Eli Lilly and Company v. Canada (ICSID Case No. UNCT/14/2), Witness Statement of Robert Postlethwait (September 25, 2014)
I. Personal Background
1. My name is Robert Postlethwait. I am a citizen of the United States and reside in the city of Zionsville, Indiana. I received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University in 1970. I received a Master of Business Administration degree from Butler University in 1974. I completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University in 1988.
2. I first joined Eli Lilly and Company (“Lilly”) in 1970 as a staff engineer. In 1974, I became a project engineer for Lilly’s affiliate in Brazil. From 1974-1979, I held several different positions in Brazil, including project manager for design and construction of a new factory in Cosmopolis, Brazil. I returned to Indianapolis in 1979 to serve as the marketing advisor for Elanco Products Company, Lilly’s animal health and agricultural products division for Latin America.
3. In 1981, I was named director of agricultural chemical marketing for Lilly in Italy. In 1983, I was promoted to be General Manager of the Lilly affiliate in Buenos Aires,Argentina. In this position, I was responsible for all of Lilly’s Argentina-based operations, including over 450 local employees, and marketing of Lilly pharmaceuticals and Elanco animal health products.
4. In 1985, I was named General Manager and President of Lilly do Brasil, Lilly’s affiliate in Brazil. In 1988, I returned to Indianapolis as Executive Director of Corporate Engineering for Eli Lilly and Company. In 1992, I was named Area Vice President of Lilly International (Western Europe). In 1993, I returned to Indianapolis and was named vice president of Central Nervous System (CNS) Planning. This was a corporate planning role that required me to interact across the Lilly CNS drug development and marketing process.
5. In August 1994, I was named President of the Neuroscience Product Group. In this capacity, I was responsible for planning and oversight of the late stage development, launch, marketing, and sale of all of Lilly’s neuroscience products. As part of this role, I oversaw the development of global product lifecycle plans for our neuroscience products, a key part of which was ensuring that our products were appropriately protected by patents in the markets where we launched. I served in this role until May, 1999, when I retired from the company. I own stock in Lilly that I received as part of the company’s standard compensation and retirement plans.