LAKE FOREST, Ill. — This month, Kirby Lester marked its 10th year under the ownership and leadership of president Garry Zage.

Garry Zage

Zage and a team of investors purchased Kirby Lester from co-founder Rod Lester in September 2005, and in 2007 the pharmacy automation company’s operations were consolidated in its current Lake Forest, Ill., headquarters.

Kirby Lester said this week that since Zage took the helm, the company has notched such milestones as six new product launches, including best-selling KL1 and KL1Plus counting devices and the Kirby Lester high-speed mail order cell, as well as a successful entry into the competitive pharmacy robot dispensing market with 60-drug and 100-drug robotic dispensing systems.

In addition, Kirby Lester has reached 40,000 customers, sold into its 40th country and formed partnerships with three of the world’s largest pharmacy providers, including a retail pharmacy chain, a PBM and an integrated delivery network.

The company noted that one of Zage’s first priorities was building a leadership team with a vast amount of market and technology expertise: Dave Schultz, chief technology officer; Aleks Geltser, vice president of engineering; Christopher Thomsen, vice president of business development; and Dave Johnson, vice president of sales. And after Kirby Lester became a division of Capsa Solutions last year, the entire executive team has stayed intact.

“The stability of this team is extremely beneficial in all aspects of the business from product development, customer relations, customer support and the operation of the company,” Zage stated.

Kirby Lester’s consistency also has stood out amid the fast-changing pharmacy and health care environment, he added.

“Some battle-weary pharmacists have told me that the only thing that’s remained reliable and steady in this era of constant change has been Kirby Lester. I take great pride in this company’s ability to reinvent itself starting in 2005,” Zage commented. “The old Kirby Lester devices that so many veteran pharmacists trusted are many miles behind us, literally and figuratively. I am proud to have ushered the respected Kirby Lester name into a new era. We’re taking high-efficiency dispensing to new levels of patient safety as well assisting the pharmacies in reducing their costs to fill prescriptions.”