something completely different...Guns, Girls And Sex Tapes: The Unhinged, Hedonistic Saga Of Billionaire Stewart Rahr, 'Number One King Of All Fun' is an absolutely hilarious, must-read Forbes article profiling former Kinray owner and CEO Stewart "Stewie Rah Rah" Rahr.

You may recall that Rahr got a $1.3 billion dollar check from Cardinal Health in November 2010. He promptly got divorced and then began devoting himself to (1) philanthropy and (2) hedonism, although not necessarily in that order.

The article sardonically describes Rahr's antics as he frantically tries to buy happiness. It will either make you jealous or disgusted. Personally, I'm torn.

Check out his photo album and feel boring. Somehow, I can't imagine Dave Yost making gang symbols with the likes of Paris Hilton and LL Cool J, but perhaps I lack imagination.

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So, who's your idol: Dave or Stewie?

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4 comments:

  1. Adam J. Fein, Ph.D.November 07, 2013

    Oh, the drama of it all!
    Tee hee.
    Thanks for sharing, Adam.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Adam J. Fein, Ph.D.November 07, 2013

    $5,000 to the favorite charity of the person who correctly predicts Mr. Rahr's last words. My prediction: "Wow, I was such a schmuck!"

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  3. Adam J. Fein, Ph.D.November 07, 2013

    Adam,
    The eternal meaning of life question. Would be interesting to revisit this in 5 years time to see if the hedonism loses it's initial appeal.
    Cheers,
    Rich

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  4. Adam J. Fein, Ph.D.November 07, 2013

    His money, his choices. Not how I'd spend it but I respect his right to do it his way. I agree with Rich, I wonder if the appeal of hedonism will wear off sooner rather than later. I'm much more interested in what Dave's doing.

    ReplyDelete