Tony DeNicola, RPh. - New York Metropolitan Region

Tony graduated from St. John's University College of Pharmacy in 1962 with a B.S. in Pharmacy. Having worked in a pharmacy since the age of 14, Tony immediately entered the retail pharmacy environment as a partner in a family-owned pharmacy in suburban Long Island, Atlantic Chemists of Freeport.

Tony expanded the business, acquiring a number of his competitors and eventually bought a second store, Greystone Pharmacy in Rockville Centre. During the course of an 18-year period he assumed total management responsibility, expanded the operation significantly and built a staff of 55 people. In the course of this process, Tony familiarized himself with volume purchasing programs, cooperative advertising and centralized merchandising, operating, financial and administrative functions. He directed a total computerization of the business, one of the first of its kind, for a community of independent pharmacies.

Tony was instrumental in bringing together 19 independent community pharmacies from the local marketplace, forming the Legend Pharmacy Cooperative. This group, the first of its kind in the U.S., became, over a period of the next 13 years, the largest retail cooperative of independent pharmacies in the country.

Tony sold his retail stores and became President of Sterling Associates, a pharmacy brokerage and consulting firm. During the course of the next seven years, Sterling became a major force in pharmacy brokerage in the New York Metropolitan area, and actively participated in the sale of more than 50 independent pharmacies. Tony has a national reputation as an evaluator of independent pharmacies, having participated in many seminars and conferences as an expert on the value of an independent pharmacy. He has remained active in evaluating and brokering independent pharmacy business transfers throughout the country during the past 15 years.