Christopher Wilkes Email & Phone Number

Pine Brook, New Jersey

Director, Pharmacy Operations / Site Leader (GM) / PIC (2018 – Present)The first of a new state of the art building design of integrating Optum businesses, technologies, and fulfillment dispensing. Site Lead for Specialty, Home Delivery, and Infusion services for Optum Rx with operational responsibilities specific for Specialty and Home Delivery dispensing for Optum. SELECTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS: • The first of a new state of the art Integrated Pharmacy design, tasked with starting up a new automated mail order pharmacy, including applying for pharmacy licenses, meeting all regulatory requirements, and inspections. • Representing the Optum business with the NJ Board of Pharmacy and other agencies.• Working collaboratively with the Pharmacy Board in meeting the standards of pharmacy and qualifying the automation for dispensing to patients. • Worked with Real Estate and contractors to meet to pharmacy opening target dates for occupancy and first dispense timelines. • Aligned with engineering and facility teams for production line build out and IT software installations. Through the collaborations the build out was completed ahead of schedule. This allowed the pharmacy to “Go-Live” and contribute to the business Sooner realizing overall network cost savings for the year. • Built the staff from 13 to 115 employees by identifying top talent for management, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, clerks. • We dispensed our first prescription in January 2019 and the current dispensing averages are 25,000 Rx’s per 8-hour shift. This is a 38.9 % dispensing increase from the original engineering design plans for the pharmacy. • Attained site accreditation with URAC and ACHC by training and preparing the employees. I represented the pharmacy by meeting with the auditors during the reviews. There were no findings from any of the accreditation audits.

Jeffersonville, Indiana, United States

Director, Pharmacy Operations / Site Leader (GM) (2014 – 2018), Jeffersonville, IndianaPoint of contact of the site including responsibility for the employees, property, and building matters, as well as Briova Rx Specialty and Optum Rx Home Delivery Fulfillment operations.SELECTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS: •Brought in during the software installation phase of the new automated dispensing line for the new Briova site to provide input with process flow, staffing, and final drug placement for technician and pharmacist dispensing. The pharmacy was able to beat the “first dispense date” goal by keeping a rigid timeline through each phase.•Applied to the forty-nine states for a non-resident permit for dispensing prescription medication to patient in those states. •Started with a staff of thirty employees to cover Customer Service and Fulfillment dispensing and within three months dispensed the first Specialty prescription to a patient. •After the initial start-up of the Specialty dispensing line and the Home Delivery line, the site went from the initial staff of 30 employees to about 480 employees, and two 8-hour shifts. •With a fast-approaching start date, successfully hired, granted access, and trained a team to on-board new patients from a client pharmacy while ensuring a smooth transition for the patients to fill prescription through Briova Rx. •Tasked to convert new United States Virgin Islands (USVI) patients quickly and put into place a USPS Express package delivery process for billing and shipping that would ensure prescriptions to the USVI were received by the patient within 3 days. •Reinforced the consistent building of the culture with new hires that encourages engagement and continuous improvements.•Made system changes and improved efficiencies to both lines which provided added capacity to accommodate the increased dispensing volumes. Successfully met goal to take 80% of Optum’s Specialty prescription volume and 7% of the Home Delivery national dispensing.

Willingboro, New Jersey

Manager of business operations, the production processes, and the pharmacists and pharmacy technician work groups in the dispensing of prescription medications through state of the art automation with a solid track record exceeding all production, quality, safety, and service goals.ACCOMPLISHMENTS:• Changed the culture to one of respect and positive reinforcement that drove production gains with business and quality improvements that topped efficiencies in all areas. • Improved employee morale which decreased the yearly employee turnover from 50% to 15%, saving costs of new employees which increased efficiencies, knowledge and job expertise longevity. • Reinforced positive behavior which became the nationwide standard for all dispensing pharmacies and is used as a guideline for Performance Coaching by all work groups. • Sponsor of a Six Sigma project that lowered manual dispensing errors resulting in Best Practices and training standardizations that decreased dispensing errors by 53%, thus saving costs in rework.• Lean Leader instrumental in reducing the inventory and amount of drug on hand for automated dispensing to get to a just in time inventory, went from over a 3 day supply of prepared drug ready for dispensing to less than one day supply at all times. • Automated and Leaned the Quarantine Drug department making it paperless and improving efficiencies by 60% saving $ 100,000+ a year in labor costs. • Implemented a Heijkunka schedule for the larger quantities of drug required for dispensing in the Automated Cells and in the Prepack departments that prevented excess production or crisis situations and allowed for a consistent work flow.

Willingboro, New Jersey

Lead the pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and maintenance technicians to attain automated dispensing goals in production, quality, safety, and patient/client service. ACCOMPLISHMENTS:• Team Six Sigma Leader for Automated Cell Maintenance Reduction that successfully decreased the amount of unnecessary corrective and preventive maintenance by 13.5% which resulted in savings from eliminating excessive overtime being used and bringing the area back to normal scheduling requirements. In 2008, received the Engineering/Maintenance Department Quarterly Recognition Award for leading these improvement efforts. • Turned around the Prepack area by rewriting the SOP’s and retraining all employees with a standardized “One-Piece” work flow, improving the quality and production, eliminating rework and additional hours to prepare prepackaged drug for automation. Went from a three shift operation to requiring only two shifts to meet demand.