Alumnus Mark Zilner, RPh, Receives School of Pharmacy Distinguished Alumni Award
Mark Zilner, RPh, PAH’91, Chief Operating Office of Diamond Pharmacy Services, visited campus for this year’s convocation ceremony to accept this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award. He noted that one of his Northeastern co-ops at a large nursing home pharmacy provided him with inspiration and ideas on how to grow his parents’ pharmacy business in Pennsylvania.
After graduation, Mark became Director of Operations at Diamond Pharmacy Services, a division of Diamond Drugs, Inc. His main focus was growing the company’s correctional institution customer base and streamlining workflow. Mark traveled the country meeting with potential customers and by 2001, Diamond became the nation’s largest correctional facility pharmacy provider and has also grown to become Pennsylvania’s largest nursing facility pharmacy provider. Today, Diamond serves over 1,500 institutions in 45 states and fills approximately 16,000,000 prescriptions per year, making Diamond the nation’s largest institutional pharmacy provider. Mark’s vision and dedication to growing the business paved the way for the creation of RemedyRepack, a FDA Registered Repacker; Diamond Distribution, a VAWD drug wholesaler; SapphireHealth, an Electronic Health Record (EHR) software company; and InnovaScript, a retail mail-order pharmacy. With corporate headquarters in Indiana, PA and three satellite locations, Diamond has enjoyed steady growth and is now one of Pennsylvania’s largest private employers.
Under Mark’s leadership, Diamond has won many awards including Inc. Magazine’s Top 500 Fastest Growing Independently Owned Companies, Pennsylvania Business Central’s Top 100 Businesses, Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Family Business of the Year, Council of State Governments Innovations Award Winner, Boy Scouts of America Laurel Highlands Council Business of the Year and was a finalist in the Pennsylvania Governor’s ImPAct Awards. Mark was also a finalist for the CardinalHealth Ken Wurster Award for community leadership and involvement. He is a Board Member on the Pennsylvania State Board of Pharmacy, a Board Member of a national pharmaceutical group purchasing organization as well as other local boards, and undoubtedly a lifelong Husky at heart.