At the time, he’d been working for the strategy
consulting firm he’d joined out of business school, in
its pharmaceutical industry practice. And although he
believed that work was the best therapy for grief, he
had also begun to regret the toll that extensive travel
was taking on his personal life. Not long after his
mother’s funeral, a headhunter had called on behalf of
Grepter, a multinational pharmaceutical firm, and
dangled a vice presidency. Alan had decided to take it.