manufacturers and product innovators. It was that orientation that ultimately led me to start DDN (Pharmaceutical Logistics) and now DLSS (Dohmen Life Science Services).”
LACONTE’S LEADERSHIP TURN LaConte said she first applied her curiosity and creativity at Dohmen when founding DDN Pharmaceutical Logistics as a subsidiary of The Dohmen Co. in 1992. A pharmaceutical third-party logistics company, DDN was ultimately folded into the Dohmen Life Science Services subsidiary, along with several acquired entities. LaConte, meanwhile, moved from the role of president of DDN to chief operating officer of The Dohmen Co. in 2007, and then in 2009 became CEO. “I was kind of the last man standing so to speak,” she said. “My brother (John) and cousin (Bob, who served as executive vice president) retired from the operation around the same time in 2008, and the responsibility passed to me.” Bob and another of LaConte’s brothers, Ted, are also involved with the company today. Bob serves as chairman of the board, and Ted, a geophysicist from Houston, is a board member. LaConte has received “so, so much advice” from family, but she said the piece that stuck with her the most came from her father, Erv, who said to always lead for the next generation. In other words, be persistent and think for the long term. To LaConte, that meant reimagining Dohmen and creating a transformative new service model by forming Dohmen Life Science Services. Formally launched in 2014, Dohmen Life Science Services supports several hundred biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device companies by providing outsourced services in the areas of technology, marketing, supply chain, patient support, finance and compliance. LaConte said her curiosity and creativity were an invaluable part of establishing Dohmen Life Science Services. “Our base wholesaling business was at risk from commoditization, and it either needed to be scaled quickly into a national footprint or it needed to be transformed,” she said. “Staying the same was not an option.” Dohmen sold its pharmaceutical wholesaling business, which had been
the company’s historical focus, to Cardinal Health in 2006, and began the transformation into a new life science services company. “We did this by taking DDN, the company I started in the mid-’90s, and adhering new service functionality through acquisition,” LaConte said. “We acquired nine companies in five years and have been busy weaving them together as a seamless basket of outsourced service capability for biotech, pharma and medtech companies.” (See sidebar for details on the acquired companies.) “They bravely sold the founder’s business and put together what I call a string of pearls,” said Catherine Sohn, a Dohmen board member and president of New Jersey-based Sohn Health Strategies LLC. “The real accomplishment was to extend the Dohmen core values and then to create a culture within the company that allows these previously private companies to come together to be a much more powerful and special company than any one of the individually acquired companies could have been.” In addition to selling the pharmaceutical wholesaling company, Dohmen sold RESTAT, a prescription benefits management company, to Catamaran in 2013. “The company has changed very dramatically over the last 10 years,” LaConte said. Today, Dohmen owns Dohmen Life Science Services, Red Arrow Labs, ChemWare and Siren. Red Arrow and ChemWare, whose acquisitions were announced in January 2014, remain independent entities under The Dohmen Co., along with Siren, which was acquired in January 2015. Moving the family legacy forward is LaConte’s biggest accomplishment, according to Gail Lione, a Dohmen board member. Lione, former executive vice president and general counsel at HarleyDavidson Inc., is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University and at Marquette University. “She has transformed it to create a business that is serving the needs of the market today,” Lione said. “She didn’t get stuck in what the company used to be doing, but is leading in the health care delivery service business today. That takes vision and courage to do that, and I think she has both.” Dan Johnson, president of channel w w w.biztimes.com
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MORE ON LACONTE Cynthia LaConte is married to Tom, whom she calls the “love of her life,” and she is the mother of a 26-year-old son named Alfonso, an aspiring chef living in New York City. She is also proud to call Milwaukee her home. “Who isn’t in love with Milwaukee in all seasons?” she said. LaConte says she loves attending the city’s summertime festivals, as well as visiting the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Harley-Davidson Museum and the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend. She also enjoys eating at Ardent and all the Bartolotta Restaurants, especially Lake Park Bistro. LaConte’s favorite place to visit is Baileys Harbor in Door County and she describes herself as a voracious reader of nonfiction and fiction. “I’m just a curious person,” she said.
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