Biography of Walter M. Rosebrough Jr.

Bio in PDF format

Walter M. Rosebrough Jr., 53, was named president and chief executive officer of STERIS Corporation and a member of its Board of Directors on October 1, 2007.

STERIS develops, manufactures, and markets infection prevention, contamination prevention, microbial reduction, and surgical support systems, products, services, and technologies for healthcare, scientific, research, industrial, and government customers worldwide. The Company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Mentor, Ohio. As president and chief executive officer, Mr. Rosebrough is responsible for STERIS’s strategic planning and direction as well as its day-to-day business activities and functions.

During the course of a 35-year career, Mr. Rosebrough has developed a deep base of experience and a long track record of success while holding leadership positions in virtually all major business functions, including product and business development, manufacturing operations, finance, and marketing. He has led ventures that have ranged in scale from small start-up operations with a few employees to multinational businesses with over 5,000 employees and more than $1 billion in revenue, including a consistent track record of sales growth and margin improvement.

Mr. Rosebrough earned a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Kettering University (formerly General Motors Institute) while working as a co-op student in a GM assembly plant. After attending Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, on a GM fellowship, where he earned an MBA, he worked in the GM corporate finance staff in Detroit.

Prior to joining STERIS, Mr. Rosebrough spent more than 20 years in the healthcare industry in various roles as a senior executive with Hillenbrand Industries, Inc., a worldwide leading provider of medical technologies and related services. He served as Vice President of Planning for Hill-Rom and was eventually promoted to president and CEO of Support Systems International (SSI), a Hillenbrand subsidiary that was the leading company devoted to providing equipment and service to relieve the complications of immobility. In 1995, after the merger of SSI and Hill-Rom, Mr. Rosebrough was named president and chief executive officer of Hill-Rom , the health care subsidiary of Hillenbrand that develops, sells and rents patient support systems, non-invasive therapeutic products for a variety of acute and chronic medical conditions, medical equipment and workflow information technology solutions. In1999 and 2000, Mr. Rosebrough served as executive vice president and special advisor to the chief executive officer of Hillenbrand.

Mr. Rosebrough left Hillenbrand in 2000 to lead Vasocor, Inc., a Credit Suisse First Boston-funded start-up private company, as president and chief executive officer. Vasocor was a healthcare company focused on the development of a non-invasive medical device to enable early detection of atherosclerosis.

In 2004, Mr. Rosebrough purchased Coastal Hydraulics, Inc., a private company that provides hydraulic and pneumatic systems, equipment and services used in industrial, marine and mobile equipment applications. Mr. Rosebrough served as Coastal Hydraulics president and chief executive officer until joining STERIS in 2007.

Mr. Rosebrough is well known and respected in the healthcare and medical device industry. He is currently on the board of Joerns Healthcare, a privately held manufacturer of patient handling and wound management products and services. He previously served as a board director for AdvaMed, the world's largest medical technology association representing manufacturers of medical devices, diagnostic products and medical information systems and on the boards of Health Insights, a healthcare roundtable; The Center for Nursing Leadership, a professional development organization focused on creating future leaders in clinical and healthcare organizations and systems; and, Margaret Mary Hospital, a Batesville, Indiana community hospital.