Milan "Mike" Puškar (September 8, 1934 – October 7, 2011) was an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

from

Morgantown, West Virginia Morgantown is a city in Monongalia County, West Virginia, United States, and its county seat. It is situated along the Monongahela River in North Central West Virginia and is the home of West Virginia University. The population was 30,347 at the 2 ...

Biography

Puskar was born in Vintondale, Pennsylvania, to ethnic Serbian parents from

Kordun The Kordun () region is a part of central Croatia from the bottom of the Petrova Gora (Peter's mountain) mountain range, which extends along the rivers Korana and Slunjčica, and forms part of the border region to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Within ...

. He graduated from

Youngstown State University Youngstown State University (YSU or Youngstown State) is a public university in Youngstown, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1908 and is the easternmost member of the University System of Ohio. The university is composed of six undergrad ...

in 1960. In 1961, he and

Don Panoz Donald Panoz ( or ; February 13, 1935 – September 11, 2018) was an American entrepreneur who founded two pharmaceutical companies. Early life Panoz was an Italian-American. His father, Eugene Panunzio, immigrated to the United States from ...

co-founded a pharmaceutical company which became Mylan Inc. Puskar was Mylan's president from 1976 through 2000. In November 1993, aged 58, he became the company's

chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. He served as CEO until 2002 and as chairman until 2009. Following his retirement as CEO, his successor Robert J. Coury drastically cut employee benefits and blocked Puskar from entering Mylan’s Morgantown facility, and Puskar came to regret putting him in charge of the company.

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia, United States. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Ins ...

's Milan Puskar Stadium was named for him after he made a

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

20 million donation. Morgantown Health Right a free clinic was renamed Milan Puskar Health Right in 2004 in recognition of his generous support since its inception.

Death

Puskar died in

, on October 7, 2011, from cancer.

References

1934 births 2011 deaths American businesspeople Businesspeople from Morgantown, West Virginia American people of Serbian descent Youngstown State University alumni Deaths from cancer in West Virginia 20th-century American philanthropists Philanthropists from West Virginia {{US-business-bio-1930s-stub