2012 Hall of Fame Inductees

Passionate about everything she did, Cindy Juhas couldn’t hear “no.” She preached the value of training for manufacturer and distributor sales reps, not to mention customers. Hundreds of sales reps sold at a higher level because of her.As a founder of Professional Women in Healthcare, Juhas had a profound impact on women in the industry. She was selected as the Health Industry Distributor Association’s first female chairperson in 2002, and received the association’s Industry Award of Distinction in 2007.Juhas was creative in her business, Hospital Associates, and quick to adapt to changing market conditions. She recognized that for programs to succeed, they had to serve the customer, manufacturer and distributor. She served as a model for other independent distributors.Cindy Juhas was said to have one of the loudest laughs in the industry. But people seemed to love hearing it. “She lives in bright colors,” it was said of her.

When Ted Almon hooked his chain onto something, he wasn’t going to fail. At 28, he acquired a failing regional distributor named Claflin Co., and grew it into a successful regional acute-care distributor, one of the last independents in that market.In 1986, he adapted the “just-in-time” inventory management technique from the Japanese auto industry to create one of the first stockless purchasing programs in healthcare.As chairman of the Health Industry Distributor Association, he spurred the Paradigm Project, the first critical look at the healthcare supply chain.He served on the boards of two local hospitals, was an appointee of the Rhode Island Governor’s Healthcare Reform Commission, and served on a variety of industry and business task forces dealing with health reform.

Almon had courage, confidence and conviction, without the arrogance to which he might be entitled. He was also supercompetitive. It is said that playing golf with him was enjoyable, so long as you were his partner.