Sylester Flowers is the founder and chief executive officer of the Ramsell Corporation, through which he manages several pharmaceutical- and health-based businesses. Mr. Flowers currently devotes the majority of his time to operating a state-of-the-art pharmacy in a low-income community in California.

A prominent figure in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 46 years, Mr. Flowers earned his B.S. in pharmacy from Howard University in Washington, D.C. He then spent a year as a neuro-pharmacology research assistant at the VA Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, before serving two years in the Army.

On January 8, 1964, Mr. Flowers opened his first community pharmacy in Oakland, California; and in August 1967, he founded the Ramsell Corporation. At one point he owned six community pharmacies, but today his business ventures include the Apothecary Eastman Town Center, a state-of-the-art community pharmacy; Alta Tierra, a community investment property; the Flowers Heritage Foundation, an organization that supports Howard University and other schools of pharmacy; and the Public Health Services Bureau, a pharmacy benefits management company established for the medically indigent with HIV/AIDS in Washington state and California.

Mr. Flowers also worked as an adjunct professor of pharmacy from 1975-1986 at the University of Pacific in Stockton, California, and as an assistant clinical professor of pharmacy at the University of California School of Pharmacy in San Francisco from 1972-1986.

Named "Local Hero of the Year 2004" by KQED - PBS California, Mr. Flowers also was the recipient of the California Pharmacists Association Academy of Pharmacy Management's Appreciation of Contribution to Pharmacy Management Award from 1980-1985.

Mr. Flowers, who will celebrate his 70th birthday in June 2005, lives in San Francisco, California, with his wife, Helen. He has three adult children and two children in high school.

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