Roger Griggs Changed Careers, Learned a New Industry and Built Richwood Pharmaceuticals

Roger Griggs spent his early career teaching and coaching football. Then he moved into pharmaceuticals, learned the business and eventually founded Richwood Pharmaceutical Company.

The Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame will recognize Griggs as a member of its Class of 2026.

A career change can carry old skills forward

Griggs earned his bachelor’s degree from Indiana State University and began his working life in education and athletics. His move into pharmaceuticals took him into a field with different products, customers, and rules.

He spent nearly a decade in the industry before founding Richwood Pharmaceutical Company. That period of learning belongs in the story alongside the company’s later growth.

For readers considering a change of careers, Griggs’ path is worth studying for its timing. He changed fields first, worked in the new industry, and then started a company. Those were separate steps.

It is tempting to tell an entrepreneurial story as a leap from one job to a successful business. In this case, doing so would leave out years of preparation. His experience offers a more realistic picture of how a career change can develop.

Richwood and the work that followed

Griggs founded Richwood Pharmaceutical Company after years inside the industry. The company developed and marketed products including Adderall, then merged with Shire six years later.

The move from industry employee to founder put Griggs on the other side of running a pharmaceutical business. Richwood’s growth and its merger with Shire became major milestones in a career that has spanned more than four decades in healthcare.

Richwood’s six-year path to the Shire merger looks different when you include the years Griggs spent in pharmaceuticals before founding it. The company’s timeline was relatively short; the experience behind it took much longer to build.

That distinction gives the story its value for future founders. A business can grow quickly after launch while still resting on years of work that happened before it had a name.

Griggs and his wife, Kathy, live near Crittenden, giving Grant County and Northern Kentucky a local connection to his healthcare career.

Roger Griggs will join John Neace, Ervin Houchens and Purna Veer in the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026.

Celebrate the Class of 2026 with Kentucky’s entrepreneurial community in Lexington. Reserve your seat for the ceremony