About Michael Palone

This year (2026), I began a new global role as the Pharmacy Affairs Executive. Throughout my 10-plus years at the company, I have been able to bring my pharmacy experience to a variety of roles, offer input, and engage in many unique initiatives as a result. In this role, I am responsible for connecting clinical knowledge with business goals to align operations and market positioning. I can use my broad industry experience to translate pharmacy and healthcare best practices for our teams to support commercial and customer success. In short, I am a subject matter expert in pharmacy and industry for our global teams. I am also charged with building and strengthening our industry relationships with professional organizations and Schools of Pharmacy through our student program.

 

When did you start at Swisslog Healthcare?

 I joined Swisslog Healthcare in 2015 to lead our pharmacy automation operations teams – both project teams and customer service.

 

Your expertise:

• Pharmacist, practiced in hospitals and a variety of healthcare settings throughout my career, before transitioning to industry.
• Operations leadership – have led teams from both the vendor and product sectors.
• Product expertise – have worked in implementation and product management in software and technology, facilitating discussions with customers and translating their needs to engineering.  

 

What particularly fascinates you about your job and the healthcare industry?

As a practicing pharmacist, I was responsible for helping my patients and colleagues. As my career progressed in the field of technology, I was able to use these new tools to help other healthcare professionals address their practice problems and improve patient care. I enjoy the challenge of helping both customers and our teams understand a problem and work through to a solution.  

 

What are the key steps in your professional journey?

I began my pharmacy career rather unexpectedly, as a pharmacy technician in the US Army Reserves. Before that, I did not even know what a pharmacist did! I found the field challenging and went on to graduate from the University at Buffalo's Pharmacy School. I have worked as a practicing pharmacist in a wide variety of settings, from University Medical Centers to small rural hospitals and community pharmacies. I was in search of a career path and earned a Master's in Public Health; my final project involved a technology collaboration. Looking back, I realized that my practice activities kept coming back to the value of technology. My initial transition to industry led me to a role in pharmacy software at a GE Healthcare division, working on customer projects and later into a product management role. That was also my introduction to international business and global pharmacy.

At Swisslog Healthcare, I have held many unusual roles as a pharmacist, having led operations teams for many years, first in pharmacy automation and later with TransLogic as well. More recently, I led our product team and saw several new products come to market. I have just begun this new role in pharmacy affairs, where I can bring these collective experiences together in support of our customers and our teams.

Do you reveal something personal about yourself?

I have been researching my family history since I graduated from university and have traced several of my family lines back 5 or more generations to Europe. I enjoy the research challenge and visiting the places where my ancestors once called home. It is a great way to see parts of the world in a new way and get off the beaten path.