1964-1979
Initially, the DIA President managed the records, meetings and financial matters. Meetings consisted of an Annual Meeting and an occasional additional meeting on a specific topic. During the latter part of the early period, 1964-1979, Ms. Claire R. McDonnell managed the association.

1979-1992
In 1979, Mr. Thomas W. Teal, (Cdr., USN Ret.) was employed as the Executive Director of  DIA and as Editor-in-Chief of the Drug Information Journal. During this period, DIA membership and activities increased substantially. The number of meetings, training courses, and symposia grew to over 30 per year, including meetings in Canada, Europe, and Japan.

In 1989, the North American Steering Committee (now known as the Advisory Council of North America) was established, followed by a Steering Committee for Europe (now known as the Advisory Council of Europe) and Southwest Asian Pacific. DIA established a European office in Basel, Switzerland, in 1991. A DIA office in Sydney, Australia soon followed the European office. (This office has since closed.) In January 1999, the DIA office in Tokyo, Japan opened. 

1992-2004
In 1992, Mr. Teal retired from the position of Executive Director but continued his position as Editor-in-Chief of the Drug Information Journal.

Mr. Erich F. Lukas Jr., was employed as Executive Director. Mr. Lukas’s tenure continued  through 1995. During that time, the concept of committees organized to address particular topics through meetings and workshops on a recurring basis was expanded. The DIA website http://www.diahome.org became operational in April 1996.

In July 1996, Joseph R. Assenzo, PhD, was employed as Executive Director. He continued to serve in this position until 2004.

2005
The Board of Directors approved a new Volunteer Awards program that advanced two of the association's major strategic initiatives: continued efforts to make the DIA volunteer experience as rewarding as possible, and improved transparency in communications among all DIA constituents.

DIA responded to membership needs in Japan with a new paradigm for delivering educational content that more accurately reflected the modern, global and multidisciplinary pharmaceutical industry environment with the 1st Multitrack Workshop in Japan: DIA Congress on the Development & Utilization of Pharmaceuticals in September. This first multitrack offering in Japan was also the first DIA workshop in Japan to be officially and simultaneously endorsed by the Ministry of Health, Labor & Welfare; the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency; and the Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association.

At its December meeting, the Board of Directors changed the status of the Advisory Council of Japan from provisional to full.

2006
In March, members from all three Regional Advisory Councils convened for the first time, prior to the Paris EuroMeeting. In November, DIA held the first SIAC Leadership Summit in Dublin, bringing together SIAC chairpersons from Europe and North America.

The Annual Meeting in Philadelphia featured several "firsts," including the first DIA appearance by the Drugs Controller General of India and the FDA's first public update on the FDA's Human Subject Protection / Bioresearch Monitoring Initiative. In addition, representatives of the EMEA and FDA jointly announced that the EU / FDA Confidentiality Agreement, originally created in 2003 as a two-year arrangement, had been extended to September 2010. This Annual Meeting also featured a special reception honoring the one hundredth anniversary celebration of the FDA.

In response to requests from the Middle East's drug regulatory authorities, DIA conducted a workshop in Dubai in partnership with the Middle East Regulatory Network. Themes discussed during this May workshop were advanced to the 7th Middle East Regulatory Conference: MERC 2006 conducted in November in Dubai, attended by representatives from eleven Middle East regulatory authorities.

Jointly organized with the Institute of Clinical Research (India) and with collaborative sponsorship from Biomedical Consulting International, Inc., DIA presented Drug Discovery & Clinical Development in India: Opportunities & Challenges in Mumbai in October. Two pre-conference tutorials were specially targeted at graduate post-medical students in clinical research and pharmacy, and were rewarded by sizable percentages of attendees who were students from Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

By the end of 2006, the EMEA EudraVigilance training program, with DIA serving as conference organizer, had trained more than 1,000 users with skills required to efficiently manage the new concepts of electronic reporting that became mandatory in the EEA in November 2005.