Convocation speaker Dimitris Polygenis encourages graduates to embrace unexpected opportunities

As speaker at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and Faculty of Dentistry convocation ceremony on June 5, Dimitris Polygenis, president of McKesson Canada, encouraged new graduates to become comfortable with the road less taken.

“You may be confronted with opportunities that are different from what you were expecting, and you may have some anxiety about that. But the uncertainties that I have pushed through have resulted in some of the most rewarding experiences of my career,” says Polygenis, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy (BScPhm) in 1995 and Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) in 1997 from U of T.

“You may be confronted with opportunities that are different from what you were expecting...but the uncertainties that I have pushed through have resulted in some of the most rewarding experiences of my career.”

“Having that uncertainty may make you feel uncomfortable, but sometimes that’s when you take yourself to that next level. When I was uncomfortable, that’s when I really provided impact or grew as a professional, a clinician and a businessperson.”

Throughout his career, Polygenis embraced this philosophy, pursuing opportunities that he never expected as a pharmacy student and ultimately becoming a leader in the pharmaceutical industry.

Polygenis became interested in a pharmacy career after working in a retail pharmacy as a teenager. During his BScPhm and PharmD education, he had his sights on a career in hospital pharmacy. The programs, especially the PharmD, not only helped him gain clinical knowledge, but also exposed him to new fields through short rotations in industry and pharmacoeconomics.

Just as Polygenis was completing the PharmD program, Ontario was experiencing an economic crisis that resulted in significant cuts to health care, including clinical pharmacy opportunities. When he wasn’t able to find a clinical role, he pivoted and began working in other areas of health care, changing the course of his career.

Polygenis brings patient care perspective to solving industry challenges

Polygenis first began working for Phase 4 Health Inc., a small health care consulting business that worked with pharmaceutical manufacturers, helping them overcome challenges associated with launching new drug products, such as managing administration and reimbursement.

“Through this experience, I realized that I have an interest in business and entrepreneurship. It allowed me to apply a lot of what I had learned and find ways to solve health care problems,” he says. “I enjoyed the scope and magnitude of problems and looking for solutions that would work for our clients.”

After nearly ten years, the company was acquired by McKesson Canada, which provides pharmaceutical distribution and specialty health services to retail pharmacies and hospitals, and operates a network of independent pharmacies. In the more than 20 years since starting at McKesson Canada, Polygenis has taken on several roles with increasing leadership and responsibility, becoming president of McKesson Canada in October 2025.

During his time at McKesson, Polygenis has helped launch programs to assist patients gain access to new medications for a range of conditions and deliver personal protective equipment and vaccines to health care providers and hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Being a pharmacist has given me the luxury of understanding our customers’ worlds. Understanding the realities of working in hospital and retail pharmacies has allowed us to be a better partner to them,” he says. “My pharmacy background also brings an important patient perspective to the work and the decisions we make.”

On top of his work at McKesson, Polygenis has also taken on leadership roles in the pharmacy profession, serving on the Canadian Pharmacists Association and Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada boards, roles that have allowed him to share his business and health systems experience and perspectives while giving back to the profession.

Grads can apply pharmacists’ skills and attributes in any role

Though his career is different from what he imagined it would be as a student, Polygenis says that he has enjoyed using his pharmacy skills to help solve larger problems in health care and impact patients at a broader scale. In fact, he says that pharmacists are critical in industry, as they have the perspective and experience to advance patient care.

“My road took me out of clinical practice, but I feel like I have had an impact on people, just in an indirect way,” he says. “Whatever new graduates choose to do, they can take a lot of the aspects of what brought them into the pharmacy profession and apply it in their day-to-day work.”

“Whatever new graduates choose to do, they can take a lot of the aspects of what brought them into the pharmacy profession and apply it in their day-to-day work.”

Polygenis encourages new graduates to continue building on the attributes they developed during the pharmacy program – curiosity, critical thinking, empathy and kindness – in whatever role they have.

“As pharmacists, we’re trained to be problem-solvers, and clinical practice can make you very efficient at doing that. That’s a good thing, but we always need to recognize the importance of empathy and kindness in health care,” he says.

“Don't forget the importance of seeing the individual patient, their aspirations and experiences, and recognizing that kindness can be a part of an efficient, effective health care provider.”