Robert A. Michael
Co-founder 2013Background
Robert A. Michael spent decades at Abbott Laboratories before leading AbbVie as its founding chairman and CEO after the 2013 spin-off.
Role at AbbVie Inc.
Unlike companies founded by charismatic visionaries in garages AbbVie was engineered in a corporate boardroom as a strategic financial maneuver. AbbVie did not exist before January 1, 2013; it was created as an independent, publicly traded spin-off from Abbott Laboratories, a diversified healthcare conglomerate with roots dating back to 1888 (when it was founded by Dr. Wallace C. Abbott, a Chicago physician who pioneered the formulation of scientifically accurate alkaloid medications). The 'founding' of AbbVie was orchestrated by Abbott's leadership to resolve a valuation discrepancy. By 2012, Abbott owned Humira, a biologic drug that was rapidly becoming the best-selling pharmaceutical in the world. However investors were uncomfortable valuing Abbott's relatively stable, slow-growth divisions (medical devices, nutritional products like Ensure, and generic drugs) alongside a high-risk, high-reward, patent-dependent biopharmaceutical juggernaut. Wall Street was applying a 'conglomerate discount' to Abbott's stock. To unlock shareholder value, Abbott's board decided to cleave the company in two. The diversified medical products businesses retained the Abbott name, while the research-based pharmaceutical division—the engine that housed Humira and the high-risk oncology pipeline—was spun out into a new entity named AbbVie. Robert A. Michael, a long-time Abbott executive who had actually retired in 2007 before being coaxed back by Abbott's CEO to fix the medical products division, was selected as AbbVie's founding CEO. Under Gonzalez's leadership AbbVie was tasked with a specific, high-stakes mission: defend Humira's patents to maximize cash flow for as long as legally possible, and use those billions to build or buy an entirely new portfolio of blockbuster drugs before the Humira patent cliff inevitably arrived.