SAN FRANCISCO — Tim Canning, who as president of Health Mart is credited with playing a leading role in advancing the success of McKesson Corp.’s retail independent pharmacy business, is joining Omnicare Inc. as chief marketing officer.

Canning will oversee the marketing function across the company while taking full responsibility for Omnicare’s retail pharmacy operations. He will report directly to John Figueroa, Omnicare’s chief executive officer.

“Tim is a world-class executive who has successfully grown a number of health care brands through a passionate approach to meeting the customer’s needs and an exceptional marketing aptitude,” comments Figueroa. “He will be a very important member of our executive team as we look to rebrand the company and create a unified message in the marketplace to better leverage our industry-leading platform.”

With nearly 30 years of health care experience, Canning brings to Omnicare an extensive industry background.

For the past nine years he served in various executive roles for McKesson. As president of its Health Mart pharmacy business, Canning had full operational responsibility for the franchise, including the development and implementation of its long-term strategic plan.

Under his oversight Health Mart experienced rapid growth, expanding from 262 stores to about 2,800 stores in becoming the nation’s fourth-largest drug chain.

Canning has also served in an executive marketing role for Pharmacia Consumer Healthcare (currently Pfizer Consumer Healthcare) as well as in brand management for several products in the Wyeth Consumer Healthcare portfolio (also now Pfizer Consumer Healthcare).

McKesson says it has begun a search for a new Health Mart president.

Figueroa also came to Omnicare from McKesson. He joined Omnicare on January 1 after having most recently served as president of McKesson’s U.S. Pharmaceutical Group. Before that, Figueroa held a number of different positions at McKesson, including president of national account sales and packaging and senior vice president of the Southwest
region.