Management Team
Roger D. Griggs - Chairman
Roger D. Griggs is an entrepreneur and businessman. Mr. Griggs began his professional career as a teacher and football coach in northern Indiana. His pharmaceutical career started as field sales representative for Lederle Laboratories (now Wyeth) and was promoted to several management positions.
In 1990, Mr. Griggs founded Richwood Pharmaceuticals and rapidly grew the company until it merged with Shire Pharmaceutical Group PLC of Andover, England in 1997. In February of 1998, Mr. Griggs resigned his position as President of Shire US and has since founded numerous businesses including Union Springs LLC (investment organization), Integrity Pharmaceuticals, Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals, PediaMed Pharmaceuticals, and DECA.
Mr. Griggs has received numerous awards and recognition. In 1997, Mr. Griggs was chosen as the "Entrepreneur of the Year" recipient for the Greater Cincinnati area in the field of Life Sciences. He was later selected a national finalist for that category in Palm Springs, California and finished in the top three for the nation. In 1998 he was chosen as a charter member of the Blue Chip Venture Partners Hall of Fame, in 2003 he was named "Deal Maker of the Year" by the Association For Corporate Growth, and 2006 "Master Entrepreneur" by The Entrepreneurship Institute at Northern Kentucky University. He is a member of the American Marketing Association, the Licensing Executive Society, Tri-Ed Business Development Council, American Venture Capital Association, the Greater Cincinnati Venture Capital Association, the Indiana Healthcare Forum, Queen City Angels and Florence Baptist Church.
He has a B.S. degree in secondary education from Indiana State and a master's degree in secondary education from Indiana University.
Joel Ivers - President
Joel Ivers has over 25 years of experience in diagnostics, biotechnology, information technology, clinical research, and pharmaceuticals where he has developed extensive strategic marketing, licensing, business development, operations, and senior management expertise.
Joel began his career in 1979 as a high school chemistry teacher in Cincinnati and then moved through various sales and management positions at Ortho Diagnostic Systems, a division of Johnson and Johnson. In 1990, Joel launched and developed the market for The Big Blue® Transgenic Mouse Mutagenesis Assay System worldwide and managed a national sales force at Stratagene, where he was VP of Mutagenesis Marketing and North American Sales. Joel later became the VP of Marketing and one of the founders of Diversa (now known as Verenium Corporation), an enzyme discovery biotechnology company, currently listed on the NASDAQ. In 1997, Joel joined a health care IT firm which was later acquired by Computer Task Group (CTG), a publicly held IT consulting firm. Joel served as Chief Marketing Officer for CTG where he formed and led a global marketing organization. Joel joined Hill Top Research in 2002 where he served as Chief Operation Officer and Chief Executive Officer.
Joel is a board member of BioStart, Cincinnati's biotechnology business incubator, and served as a member of the Bioscience Task Force for the state of Ohio Business Roundtable working on A Prospectus for Achieving Success in the Third Frontier. Recently Joel was a speaker at the BioPharma in Ohio conference, and has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cincinnati School of Pharmacy.
Joel earned a Masters Degree in Genetics and Molecular Biology from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry from The University of Redlands in Redlands, California.
Andrew "AJ" Schaeffer - Vice President
Andrew J. "A.J." Schaeffer offers a wide range of legal experience to USP. A.J. was a Member of the respected national business law firm of Greenebaum Doll and McDonald, PLLC from 1999-2007, and was one of the youngest members in firm history. He specialized in litigation and appellate work and counseled private and public companies, as well as governmental, non-profit and individual clients.
Professionally, A.J. is highly active in the Kentucky Bar Association Young Lawyers section, and nationally in the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division where he was recognized in Hawaii as the 2006 Star of the Year (out of 140,000 plus members). A.J. was one of Greater Cincinnati's top "Forty under 40" business leaders, the inaugural recipient of the Legacy Legend award and has been named a Rising Star by Ohio's Super Lawyer publication.
A.J. generously gives his time to many Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati charities and community service organizations. Most recently, his service includes work as Chairman of the Board for Vision 2015, Co-Chair of the Vision 2015 planning process, Executive Committee Member of Cincinnati's Shared Civic Agenda Initiative, President of LEGACY, Bridges for A Just Community Board Member, GiveBack Cincinnati Advisory Board Member, Thomas More College Foundation Board Executive Committee and Major Gifts Committee member, and fundraiser for numerous non-profit and charitable organizations, among other civic and philanthropic pursuits.
A.J. received a B.A. in Economics and History and an A.A. in Pre-Legal Studies from Thomas More College, and received his J.D. from the University Of Kentucky College Of Law. He is admitted to practice in Kentucky and Ohio.
Steve Couture - Vice President, Marketing & Retail Sales
Steve Couture has over 17 years of successful sales and marketing leadership experience. He is an innovative strategist with a proven track record of developing and marketing effective business solutions to drive major revenue and profit growth in multiple vertical markets.
Steve joined Union Springs Pharmaceuticals in May 2009 as USP's Vice President of Retail/Consumer Sales & Marketing. Prior to joining Union Springs Pharmaceuticals, Steve was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Standard Publishing. While there, Steve provided executive leadership for their combined Sales & Marketing organization including National Accounts, International Sales, Inside Sales and Customer Service (outbound and inbound), Field Sales, Independent Sales Contractors, Direct/Consumer Sales, Trade/Retail, Distributor Sales, and Wholesalers. Most of Steve's earlier career was spent at Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a world-wide medical device division of Johnson and Johnson, where he moved through various management positions during his 12+ years there. Steve was responsible for leading teams to execute core strategic business initiatives deemed critical for business growth within various organizations including: worldwide sales operations, project/program management, and worldwide physician product/services support.
Steve and his work in developing and marketing successful sales/marketing business models was recently highlighted as a case-study in a book titled Data-Driven Print, by Dr. Patricia Source, from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Steve presents at various industry conferences on the future trends of multi-channel target marketing technologies and web-based customer acquisition tools.
Steve earned an M.B.A., Masters of Business Administration Degree from Xavier University, a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Dayton, and a PMI Masters Certification from George Washington University.
Mark Steffen - National Sales Manager
Mark Steffen has over 25 years of experience in healthcare and pharmaceutical sales where he has developed extensive sales, account management, distribution, and sales management expertise.
Mark began his sales career in 1984 as a sales representative with William H. Rorer Pharmaceuticals, and then over fourteen years progressed to positions as Sales Manager, Sales Director, National Accounts Manager, and Director of National Accounts within that organization (now Sanofi Aventis). In 1998 he joined Ther-Rx, a start-up division of KV Pharmaceuticals, and for nine years worked as Director of National Accounts, managing their distribution and trade activity. In addition to extensive sales and sales management achievements, during this period Mark oversaw the successful launch of more than twenty five pharmaceutical products into a variety of therapeutic categories.
Mark recently served for nine years as an Edgewood, Kentucky City Councilman, and has served on many boards and committees in his community, including nine years in Kenton County Schools Site Based Committees.
He has also been active in the community in youth sports, charities, and civil projects. Mark earned a Bachelor's Degree in Education from Northern Kentucky University in 1979.
Jeff Pinkston - Finance
Jeff Pinkston brings to DECA over 22 years of accounting and finance experience. As a member of the Price Waterhouse audit team from 1985-1994, Jeff provided audit and business advisory services to a wide range of public and privately-held clients.
From 1994-2001, Jeff held accounting and financial reporting management positions with a number of publicly-traded companies (Fifth Third Bancorp, Gibson Greetings, Humana and U.S. Shoe Corporation), where his responsibilities included SEC and M&A reporting activity. Most recently, from 2001-2007, Jeff served as CFO of Legacy Management Group, a nationwide charity and event management firm based in the Greater Cincinnati area.
Jeff is a CPA licensed to practice in Ohio and Kentucky and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He received his B.S. in Accounting from the University of Kentucky.