Kevin Gray
Kevin Gray has seen many changes in his four and half decades of sales with organizations that include Allergan, American Hospital Supply and most recently, Premier, for whom he served as vice president of supplier relations.
Despite all the change, Gray’s key to success – his belief in the value of relationships – never wavered. He inherited that belief from his father, Leo Gray, a 35-year veteran of pharmaceutical sales and management. He also inherited from his father a love of the freedom, diversity and challenge of medical sales.
Kevin Gray retired June 30.
Gray’s first job was with Allergan, then a family-owned business, calling on ophthalmologists in San Francisco. While finishing his senior year at San Diego State University, where he played rugby, he turned down the company recruiter’s offer of a territory in Arizona, because he couldn’t imagine moving to a state lacking a professional sports franchise. (In those days, Arizona was far less developed in that regard than it is today.) It wasn’t a couple of months later the recruiter came into pub in LaJolla where Gray was bartending and offered him a San Francisco territory. His career was launched.
Like many in the industry, Gray speaks fondly of his time at American Hospital Supply (now Cardinal Health), where he became the company’s first custom-kit salesperson. It was at American that he learned the value of relationships. “Our whole mission was to create value and synergy for the hospital and health system by corralling the different resources within the organization,” he recalls.
Gray says that retirement will give him more time to spend with his wife, Lynn, and their three sons – Leo, Kevin and Jeff.