Tom Carey, sales leader and mentor, passes away 

Syntex, Roche, J&J veteran helped professionalize BioCentury commercial team

Tom Carey, a biopharma commercial veteran who played a key role building BioCentury’s sales team late in his career, passed away on Saturday. He was 68.

Carey began his professional journey in commercial operations at Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY) before moving to Syntex Laboratories, where he spent a dozen years as part of the company’s commercial operations team. Notably, he helped lead the commercial launch of a sodium version of Naprosyn naproxen, a therapy that is best known today as Aleve.

When Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY) acquired Syntex in 1994, Carey became a business unit director at the Swiss pharma. Next, he served as VP of BD and sales at OrthoNeutrogena, a unit of the Ortho-McNeil subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), and later SVP of sales and marketing at Connetics Corp.

Tom Wiggans, the chairman and CEO of Pardes Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:PRDS) who led Connetics Corp. during Carey’s tenure with the company, praised him as a “great executive” and detailed the characteristics that defined his leadership style.

“Really good guy, and an easy guy to respect, a straight-shooter,” Wiggans told BioCentury.

It was Wiggans who helped set up the second act of Carey’s career in 2008 by introducing him to BioCentury Inc. Chairman Karen Bernstein and President and CEO David Flores, who hired him to lead the commercial team of the biopharma business intelligence company they founded. 

“Tom professionalized our mom-and-pop sales team and led BioCentury up the next stage of growth for a decade,” Flores said. “Throughout it all, Tom was first and foremost a great family man. He was blessed by the good nature and humor of his wife, Debbie; the devotion of his daughters and grandkids; and the antics of his pack of quirky dogs.”

Longtime members of BioCentury’s commercial team recalled his mentorship. 

“Tom put an emphasis on face-to-face relationships and doing business with people with an eye to helping them solve problems and accomplish goals,” said BioCentury Publisher Eric Pierce. “He also loved to celebrate ‘wins’ with his team on the road over a dinner and a glass or two of Chardonnay.”

It was also an open secret at BioCentury that Carey rarely passed up a chance to play hooky for a late-afternoon round of golf with mates in the office.

“Tom Carey was a very important part of my life,” said Matt Krebs, BioCentury growth team sales manager. “He was my boss, a mentor, a friend, a golf buddy, an adviser, and sometimes a stubborn pain in the butt. I had the pleasure of knowing him well, not just in the BioCentury office, but also traveling with him on several business trips — everywhere from Boston and San Diego to Shanghai and Tokyo.”

On one of those trips, Krebs, a former Tokyo resident, helped his boss track down a crucifix as a souvenir. In Japan, that was “not an easy task,” he said. “That was not Tom, though; Tom was always determined to complete his task at hand. We hopped on a train and started finding churches in Tokyo, visiting several that were closed. This didn’t stop us from banging on the doors to talk to the janitorial staff and anyone else in the building. We finally ended up in the most amazing little priest shop in Ginza. There we found the crucifix he wanted, and yet another mission that Tom had completed.”

Senior Director Tim Tulloch recalled Carey’s “steady leadership, genuine care for his colleagues.”

After a decade at BioCentury, Carey retired at the end of 2018, updating his LinkedIn profile to reflect his new role at Carey Grandchildren LLC. “Comfortably retired with wife Debbie spending lots of quality time with children, grandchildren and friends, traveling the globe, and planning our next big adventure.”

Carey was born in Honolulu on July 8, 1953. His father was in the Navy, and he moved often as a child. In 1967, his family relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Carey attended Archbishop Riordan High School, playing varsity football and graduating in 1971. He was true to his high school, frequently returning for fund-raisers and reunions. 

Carey graduated from the University of California Berkeley with a B.A. in psychology in 1975. He received his MBA from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business in 1980. In his retirement, Carey took a role on Stanford University’s Institutional Review Board in 2020.

Carey is survived by his wife, Debbie, whom he married in 1977; Jeanine Carey, Kathleen (Jared) Martin, Joanna (Nick) Helmer, Elizabeth (Ted) Sobolewski and seven grandchildren.

A Vigil Service will be held at St. Anne of Sunset on Wednesday, April 27. The viewing will begin at 6 p.m. at Duggan’s Serra Mortuary in Daly City, Calif., Rosary at 7 p.m. A Funeral Mass will be held on Thursday, April 28 at 11 a.m., St. Anne of Sunset.