Tech Exec of the Year: Scot Lindsey

Senior Vice President, Information Officer, Manufacturing and Quality | Eli Lilly and Co. 

Major company achievements: In the past year, Scot Lindsey has led the development and rollout of a first-of-its-kind, patent-pending proprietary speed-of-movement solution technology that assures quality and safety by minimizing contamination in sterile pharmaceutical manufacturing environments. “My team delivered a tech solution that ensures Lilly’s operators move at a safe and appropriate speed in real time and in a manner that complies with regulation expectations,” Lindsey said. The integration of an existing wearable device and a Lilly-developed application is a solution that, for the first time, establishes an empirical standard for an optimal speed of movement of operators in a sterile environment. This technology now has the potential to become the standard across the pharmaceutical industry. Lindsey’s team also has digitized operations for Lilly’s new manufacturing facilities in North Carolina, Indiana and Ireland, leveraging automation in every aspect—automated guided vehicles, automated warehousing, robotics and highly automated production equipment.

Challenge faced: In the earliest days of the pandemic, Lilly aggressively responded to the global health crisis. The company set up a drive-thru testing capability to help Hoosiers in central Indiana. Initially, it created a call center using traditional technology but concluded that it would run into capacity constraints. Lilly then pivoted to a cloud-based call center, which worked extremely well.

First computer: Commodore 64. “I learned to program and played a lot of games.”

The road: Lindsey majored in industrial engineering at Purdue University and became a U.S. Army field artillery officer through ROTC while in college. After the Army, he joined General Motors as a software engineer focused on plant-floor automation in a GM assembly plant. He joined Lilly nearly five years ago after being recruited from Cardinal Health in Columbus, Ohio.

Go-to website: Google

Favorite tech gadgets: Apple watch, “for wellness and convenience.”

Most-used apps: Teams, iMessage, Apple News (health and tech focus)

Preferred work atmosphere: real-time, boundary-less organization in an open office workspace

I wish people understood: Lilly is in the middle of a business case situation as it scales the company through manufacturing capacity expansion. This expansion is fully enabled and transformed by technology.

My job would be easier if: “I had a time machine that slowed time down so we could get even more done in a 24-hour day.”

Free time: golf•

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