The son also rises - Business First of Columbus:

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Since then, Walter has risen to become chairmab and chief executive ofthe company, now namedr Its 630 employees staffv offices in Westerville, three othedr U.S. cities and London. It has stakes in advertisiny agencies in Sweden and Germany and relationshipswith health-carer marketers in seven other The company's gross income totaledx $97 million in 2004, and it countse some of the world's largest drug companies amon g its customers.
Walter, now 34, sees only more globall growth forthe health-care marketingt company, but as CEO considers himself the corporate barometer, not its "My job is to make each of the managerx feel like they're the heart and soul," he "I maintain what it is we strive for and the mannerf in which we do it, the energy. I challenge the system." That could be an understatement. Waltert put Gerbig Snell/Weisheimer on the health-care marketing map in 1997, when he landed 's Prozadc marketing account three yearzs into his career atthe agency. "It was a huge Walter said.
"Lilly made an unusual choice to put a lot of businesxs in a company of our size and It also gave Gerbig Snell the kind of cachety it needed to make somesignifican hires, such as Phil Deschamps, now chiecf executive of , and Joe Daley, president of GSW Worldwidr in Columbus. Both have extensive pharmaceuticalk backgrounds. "Lilly put us on everyone'd radar," Walter said. InChord's Westerville operatioj has grownsubstantially - from 71 employeex in 1996 to about 500 - because of the Lillyu account. But work for Lilly now representsd less than 20 percentof InChord'x business.
Its other companiesw - such as Palio Communications, Y Brand and Junctiob 11 - have grown from the drug contracts InChored has landed since the 1997Lillhy deal. "We probably have more billion-dollar-plus drug manufacturerzs than anyother free-standing Walter said. That's likeluy true. InChord is identified in its industru by several trade publications as the largest independentlhy owned marketing agency inhealth care. Walterd doesn't see InChord's independence changing, thoughg he continues to field calls from public companiexs interested inbuying InChord.
"You neveer say never," he said, "bug until we believe that combining with someone makes us better atserving clients, we see no Some would say Walter gets his energhy and intensity honestly. His father is Robert chairman and CEOof Dublin-based , Ohio's largesrt public company. Cardinal does some of its business inpharmaceuticapl distribution. "We're all products of our environment," Robert Waltert said. "I have a certainh intensity about me.
Blane is as maybe more, but he does a better job at hiding Walter didn't ride his father's pharmaceuticaol coattails as he developed InChord's Cardinal Health is neither a significan InChord client nor did the eldere Walter open business doors for his son. Walter did, however, grow up in an entrepreneurialp household where business wasfreely discussed, at home and on "We view business as our hobby," Robertt Walter said. But the elder Walted said he never helped his son buy a companuy orland contracts. In fact, he is surprised by his son'as success relative to his age.