“I started as a salesman and in my view I am still a salesman,” says Graham Jobson, President and CEO of Solvay Pharma Inc., reflecting on his 29 years in the pharmaceutical industry. A university graduate specializing in accountancy and finance, he had decided early on that he didn’t really want to be a chartered accountant. When an acquaintance suggested he should consider selling pharmaceuticals, it was a revelation to the young man, who at the time had “no idea there were people selling drugs to doctors.”

Anxious to leave his first job selling chocolate for the large confectionary company, Nestlé, he focused his efforts on seeking a sales position in the pharma industry. Before long he landed a sales rep position at Syntex. “I remember going into doctor’s offices to try and sell HRT and most of the doctors said, ‘can you tell me what HRT is?’ I was even thrown out of some Catholic surgeries for trying to sell the pill to women over 50 who didn’t really need the pill,” he comments. Shortly thereafter he was appointed to a marketing position responsible for the anti-inflammatory drug Naprosyn, as well as a range of contraceptive pills.

After a couple of years, he would move to Eli Lilly where he enjoyed three years in marketing and sales management. “Then they tapped me on the shoulder and said they were looking for an internal auditor,” and it was a fascinating opportunity for him to travel throughout the UK and Europe as the company “policeman.”

He returned to Lilly’s UK office two years later to take over the marketing portfolio, initially for their GP products and subsequently for the hospital division. He would also help launch the controversial new antidepressant Prozac, which he recalls as being both a “good and bad” experience. While sales did well, marketers struggled with loss of control of the product to the media: “not just the British media, but Larry King, Joan Rivers, and whoever else wanted to jump on the bandwagon in North America.”

Jobson’s next promotion to National Sales Manager in 1989 would last for two years, before a phone call from a headhunter pointed him in the direction of Fournier. “I was 38 at the time, and I was getting to the stage of my career where I either stayed at Lilly for the rest of my life or did something else,” says Jobson, who would set up Fournier’s UK sales and marketing operations “from scratch.” The office, he recalls was “about 6 feet by 6 feet square, with a single sheet photocopier and a cell phone,”—a departure from the sophisticated corporate culture he left behind. It was Fournier that persuaded Jobson to leave the UK, charging him with the task of taking over the Canadian operation, based in Montreal.

Now overseeing Solvay’s Canadian operations, Jobson says he will always have respect for his background in sales, adding that the best ideas for selling to doctors come from the people in front of doctors—the sales rep. “Although I’m not selling drugs to doctors the way I used to, I’m selling ideas and concepts for other people to take and develop. In that way, I’m selling to other companies that Solvay is a partner they can trust and respect.”

A high-energy individual, he is a true believer in the competitive spirit. Nevertheless, “without the tremendous support over the years from many talented individuals and my family, I would not be where I am today.”

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