February 16, 2015
Business Leader of the Year: Small Business/Entrepreneur
2015 Business Leaders of the Year: Hamid Mohaghegh, Family Pharmacy Inc. & Medserv International
PHOTO/MATT VOLPINI
Hamid Mohaghegh, Family Pharmacy Inc.
By Emily Micucci
Hamid Mohaghegh has successfully stood up to the big-pharmacy players in growing his independent Central Massachusetts chain, Family Pharmacy Inc., over the last 15 years.
While independent pharmacies have struggled to keep their doors open, Mohaghegh seems to have found boundless opportunity. In 2014, he doubled the number of his company's retail locations from six to 12 in Central and Western Massachusetts and hired 40 new employees. He hopes to open more locations in new markets in the coming years.
The secret is personalized service, and finding opportunities that large pharmacy chains aren't interested in, Mohaghegh said. Family Pharmacy takes a holistic approach to managing their patients' prescriptions.
“No one is a number to us,” Mohaghegh said. “We care about them as patients.”
Mohaghegh, 59, of Holden, is himself a pharmacist. But a little prodding reveals he's had a hand in a variety of business roles and ventures throughout the region.
It started when Mohaghegh arrived in the U.S. from Iran at age 18. He had dreamed to one day come to the United States and run his own business. But first, he worked in several Worcester manufacturing plants to earn money for college. Eventually, he graduated from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston and began his career.
That led to a number of roles in Central Massachusetts hospitals in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s.
Mohaghegh worked as director of pharmacy at Holden Hospital, now an outpatient facility, then moved on to Harrington Memorial Hospital in Southbridge, where he was director of pharmacy services before being promoted to assistant administrator.
Then, Mohaghegh decided to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams in the Middle East. He launched his first venture, a medical supply and pharmaceutical business, in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where he was also a hospital administrator.
But at the age of 39 and with a young child at home, Mohaghegh decided to return to Central Massachusetts in 1997. Daniel Moen, the former CEO of Heywood Hospital who is now chief executive of the Springfield-based Sisters of Providence Health System, was executing a turnaround. Knowing of the business acumen Mohaghegh displayed at other local hospitals, Moen was eager to bring him into the fold.
“He was definitely somebody I wanted as chief of operations,” Moen said of his longtime friend and colleague.
“He's an incredibly hard worker, very dedicated, very loyal and he gets results. That's the big thing,” Moen added.
This became the impetus for Mohaghegh's Central Massachusetts pharmacy venture. Moen explained that Heywood opened a retail pharmacy on the hospital campus for the convenience of patients and doctors, but it was struggling. Mohaghegh wanted to take it over and make it successful. After a due-diligence period, he purchased it at fair market value.
“He took it and really turned around that operation and also used it as a springboard to his other sites,” Moen said.
In the early days, Mohaghegh fondly remembers making home deliveries to elderly patients, and realized the need for more humanized pharmacy services. He ended up opening additional sites in North Central Massachusetts, in Ashburnham and Athol, and today has sites as far west as Amherst and as far east as Milford. He also contracts with institutions such as schools and medical facilities, including AdCare Hospital, an addiction treatment organization with an inpatient facility in Worcester.
The Family Pharmacy hub is Worcester, where Family Pharmacy also keeps its headquarters. And Mohaghegh also runs another business, Medserv International, out of that Worcester site. The medical supply and equipment company serves clients in the Middle East, but is separate from his earlier Dubai-based business. Medserv employs a handful of people locally.
“In heart and soul, I'm a Worcester boy,” Mohaghegh said.
In 2012, he proved that point when he purchased some old manufacturing buildings on Grove and Prescott streets, near Gateway Park and a cluster of incubators. The former Washburn & Moen Manufacuring Co. building at 100 Grove St. houses his offices, but he also has a number of tenants, and is working with the Worcester Business Development Corp. on plans for a potential mixed-use development, according to Timothy Murray, CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Murray, who sits on Family Pharmacy's advisory board, said he got to know Mohaghegh when Murray resigned as lieutenant governor in 2013 for his current job at the chamber.
Murray said he was struck by Mohaghegh's “serial entrepreneur nature” and creativity, which are being put to good use in an area of the city that's seeing rapid transformation.
“I think he's a great Worcester story,” Murray said. n
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Hamid Mohaghegh, Founder, Family Pharmacy Inc. & Medserv International
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