Distinguished Alumni 2006: John F. Derr

John F. Derr

BS, Pharmacy, Purdue University, 1958

Executive Director, Foundation for the Advancement of Care for the Elderly (FACE)

John Derr grew up in Evanston, Illinois where his pharmacist father owned a community pharmacy for over thirty years. Mr. Derr received his BS in Pharmacy from Purdue University in 1958. While attending Purdue he sang in the Purdue Glee Club where he was a Purdue Sir and the tenor in a specialty quartette. He was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity and later served on the National Leadership Committee. Upon graduation he worked in various Chicago area pharmacies before attending the Naval Officers Candidate School in Newport, RI in 1959. Mr. Derr ultimately served 5 years of active duty on Destroyers and 26 additional years as a Naval Officer, including 5 summers working for the Assistant Secretary of Health Affairs in The Pentagon. Among his service medals and ribbons is the Meritorious Metal for recognition of his Naval Service which included special pharmacy projects for the DOD.

In 1963, John joined Squibb as a pharmaceutical representative in Beverly Hills, CA. In 1966, he was promoted to Squibb headquarters in New York as the first Squibb marketing trainee. He rapidly advanced in marketing eventually becoming the U.S. Director of Strategic Planning and Product Development in 1972. As Director of Hospital Marketing, he led the team that converted Orahesive to Stomahesive; introduced the first broad line of unit dose packaging (Unimatic); a full line of nuclear medicine and blood products; and Prolixin Enanthate.

In 1974, Mr. Derr accepted the position of VP Marketing for Worldwide Diagnostics at Searle which was later sold to Siemens Medical Systems where he became a Vice President, as well as Nuclear Medicine and Ultrasound US Division Manager. In 1980, Mr. Derr joined the hospital corporation National Medical Enterprises (NME) as the Senior VP of International Marketing and President of the NME supply company Medicalia.

In the 1980's, Mr. Derr was a key executive in starting a successful public clinical chemistry company (IRIS), then a marketing database company (Westlake Group), and a ceramic implant division of Kyocera (Kinamed). In the 1990's he joined Metalaser Technologies as CEO and later formed Innovative Health Concepts which opened the first national chain of laser dermatology clinics. He later joined J.B. Laughrey, Inc., as Chief Operations Officer and worked with the pharmacy DUR corporation, Medi-Span, in Indianapolis. In 1998, John helped to form Shared Healthcare Systems, a software developer of enterprise applications for nursing homes.

In 2002, John was asked by the President/CEO of the American Health Care Association (AHCA), representing over 10,000 LTC facilities, to serve as Director of the Strategic Action Group and then Executive Vice President of Operations. Mr. Derr became active in President Bush's 2004 Executive Directive which introduced the electronic health record. He was asked by Secretary Thompson to coordinate the LTC sector and worked with ex-Speaker Newt Gingrich as the chairperson of his Center for Health Transformation, Long Term Living Workgroup.

Mr. Derr is currently working with the Regenstrief Institute to introduce LTC facilities into the Indianapolis Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO). John regularly speaks on LTC information technology and chronic care and wellness management. He participated in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) quality indicator and pharmaceutical Part D programs. In January of 2006, Mr. Derr returned to his home in Anacortes, WA to operate the Foundation for the Advancement of Care for the Elderly (FACE). The foundation has a primary focus of bringing quality of care and quality of life to the elderly and disabled through programs of working with researchers and academics to bring technology and knowledge to the elderly patient.

Mr. Derr has been married to Ohio University graduate Polly Pease Derr for 43 years. They have two daughters, Deborah and Jennifer, both graduates of California Lutheran University. Deborah is a licensed Chiropractor living in Arizona. Jennifer, after a career in communications, is a wife and mother of two sons who are hoping to attend Purdue. Mr. Derr has maintained close ties to Purdue, serving on the Dean's Advisory Council, participating in the Purdue Old Masters program, serving as President of the Los Angeles Purdue Club, and was elected the Western Region Director of the Purdue Alumni Association. Mr. Derr has used his healthcare experience to write and publish an international pharmaceutical espionage novel, Devil Tree, a story about a pharmaceutical formula developed from the bark of the Alstonia Spectabilis tree (Devil Tree) that is a cure for Alzheimer's.