His Encore: John Barnard Exemplifies, Invests in Entrepreneurial Spirit
Lilly Alumni News: April 30, 2008
When John Barnard left Lilly at the end of 1993, he had no reason to think he would become a career placement epicenter for his fellow early retirees. But by February 1994, “My first job was in Indianapolis Mayor Steve Goldsmith’s office, and he wanted process improvement in some major projects. I hired three former Lilly people—Tom Eggers, Jack Ellett, and Jim Cunningham—and immediately we were working full-time again.”
Barnard’s management consulting practice has continued evolving to meet marketplace opportunities ever since. In early 1994, he founded Barnard Associates to focus on business process improvement. In 1996, he added Tim Tichenor, Denny White, and Hal Olsen, and the group began providing advisory services to newly forming companies and those building capacity for rapid growth. After that, he says, “Several excellent people joined us after electing early retirement from Lilly, and the result was a great life sciences consulting group,” as Barnard Life Sciences (BLS) was formed in 1999.
Impressive Bench Strength
The list of people Barnard teamed up with to create his life sciences group reads like a “who’s who” of Lilly’s former senior management, including Don Arborgast, Mike Eagle, Mike Hanson, Jerry Fleisch, JP Millon, Bob Postlethwait, and Bill Ringo.
BLS provides consulting exclusively for early-stage medical device, biotech, pharmaceutical, and agri-bio companies as well as those that provide goods and services to the life science industry. “Although it’s not an exclusive arrangement,” Barnard notes, “these are wonderful people with deep expertise and great business minds. Their industry experience brings so much to the table for our clients. I have yet to run into an outside party that hasn’t been impressed by our bench strength.”
Barnard’s own experience as a self-titled “career financial guy” began in 1966 at Lilly, where he served as controller of international operations, director of financial systems, director of business process reengineering, and controller of DowElanco. He reflects, “I really enjoyed working on the sale of Elizabeth Arden to Faberge and the creation of DowElanco. Of all the projects I’ve worked on since leaving Lilly, there are very few I could have done as well without my Lilly experience and training.”
Evolving Investments in Indiana
From that solid base of activity and business expertise—and with many of the same colleagues—Barnard has partnered his group with other companies and organizations to spin off many firms in related industries.
For example, Barnard Associates in 2004 teamed up with Gordon Binder, former CEO of Amgen, and two venture capitalists to establish Pearl Street Venture Funds (PSVF), an Indiana-based venture capital fund that focuses on early stage life-science opportunities. PSVF is one of six firms that received investments from the Indiana Future Fund, a $73 million ‘fund-of-funds’ organized by Indiana BioCrossroads and managed by Credit Suisse. The Barnard Life Sciences team supports PSVF as venture partners. Soon after PSVF’s formation, Homer Pearce and Guido Neels joined as venture partners.
By leveraging the group’s expertise and industry contacts, PSVF has made four investments and is closing in on a fifth and sixth. Portfolio companies include CoLucid, founded to further a novel clinical-stage migraine molecule licensed from Lilly, and Serenex, with a pipeline that includes two oncology-focused, clinical-stage programs. (In early March, Pfizer announced an agreement to acquire Serenex. Financial terms were not disclosed.)
Barnard says, “When we find a truly novel idea and a good group of people who can use our expertise, it’s great. We like people who have Lilly experience, because we know they have a good work ethic and a broad business base. It’s a wonderful feeling helping these companies succeed.”
A group with confidence in Barnard’s own ability to succeed was Procter & Gamble, who called on his organization to spin out a new business called YourEncore, a conduit for accessing consulting from retired experts in research and development, product development, and engineering.
Started in October 2003 with impetus from initial client companies P&G and Lilly, YourEncore now has more than 3,800 experts who are available to work on projects for its 25 clients, many of which are Fortune 500 companies. “Steve Somermeyer and Gary Kaiser were very helpful in getting us out of the blocks. Now several former Lilly folks hold key positions.”
Barnard thinks that YourEncore is “a perfect idea, with the baby boomers and all the retirees who are still very engaged and enjoy working in their area of expertise.” He adds, “YourEncore can provide great value for everyone involved, because clients get the knowledge and experience they need, while the veteran scientists and engineers continue doing work they enjoy with the flexibility and freedom of retirement.”
And with almost 250 former Lilly employees in YourEncore’s database—and Barnard’s extensive network of venture and consulting connections—it would seem that he will be helping match people to career opportunities for years to come.