Episode #9 – Dr. Kevin Shultz

Dr. Kevin Shultz: Change = Opportunity
Seeing change as opportunity has helped Dr. Kevin Schultz become one of the most accomplished drug developers in the Animal Health industry.

Speaker 1:
Welcome to The People of Animal Health Podcast. The host of our podcast is Stacy Pursell. Stacy is the leading executive recruiter for the Animal Health and Veterinary Industries. She’s the founder of Therio Partners and The VET Recruiter. Stacy has placed more professionals in key positions within the Animal Health and Veterinary industries than any executive search professional. And along the way, Stacy has built relationships with some outstanding people who are doing incredible things to make a difference. The People of Animal Health Podcast features industry leaders and trailblazers who have made a significant impact or are making an impact in the Animal Health and Veterinary industries. Stacy chats with them to learn more about their lives, their careers, and the unique and interesting things that they have done to contribute to the Animal Health or Veterinary industry. She is here to share their stories with you. Now here’s the host of our podcast, Stacy Pursell.

Stacy Pursell:
Hello everyone, here with me today, I have one of the most accomplished drug developers in the animal health industry, the CEO of Pathens and CEO of his own consulting firm, former chief scientific officer of Merial, a warm welcome to Dr. Kevin Schultz from Atlanta, Georgia. Welcome onto the People of Animal Health Podcast. And how are you, Kevin?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
I’m fine. How are you?

Stacy Pursell:
I’m doing great. We’re so excited to have you here today and thank you so much for being on our show. Kevin, I know that you have experienced so much success in your career, but I would love to start off at the bottom and the very beginning of your career. What was your life like growing up and where did you grow up, Kevin?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Well, I grew up in Chicago. That’s where I was born and I lived there for a number of years, but my dad was a traveling salesman. So I have moved 52 times in my life. So that was a really good experience, believe it or not, because I got to meet a lot of different people and a lot of different cultures. I ended up going back to Chicago and going to high school for two years. And then I moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana. And for a part-time job, I worked for a veterinarian and I was just enamored by how good he was and how good he was with the animals. He was both a people person and a very good veterinarian, and I just fell in love with the profession. But when I went to college, I thought based on my mother and father’s input that I should go to medical school.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
So I wanted to be a pediatrician, but after lots of thought, I thought, “Gee, if I lost a child because of a mistake, it would be devastating. If I lost a dog or a cat, it would still be devastating, but perhaps in a different way.” And I loved veterinary medicine, I loved animals, so I decided to apply to vet school, and sure enough, I got in. And went to Purdue for my veterinary degree. After that, I started a PhD program in pathology, my senior year in vet school, but decided that I needed to see the real world. So I took a position in a mixed practice in Dodge City, Kansas, All Creatures Great and Small. I also did work at slaughterhouses doing inspection. So I got to see everything a veterinarian can do, including taking care of the zoo in Dodge City, Kansas.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
From there, I went into a very high-volume, small animal practice in Chicago and loved it, but was frustrated by the fact that a lot of dogs had skin disease and there weren’t very many veterinary dermatologists. So I applied for residency in dermatology and was accepted at the University of Pennsylvania. Did my residency for two years there, finished the last year at the University of Florida, where I started a PhD program in microbiology and immunology and focused on immunochemistry for my PhD, and loved science. And I was very lucky to get a position at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Pathology and a dual appointment at the Harvard School of Public Health in cancer biology. So I focused on viruses and their mechanism of action, as well as looking at what was causing AIDS, this was 1982 and 1983, nobody knew the cause of AIDS.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
We thought it was caused by a virus called human T-cell leukemia. We thought it was a mutated form. And we worked on that quite a bit. I characterized the surface proteins of HTLV-1 and HTLV-2, another HTLV virus, human T-cell leukemia virus. And learned an awful lot about the biochemistry of viruses. And from there, I went to the University of Wisconsin in a faculty position and I worked on insect transmitted viruses, and I worked on simian immunodeficiency virus, which at that time was a really good model for HIV in animals. So I was also in charge for a regional primate research center, microbiology and immunology division, where we had about 2200 [inaudible 00:05:52] monkeys in the colony, and I was responsible for all of that. And I had a big insect transmitted virus lab where we looked at the surface of arboviruses like West Nile virus, la crosse virus, and other viruses to try to figure out how they can infect both mosquitoes and human beings. Was there anything novel about that?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
And we found some very interesting and novel things about that. And I really enjoyed that work as well as working with graduate students and veterinary students in my teaching capacity. But then I got a phone call and somebody said, “Would you be interested in working at a really beautiful industrial site along the Atlantic Coast?” I said, “I don’t want to move to New Jersey.” And the guy laughed and said, “Well, it’s Merck. Would you come and interview?” And I said, “No.” And he said, “Please.” And I said, “No.” So about a week later, he called back and said, “Well, we’ll pay your way and you can bring your wife and have a nice weekend on us.” And I said, “Okay. For that, I’ll do it.” I went there and I fell in love with Merck. I took the job. Three weeks later, I left my academic position and I started an industry at Merck as head of research and development for animal health, with the promise that they would always be committed to animal health.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
One week after I was at Merck, they asked me to help them form a new company between Rhone-Merieux and Merck, which became named Merial Animal Health. And at that time, it became the largest animal health company in the world, and I was in charge of being the CSO, the chief science officer, as well as the executive on the board of the company. And we were headquartered in London, England. And we had a number of facilities in Leon, France. And we also had positions or sites throughout United States in Missouri, in Athens, Georgia. And then globally. So I was responsible for all of those sites. I spent one week a month in Leon, France, traveled frequently every month to London and had to visit my sites on a regular basis.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
So after about 14 years of doing that, I got so tired of traveling. Then I asked to resign, they took my resignation, but made me stay on for an additional year to help smooth the transition between me and my replacement, which I did, and started my own animal health consulting business. And then I took a number of different positions as CEO or as CSO, chief executive officer, or chief science officer for some companies. And then I sort of left those companies because I was gone too much and working too hard. And what I ended up doing is starting a pet treat business, and I own a pet treat business which is doing really well. And that’s here in Atlanta, Georgia, and I’m CEO of Pathens which is a company looking at developing a tuberculosis vaccine for human beings. And I’m on the Georgia Research Alliance as the senior fellow to evaluate scientific opportunities for people in academics that could potentially start a business. So I stay pretty busy even though I’m sort of retired as my wife says, “You’re retired and still working 60 hours a week.” I don’t call that retirement year, but that’s sort of my history.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, so many different things that you did, you talked about the small animal practice and the food animal practice and then zoo animal, then academia and in Merck and the beginnings of Merial and pet treats, you’ve had so many different opportunities. Going back to the beginning of your transition into the animal health industry, can you speak more about that when you did go from private practice and then all the way to industry, what was that transition like for you, Kevin, into the animal health industry? Tell more about that.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Sure. Well, one of the things that I have observed in my students when I was a professor is that they were reluctant to embrace change. They were happy with the situation they were in, if they were in practice, they were happy there, even if they weren’t fully happy because they were afraid of change. Change has never been a problem for me. I embrace it. I love it. And I see it as an opportunity and a challenge so that when I went from small animal medicine to academics as a resident in dermatology, that was a huge change, I had a lot to learn, but I loved it. Then I went and got my PhD. And during that, that was a huge change as well. Then doing my postdoc was another change, then going back to academics was, again, a change, which I embraced. And then, I had this opportunity to go to industry and I thought about it a lot, but I saw it as an opportunity and a challenge, so I said, “Well change can help me grow.” Because I believe you need to do something that’s out of your comfort zone every day if you can, or at least try to find things that make you uncomfortable so that you can grow, and that’s been sort of my life philosophy. And I think it’s taken me where I’ve gotten.

Stacy Pursell:
I love that. And that’s such good advice to any of us and our listening audience, embrace change, get out of our comfort zone in order to grow. Sometimes we have to be uncomfortable. Now, Kevin, it sounds like you’ve had so much traction throughout your whole career, you just kept growing and learning and changing, was there a point in time at any point in your career when you felt like, “Here I am, I’ve made it. I’m truly beginning to gain traction with my career.” Is there a point in time you can think about when you felt like that you were starting to gain traction?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Well, I think that with each of those changes that I’ve said, I felt like I was learning so much and growing so much that I saw it only as positive. There were some negative things in my career that I look back on and I’ve asked myself about that. One of them is when I first got out of veterinary school, I thought I had to cure every animal that I saw. And that was devastating because I couldn’t do it. Of course you can’t do it but I thought, and I thought I’ve been trained to cure animals. And when I couldn’t do it, I suddenly realized, “Well, that’s not my job.” My job is to treat the animals with compassion and caring and explain to the owners what’s going on, help to develop a differential diagnosis and a treatment plan. That’s really what a veterinarian should be doing, not trying to cure every animal.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
But that was a big experience for me to first realize that, that I didn’t have to cure anybody. And it took a lot of burden off me. But during those periods of time, I was pretty disappointed with myself to put it bluntly. Then I went into industry, and at first, I thought it was going to be a lot different than it really was. And after about a month, I asked myself, “Well, you charged into this, you wanted to make a change, you’ve made the change. Was it the right change? Should I try to go back to academics?” And I pondered that for about three weeks and I decided, “Look, I made this decision. I need to live through it for at least a year and see where it takes me.” But during that period of time, that struggle was pretty hard. I got to tell you. And I thought I’d made the wrong decision. But in the long run, and as I look back, the fact that I decided to do a year and be committed made all the difference in the world, because at the end of that year, I could start to implement what I thought we needed to do as changes in the industry. And it was very rewarding after that.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
I’ll give you one example. I vowed I would never fire anybody. What I do is sit down and say, “You work for us. These are our expectations and you have a choice to either fill those expectations or you’re making a choice not to do it. If you make the choice not to do it, your choice is not to work with us, but it’s your choice. Not mine. I’m not going to fire you, and let’s talk in two weeks.” Two weeks later, if they’ve made those changes, I would sit down and I would give him some kind of bonus that I was able to give for their leading forward. And if they chose not to, I’d give them two more weeks and say, “At the end of two weeks, if you still haven’t changed, the fact is you’ve made a choice.” And surprisingly, a number of people that left the company because they’ve made the choice not to change came back to me and either wanted to work for me or said it was the best thing they ever did because now they have a job that they really like. So I felt really rewarded about that. And those were the kinds of things that I was able to implement in my second year on the job in industry.

Stacy Pursell:
Wow. Some of the key things that I heard you say there, and this is good advice to every veterinarian listening is you can’t cure every animal but to treat animals with compassion and care. And then also too, another takeaway Kevin is you were talking about the transition from academia to industry, and at first you thought you’d made the wrong decision. But you persevered and ended up being a great decision for you and set the stage for the rest of your career. You talked about success, but also some low points, I’m curious because you have had so much massive success and then everyone has some low points, but walk us through what was the highest high that you experienced in your career and what was the lowest low?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
That’s a difficult question I think. Well first, let me tell you what my kryptonite is and that is writing. I really don’t enjoy writing. I think it’s because of two things, one I’m dyslexic, which most people don’t know, but I am dyslexic. So writing is difficult for me from that perspective. But on top of it, I think my mind works 10 times faster than my hand. So I’m four pages ahead of where my hand is writing and it’s very frustrating to me. So writing is my disaster area, and if I have to do it, I do it, but I do it unwillingly. I’m an introvert, believe it or not, but I use introvert meaning I get my build up. Some people have to go to parties and be with people to get their energy filled, I have to sit and be by myself, read a book and be by myself, and that’s where I get my energy.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
So I’m, I guess, a classic introvert from that point of view. So being dyslexic and introverted can be a challenge when you’re in front of as many people as I had to be all the time. So that was one of the difficult things I had to work around as being an executive of a very large animal health company. But I managed somehow. And what was the second part of your question or the full part?

Stacy Pursell:
Well, one thing I wanted to add in there is that I can relate to two of those things that you said there. I’m an introvert, I’m also an introvert as you and I were talking about before the show. And then also I have a terrible handwriting, I’m like you, my brain works much faster than my hand can write, so I end up typing all my notes. The question was the highest high and the lowest low. So you talked about your kryptonite with the writing and the dyslexia and the introvert, but the highest high and the lowest low, what was the thing that you remember the most in your career that was just the biggest win for you? The accomplishment that you’re most proud of?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Well, I think probably my first four graduate students were my highest high, they were really bright. My first graduate student, [inaudible 00:20:52] Vader, she’s a DVM PhD, she’s from Switzerland. And she came with a European attitude about professors. So I was Professor Kevin Schultz, and she would only call me doctor. She would never say Kevin, she’d either say professor or doctor. And after about three and a half years, and me mentoring her, I said something to her that I knew was absolutely wrong and crazy. And she turned to me and said, “That’s bull, you’re wrong.” And I said to her, “You can now graduate. You finally understand science in a way that you can challenge yourself and others.” And she has gone on to be the head of NIH at the research division. She’s done absolutely great things.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
And my second graduate student was a huge guy. He was 6’8″. And I had him dissect mosquito midguts, to take those and identify how viruses, insect transmitted viruses, would bind to the midgut of mosquito stomachs. And was it different than they’d bind in human cells? And his name is Dr. George Ludwig, he’s a general at the United States Army Research Institute. And he’s done absolutely great. So I’m just proud of my graduate students, not because I trained them, but because I selected them being 10 times smarter than I’d ever be. And they proved that to me. And they gave me the opportunity to help guide them for a few years. So that was my high, absolute my high. My low, I think, was what I said earlier about going to industry and thinking it wasn’t what I wanted and I’ve made a mistake. And it was pretty shattering to me to think that I had been that naive, but I got through it and I can’t complain.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, I love that. I love what you said about your two students and then having the opportunity to watch their careers now blossom too. And it sounds like both of them have been very successful and gone on to some very important roles. So Kevin, I’m curious too about your own mentor. You just talked about mentoring others. I’m curious, back looking in your career, what mentor has made the biggest impact on your career so far?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Oh, that’s a really good question. And I can tell you, there are at least three people that have made major impacts in my career. One is Dr. Ronald Schultz. He’s got the same last name as me. He was my department chairman at the University of Wisconsin in pathobiology. But I had known him for, I guess, about 14 years or 10 years before then, because the very first talk I ever gave, he introduced me and he got up in front of the audience and said, “Our first speaker I’d like to introduce to you is Dr. Kevin Schultz.” And I know we have the same last name, but we’re not related. And I got up and I said, “Thanks dad.” And everybody cracked up. And that’s how I got to meet him. And he was always a mentor for me and trying to hire me when he was at Auburn University at the vet school there, and I said, “I’m going to do a postdoc at Harvard.” He said, “Go do it. And then come and I’ll hire you.”

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
In the meantime, the University of Wisconsin had opened their vet school. So he hired me and I was one of the first faculty members at the veterinary school back in 1983. And he mentored me through the time that I was there and we’re still very close friends. And he’s helped me anytime I had a question or a problem, I knew I could go to him. The second person was the Dean at the University of Wisconsin. His name is Bernard Easterday. And Bernie, I guess you’d say, he and I became close friends. He would lecture me and tell me and challenge me. He’s a virologist as well. So he was always giving me grief, but in a very positive way. And so he was a big mentor for me when I was both in academia and then when I went to industry, he’ll guide me there.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
The third person was my boss at Merck. And his name is Mervyn Turner. He became a senior executive vice-president of all research and development at Merck, but he took a particular effort to help guide me. And we would have dinner once a week where we would sit and I could tell him anything. And he was the one that helped me guide me through that really tough one-year time. And after that, we’d become very close friends. He’s still my mentor. I actually got an email from him today asking me, “What is new? I’d love to talk to you.” So we’ve got a conference call, a Zoom call between the two of us coming up next week. So that’s the kind of mentors that I’ve been privileged to have, somebody that actually engages in my life and reaches out to me as much as I reach out to them. So I’ve been very blessed with that.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, and I think what you just said, they reach out to you as much as you reach out to them, it’s a two-way street. You’re both involved and engaged in that process of mentorship. And I think that’s so important for people, especially some of the younger people, the up-and-coming people in the veterinary profession and the animal health industry, or to find good mentors that you can engage with, that you can have those relationships with throughout your entire career, but know that it’s a two way relationship and you reach out to them and they reach out to you. So I love that Kevin. We’ve talked about so many of the different-

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Let me add one extra thing to that. I think that I was lucky to have those mentors, but it also becomes my job to play it forward. So I’ve identified a few people in my life that have made a significant difference in me helping to mentor them in their early days. And I keep doing that. So we talk because I think by obligation, I have to play it forward.

Stacy Pursell:
Yes. Yes. And I love that, and such good advice. So you are the beneficiary of those that are pouring into your life, and then you have to pay that forward and you have to invest in other people’s lives and in their career too. Kevin, you’ve had so many different experiences like we’ve been talking about throughout your career. So I know that you’ve seen changes in the industry throughout the years that you’ve been involved, both in the animal health industry and the veterinary profession as well. I’m curious, what are some of the changes that you’ve seen during your time in the animal health industry? For the industry, as well as the veterinary profession, how have they changed?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Well, I think one of the things that’s happened and I’m really grateful for this is that veterinary medicine has become a lot more science oriented. The young veterinarians of our generation and the ones going forward are very well-trained, they’re very smart and they embrace science. Not that we didn’t, but I think that science is becoming more and more important and they recognize that. And they’re really good at communication, that’s been my experience when I’ve met people. But also, I have two dogs and I take them to a veterinarian. And it’s a seven veterinary practice. So I’ve met all the veterinarians there because I don’t treat my own dogs, and they’re all bright, young, enthusiastic, and science oriented, and I’m really impressed. So I think that’s one thing.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
The second thing that I see as a change is that veterinary practices are becoming more corporate oriented. And I think that is going to continue to change whether it’s good or bad, I’m not willing to say, but I think it’s a change that’s happening. The other thing is animal health insurance is becoming a bigger portion of what people are responding to. And I think that’s good in some respects, but I wonder if it’s going to become like our human health insurance, where it’s dictated what you can do and how much you spend and etc. So I’m a little bit concerned about that because veterinary medicine has always been a cash-based business. People pay for their animals and they’re willing to pay based on the service they get, and I’d hate to see that change. So I think those are some of the big changes. And I can’t predict the future, so that’s my opinion for what it’s worth.

Stacy Pursell:
And that’s a good segue into the next question I wanted to ask you. I know you can’t predict the future, but what is your crystal ball say about the future? What do you anticipate the future will look like for both the animal health industry, as well as well as veterinary medicine?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Well, I think it’s really positive. I think that people have changed since I was first in veterinary practice in 1976 to now, I think dogs went from outside to inside when I first became a veterinarian. Then they went from inside onto a couch, and then they went from on the couch to in the beds, and now they’re being treated like children. And whether you think that’s good or bad, I think it’s good because people are more conscious about the ethics of owning an animal and taking care of it. It’s a responsibility, it’s a cash responsibility, they need to know that upfront. And once they understand that it’s not, you just leave it out in the yard and do whatever. And they get such great value from a pet, a dog or a cat or horse, even a cow. I had a pet cow when I was back in Kansas and I loved that cow. Her name was Dinner Bell.

Stacy Pursell:
Dinner Bell?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Yeah, because I knew where she’d end up.

Stacy Pursell:
I love that. Well, I would also love for you to share with our listeners about the kinds of projects that you’re up to today.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Oh gee. Well, let me start by my average day. I have gotten lazy in my older life. So I get up usually about 8:00 rather than 5:30 like I used to. I get up at 8:00, have a cup of coffee, have my breakfast, feed my dogs, take them out, walk them, play ball with them, come back in. Then I go to my computer, check my emails, and then I start to work. And clearly I’ve got a list, I make a list every day of things that I have to accomplish this day or going forward so that I make sure I get everything done. And once I’ve gotten through my to-do list, then I can do whatever I want to do the rest of the day, which is usually read. I love to read. And I think it’s important that people read a lot. I read about eight books a week, and I read a lot of science articles.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
So reading is a particularly important part of my life. And I like to challenge myself to try to get out of my comfort zone at least once a week, if not daily. And I also challenge myself to learn one new thing every day, and that’s on my to-do list. And whether it’s reading about something that I saw on the news and then reading about it, or just picking up a book, I’m reading a book right now about biochemistry and the origin of life. I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody unless they’re sort of nuts like me, but I do have a list of books that I absolutely love and I encourage people to read them.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, I’d love to know more about some of those books that you believe that all of our listeners should read. What are some that you would recommend?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Well I’m a big fan of Isaac Asimov and he’s got a series called The foundation series. And I read those back when I was a lot younger than I am now. And they’re really good. The second book, believe it or not, is the Best Loved Poems of American People. And it’s a collection of poems written by American authors and it’s really good, and I go to that frequently and read a poem. Some of them are long, some of them are short, but it gives me comfort. That third book I think everybody should read is called The Kite Runner. K-I-T-E Runner by Khaled, K-H-A-L-E-D, Hosseini, H-O-S-S-E-I-N-I. And it’s a book about the Middle East before all the wars. And it gives you insight into that part of the world which Americans don’t usually ever get. But it’s a really well-written book, he’s written three other books, and it’s really good. And then the last one is The Alchemist, A-L-C-H-E-M-I-S-T. And it’s by Paulo, P-A-U-L-O, his last name is spelled C-O-E-L-H-O. And it’s a book that’s fascinating. It’s philosophical. It’s a little bit of science fantasy I guess, but it’s really well-written and I think it’s a must read.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, those are some good suggestions of some books for our listening audience. And wow, eight books a week, that’s impressive Kevin. And I wanted to ask you something. Looking back over your career, what advice would you give the younger version of yourself?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Don’t get distracted, follow your heart. Don’t be afraid of change, but challenge that. And if you’re going to change, make sure you spend time to think it out carefully. You’re not going to have all the answers, but at least you’re not going to go in completely blind. I think that’s the advice. And find a good mentor, or a number of good mentors.

Stacy Pursell:
Yeah. Mentors, don’t get distracted, follow your heart, all very sound advice. What are some other messages or principles that you wish you could teach everyone?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Well, I think don’t be afraid of change or challenge. It’s not bad to change. It’s not bad to be challenged, but give yourself the opportunity to do something new that’s out of your comfort zone. And if you do that, I say that to my 32 year old son all the time and he has embraced it and he’s taken up the challenge. And in fact, he called me about two months ago and said, “You know dad, I used to think you were really stupid, but as you’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten smarter.” Now I wonder what that means. As I’ve gotten older, he’s gotten smarter.

Stacy Pursell:
Wow. That is an interesting comment because sometimes when our kids are younger, they think that their parents aren’t that smart until they get older. And then they realize that they really were pretty smart. Well I’m curious, you’ve got the mic, what is one more thing that you’d like to share with our listeners of The People of Animal Health Podcast before you drop the mic today?

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
Well, I’ve enjoyed this conversation. And my advice is my advice and my career is my career and I’ve loved it. I’ve loved being a veterinarian. I wouldn’t do anything differently and I think I’ve had one of the best lives that can be. So thank you very much.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, thank you Kevin. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your stories with us. I really enjoyed it. Thank you again Kevin.

Dr. Kevin Schultz:
You’re welcome.