- Thank you so much for joining us today.
- Thanks, Jim.
- So as Treasurer you've done about $100 billion worth
of acquisitions in global financing for Allergan.
Any deals stand out in particular?
- Yeah, I think it's about $100 billion
taking into consideration deals that needed financing.
In the past 10 years with even the
smaller acquisitions that we've done.
I mean, probably the number's closer to $200 billion,
when you figure that out.
And it was an amazing run when I joined the company.
It was Watson Pharmaceuticals, which was a generic,
predominately a US company.
And today Allergan being a branded,
global pharmaceutical company
with no generic business whatsoever.
So it's been a pretty wild ride.
The first major acquisition that we did was when
Watson acquired Actavis.
And that was in November of 2012.
And we actually closed that deal during Hurricane Sandy.
Was going on,
but we were able to get that transaction closed.
But to your question, the one thing
when we worked on the Actavis deal,
we probably worked on that deal for about a year's time.
When you look at acquisitions today,
they're happening at a much more quicker pace
from identification, doing due diligence,
making a bid and closing that transaction.
Seems like the timelines have been certainly
compressed these days.
- And you also did an IPO for Virgin Mobile.
- I did, yeah.
- A Richard Branson company.
What was that like?
- A Richard Branson company, that's correct.
I mean, from a treasury prospective,
opportunities to take companies public
are far and few between.
And that was the reason why I joined the company.
Again, just to think about
different types of transactions I could get involved in.
It was certainly interesting because
again starting out as a joint venture,
we basically had two masters.
You had Virgin on one side.
You had the Sprint folks.
And that transaction was unique in itself
because we followed a dual path
going public and also entertaining a private sale.
So you could imagine all the work we were doing
to set the company up to be public,
making sure that we have the right
Sarbanes-Oxley controls in place.
- [Jim] Right.
- We have the right infrastructure in place,
the right people.
So, working on that,
working on the drafts of the S1,
getting that filed.
And typically with an IPO,
once you get that first draft filed
you have about a month or so
before the FCC comes back with comments.
Well, on these transactions we had two separate banks.
So while we were working with one bank one the IPO,
the other bank is okay, aren't we ready
to start working on the private equity sale and so forth.
So there was really no rest for the weary.
So once the deal or once the paperwork was filed, the S1,
the next day now we're working with the other bank
on pursuing the private sale option.
- So talk a little bit about what you do do for rest.
I see that you and your wife are very active in Mane Stream,
which I found to be really fascinating. It's--
- Yeah, it's a very worthwhile organization.
And again, my wife is 150% committed to that organization.
It's an equine-assisted therapy center.
So it's really about improving the quality of life
for people who may be challenged from a medical, disability,
emotional or developmental prospective challenged.
And the programs involve horses,
so equine-assisted therapy programs,
as well as educational.
My wife has been fortunate enough
that she didn't have to work, just because of my career.
But she started volunteering,
because she wanted to be around horses.
She grew up in the city.
She was taking horseback riding lessons.
This gave her an opportunity to be around horses.
One thing led to another.
It's okay you're volunteering a couple of days.
Now we're having fundraisers.
You're working on committees,
whether it's silent auctions.
Now you're working on events.
Hey, by the way do you wanna be on the board of directors,
starting out as assistant secretary, secretary.
And this year, or last year and this year
she is now president of Mane Stream.
So, it's a great organization and you see--
- [Jim] Yeah, it sounds like it.
- How folks going through
and how they develop over the ages
and it's remarkable using horses as part of therapy.
- Yeah, it sounded really unique.
- Yes. - It just popped out
when I saw that.
Well thank you so much for being here today,
we really appreciated it.
- Great, Jim, I appreciate it.
Thank you!
(upbeat music)