University of California Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business Announces Avanir Pharmaceuticals CEO and CFO Join Advisory Board of Center for Health Care Management and Policy

June 16, 2020 |

3 min read

Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and The UCI Paul Merage School of Business are pleased to announce the appointment of two new executives to the School’s Center for Health Care Management and Policy advisory board. Wa’el Hashad, president and CEO of Avanir Pharmaceuticals,

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif., June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- AVANIR Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and The UCI Paul Merage School of Business are pleased to announce the appointment of two new executives to the School’s Center for Health Care Management and Policy advisory board. Wa’el Hashad, president and CEO of Avanir Pharmaceuticals, and Lisa Locklear, vice president and CFO of Avanir Pharmaceuticals, have joined forces with the school to help advance the mission of preparing business leaders for a digitally driven world.

Wa’el Hashad joined Avanir in July 2017. He is a passionate leader with over 25 years of pharmaceutical experience in sales, marketing and general management, within both the U.S. and international markets.

“Avanir and the UCI Paul Merage School of Business have similar goals as we both work to educate populations on the best ways to advance research within the current health care system,” said Mr. Hashad. “It’s an honor to be able to serve on the school’s Center for Health Care Management and Policy Advisory Board, which is so passionate about bringing research and education opportunities to up-and-coming health care leaders.”

Eric R. Spangenberg, dean of UCI’s Paul Merage School of Business is excited to welcome two pharmaceutical leaders in the Orange County region onto the board.

“At The Paul Merage School of Business, we focus on connecting and collaborating with exceptional leaders in the business community,” said Dean Spangenberg. “Mr. Hashad and Ms. Locklear are involved and invested corporate partners that will bring a wealth of pharmaceutical leader knowledge to our board.”

Lisa Locklear, an alumna of the Merage School, joined Avanir in September 2018. She brings a long career of operational and strategic finance leadership to oversee the financial operations of Avanir including controllership and accounting, financial planning and reporting, procurement/strategic sourcing and contracts and pricing.

“The Paul Merage School of Business taught me so many valuable lessons that I’ve been able to translate into my professional career including how to adapt our corporate culture to ever-changing issues surrounding quality of care, cost and access,” said Ms. Locklear. “It is an honor to be able to give back to a school that has given so much to me.”

About The Paul Merage School of Business
The Paul Merage School of Business at UCI offers four dynamic MBA programs – plus PhD, specialty masters and undergraduate business degrees – that prepare business leaders for our digitally driven world. Through our programs, students acquire the exceptional ability to grow their organizations through strategic innovation, analytical decision-making, digital information technology and collaborative execution. While the Merage School is relatively young, it has quickly grown to rank consistently among the top five percent of all business programs worldwide through exceptional student recruitment, world-class faculty, a strong alumni network and close relationships with both individual business executives and global corporations. Additional information is available at https://merage.uci.edu/.

About Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company committed to delivering innovative central nervous system (CNS) solutions to improve the lives of patients and their care communities. As part of our commitment, we have extensively invested in our pipeline and are dedicated to advancing CNS treatments in areas of high unmet medical need. For more information about Avanir, please visit http://www.avanir.com.

For additional information, please contact:

UCI Paul Merage School of Business
Media contact: Xanat Hernandez
E: xanath@uci.edu

Corporate Communications, Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
T: 949-389-6738
E: mediarelations@avanir.com