Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Names Patrick J. Whalen Chief Operating Officer

Release Date: March 27, 2008
Contact: Kari Root Bonaro
Phone: 716-881-8921
Email: kbonaro@bnmc.org
Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus

(March 27, 2008 – BUFFALO, NY) The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. this week announced that Patrick J. Whalen has joined the organization as its first chief operating officer. The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) is a consortium of the region’s premier health care, life sciences research, and medical education institutions, all co-located on 115 acres in downtown Buffalo. The BNMC is dedicated to the cultivation of a world-class medical campus for clinical care, research, education, and entrepreneurship.

Whalen will spearhead the renovation, build-out, and tenant recruitment of the BNMC’s Innovation Center at 640 Ellicott Street (the four-story former Trico Products Corp. building). This redevelopment provides the BNMC with the physical space needed to help grow local biotech companies, as well as attracting companies from Canada, internationally, and across the United States to the medical campus.

We are fortunate to have such an accomplished businessman and community leader join our team,” said Matthew K. Enstice, Executive Director of the BNMC. “The growth and development of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and our member institutions is a great opportunity to create jobs for our community and Pat has a proven track record to create a foundation for job growth.”

Whalen has extensive experience on a wide variety of international supply chain issues including marketing access, warehousing, distribution, sourcing, and freight forwarding. Whalen conceptualized and established Fulfillment Systems International, a distribution services provider offering marketing support, warehousing and distribution, freight forwarding, and transportation service to firms operating in the US and Canada, with annual sales of $10 million and one hundred employees in five locations. He sold this company to a UPS subsidiary in 2000 and became division manager of UPS Supply Chain Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Parcel Service, providing supply chain management solutions to businesses worldwide, with 14,000 employees and $750 million in sales.

He joins the BNMC after most recently serving as trade consultant for the World Trade Center Buffalo Niagara, a community-based economic development organization which builds economic vitality through global trade.

Whalen is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the Bi-National Tourism Alliance, the Buffalo Niagara World Trade Center, and the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Alumni Association; secretary of the Direct Marketing Industry Working Group in Washington, D.C.; and co-chair of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership’s Logistics Council. Whalen has served on the boards of the Rotary Club of Buffalo, the American Red Cross Greater Buffalo Chapter, Buffalo Niagara WorldConnect, He also conceptualized and co-founded Come-to-America.

Whalen is a graduate of the University at Buffalo’s School of Management Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and attended Canisius College.

This is a new position for the growing organization, which currently has seven full-time employees and plans to hire three additional staff members in the coming months.

About the BNMC

BNMC, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2001 by key health care and research institutions, the City of Buffalo, and neighborhood stakeholders, serves as the single entity charged with collaboratively planning and implementing projects and programs for the medical campus. The BNMC is dedicated to the cultivation of a world-class medical campus for clinical care, research, education, and entrepreneurship on 115 acres in downtown Buffalo. It is home to the region’s top clinical, research, and medical education institutions, including: University at Buffalo, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Olmsted Center for the Visually Impaired, Kaleida Health, Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, Buffalo Medical Group, Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center, and Upstate New York Transplant Services.

More than 8,500 people come to work at the medical campus every day. Together, the BNMC institutions host over one million patient visits annually and account for approximately $1.5 billion in economic impact each year. The medical campus consists of more than 4.5 million square feet of research, clinical, and support space.


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