Yale

Vernon R. Loucks Jr., ‘57, who distinguished himself in the healthcare industry and for alumni service to Yale, received varsity football letters in 1954, 1955, and 1956. Following service in the U.S. Marine Corps, he earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1963. 

Loucks spent the next 34 years with Baxter International, Inc. From 1975 to 2000 he served as a director of Baxter; from 1980 to 1999 he was its CEO, and from 1987 until his retirement on the last day of 1999 he served as its chairman. His retirement did not last long. In 2001, with his son David, he founded the Aethena Group, a private management company dedicated to pursuing private equity investment opportunities in the healthcare industry.

Loucks was on the boards of a half-dozen major corporations and served as a trustee of the Lawrenceville School and Rush-Presbyerian/St. Luke’s Hospital.He was active in Chicago’s civic, business, and social organizations and on the board of the International Institute for Management Development Foundation. He was a co-founder and chair of the Healthcare Leadership Council and chair of the Healthcare Industry Manufacturers Association. He served as a special advisor to the director of the National Industries of Health, and from 1985 to 1987 served on the New York Stock Exchange Listed Company Advisory Committee. 

Before stepping down in 1993, Loucks was chair of Yale’s $1.5 billion capital campaign and the Senior Fellow of the Yale Corporation. In addition to receiving many humanitarian, community service, and business awards, Loucks was given Yale’s William McCormick Blair Award, and in 1997 he received the Yale Medal.