[Alabama] Alabama native rises from poverty to executive post at Eli Lilly

from The Tuscaloosa News

When Decatur native Derica Rice took the post of chief financial officer for Eli Lilly and Company earlier this month, he became the highest-ranking black executive at the company.

It's an accomplishment he credits to family, teachers and lessons learned in a poor Decatur neighborhood.

Rice, the fifth of seven children born to a Bookhaven Middle School custodian, became the Indianapolis company's chief financial officer May 1. The job comes with a $712,000 annual salary and a possible bonus of $534,000. He replaces Charles E. Golden, who retired.

Rice, 41, said his teachers and family not only made him aware of his potential, but he learned how to live up to it.

"If I can get anything across to the young people, it's run your own race," Rice told The Decatur Daily for a story Monday. "I don't measure myself by my peer group. I measure myself by my own aspirations and what I think I am capable of. If I constantly try to keep up with the Joneses, I can either overly excite myself or I can overly disappoint myself."

Brookhaven teacher B'Countess Pope is one of the teachers who made an impact on Rice.

When Rice was 11, his father died. But Pope didn't give him any special treatment when it came to completing a science project. She still expected it on her desk the day it was due.

"I wasn't going to let him just wallow in that sorrow," Pope said.

Rice understood the love behind the demands of his teachers and families.

"They made a concerted effort to ensure that my father's death wasn't the end," Rice said. "If anything, they made it the beginning."

Rice, an Austin High School salutatorian, graduated from GMI Engineering and Management Institute - now known as Kettering University in Flint, Mich. - with a degree in electrical engineering. He received his master's in business administration from Indiana University in 1990, the same year he joined Eli Lilly, based in Indianapolis.

He had spoken with company officials about a possible job, but it wasn't until he was at his mother's home in 1990 that he knew his future was with the company. That's where he noticed the vials of insulin in her refrigerator, which she took for her diabetes, were made by Eli Lilly.

"My gratitude with Lilly is it gave me an extra 24 years with my mother," he said.

He added: "I don't have to look very far to see and relate to what we do everyday."