UNC med school dean joins PBM board

Prominent physician executive William Roper was elected to the board of directors of Medco Health Solutions, a Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based pharmacy benefit manager, effective Dec. 10. Roper, 59, is dean of the School of Medicine, vice chancellor for medical affairs and chief executive officer at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) Health Care System. All Medco directors receive an annual retainer of $50,000 paid quarterly, a meeting fee of $2,000 for each in-person meeting, $1,000 for each telephone meeting, annual equity awards and 5,000 Medco shares within three years of joining the board, according to an e-mail response from a Medco spokeswoman. In 2006, the total compensation—including cash, stock and option awards—for the nine members of Medco’s board of directors ranged from $22,757 to $371,366, depending on their length of service, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also is a director at renal-care provider DaVita Corp., and the Delhaize Group, a Brussels, Belgium-based food retailer. Roper is chairman of the board for the National Quality Forum and a board trustee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. -- by Jessica Zigmond