Derica rice biography for kids

Business (born 1965)

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Because he was a little different, Consortium alumnus Derica Rice met the queen of England — and his wife.

Rice, Eli Lilly and Company‘s executive vice president of global services and chief financial officer, is quick to note that his Consortium fellowship opened those opportunities and more. Rice received his MBA in 1990 from Indiana University-Bloomington. One of those opportunities started at the very beginning of his association with The Consortium.

Rice’s Orientation Program was on the campus at Washington University in St. Louis. At the time, organizers placed men and women in separate dorm suites.

“The administrators looked at my name and thought I was a woman,” Rice said. “They put me in the female suites.”

Too late to make any adjustments, that’s where he stayed throughout OP — and that’s how he met his now wife, Robin R. Nelson-Rice. She also received her MBA from Indiana in 1990, and her marketing career has included positions at AT&T and Eli Lilly. She serves as a volunteer on a variety of community boards and institutions, including the Indiana Museum of Art.

Gratitude for The Consortium

Both Rices are members of The Consortium’s Eagle Club, showing the highest level of financial commitment from individual donors. Derica Rice said it’s a natural result of the opportunities he received from The Consortium.

“I have a great deal of gratitude for The Consortium,” he said. “In hockey terms, I scored a hat trick: I got a degree, a career and a best friend and soul-mate all in one swoop. It laid the foundation for me to have the career I have at Lilly for 26 years now.”

Since then, he’s traveled the world, working for Lilly in international assignments including CFO for Lilly Canada; CFO for European operations based in London; and general manager of Lilly United Kingdom and Republic

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

Derica Rice isn’t what I expected.

Honestly, not having interviewed many pharma company CFOs, I wasn’t sure what to expect. However, from the little I did know about Rice, the CFO of Eli Lilly and Company, I knew that an in-depth discussion of complex financial strategies or the kinds of detailed analyses found only in a company’s annual report wasn’t what I hoped he’d talk about. I wanted to know more about what it takes to be a CFO in this industry these days. What kinds of decisions is he faced with? What business strategies does he struggle with, and how does he overcome the challenges of this demanding position? Basically, I wanted to know what made this guy tick. Luckily, he didn’t disappoint.

An Unusual Tenure
There are a few facts about Rice that are not only atypical of a Big Pharma CFO but also warrant further exploration. First, he has spent his entire professional career — 26 years — at Lilly, including a role as a pharma rep. “I remember meeting Jim Cornelius [Lilly's CFO from 1983 to 1995] back in 1990 when I was interviewing, but at the time I really didn’t know what a CFO did,” Rice says with a chuckle. Those days in field sales may be long in his past, but his experiences during that time forged an appreciation for this business function that he still cultivates in his current role. For example, he occasionally will go on territory field visits and even attend field sales meetings. “To understand the daily challenges they are facing, I need to hear what is on their minds,” he says. “If, as a senior leader, you take the approach that you don’t have time or are too important for a field sales ride along, not only are you missing the challenges and problems that are out there, but you also will be blind to many emerging opportunities.” But it’s not just th