WASHINGTON, Ind.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 8, 2026--
TrueScripts, a pharmacist-founded, team member owned pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), today announced that Byron Mickle became President & Chief Executive Officer effective October 1, 2026. Mickle joined TrueScripts as President in March 2026 as part of a planned leadership succession for Dean Merder.
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Merder, who has led TrueScripts since 2021, is now the Executive Advisor to the Chairman. In this role he will support leadership continuity, strengthen board governance, and provide oversight of the next phase of the company's employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) at TrueScripts.
Merder joined TrueScripts in 2018 as Chief Experience Officer and was named President in 2020 and President and Chief Executive Officer in 2021. Over eight years he guided the company's expansion from a regional prescription benefit manager to a national one, built out its leadership organization, and led TrueScripts through its transition to team member ownership in 2023.
" It has been the privilege of my career to lead such an incredible team. Eight years ago, I joined a company with a strong conviction about how prescription benefits ought to work, and a team determined to prove it. Watching that conviction grow into a national organization owned by the people who serve our clients and members every day has been extraordinary. Byron brings the experience to extend that impact further, and I am excited for what this team will accomplish under his leadership," said Dean Merder, Executive Advisor to the Chairman of TrueScripts.
Mickle brings more than 35 years in pharmacy benefit management, with experience across both the largest PBMs in the industry and the transparent, pass-through model built as an alternative to them. He spent 15 years as Chief Growth Officer & SVP at Navitus Health Solutions, where the company grew from roughly 500,000 covered lives to more than nine million lives during his tenure as CGO.
"I have spent over 35 years in this industry, and I have rarely seen an organization hold to its principles the way TrueScripts has under Dean's leadership. The foundation he and this team built is the reason I am here. My job is to carry it forward and widen its reach, so that more employers, government entities and health plans can experience the level of care this team has been delivering for over a decade," said Byron Mickle, President and Chief Executive Officer of TrueScripts.
TrueScripts was founded in Washington, Indiana, in 2014 on a belief that employers and the members they cover deserved full visibility into what their prescriptions cost and why. The pharmacist-founded company has operated on a fully transparent, pass-through model ever since.
"TrueScripts started because we believed the person picking up a prescription deserved better than what the industry was giving them. That hasn't changed, and it isn't going to. Dean spent eight years proving the idea works, and today the people who built this company own it. I'm grateful to Dean, and I'm excited for what comes next under Byron," said Nathan Gabhart, RPh, Founder of TrueScripts.
Both Byron’s and Dean’s appointments reflect the company's long-term commitment to full transparency and to doing what is right for clients and members as their trusted PBM partner into the future.
ABOUT TRUESCRIPTS
TrueScripts is a pharmacist-founded, team member owned, fully transparent and pass-through pharmacy benefit manager. Our mission is to build lasting relationships by providing prescription benefit expertise at a personal and customized level to ensure optimum value at the lowest possible cost. We are committed to lowering prescription drug spending, achieving clinically effective outcomes, and consistently delivering Amazing Care.
Byron Mickle, President and Chief Executive Officer
CORONADO, Calif. (AP) — Sailors disembarked the USS Lincoln on Thursday following a deployment that included a record 265 uninterrupted days at sea supporting the Iran war and reports of supply shortages and deteriorating mental health among the crew.
Families waiting for the aircraft carrier’s arrival in San Diego Bay described crying and losing sleep after hearing about the ship’s food shortages and tough conditions. Many said the sailors had sent lists of the food they were craving.
Abel Ramirez, 20, walked off the carrier with a big grin, overjoyed that his first deployment was over.
“It feels amazing,” he said while headed out to search for his parents who drove from Texas. “There was a certain point when I never thought I would come off.”
The carrier drew national attention following reports of stress among the crew and poor mental health, as well as supply shortages, including food and hygiene products, during its Iran war mission.
Dozens of sailors stood atop the Lincoln as it glided past the cityscape of downtown San Diego toward cheering families who were carrying flowers and balloons and ringing cowbells.
Cassity Garduque, 14, waved as her mom in her sailor uniform frantically waved back from the top deck. "It feels really overwhelming,” she said about being reunited, adding she's glad her mom won't need to eat ramen almost every day.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew out to the Lincoln on Wednesday to give the crew the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor a unit can receive.
Hegseth pushed back against what he said were efforts to turn the “Lincoln into some sort of a symbol, a symbol of dysfunction or a symbol of low morale or a symbol of a failed mission.”
Capt. Daniel Keeler, the ship’s commander, said most of the crew was on their first deployment and that the issues they faced were normal for such a long deployment, adding everyone had access to four meals a day.
Among the first to depart the carrier at the naval base in Coronado were 64 fathers meeting their babies for the first time, the Navy said.
Waiting for the Lincoln to bring her husband home, sailor Kathy Monterrosa held her 6-month-old daughter, Sarahi, outfitted in a tiny blue and white sailor dress.
“She’s our deployment baby,” said Monterrosa, of Virginia Beach, Virginia.
It was tough to hear about the ship’s conditions while she was pregnant, she said. “I was crying a lot and worried. I wasn’t sure if he was OK or not,” she said.
When she finally heard from her husband, he told her it was “pretty bad.”
Sailor Steven Rivas beamed as he held is 7-month-old daughter.
“I couldn’t grasp the reality of it,” he said about coming home. He said he became overwhelmed as they pulled into the bay, “seeing everyone and knowing my family was waiting for me.”
Alma Solano Velez said her husband gave his family an extensive list of the foods he has been craving over the past 10 months: oxtail, barbecue chicken, broccoli and shrimp empanadas to name a few.
He had told his wife about “the lack of food and showers” on board and was looking forward to seeing their daughter, who turned 4 while he was away, she said.
The Navy initially downplayed any problems during the deployment, and President Donald Trump commented in August that the Lincoln’s lengthy deployment was “not nearly long enough.”
Hegseth told the crew that “what makes the U.S. military and the U.S. Navy and all these sailors different is that you adapt and that you’re resilient and you overcome — you finish the mission nonetheless.”
The carrier left San Diego in November and arrived in the Middle East in January. U.S. and Israeli forces launched airstrikes against Iran on Feb. 28.
Navy leaders eventually acknowledged there were some issues aboard.
In August, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said the Lincoln maintained adequate food supplies, but because combat operations limited resupply opportunities, meal options were reduced for a short time.
After more than 10 months at sea, the Lincoln’s crew got a stop in Thailand early last month on the way back from the Middle East.
Extended naval deployments can wear on service members who are away from home for long periods and increase strain on the ship and its equipment.
The Navy told lawmakers that eight sailors attempted suicide during the record-setting deployment, though experts say that number is low in a strike group of 6,000 sailors over 10 months.
According to the citation that Hegseth read to the crew, the Lincoln and its strike group executed nearly 3,700 combat missions, launched 450 Tomahawk cruise missiles, shot down 77 one-way attack drones, sank 64 Iranian warships, and destroyed 21 anti-ship cruise missiles.
The Lincoln, which set a record for days between ports of call, is the second carrier to endure an unusually long deployment during the Iran war and to receive the Presidential Unit Citation afterward, typically reserved for significant achievement in combat.
The crew of the USS Gerald R. Ford returned in May from a 326-day deployment — the longest for an aircraft carrier in the past 50 years and a record in the post-Vietnam War era. The deployment didn’t include as many uninterrupted days at sea as the Lincoln.
Another carrier, the usually Asia-based USS George Washington, relieved the Lincoln in the Middle East in August.
Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.
Captain Daniel J. Keeler, Commanding Officer of the USS Abraham Lincoln, greets his family after the aircraft carrier returned to Naval Air Station North Island after deployment Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Coronado, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Family and friends cheer as the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier returns to Naval Air Station North Island after deployment Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Coronado, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier returns to the San Diego Bay after deployment Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Sailors wave aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier as it returns to Naval Air Station North Island after deployment Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Coronado, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier returns to the San Diego Bay after deployment Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Karl Anderson)
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier returns to the San Diego Bay after deployment Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Ofelia Woodruff waits to greet her son, sailor Michael Woodruff, as the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier returns to Naval Air Station North Island after deployment Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Coronado, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Family and friends gather to welcome sailor Frankie Valdovinos as the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier returns to Naval Air Station North Island after deployment Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Coronado, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier returns to the San Diego Bay after deployment Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier returns to the San Diego Bay after deployment Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
