Interview: Ray Pasko, Alcon UK unit business head

Alcon’s Academy in Surrey is the kind of corporate campus eye care professionals are regularly invited to attend for education and training and the firm is determined to see more pass through its doors over the coming months. Watchmoor Park plays home to seminar rooms, fitting suites, a wet lab and acts as the home for the Alcon Scholarship Programme. The latest round of education at the Academy focuses on presbyopia with a schedule of days throughout the summer and a roadshow touring optometry schools around the country for those unable to travel to Surrey.

It is only fitting then that Ray Pasko sees education and multifocal contact lenses as the big opportunities for Alcon. The ebullient American is an evangelist for education and, as a multifocal wearer, a proponent of the modality too.

Pasko, who joined the UK business in September 2016, has a 15 year pedigree with Alcon working in commercial roles but was given the chance to widen his scope with a posting to the UK. ‘The opportunity came to grow my experience and come to an international market and take on a different role. I was always a sales leader, now I am the business unit head which means I have responsibility for sales, marketing, and professional affairs training. It’s a smaller market but a bigger role,’ he says.