CDMO Career Stories

In this episode Charlie Bexon sits down with Adriana Kiędzierska-Mencfeld, CEO of Rezon Bio, to discuss her career, craft and her read on where the industry is heading.

Recorded in San Diego, Adriana explains how Rezon Bio was formed when Polpharma Biologics split its biosimilars and CDMO businesses. The split gave the sites in Gdańsk and Warsaw a new focus: serving other drug developers. She reflects on the moves that shaped her, from academia to industry and from clinical development to commercialization, and on why she has always seen leadership as creating the conditions for others to grow.

The conversation covers balancing autonomy with control, and why she now hires for ownership, adaptability and pragmatism ahead of pure expertise. It also covers the shortage of regulatory, manufacturing and quality talent in biotech, long notice periods, and the traits leaders will need through 2026 and 2027.

CDMO Career Stories is part of the Metric Podcast Network.

In this episode Alex Alves Khan sits down with Ilya Koltover, President of Minaris Advanced Testing, a contract testing laboratory headquartered in Philadelphia, to discuss his career, craft and his read on where the industry is heading.

Ilya joined the business as chief transformation officer before stepping up to president a few months ago. He talks about leading a testing laboratory through change, why grit matters more than polish, and why he believes comfort with uncertainty is the defining leadership trait going into 2027.

What we cover:

From transformation officer to president, and the value of knowing a business before you lead it.

Why saying yes to opportunities has shaped his whole career.

Grit as a business skill, and the honesty required on the harder days.

Choosing the difficult brief, from turnarounds to building something new.

Value for money, consolidation, regionalisation and a shifting mix of modalities.

What the founding story of Genentech teaches about thinking like an owner.

CDMO Career Stories is part of the Metric Podcast Network.

In this episode Sam McElroy sits down with David McErlane, Group President of the Biologics Division at Catalent, to discuss his career, craft and his read on where the industry is heading.

Recorded in San Diego, David talks through 30 years in large molecule manufacturing, the patient story in 2002 that set the direction of his career, and the advice that made him stop taking opportunities as they came and start building deliberately.

We cover:

The T-shaped career and the three things you need to run a business

Why he hires builders, not operators, and the cost of getting that wrong

What he looks for beyond the CV: values-based decisions, judgment, change agility

Where the CDMO talent constraint really sits, and why it is people not capital

AI as augmentation, Catalent's QAI deviation tool, and what it means for hiring

CDMO Career Stories is part of the Metric Podcast Network.

In this episode Charlie Bexon sits down with Angelika Rublack, Global Head of Business Development at IDT Biologika, to discuss her career, craft and her read on where the industry is heading.

In this episode Sam McElroy sits down with Jordi Robinson, CDMO Commercial Leader, to discuss his career, craft and his read on where the industry is heading.

In this episode Alex Alves-Khan sits down with Nicholas Shackley, CEO at Gannet BioChem to discuss his career, craft and read on where the industry is heading.

In this episode Sam McElroy sits down with Javier Lopez Belmonte, Vice Chairman of Rovi Group and Chief Executive Officer at ROIS, to discuss his career, craft and read on where the industry is heading.

In this episode Alex Alves-Khan sits down with Amar Karandikar, Senior VP Business Development at Aragen, to discuss his career, craft and read on where the industry is heading.

In this episode Sam McElroy sits down with Marie Leblanc, Executive Vice President of Life Sciences at Biosynth, to discuss her career, craft and her read on where the industry is heading.

In this episode Sam McElroy sits down with Dirk Lange, CEO of Pyramid Pharma Services, to discuss his career, craft and his read on where the industry is heading.