Alumni Greg Primuth and Steve Rough expand community and health system pharmacy expertise on the Board of Visitors

By Katie Ginder-Vogel

For every new challenge in the field of pharmacy, there are new solutions and new opportunities. To help stay at the vanguard of the profession, the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy consults with its Board of Visitors — a group of trusted advisors from different areas of pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry who help ensure that the School’s programs stay cutting-edge.

“Our Board of Visitors is composed of truly remarkable talent,” says Steve Swanson, dean of the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy. “The illustrious individuals on our Board keep us connected with not only the present in practice and industry, but also the future of those fields so we can graduate the next generation of pharmacy leaders.”

The School’s Board of Visitors is further strengthened by the addition of Greg Primuth (BS ’88) and Steve Rough (BS ’91, MS ’94), who bring decades of experience in retail and health system pharmacy.

“Greg and Steve will bring their highly specialized experience to the board and will complement the expertise of our other Board members well,” says Swanson. “Their insights will be invaluable as we continue to strive for excellence in pharmacy education, research, and patient care.”

Greg Primuth (BS ’88)
Senior director of pharma strategic initiatives, Walgreens

Primuth’s journey with Walgreens began when he was a student pharmacist at the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy: He first joined the team as an intern in 1988. After graduation, he became pharmacy manager of a Walgreens store in Racine, then a pharmacy supervisor in Milwaukee, before moving to Atlanta in 2009 to work as a regional healthcare director. In 2016, shortly after earning his MBA from the University of Phoenix, he became director of pharma strategic initiatives and was promoted to senior director two years later.

In his current role, Primuth leads a team responsible for expanding Walgreens’ business nationally, including procuring vaccines, biosimilars, retail, and specialty pharmaceuticals.

“Greg brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Board from the perspective of one of the largest, most successful and influential pharmacy companies in the country,” says Swanson.

Through his leadership roles, Primuth is also keeping patients top-of-mind.

“A big piece of my work from 2016 until last year was working with pharma manufacturers to get their products into patients’ hands more easily and at a lower cost,” says Primuth. “We stood up a unique model at Walgreens — consignment — that resulted in lower costs for customers.”

For all he’s accomplished, he says he’s most proud of the people he has hired and mentored in his career and of his career-long commitment to bringing vaccines to pharmacy customers. 

“I’m proud of bringing really good people into the profession and mentoring them to deliver things for our profession,” he says. “Also, I was a field leader in Milwaukee when pharmacies began doing flu shots, and I’m really proud of the work I did to bring that to patients and to support our stores and pharmacists through that process. In Atlanta, during H1N1, I helped my 800 stores deliver vaccinations all day, every day.”

Primuth now has his eyes on a new challenge in the profession: prescription reimbursement. 

“Pharmacies are closing because the profession’s reimbursement model isn’t working,” he says. “My role is solving for that, by working with manufacturers, wholesalers, and payers on the pharmacy benefit manager side. I’m proud of working cross-functionally to save the profession of pharmacy.” 

“Greg brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Board from the perspective of one of the largest, most successful and influential pharmacy companies in the country.”
—Steve Swanson, dean of the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy

Throughout his career, Primuth has maintained a close relationship with the School. He was honored as the 2015 Outstanding Alumnus for the School of Pharmacy’s Phi Delta Chi student organization, and he was a member of a faculty-led study that aimed to improve medication adherence among Black patients with hypertension. Publications stemming from that study earned two Wiederholt Prizes from the American Pharmacists Association.

Now joining the School’s Board of Visitors, Primuth aims to bring a clear view of the profession’s economic challenges to the Board of Visitors and suggest ways the School can prepare students to advocate for the profession. He wants to be sure that the profession continues to attract new student pharmacists and believes the way to do that is to empower pharmacists to practice at the top of their licenses.

“I’m excited to see how I can help the School and the profession,” he says. “Everyone on the Board of Visitors brings a lot of expertise to the table.”

Steve Rough (BS ’91, MS ’94)
Chief executive officer, Visante

For 17 years, Rough served as director and senior director of pharmacy at UW Health in Madison, where he focused on helping pharmacists, technicians, researchers, and educators leverage their expertise to improve patient care, while generating $1.3 billion in annual revenue. While at UW Health, Rough was also a clinical associate professor with the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy and directed the Health System Pharmacy Administration and Leadership residency program, of which he is also a graduate.

While leading the program, he trained hundreds of pharmacy students and over 75 administrative residents.

“We were the first in the nation to require board certification for all pharmacists and require technicians to complete accredited training,” he recalls, two strategies designed to maximize pharmacy’s value on the patient care team. “We developed one of the nation’s first comprehensive specialty pharmacy programs, and we built one of the nation’s leading consolidated service centers to help the pharmacy program work effectively as a system. We also greatly expanded the number of pharmacy residency programs and residents we trained each year. Being a part of that — expanding clinical practice, applying technology and automation to drug delivery — those are achievements I’ll never forget.” 

In 2020, Rough joined Visante as senior vice president and this past February he stepped into the CEO role, where he sets the company’s strategic direction, overseeing high-level operations and cultivating a collaborative organizational culture.

“I took what I learned at UW Health, and now I do it on a national stage,” he says. “Visante is currently engaged with over 140 health systems across the nation to help them transform pharmacy into a strategic asset for their organizations. I believe pharmacy provides value, and I lead a company that helps provide value to health systems — that’s rewarding.”

Throughout his illustrious career, Rough has been recognized as the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin’s Pharmacist of the Year (2003), received the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ (ASHP) Distinguished Service Award (2010), the UW Health’s Winston J. Durant Lecture Award (2014), and the ASHP John W. Webb Lecture Award (2016).

“I’ve had a seat in the front row of a concerted effort to drive positive change for healthcare,” he says. “I’m proud of whom I’ve done it with and the difference we’ve made.” 

“Steve is an expert in the evolving area of health system pharmacy practice and will provide unique insights to the school about a critically important practice setting for our graduates.”
—Steve Swanson, dean of the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy

Rough is optimistic about the future of pharmacy, in which he envisions advanced residency training becoming standard and pharmacists serving as providers on patient care teams. His daughter, Taylor Rough, a third-year student pharmacist at the School of Pharmacy, will help bear out that future. 

In joining the Board of Visitors, Rough brings his decades of experience and perspective on the operations, daily challenges, and long-term goals for health system pharmacies.

“Steve is an expert in the evolving area of health system pharmacy practice and will provide unique insights to the school about a critically important practice setting for our graduates,” says Swanson.

Rough describes the Board of Visitors as “the most successful, high-achieving graduates of the School of Pharmacy.”

“I’ve always valued serving, and for me, serving on the Board of Visitors is about making a difference for the School and for the profession of pharmacy — and to make both great,” he says. “It’s an honor to work with them and an opportunity to give back.”