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C a r d i n a l H e a lt h
COURTESY CARDINAL HEALTH
WHEN HE STARTED HIS COMPANY IN 1971, Robert D. Walter had no idea he’d end up running one of the top 20 companies on the Fortune 500. But 40 years later, Cardinal Health—Ohio’s largest company— is omnipresent in the health-care industry. If you’ve passed through a hospital in the last decade, you’ve likely seen the Cardinal Health name on something—a box of gloves, a suction canister hanging on the wall or that bag of supplies for new patients. Walter, a St. Charles Preparatory School grad, earned a mechanical engineering degree at Ohio University. An uninspiring first job prompted him to get an MBA from Harvard Business School. At the suggestion of his food broker father, Walter rounded up $135,000 and bought a small food distributor named Monarch. A subsequent lack of opportunities in that industry led him into health care. Walter’s 1980 acquisition of a family-owned Zanesville drug company saw Cardinal Foods take flight as Cardinal Distribution. Cardinal Health has made nearly 70 subsequent acquisitions. An initial public offering in 1983 provided capital to expand. At the time, the company had $200 million in annual revenue— $170 million of it in food. By 1988, pharmaceutical distribution had become double the size of the food segment, so the latter was sold. Revenue topped $1 billion for the first time in 1991.
★ Business ★
But in the last decade, Cardinal has experienced some growing pains, including inquiries by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Attorney and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The company restated multiple years of earnings, underwent a major restructuring and defended itself against multiple class-action lawsuits filed by employees and shareholders. Ultimately, Cardinal paid more than $867 million in fines and settlements to resolve the issues. Cardinal’s founding father stepped down as president and CEO in April 2006, replaced by R. Kerry Clark. (Walter remained on the company’s board of directors until 2008.) One of Clark’s first major moves was an expansion of the company’s Dublin headquarters, a $50 million, 250,000-square-foot West Campus facility that incorporates an open environment, a fitness center and walking paths. In 2009, Cardinal spun off its clinical and medical products divisions as CareFusion Corp. Clark retired after the deal was finalized. Today, Cardinal is led by chairman and CEO George Barrett, whose tenure so far has been sure and steady. In fiscal year 2011, the company posted record revenue of $102.6 billion and increased operating earnings by 16 percent to $1.5 billion. It was ranked No. 19 on the 2011 Fortune 500. —Julanne Hohbach
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