Editors’ Note

Since 1989, Stanley Bergman has been Chairman of the Board and CEO of Henry Schein, Inc. He serves as a board member or advisor for numerous institutions including New York University College of Dentistry; the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine; the Columbia University Medical Center; University of the People; Hebrew University; Tel Aviv University; the University of the Witwatersrand Fund; The World Economic Forum’s Healthcare Governors; the Business Council for International Understanding; the Japan Society; and the Metropolitan Opera. Bergman is an honorary member of the American Dental Association and the Alpha Omega International Dental Society. He is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor; the CR Magazine Corporate Responsibility Lifetime Achievement Award; the 2017 CEO of the Year award by Chief Executive Magazine; Honorary Doctorates from The University of the Witwatersrand, Western University of Health Sciences, Hofstra University, A.T. Still University’s Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health, Case Western Reserve University and Farmingdale State College (SUNY); and Honorary Fellowship from King’s College London – Dental Institute and the International College of Dentists. Bergman is a graduate of The University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and is a South African Chartered Accountant and a NYS Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Company Brief

Henry Schein, Inc. (henryschein.com) is a solutions company for healthcare professionals powered by a network of people and technology. With approximately 21,000 Team Schein Members worldwide, the company’s network of trusted advisors provides more than 1 million customers globally with more than 300 valued solutions that help improve operational success and clinical outcomes. The company’s Business, Clinical, Technology, and Supply Chain solutions help office-based dental and medical practitioners work more efficiently so they can provide quality care more effectively. These solutions also support dental and medical laboratories, government and institutional healthcare clinics, as well as other alternate care sites. Henry Schein operates through a centralized and automated distribution network, with a selection of more than 120,000 branded products and Henry Schein private-brand products in stock, as well as more than 180,000 additional products available as special-order items. A Fortune 500 Company and a member of the S&P 500® index, Henry Schein is headquartered in Melville, New York, and has operations or affiliates in 32 countries and territories. The company’s sales reached $10.1 billion in 2020 and have grown at a compound annual rate of approximately 12 percent since Henry Schein became a public company in 1995.

Will you highlight Henry Schein’s history and heritage and the keys to the company’s consistent strength and leadership in the industry?

The company got its start in 1932 when Henry Schein opened a pharmacy in Woodside, Queens. Henry himself established the values that serve as the foundation of the company’s performance-based culture to this day, what we now call the “Mosaic of Success,” through which we balance the interests of our five constituencies – customers, suppliers, investors, Team Schein, and society.

Will you provide an overview of Henry Schein’s business and areas of focus?

Henry Schein is the world’s largest provider of healthcare products and solutions to office-based dental and medical practitioners with more than 1 million customers served by approximately 21,000 Team Schein Members in 32 countries. Our sales in 2020 totaled $10.1 billion globally, of which 59 percent was generated by our dental business, with medical generating 36 percent and technology/value-added services accounting for 5 percent.

How do you define Henry Schein’s culture and what have been the keys to maintaining culture as the company has grown in size and scale?

Our values are defined by this quote from Jay Schein, Henry’s son and my predecessor as CEO: “This is what we are really about: a concern for people and a concern for results.” We call ourselves Team Schein because we are intensely focused on working as a team for the benefit of our constituencies. We’ve been able to maintain the values and adapt the culture even as we’ve grown because we put our values and culture before the numbers as we’ve expanded the business extensively through acquisitions. Success is all about people and always will be about people.

How critical is it for Henry Schein to build a diverse and inclusive workforce and will you discuss the company’s efforts in this regard?

Diversity and inclusion is absolutely critical, for both moral and commercial reasons. Providing opportunities for people of all backgrounds is a moral imperative – there is no question about that. But this is also a commercial imperative because today’s minority populations in the U.S., for example, will become the majority in the decades ahead. Business needs to embrace this enormous demographic shift and develop the cultural competency to serve an increasingly diverse population.

What do you see as Henry Schein’s responsibility to the communities it serves and to being a force for good in society?

We believe serving society is the “special sauce” behind our success. For more than 30 years, and long before it became fashionable through what is now termed the Environmental, Social, and Governance movement, we practiced stakeholder capitalism as defined by Benjamin Franklin’s philosophy of “enlightened self-interest,” in which companies “do well by doing good.” We believe every participant in civil society – government, business, and nonprofits – have an essential role to play in improving life in the communities we serve. It’s also in our commercial interest. Businesses simply cannot succeed in failed societies.

What are the keys to New York’s recovery and rebuilding from the pandemic and how critical is a strong public/private partnership to New York’s future success?

New York has historically attracted the strivers, the entrepreneurs, the innovators, the immigrants looking for a better life, as well as Americans from every state looking for a fresh start. That is the dynamism of New York, and I have no doubt the world’s greatest city is already significantly recovered and will fully recover, as it always has. Of course, achieving that recovery can only be hastened by the public and private sectors working together to advance such critical issues as healthcare, education, and environmental sustainability. I am optimistic that together, we will succeed.

What do you see as the keys to effective leadership?

If you can be an effective camp counselor, you can be an effective leader. Camp counselors are skilled at bringing people together to achieve a goal. That’s the essence of effective leadership, and that’s the approach we take at Team Schein.

What advice do you offer young people beginning their careers during this challenging and unprecedented time?

I wish I could roll back time to start my career all over again because this is such an exciting time in the history of business. There is a tendency nowadays for people in societies everywhere to stay with what’s familiar and to withdraw into the safety of what they already know. I would advise young people to reject that notion. For all of the challenges we face, be it political discord or a pandemic, young people need to embrace the world and all its opportunities for growth. Imagine the future you want and then go build it.