Jean Hoffman founded, chaired the Board of Directors and led Putney as President and CEO from inception to a $200 million exit in April 2016. Ms. Hoffman developed the strategy, raised over $60 million in debt and equity and recruited the outstanding team that built Putney into America’s leading generic drug company for pets. Under her leadership, Putney’s R&D and Regulatory team received 47% of the dog and cat generic approvals by FDA from 2012-2015. The Company’s commercial team launched eleven veterinary approved products for pets, four of them first to market generic dosage equivalents. Putney had the highest product market shares of any U.S. generic veterinary company as well as the highest growth rate amongst all U.S. animal pharmaceutical companies.
In April 2016, Putney sold 100% of the company to Dechra Holdings US Inc., a subsidiary of Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC for $200 million in cash.
Putney was Jean Hoffman’s second successful exit for a company she founded and built, after the acquisition of Newport Strategies, Inc. by Thomson Reuters (NYSE-TRI) in 2004. Newport built a global brand for its proprietary healthcare information technology (HIT) systems. Newport’s software developers delivered multiple generations of proprietary information systems that were adopted by customers on five continents and achieved an industry leading annual renewal rate of more than 85%.
Jean Hoffman has been honored with numerous awards, including being an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2014 Award winner in the life sciences category for New England.
Other honors include being inducted into NewSpring Capital’s CEO Hall of Fame in 2016 for outstanding investment returns; Deloitte’s 2013 North American Technology Fast 500; Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies in the U.S., 2011 and 2013; Goldman Sachs Builders & Innovators Summit Honoring 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs in 2012; and Best Places to Work in Maine, Society for HR Management, #1 in 2013; ranked in 2014 and 2012.