Senior Vice President, Global API Manufacturing
E. Paul Ahern, Ph.D., is senior vice president of global API (active pharmaceutical ingredients) manufacturing for Eli Lilly and Company. He is responsible for bulk pharmaceutical manufacturing operations in Indiana and for site operations in Puerto Rico and Ireland. He had been general manager of Tippecanoe Laboratories in Lafayette, Indiana, since 2000. Ahern also serves as a member of the company’s senior management council.
He received a bachelor of science degree in physical organic chemistry in 1975 and his doctorate in 1979 from the University College, Cork, Ireland.
Subsequently, Ahern joined Eli Lilly S.A. (Irish Branch) in Kinsale, Ireland, and was involved in the start-up of that bulk API facility. He had assignments in the analytical laboratories, environmental control, and human resources prior to spending three years in the United States in operational and corporate staff assignments. He returned to Ireland for four years, finishing as director of operations for the Kinsale facility. In 1992, he was assigned to Lilly’s Tippecanoe facilities as manager of bulk pharmaceutical operations. Ahern became plant manager at Lilly’s bulk API facility in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, in 1995. In 1997, he was promoted to general manager for Lilly’s Puerto Rican operations, which included plants at Carolina and Mayaguez.
Ahern is a member of the API Technical Committee of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
