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INSIDE FEATURE
The Many World of Deirdra Connelly The lessons of her Irish-Puerto Rican family set the leadership tone for Lilly USA's president.
By Patricia Hagen
The constant breeze carried the smell of the Atlantic Ocean into the large house with the wrought iron porch shaded by a huge palm tree in an affluent neighborhood two blocks from the beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Inside, a 9-year-old little rascal named Deirdre Connelly faced a lecture she'd never forget from her father. "Charisma." The word fascinated the girl who would grow up to become president of Indianapolis-based Lilly USA, the largest affiliate of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. "You have something that's called 'charisma,'" Owen Connelly said, explaining it was a special quality possessed by some presidents and other leaders. "With that you can be a good leader or you can be a bad leader. As you grow up, you'll realize that. So you must be very keen to develop that ability." "If I look back," Deirdre says, "that was like the beginning of a coach telling you, you have this ability, you can shoot that basket." That lecture and her father's coaching, she adds, awakened Deirdre - known sometimes to lead her younger brothers into mischief - to her responsibility to lead in her family, her school and beyond. "My father was a very astute man and he was a visionary. He really tried to help us understand the world and what part we could play in it," she says. "He would speak to his nine children individually and so would mom, about our capabilities. He would not tell us what to do ... but he would encourage us to be the best we could at what we chose." That childhood lesson resonates in Deirdre's life and career. At 47, she heads a division with 6,600 employees and $9.6 billion in annual sales of Prozac, Evista and other well-known medicines. Since she became president, the affiliate's annual sales growth rate doubled to 12 percent and annual sales have grown from $7.5 billion in 2005 to $9.6 billion in 2007. Deirdre's leadership of this vast enterprise has earned her spots on Fortune magazine's list of the 50 most powerful women in business. Michael Howland, president of Noble of Indiana, says Deirdre, who served on his organization's board, developed her charisma as an excellent mentor. "She's very focused, but she has always been friendly, gracious," he says. "She has such intellect and such strategic thinking capacity. She asks great questions. I think that, more than anything, was really, really valuable."
Fountain of youth The middle of nine children, Deirdre traces the roots of her career and team-oriented management style to her high-energy family, encouraging parents and Catholic faith. Owen, an Irish New Yorker, and Dolores Montesinos met in the early 1950s in the chapel of a New York hospital, where his only brother lay dying and her father, who had traveled from Puerto Rico, was undergoing cancer treatment. Several years in New York City and three children later, Dolores wanted to return to her family on the archipelago between the Dominican Republic and the Virgin Islands in the northeastern Caribbean. So the Connelly clan moved to the island capital of San Juan, where six more children, including Deirdre, No. 5, were born. To support his growing bilingual brood, Owen put aside dreams of being a novelist and went into the insurance business. Dolores, formerly a nurse, stayed home while some of the children were small and later became a partner in their insurance business. The kids knew their parents' romance and their close-knit family were special. "We were blessed to see it and live that sort of fairytale," Deirdre says. "Having nine children is no fairytale in itself. It's hard for a couple, but this couple just made it absolutely wonderful for us." Growing up in the Connelly house trained her for life, Deirdre says. Early some Saturday mornings, her father played classical music on the hi-fi, the signal that the kids needed to wake up and come to a family meeting. With everyone seated in the living room, he shared domestic details such as chores, an upcoming visit to an aunt's house and the need to turn off lights when they left a room. Then he launched into a lesson about history, religion or current events like the 1970s oil shortage. "We got to learn about the impact of oil on the economy," Deirdre recalls.
La conquistadora Though the other young Connellys had no qualms about asking their parents for spending money, Deirdre didn't want to do that and decided to get a job at age 8. "I told my mother I was going to make my own money," she says. Dolores, however, nixed Deirdre's plan to ask for a job in a candy store because three blocks was too long a commute for a little girl. Instead, Deirdre landed a job at the mom-and-pop store owned by a neighbor a few houses away. He gave his young employee odd jobs like moving bottles from one corner to another. "I would be so proud," Deirdre says. "I'd go home with 30 cents." Several years older, her sister Kathy taught Deirdre one of her first business lessons. "She would take my money and she would administer that money," Deirdre says, laughing at how she was persuaded to buy Kathy's favorite chocolate candy with some of the money. "We'd have a party with my candy." To this day, Deirdre adds, the sisters still laugh about that first not-so-smart financial arrangement. "She did teach me a lot." Doing well in school was a family priority, Deirdre says. "It was kind of expected that you would get involved somehow," she says. "It doesn't mean I was a perfect student or a saint, but I certainly was involved." The "Connelly Gang," as they were known at their Catholic high school, grew into an accomplished and eclectic bunch. They established careers in teaching, law, business, real estate, construction, nursing and medicine - even acting and opera. Half live in San Juan and the others are scattered around the United States. Like two of her older sisters, Deirdre left La Isla de Encanto or "Island of Enchantment," as Puerto Rico sometimes is called, to attend college on the mainland. She chose Lycoming College in Pennsylvania because it was small. "I thought I was going to be an accountant," she says. "After my third accounting class, I decided, nope, marketing is my thing." She earned her bachelor's degree in marketing and economics. Upon graduation in the early 1980s, Deirdre returned to San Juan to help her father in the insurance business after he was diagnosed with lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease. After a year, and her father's recovery, she looked for a job in the pharmaceutical industry, a big segment of the Puerto Rican economy. In 1983, Lilly hired her.
Leaving paradise Deirdre fondly remembers her first job as a sales rep in tropical San Juan, where her territory covered about 10 city blocks near the ocean. She recalls walking between doctors' offices, seeing the water and smelling the breeze. "I miss that," she says. Find the complete article in this month's Indianapolis Woman. Click here to subscribe. |
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