Tasked with hiring the first Project Manager in EMEA for US company, Somalogic. This person has built a full EMEA Project Management team underneath them with my assistance.
Hire due to Societal CDMO's growth. Hired to lead on projects for a new CDMO service offering for the company, supporting phase 1-3 projects. involved a relocation for a 100% on-site role.
Tasked with hiring an account manager to significantly expand the academic and healthcare market at Promega. A particular focus was on someone who combined a strong technical and scientific background with a strong commercial understanding.
Having a mother that worked extensively as an Oncology nurse and then a Clinical Trials Nurse, I have always been aware of the importance of this field and the impact that this has on patients at the end point. Having talked and researched extensively with her has demonstrated the need for improvement in the clinical trials space. Having a market that has a strong focus on this has made this personal for me and provides a strong sense of satisfaction in supporting companies at the forefront of innovation.
Working on the EMEA Head of Project Management role for Somalogic. Being able to place the first European Project manager for a company that was new to the area was particularly memorable. Knowing that this person would be responsible for building and leading a team to ensure that the expansion into EMEA would be successful really made this role stand out. Alongside a strong need to educate a new market about a company with little established presence was a challenge I enjoyed, as well as being able to attract someone from a Top 5 ranked pharmaceutical company provide a particular sense of satisfaction.
The biggest source of information is within networking with senior leadership in the industry. Being able to discuss new opinions and information with people with over 20 years experience in the field always provides very interesting perspectives into the newest advancements in the industry. Gathering this thought leadership from the very best in the industry allows for much deeper insight than I would be able to gather on my own.
Keeping the patient end user and the different new therapeutics and research will make to their lives is the most rewarding thing about my current role. Knowing that the companies I support are innovating to provide better therapeutics with much higher levels of precision to a patient keeps this role very rewarding. As well as being able to see advancements in previously untreatable diseases.
Sarah Cannon Institute would be a really interesting company to work for. Seeing them as the industry leaders in oncology and the impact of the work they do across this field would be a privilege to be a part of.
Never stop learning. I have spoken to people with over 25 years experience in one field who always keep that curiosity and find new ways to improve. The clinical research space is constantly evolving with new innovations and ways of working. Someone who is willing to embrace new change and finds continuous improvement will be a very strong asset to a company. There is constant new research being produced and life-long learning is essential to stay at the top.
Having to educate the EMEA market on a US company that has no presence in EMEA. Having to discuss the future potential and how the technology will revolutionise the market to get people bought into the growth and long term vision for Somalogic, I relied on my ability to understand and communicate the use and potential impact of this technology to people in the market.
Resilience and adaptability. It is well known that the CRO/CDMO world can be volatile and the majority of new drug candidates fail. Being resilient to this and knowing that the next breakthrough could be on the next project is essential to succeed. Being adaptable to embrace this ever-changing field is also essential, if you become stuck in your ways, you will be left behind.
The highly collaborative approach makes Kapia stand out in the recruitment space. When you work with Kapia, you are getting the service of 10 consultants and 3 directors who all work together to get you the best results. I know with other companies you are interacting with one person only, in Kapia, every person has different specialities and knowledge meaning that you get the best tailored service and expertise for you, not just the best of one person.
With both, the best connections are made when you have a thorough understanding of a person’s goals and needs. It is not good enough to take a checklist of what people want and meeting that. You need to understand what the end goal is and what success looks like for the individual. Understanding someone’s motivations and how they see the market, means when we connect people, they are deeply bought into the company from the outset. For a client, I want to understand the intricacies of how a company works in terms of vision and culture, as well as what the benefit to the patient will be at the end. Once I understand this then everything I do afterwards will have this in mind and align to this.
Decentralised trials are particularly interesting for me. I know that patient recruitment is a large stress factor for failings in clinical trials. Being able to diversify away from the one central site model into standardised smaller multi-site or even individual home trials is very exciting as this will break the barriers to recruitment down. Being able to recruit more patients in areas never thought possible before has the potential to lead to higher rates of clinical trial completion as well as improving equity in clinical research, which has always been a very interesting topic of interest to me.
Bonobo: to me the man is simply an artist when it comes to music, his ability to create individual soundscapes that invoke such visceral emotion never fails to blow me away.
Bob Marley: beyond simply incredible music, the man had such a deep world view that encompassed every aspect of life. To be able to hear what he thought and experienced in the world would be incredible.
Rick Stein: travel and food are two huge passions of mine, and this has undoubtably been influenced by Rick. His programs are in constant rotation in my house and being able to discuss his travels would be amazing. As well as maybe being able to take a look at those famous notebooks of recipes and cooking skills!
Indonesia. As well as being my heritage, I find it to be a beautiful country filled with beautiful people, kindness and respect for humanity are essential to life here. The fact that it is so many islands as well means there are such prominent regional differences, it is like being able to travel to dozens of different countries at once. You can never explore all of Indonesia and every time I go, it opens my world view to completely new experiences.