Welcome to another episode of the Global Growth Partners Podcast! In this discussion host Theo Savlovschi-Wicks, VP of Client Services, sits down with Amanda Langel, a seasoned expert in clinical data management with an impressive 25-year career. Amanda shares her journey from making copies in a paper-driven industry to founding Better Clinical Trial, a company dedicated to transforming clinical research processes. She dives into the evolving landscape of AI and automation, the challenges of data overload, and the critical need for improved communication between sponsors and CROs. Amanda also reflects on leadership, the value of mentorship and how industry professionals can drive meaningful change.

Tune in for an inspiring conversation about innovation, leadership and the future of clinical research!

Welcome to the very first episode of Global Growth Partners series. In this special episode, launching during International Women’s Day, host Theo Savlovschi-Wicks, VP of Client Services, sits down with Cristina Florescu-Moraid, a physician and clinical research expert with over 20 years of experience in the field.

Cristina shares her inspiring journey from public health to building her own business in clinical research, the impact of decentralised clinical trials, and the importance of patient-centred innovation. She also reflects on the challenges and successes of women in the life sciences industry, balancing leadership with family life, and breaking barriers in a traditionally male-dominated field.

In the fourth part of our Life Science Leaders series, Proclinical Staffing Associate Director, Precision Medicine, Niama Morys, chats to Helen Yuanyuan Cao, chief operating officer and chief innovation officer at Bioscience. They discuss how to make balanced decisions as a leader and the importance of communicating a clear vision. 

Before joining Bioscience, Helen was a member of the EMEA Management Team at BD Biosciences, the immunology diagnostics part of Becton Dickinson, a fortune 500 global medical technology and diagnostics company. Helen built Advanced Analytics at McKesson and was in multiple roles in bioinformatics, innovation and strategy at Qiagen before embarking her career in management consulting at Bain & Company.

For years, Helen has been a mentor of various start-ups and has been on the board of the Make-A-Wish Foundation Germany and volunteered at future.coop, a social startup in the field of sustainability.

She is a lecturer at multiple universities on the topics of innovation & leadership and is on the advisory board of the MBA program Digital Management & Marketing at the University of Nürningen-Geislingen. A proven industry leader, Helen has been named “40 under 40” by Germany’s top business magazine Capital for three years and “Rising Talent” by the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society. She was also awarded “Manager of the Year” by GenerationCEO.

Topics covered:
• The transition from management to c suite
• Communicating as a leader
• Making decisions in leadership
• Why vision unites a team
• Being willing to learn
• Advice for future leaders

In the third episode of our Life Science Leaders series, Proclinical Staffing Associate Director, Precision Medicine, Niama Morys, sits down with Reinhard Klenya, Site Leader & Global Director at Laetus part of Danaher Corporation. They discuss the importance of clear communication and leading international teams. 

Reinhard Kleyna has had a varied career with experience at IBM, Continental, and Heraeus. He has worked across multiple industries, helping to manage, develop and empower international and intercultural teams to achieve their objectives.

Topics covered:

·        What it takes to be an effective leader

·        Importance of clear and open communication

·        How to stay motivated

·        Core skills in leadership

·        Managing and developing international teams

·        Building a strong network

·        Looking for potential leadership qualities in others

In the second part of our life science leaders podcast, Proclinical Staffing Associate Director, Precision Medicine, Niama Morys, speaks to Jane Papadaki, a highly experienced commercial leader and  VP of Market Development & Commercial Operations at Immunexpress Inc. about building high-performance teams and how to spot potential future leaders.

Jane Papadaki specializes in business development, strategic sales and marketing and has held multiple Global VP, General Manager, and Senior Director positions in pharma and biotech companies. Over the course of her career, she has successfully driven product launches of new technologies through superior branding and image building. 

Topics covered:

• Characteristics in intrapreneurship
• Creating high-performing teams
• Learning from success
• Resources for learning about leadership
• Qualities to look for in leaders

Get in touch with Naima Morys: [email protected] 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/naima-morys-46225433/

In the first part of our Life Science Leaders Series, Proclinical Staffing Associate Director, Precision Medicine, Niama Morys, speaks to Andreas Worberg, Chief Technology Officer at Cellugy ApS, about how to network your way to the top and building resilience after failures.

Over his career, Andreas has held several leadership positions including CCO at DTU Biosustain and Senior Sales Manager at Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions. With over 20 years of cross-functional experience in international projects, Andreas specialises in design, engineering, and process development in biomanufacturing. 

In his current position, he is responsible for the commercial and translational development of biomanufacturing technologies at the Danish Technical University, where he is the director of the Pre-Pilot Plant, the Section Head of Sustainable Chemicals, and the Chief Commercial Officer at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability.

Topics covered:

·       How to go from being a director to C-suite

·       Importance of networking in leadership

·       How to deal with failure and build resilience

·       Resources for learning about leadership

·       Reaching difficult decisions

·       How to solve problems

Get in touch with Naima Morys: [email protected] 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/naima-morys-46225433/

In the final part of our series, Proclinical Executive Senior Partner, Claire Perry, speaks with another inspirational woman in business, Megan Bailey, CEO of Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx). Megan shares her insights on company culture, how she created an environment for success, and the crucial role that played in PGDx's recent acquisition by Labcorp.

Megan Bailey has more than 18 years of leadership experience in the healthcare industry. As Chief Executive Officer of Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx), she leverages her extensive knowledge of clinical diagnostics, business development, and commercialization to lead a team focused on providing precision cancer care solutions that allow all patients to have access to best-in-class genomic testing. Prior to her role as CEO, she served as Chief Commercial Officer, leading the Company’s marketing, sales, and customer support teams, and before that, as Vice President of Marketing.

She began her career in diagnostics with Ventana Medical Systems, a company with a patient-focused mission to improve cancer diagnostics globally. Following Roche Diagnostics’ acquisition of Ventana in 2008, Megan spent the next 10 years rapidly progressing through commercial leadership roles of increasing responsibility. In her last role at Roche, she served as Senior Director of Commercial Operations, responsible for a $200M+ portfolio across four divisions, addressing multiple disease states and market segments.

Within Megan’s first year as CEO of PGDx, she successfully restructured the overall business and delivered several significant commercial milestones, including the first ever FDA clearance of a comprehensive genomic profiling product, positive Medicare reimbursement coverage, and high impact partnerships with oncology leaders, pharmaceutical partners, and co-development partners. In February 2021, she closed a $103M Series C financing – the largest round achieved by the company to date – with a new lead investor and a blue-chip syndicate.

Megan is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and earned her Master of Public Health from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Megan serves on the UMB Foundation Board of Trustees and the Army West Point Athletic Association Board of Directors.


Topics covered:

• Key components that make a life science business attractive for acquisition  
• Learnings from a journey to becoming CEO
• Leadership principles for a great business culture 
• Presenting your experience to become a Board member
• Applying an athletic mindset in business
• Supporting the next generation of female leaders

Contact the host and guest:

Get in touch with Claire Perry:
Email: [email protected]
Connect with Claire on LinkedIn

Connect with Megan Bailey on LinkedIn

More information:

At Proclinical, our global workforce solutions help individuals, teams and whole organizations grow in the life sciences industry. For more information about how Proclinical Executive can support your board level and leadership hires, visit proclinical.com/executive

In part three of our four-part Women CEO & Founder Series, Proclinical Executive Senior Partner, Claire Perry, is in discussion with another great leader, Bonnie Anderson, Co-founder and Executive Chairwoman at Veracyte. Bonnie shares her journey of taking her start-up genomic diagnostics business through to a successful IPO, and her insights on transitioning from a private to public company. She also gives her thoughts on what executive-level women in the workplace can do to support the next generation of female leaders, how women can secure their first board role, and much more.

Bonnie H. Anderson is Co-founder and Executive Chairwoman of Veracyte, a global diagnostics company that aims to transform outcomes for patients all over the world at every step of their journey in cancer and other diseases. Ms. Anderson’s career spans over 40 years in regulated diagnostics and life science markets. She co-founded Veracyte in 2008 and served as Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the Board until June 1, 2021, when she assumed the role of Executive Chairwoman. Ms. Anderson led Veracyte’s initial public offering in 2013, spearheaded commercialization of its market-leading products and was the architect of the company’s vision to become a global enterprise, with a growing menu of advanced genomic diagnostics tests and its own distributed instrument platform. 

Prior to Veracyte, Ms. Anderson provided strategic consulting services to venture capital firms and early-stage businesses following 18 years in leadership positions at Beckman Coulter. She serves on the boards of Bruker Corporation, DNA Script, and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), and is a trustee emeritus of the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences. Additionally, Ms. Anderson is President of the Coalition for 21st Century Medicine and previously served on the board of Castle Biosciences. She has received numerous awards for her industry leadership, including: the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Healthcare Innovation (2017); “Fiercest Women in Life Sciences” (FiercePharma, 2017); “100 Most Creative People in Business” (Fast Company, 2015); “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business” and “Bay Area’s Most Admired CEOs” (San Francisco Business Times, 2013 and 2014); and “Women of Influence” (Silicon Valley Business Journal, 2013). Under Ms. Anderson’s leadership, Veracyte has been named a “Top Workplace” by the Bay Area News Group, based solely on employee feedback, for seven consecutive years (2014-2020). Ms. Anderson graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in Medical Technology and in 2012 was honored with a “Distinguished Alumni” award. 

Topics covered:

1. Establishing a company in an economic crisis
2. Challenges of starting a business
3. When is the right time to IPO
4. How running a public company differs from running a private company
5. Valuable lessons in running a successful profitable business
6. Advice for securing your first board position
7. Supporting the next generation of female leaders

Contact the host and guest: 

Get in touch with Claire Perry:
Email: [email protected]
Connect with Claire on LinkedIn

Connect with Bonnie H. Anderson on LinkedIn

More information:

At Proclinical, our global workforce solutions help individuals, teams and whole organizations grow in the life sciences industry. For more information about how Proclinical Executive can support your board level and leadership hires, visit proclinical.com/executive

In the second part of our Women CEOs: Lessons from life science leaders series, Proclinical Executive Senior Partner, Claire Perry, speaks to another inspiring female leader, Mini Suri who is the CEO and Co-Founder of Velmeni. In their discussion, Claire and Mini talked about importance of networking in becoming a board member, and how to prepare to become a CEO.
 
Mini Suri, a brilliant contributor to the tech industry, is an innovative trailblazer in AI/ML/NLP Automation and an advocate for the betterment of others. Mini’s deep experience and creative inspiration have led Velmeni to the forefront of AI healthcare, through predictive and analytical artificial intelligence in dentistry. Velmeni’s platform is evolving as the standard-bearer for dental practices. 

Mini has acted as Chief Customer Officer at KORE.ai, Head of Intelligent Automation for Uber, and Senior Vice President at Citi. With an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School, she provides VELMENI with deep-tech strategy, financial skills, and hands-on operational management. A doer and problem-solver, Mini leads product development, raises capital, fosters a high-performance culture, and is building the most talented team in the industry. 

As a Board Member at TiE Silicon Valley and throughout her career, Mini has brought big-picture thinking to foster technology entrepreneurship, youth engagement, and women’s leadership initiatives—including The Hunger Project to eradicate world hunger and establish women as a force for change-making. This includes establishing first robotics and STEM education for girls. 

 Topics covered:

• How to overcome challenges as a woman in the workplace
• Looking for new roles
• Gaining and highlighting IPO experience
• Preparing to become a board member
• Advice for first time CEOs
• Implementing women empowerment programmes
• Empowering the next generation

Contact the host and guest: 

Get in touch with Claire Perry:
Email: [email protected]
Connect with Claire on LinkedIn

Get in touch with Mini Suri:
Email: [email protected]
Connect with Mini on LinkedIn

More information:

At Proclinical, our global workforce solutions help individuals, teams and whole organizations grow in the life sciences industry. For more information about how Proclinical Executive can support your board level and leadership hires, visit proclinical.com/executive

In part 1 of our Women CEOs: Insights from life science leaders series, Proclinical Executive Senior Partner, Claire Perry, speaks to Angela Cunningham, mentor for female executives, about empowering women in the workplace, and overcoming self-doubt and imposter syndrome in leadership.

Angela Cunningham has 25 years’ experience holding leadership roles in both the UK and the USA in a variety of industries, including retail, education, technology, real estate, print and digital media. 

Throughout her career, Angela has advocated for and amplified women at work and is driven to see more women in leadership roles. Through the power of mentorship, Angela believes that, as senior leaders, we have a vital role to play in supporting women in the workforce.  

Currently working as Director of Partnerships for a global, non-profit organization teaching public speaking and leadership skills, Angela is a journalist and writer, contributing to websites and magazines on the topics of women in leadership. Angela holds. a BA Honors degree from Surrey University in the UK, a Master’s degree from Lancaster University in the UK, a post-graduate diploma in Journalism from the University of Central Lancashire in England, and a diploma in Women in Leadership from Cornell University, USA. She also founded The Steamie Collective and Female Mentorship International, both focused on bringing online communities of women together to share their career experiences and provide support through mentorship. 

Topics covered:

• Women struggling to talk about their achievements
• How to identify achievements 
• Overcoming feelings of ineptitude
• Mentoring female leaders
• Why mentorship is important

Contact the host and guest: 

Get in touch with Claire Perry:
Email: [email protected]
Connect with Claire on LinkedIn

Get in touch with Angela Cunningham:
Email: [email protected]
Connect with Angela on LinkedIn

More information:

At Proclinical, our global workforce solutions help individuals, teams and whole organizations grow in the life sciences industry. For more information about how Proclinical Executive can support your board level and leadership hires, visit proclinical.com/executive