Richard L. Gelb: Biography and Bristol-Myers Leadership

In July 1989, Bristol-Myers and Squibb announced a merger valued at approximately $12 billion. Richard L. Gelb, Bristol-Myers’s chairman and chief executive, joined Squibb chief executive Richard M. Furlaud in publicly backing the deal. It would combine two companies with different strengths and place Gelb at the head of a much larger enterprise.

Gelb’s path to that merger began at Clairol, the hair-coloring company founded by his parents. He stayed when Bristol-Myers bought the business in 1959, then rose through the acquiring company’s management. Three decades later, he was helping to bring together two major health-care businesses.

A Quick Look at the Life of Richard L. Gelb

A Family Business and an Interrupted Education

Richard L. Gelb was born in New York in 1924. His parents, Lawrence M. and Joan Gelb, founded Clairol in 1931. The family business was known for hair-coloring products, a different starting point from the pharmaceutical industry in which their son would later work.

At Phillips Academy Andover, Gelb competed in the javelin and graduated with the class of 1941. He continued competing in college; Andover records a tenth-place finish at the 1948 U.S. Olympic Trials.

Gelb entered Yale with the class of 1945, but his education was interrupted by World War II. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in late 1942 and served for approximately three years. After returning to Yale, he graduated in 1948 and went on to earn a Harvard Business School degree in 1950.

Clairol’s Sale Opens a Wider Corporate Career

After business school, Gelb joined Clairol in 1950 and eventually became its president. The direction of his career changed when Bristol-Myers acquired Clairol in 1959. Gelb remained in charge of the acquired business and also moved into the wider company’s leadership.

Bristol-Myers named Gelb executive vice president in 1965 and president in 1967. That same year, the company acquired Mead Johnson Nutritionals; its later corporate tribute credited Gelb with leading the acquisition effort.

Gelb became chief executive of Bristol-Myers in 1972. He was now leading the diversified corporation that had acquired his family’s company thirteen years earlier.

Reorienting Bristol-Myers Toward Health Care

As Gelb led Bristol-Myers, pharmaceuticals and other health-care businesses took on greater importance alongside its established consumer products. The company was moving beyond the personal-care emphasis that had marked an earlier stage of its history.

A later company retrospective put prescription drugs at about 25 percent of sales when Gelb became CEO. By the end of his tenure, pharmaceuticals and medical devices together represented more than 70 percent. Those figures use different product categories, so they cannot measure a precise increase in prescription-drug share. They do show how extensively the business mix had shifted toward health care.

Gelb also initiated a corporate biomedical research-grants program in 1977, later known as Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Freedom to Discover program. The grants came from the company program, distinct from his personal philanthropy.

In 1986, Bristol-Myers opened a pharmaceutical research complex in Wallingford, Connecticut, initially accommodating more than 800 scientists and staff. The company renamed the facility the Richard L. Gelb Center for Pharmaceutical Research and Development in 1995.

Consumer-Product Competition and Safety Scrutiny

The consumer-products side of Bristol-Myers faced competitive setbacks even as its health-care interests expanded. In 1975, the company introduced Datril, a non-aspirin pain reliever, to compete with Tylenol. A 1977 MacNeil/Lehrer Report broadcast described how Datril’s comparative-price advertising gave Tylenol added attention, while Tylenol’s pricing changes undermined Datril’s pitch.

Hair-coloring products came under a different form of scrutiny in 1977. Environmental advocates raised concerns about a dye ingredient in some permanent hair colors, and contemporary reporting connected the discussion to certain Clairol products. The concern involved findings from animal studies, not proof of cancer among consumers. Neither the Datril campaign nor the ingredient-safety reporting established personal misconduct by Gelb.

The 1989 Merger With Squibb

Announced on July 27, 1989, the Bristol-Myers–Squibb merger was an agreed stock-swap transaction worth approximately $12 billion at the time. The companies contributed different strengths. Bristol-Myers had consumer-health and cancer-drug operations; Squibb brought major prescription medicines, including the blood-pressure drug Capoten.

Together, the companies had recorded about $8.6 billion in sales in 1988. Contemporary reporting described the proposed combination as the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical company—a measure of its scale at the time.

Gelb and Squibb chief executive Richard M. Furlaud publicly advocated the agreement together. In a joint statement, they said, “The Bristol-Myers Squibb merger is a unique combination of two successful and financially strong companies,” and argued that their businesses would be better positioned to compete in the 1990s. The remark expressed their expectations for the merger, not a guarantee of its results.

Shareholders approved the merger, and the companies completed the combination by early October 1989. Gelb became chairman and CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb, with Furlaud as president. Integration brought changes to management and reporting lines. Jan Leschly, who had been Squibb’s president, departed, explaining that his own career goals were no longer realistic under the new structure.

For Gelb, the merger meant leading a larger pharmaceutical enterprise while the company combined the operations and management of two established businesses.

Taxol and the Debate Over Public Research

During the merged-company years, Bristol-Myers Squibb participated in commercializing Taxol, or paclitaxel, a cancer treatment that emerged from public-sector research and collaboration. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug for certain ovarian cancer patients on December 18, 1992. The treatment’s discovery and regulatory approval were not Gelb’s personal work.

The collaboration also prompted debate over commercialization. Critics questioned the pricing of a medicine grounded in publicly supported research and the return taxpayers received from that investment. Responding in 1993, a National Cancer Institute official argued that an industry partner was needed to manufacture, supply, and commercialize the treatment.

A 2003 Government Accountability Office review examined the NIH–Bristol-Myers Squibb partnership and limitations in NIH’s pricing oversight. The scrutiny concerned the public-private arrangement; the review did not establish wrongdoing by Gelb personally.

Executive Succession Amid New Pressures

By the early 1990s, Bristol-Myers Squibb faced pressure over drug pricing and disappointing recent growth. In January 1994, the company announced a multiyear restructuring involving approximately 5,000 positions. That corporate decision came during Gelb’s final period in top leadership, although it is not established as the reason for his departure.

Charles A. Heimbold Jr. succeeded Gelb as CEO in 1994, then became chairman in 1995. Gelb had held the chief executive role since 1972; his chairmanship continued until the separate 1995 handover. After retiring from his principal posts, he remained a consultant to the company.

Science, Education, and Civic Commitments

Gelb’s work with educational institutions had begun well before his executive retirement. He served as a charter trustee of Phillips Academy Andover from 1976 to 1994. A 1999 donation helped support construction of the Gelb Science Center. He died in 2004, several months before its dedication.

He also served or worked with organizations including Lincoln Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering, the New York Times, and the Council on Foreign Relations. His Council on Foreign Relations directorship ran from 1979 to 1988. These roles connected him with cultural, medical, and public-affairs institutions beyond the businesses he led.

Yale honored Gelb with its George H. W. Bush Lifetime of Leadership Award in 2003. Phillips Academy also recognized his athletic past, inducting him into its Athletics Hall of Honor in 2019.

A Career Marked by Changes in Scale

Gelb’s career moved from a family-founded consumer brand to leadership of a diversified corporation, then to a merged pharmaceutical group. Along the way, Bristol-Myers expanded its health-care interests while facing competition, product scrutiny, and questions about the commercialization of medicine.

The 1989 merger was the central corporate turning point of his career. His support for biomedical research and Andover’s science center adds another dimension to the record: a business leader whose institutional commitments extended beyond the executive office.

Timeline

These dates trace the main stages of Gelb’s education, corporate career, and institutional commitments.

1924

Richard L. Gelb is born in New York.

1931

His parents, Lawrence M. and Joan Gelb, establish Clairol.

1941–1950

Gelb graduates from Andover in 1941, enters Yale, and enlists in the U.S. Army in late 1942. After wartime service, he graduates from Yale in 1948 and completes his Harvard Business School degree in 1950.

1959

Bristol-Myers acquires Clairol; Gelb remains in company leadership.

1965–1972

He becomes Bristol-Myers executive vice president in 1965, president in 1967, and chief executive in 1972.

1975–1977

Bristol-Myers introduces Datril in 1975. Gelb launches a corporate biomedical research-grants program in 1977, as the company’s consumer-products business faces both marketing competition and hair-dye ingredient scrutiny.

1986

The Bristol-Myers research complex opens in Wallingford, Connecticut.

1989

Bristol-Myers and Squibb announce their merger in July; the combination is completed by early October, with Gelb becoming chairman and CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb.

1992

The FDA approves Taxol for certain ovarian cancer patients on December 18.

1994–1995

Charles A. Heimbold Jr. succeeds Gelb as CEO in 1994 and as chairman in 1995; the Wallingford research facility receives Gelb’s name in 1995.

1999

Gelb donates toward construction of Phillips Academy’s Gelb Science Center.

2003–2004

Yale presents him with a lifetime-of-leadership award in 2003. Gelb dies in 2004, before the Gelb Science Center dedication.

FAQs

Did Richard L. Gelb found Clairol?

No. His parents, Lawrence M. and Joan Gelb, founded Clairol in 1931. Richard joined in 1950, later became president, and remained in leadership after Bristol-Myers bought the company in 1959.

Why is Gelb associated with Yale’s class of 1945 if he graduated in 1948?

Gelb entered Yale with the class of 1945, but enlisted in the U.S. Army in late 1942. After wartime service, he resumed his education and graduated from Yale in 1948.

Did Gelb create Bristol-Myers Squibb by himself?

No. Gelb led Bristol-Myers and, together with Squibb chief executive Richard M. Furlaud, supported the agreed merger announced in July 1989. Gelb became chairman and CEO of the combined business, while Furlaud became president.

When did Richard L. Gelb retire as CEO and chairman?

Gelb left the CEO position when Charles A. Heimbold Jr. became chief executive in 1994. Heimbold succeeded him as chairman in 1995. Gelb had been CEO since 1972 and continued a consulting relationship afterward.

Was Taxol approved by the FDA in 1991 or 1992?

The FDA approved Taxol for certain ovarian cancer patients on December 18, 1992, not 1991. The treatment arose through public research and a commercial collaboration involving Bristol-Myers Squibb; Gelb was not the drug’s inventor.

Were the company’s biomedical research grants Gelb’s personal donations?

No. Gelb initiated a corporate biomedical research-grants program in 1977, and its funding totals were organizational awards. His donation supporting the Gelb Science Center at Phillips Academy in 1999 was a separate educational gift.

Sources

• Bristol-Myers Squibb: 2004 Annual Report, Richard L. Gelb memorial, Company history timeline
• Harvard Business School: Great American Business Leaders: Richard L. Gelb
• Yale University Athletics: George H. W. Bush Lifetime of Leadership Award: Richard Gelb
• Phillips Academy Andover: Athletics Hall of Honor: Richard L. Gelb
• American Archive of Public Broadcasting: The MacNeil/Lehrer Report: Comparative Advertising (1977)
• The Washington Post: Cancer Agent Said Present in Hair Dye (1977), Marketing Taxol (Cont’d): NCI Response (1993)
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Hair Dyes: Regulatory and Safety Background
• Los Angeles Times: Bristol-Myers, Squibb Agree to Merge (1989), Squibb’s President Quits After Merger (1989), Bristol-Myers Restructuring Announcement (1994)
• U.S. National Cancer Institute / National Institutes of Health: Discovery of Taxol, NCI Almanac: Taxol Approval Chronology
• The American Prospect: The Other Drug War (1993)
• Bristol-Myers Squibb / SEC filing archive: 1997 Form 10-K, Executive Officer Biographies
• Council on Foreign Relations: Historic Board of Directors
• U.S. Government Accountability Office: Technology Transfer: NIH–Private Sector Partnership in the Development of Taxol (2003)