Today's Convocation Features Lilly CEO Richard D. Wood '48

September 19, 1975

September 19, 1975, Greencastle, Ind. — "DePauw University's board chairman, Richard D. Wood, will offer a businessman's view of private education in a convocation appearance he'll make here," notes the Banner-Graphic. The Greencastle newspaper points out that Wood, chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company and chair of the pharmaceutical company's board of directors, will speak at 11 a.m. today in Gobin Church. Wood is a 1948 graduate of DePauw.

"Wood has been chairman of the DePauw Board of Trustees since 1973, returning to involvement in the life of the university he attended as an undergraduate in the 1940s. His association with Lilly began in 1950 as a financial assistant. His major posts in the firm's organization have included general manager of Lilly operations in Argentina and Mexico and later as director of operations for Mexico and Central America. The Hoosier native was named director of market research in 1964 and later he was elected vice president of industrial relations. In 1970 Wood became president of Lilly International. In 1972, at the age of 45, he was elected president of the corporation. A year later he assumed his present comprehensive duties with Lilly, whose sales last year exceeded one billion dollars."

Wood also serves on the boards of the Associated Colleges of Indiana, Lilly Endowment, Standard Oil Company of Indiana, and the Chemical Bank of New York.

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