Ex-UPMC executive to oversee redevelopment of massive Mylan plant
A former UPMC executive has been named president of WVU Innovation Corp., a Morgantownbased nonprofit that’s redeveloping the former Mylan pharmaceutical manufacturing plant into a small business incubator.
Stacey Armstrong, formerly vice president of operations at UPMC Passavant Hospital in McCandless, will take over daily management of the sprawling 1.1million-square-foot plant May 9.
Ms. Armstrong also previously served as vice president of ambulatory care and executive director of laboratories at UPMC Presbyterian-Shadyside Hospital during a tenure lasting more than five years before she was named COO at OhioHealth’s biggest hospital, Riverside Methodist in Columbus, Ohio, which has 1,059 beds.
Negotiations with entrepreneurs and other tenants of the center are underway.
“We are optimistic about the interest already being expressed, and now under Stacey’s leadership, WVUIC will be positioned to accelerate that work, including with federal, local and state officials, to create public and private sector jobs,” Rob Alsop, WVU president for strategic initiatives, said in a prepared statement.
Her appointment comes a week after WVUIC formally took ownership of the former pharmaceutical
manufacturing plant on Chestnut Ridge Road for $1.
The plant was shuttered in July in a cost-cutting move by Viatris Inc., Mylan’s successor company. Closing the plant, which had been in operation since 1965, left 2,200 people out of work.
In November 2020, generic drug giant Mylan merged with Pfizer Inc.’s Upjohn unit to form Viatris Inc.
WVU Innovation Corp. was formed by West Virginia University and the WVU Health System in 2015, which provides medical care under the WVU Medicine brand.
Ms. Armstrong received her undergraduate degree from Indiana University School of Medicine and an MBA from Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.