Winning a Lifetime Achievement Award after 40+ Years of Leadership
Labcorp’s Adam Schechter was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Trailblazer Awards, which took place at Gotham Hall in New York City, October 1. This honor truly commended a lifetime of leadership. Adam became CEO of Labcorp in 2019 and Chairman of the Board in 2020. Prior to that, he was named Lead Independent Director in 2019 after serving as a director of the company since 2013.
Before joining Labcorp, he held a variety of senior leadership positions at Merck. He was Executive VP and President of Merck’s Global Human Health Division from 2010 to 2019. In this role, he was also a member of Merck’s executive committee.
Adam meets with Labcorp employees during a recent lab visit
Prior to becoming President of Global Human Health, he served as President of Merck’s global pharmaceutical business from 2007 to 2010. His extensive experience at Merck also included global and U.S.-focused leadership roles spanning sales, marketing, and managed markets, as well as business and product development.
Early Life and Inspiration
Adam has lived the true “American dream” and love story. He met his wife, Donna, while in college as a biology student at La Salle University in Philadelphia. After participating in a co-op in research as a toxicologist, he decided to go into research instead of medical school. After graduating, he bought a house in Philadelphia, married Donna, and went into the workforce to help support his family.
Adam with his wife Donna
He said that Donna is his biggest inspiration.“My wife has been by my side since university. She’s my partner in everything,” Adam said. “When it comes to inspiration, some people wonder how they would look in front of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, or PM360… I think to myself, how would Donna feel about what I’m doing, the way I’m thinking about things.”
A True Family Man
Adam with his granddaughter
Adam has a growing family, with twin sons (30) and two daughters-in-law, a daughter (28), and a 6-month-old granddaughter. As a lifelong learner, Adam says his family and those around him regularly teach him new things. His son—a digital transformation expert—helps keep him updated on groundbreaking AI technology, while his other son—an excellent communicator—inspires him with confidence. His daughter—a therapist who just earned her master’s degree—is a lending ear with whom he can share ideas. When asked what his greatest accomplishment was, his answer surprised us. “Being able to make it to 23 out of 24 of my boys’ basketball games when they were seniors in high school,” he said. “It was probably the hardest thing I did with all the [global] traveling I was doing, but I didn’t want to miss a thing.”
Adam with his family
Greatest Achievements and Activism
Adam said his greatest professional achievement is the launch of Keytruda, a prescription immunotherapy drug used to treat many types of cancer, which Merck manufactures and sells. It was the first PD-1 inhibitor to receive U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. “Keytruda has transformed so many patients’ lives around the world. It was a type of product that comes by so rarely, and makes such a profound impact,” he said.
Judi Seltz, a previous colleague at both Merck (Senior VP of Human Resources and Global Human Health) and Labcorp (Chief Human Resources Officer), recalls many of his achievements.
Judi worked with Adam during the launch of Keytruda, which she said “was a tremendous lift for the commercial organization, of which Adam was the global head.” “Merck was not yet a powerhouse in oncology, and Adam took the position that the oncology teams would be blended: a mix of external hires expert in oncology, and internal hires expert in navigating Merck… he understood both were needed to be successful.”
Some of his other proudest achievements are rooted in global and local activism. According to Adam, he tries to do things to make the world a better place, regularly volunteering with his family at the local hospital, local shelters, and kitchens.
He has been a Board Member for DaVita Inc. since 2022, and he serves on the Board for Water.org. He also serves as the ACLA Board Vice-Chair, and an executive Board Member of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health. Previously, he served on the Boards of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), where he led the Policy and Access Committee, the Healthcare Leadership Council, and the Merial Animal Health Company. After a lifetime of dedicated work in the life sciences sector, he was honored with a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from his alma mater La Salle University in 2021.
“Adam rallied the entire company to work tirelessly together to develop a COVID test and rapidly expand Labcorp’s capacity to perform testing, ultimately reaching the ability to perform 300,000 COVID-19 PCR tests per day.”
Adam and team during a site visit to India
A Mission of Authenticity
According to Adam, his founding principles in leadership are simple: ethics, integrity, and trust.
At Labcorp, he strives for every person he sees to know him, trust him, and receive the same respect.
As a leader, Judi commended his ability to recognize that no company can function without the passion of valued employees to whom Adam personally devotes time to check in. “I find that everybody’s interesting; everybody has a story to tell that I’d like to hear. The world’s a better place if we treat each other like we want to be treated,” Adam said. “There are so many issues in the world, so many problems, so much pain; we should all do the best we can to treat people with dignity, respect and kindness.”
Adam adds great leaders must have the ability to gather and analyze information to determine the right direction and then clearly communicate their vision to others. “You have to understand the marketplace around you…your competition, your blue space of where you can grow,” Adam said. “It’s putting your strategy together, communicating it very clearly, and then mobilizing others to see what you can achieve together.”
Leadership during the Global COVID-19 Pandemic
Sandy van der Vaart, Labcorp’s EVP, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary, has known Adam since 2013 and added, “he has a great deal of courage and a strong sense of ethics.”
She said that Adam has inspired her to be a better leader by “demonstrating the importance of intense engagement.” The act that inspired her the most, out of Adam’s over 40-year-career, was his leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. “Adam rallied the entire company…to work tirelessly together to develop a COVID test and rapidly expand Labcorp’s capacity to perform testing, ultimately reaching the ability to perform 300,000 COVID-19 PCR tests per day,” she said. “He also established the guiding principles for Labcorp: No one would pay more than the Medicare price, and there would be no up front, out-of-pocket costs; and no one would be prioritized based on rank, position, or money.”
Judi Seltz also remembered the beginning days of COVID at Labcorp with Adam.
“Adam and Labcorp were thrown quickly into the public spotlight, [even] joining a White House press conference in the early days,” she said. “The pressure on the company was high, including demands for testing, and Adam set clear standards for the company around access to COVID testing.”
She left us with this: “Adam is an ethical leader who leads his business to serve the needs of patients and advance healthcare globally. His life’s work has resulted in bringing innovative, life-saving medicines, vaccines, and diagnostic tests to markets around the world. It is incalculable how many lives have been positively impacted by his work, including not just patients but also the many employees around the world who have worked for and with him.”
