At the 2022 edition of the Biomanufacturing World Summit series held November 13th to 15th in San Diego, we spoke with Rick Johnston of Applied Materials about how some of the tools and processes that apply to making other products like semi-conductors apply to pharmaceutical manufacturing. The Life Sciences are often seen as being a little behind the curve when it comes to the Digital Revolution. What lessons and experiences can senior pharma executives take from the experiences of other industries as they work to bring advanced analytics into their operations, eliminate "islands of automation" and leverage all the benefits and capabilities the next generation of digital tools has to offer, especially as cell and gene therapies move towards broad-scale commercialization and all the disruption and realignment that will bring to the biopharmaceutical sector.

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Rick Johnston is a senior technical leader within Applied Materials’ pharmaceutical business unit. He has more than 15 years of experience in building software that solves big data, machine learning, scheduling, forecasting and advanced analytics problems in pharma. Software built by Dr Johnston is used by more than 90% of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. He has a Ph.D. in operations research and bioinformatics from UC Berkeley.

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Applied Materials provides pharma manufacturers an opportunity to leverage decades of experience in increasing productivity. SmartFactory Rx™ is a suite of advanced manufacturing software which enables pharma companies to achieve unprecedented levels of productivity, quality and compliance from their plants and supply chain refined through 30 years of leadership based on Industry 4.0 principles. The suite is a data & application integration platform which provides: advanced process analytics & control, real-time production planning & scheduling, predictive maintenance, and knowledge advisor for creating a continuous learning environment for knowledge capture and reuse. Solutions are rapidly implemented by non-programmers using this intelligent & flexible platform to enable data-driven decisions from the shop floor to top floor.

appliedsmartfactory.com/pharmaceutical

At the 2023 edition of the North American Sustainability & Responsibility Summit series held January 31st through February 1st in Austin, Texas,  we spoke with Amanda Petzinger of Benchmark ESG about how Sustainability's growing role and importance within every organization is seeing many executives whose work already included environmental monitoring tasked and empowered with gathering, understanding, and reporting on ESG performance data. Why is this a great fit, and what should those leaders know and think about as they see their responsibilities expand? Give this episode a listen to learn more about this important trend!

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Amanda Petzinger, Associate VP of ESG/Sustainability Digital Solutions at Benchmark Digital Partners (brand owner and service provider of Benchmark ESG), leads the company’s ESG & Sustainability Practice. In this role, Amanda and her team ensure the continual evolution of Benchmark’s Sustainability & ESG solutions in alignment with subscriber, market, and regulatory needs; provide best practice insights and thought leadership in the ESG space; and manage Benchmark’s internal ESG programs and initiatives.

A key component of Benchmark’s product & solution evolution includes collaborating with subscribers, partners, and industry leaders to ensure the latest industry trends and program challenges are thoughtfully considered and addressed. Amanda is instrumental in facilitating this cross-subscriber engagement by chairing Benchmark’s Annual User Conference, All-Customer Calls, Advisory Group, and various Collaboration Workgroups, including current workgroups for COVID-19 Pandemic Response & ESG Program Excellence.

In addition to her product management & customer engagement responsibilities, Amanda also has 15+ years of expertise implementing, configuring, designing, and supporting Benchmark ESG’s 65+ web-based applications, as well as extensive experience supporting subscribers in their quest for ESG & EHS operational excellence. She also serves as the advisor for Benchmarks’ Sustainability suite of applications.

Amanda received her bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems and Spanish from Xavier University in 2010, with summa cum laude distinction.

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Benchmark ESG® (the next generation of Gensuite®) enables companies to implement robust cross-functional Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Solutions – locally, globally and across diverse operating profiles. Our comprehensive cloud-based software suite features intuitive, best-practice process functionality, flexible configurations and powerful extensions. For over two decades, our digital platform has helped companies manage safe & sustainable operations worldwide, with a focus on fast return on investment (ROI), service excellence and continuous innovation. Join nearly 3,000,000 users that trust Benchmark ESG® with their software system needs for operational risk and compliance, EHS, sustainability, product stewardship, supplier risk, and ESG data management / disclosure reporting.

benchmarkdigitalesg.com

At the 2022 edition of the Biomanufacturing World Summit series held November 13th to 15th in San Diego, we spoke with Kevin Kelly of INCOG Biopharma about how CDMOs are engaging with biopharmaceutical companies from clinical stage programs right through to commercial production to help them with scaling and capacity at a crucial moment for the industry. What does building a partnership with a CDMO look like? How does collaboration, coordination, and communication work on a day-to-day basis? Where does Quality Culture fit into this larger conversation? For all this and more, give this episode a listen.

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INCOG BioPharma Services, Inc.

We’re a new standard of CDMO.

Designed to deliver better.

Better solutions for your drug product.

From development through commercialization.

Better experiences, designed around you.

At INCOG, we are striving for better, creating a new standard of CDMO that considers the customer’s experience from initial discussion through final packaged product delivered to patients.

Better outcomes delivered with you, for you.

The drug development journey is not simple. When working with a CDMO, you need absolute certainty that your partner understands your needs, your critical milestones and your timelines. Every decision we make about your product will be made with you, for the success of your project.

Better solutions for your drug product.

We are proud to manufacture for the future of medicine. With world-class facilities, state-of-the-art equipment and some of the industry’s most talented people, you can feel confident that your drug product is in safe hands.

www.incogbiopharma.com

At the 2022 edition of the North American Supply Chain Executive Summit series held September 11-13 in Chicago, we spoke with Bart De Muynck, project44's Chief Industry Officer, on the power of supply chain collaboration to build resilient, agile, transparent, versatile value chains in an increasingly turbulent business environment. No one organization can be expected to have all the information to generate all the right answers. Only a pooling of data, insight, and ideas can allow supply chain leaders to navigate a rapidly evolving business landscape. What does that collaboration actually look like? Give this episode a listen to find out!

Bart De Muynck is the Chief Industry Officer at project44, where he drives supply chain industry thought leadership and supports current and future customers with their strategies. Bart has extensive supply chain and logistics industry experience, including 8 years as a VP of Research focused on logistics strategy, delivery processes, and innovative technologies that impact transportation at Gartner. He is based in Texas and joined project44 in 2022.

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project44 is the world’s leading Advanced Visibility Platform for shippers and third-party logistics firms. project44 connects, automates, and provides visibility into key transportation processes to accelerate insights and shorten the time it takes to turn those insights into actions. Leveraging the power of the cloud-based project44 platform, organizations are able to increase operational efficiencies, reduce costs, improve shipping performance, and deliver an exceptional Amazon-like experience to their customers.

www.project44.com

At the 2022 edition of the North American HR Executive Summit we spoke with Jess Marble of Care.com about one of the most powerful things an employer can do for its employees: Understand they have important and often challenging commitments outside the workplace, and offer to help.

Whether it's childcare, someone with special needs, taking care of an elderly loved one, or any of a hundred other possibilities, everyone has someone in their life at some point who needs assistance. The stress of taking care of that someone while also giving their all every day in the workplace can be overwhelming. Imagine what a positive impact it would make to employee wellbeing to offer resources that can take some of that pressure off? Without making it about dollars and cents, how much more productive will that employee be at work when they know their personal responsibilities are in a better place, and how much more committed will they be to a company that cares about them enough to offer that assistance?

In an era where every company is looking to attract and retain the Top Talent they need to succeed, a big part of being an employer of choice can be achieved just by demonstrating you are an employer that cares. Give this interview a listen!

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Care.com is the world’s leading platform for finding and managing high-quality family care. We are designed to meet the evolving needs of today’s families and caregivers, including the support of employees with their care challenges at every life stage. From access to the largest care platform to backup care to dedicated support from specialists, Care.com offers the most comprehensive suite of family care benefits in the industry. Investing in care benefits helps employers increase productivity, retain top talent, and decrease absenteeism.

www.care.com/careatwork

At the 2022 edition of the Biomanufacturing World Summit series held November 13th to 15th in San Diego, we spoke with Luke Guerrero of QbDVision, Inc. about how the biopharmaceutical industry's use of digital tools is now maturing to the point where collaboration towards common goals is now possible. Building upon the excellent conversation we had last year with another member of the QBDVision team, Luke explained how service and solution-providers are now working more closely than ever with their partners to coordinate their efforts and share data in a way that advances the next generation of life-saving medicine and therapies. The possibilities and capabilities being unlocked as pharma and biotech organizations embrace and become more comfortable with IIoT is remarkable. For everyone interested in the latest news on this topic, enjoy!

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Luke Guerrero is an experienced technology leader with a focus on growing teams, developing software products, and managing business operations. As the COO of QbDVision, Inc., he leads operations, marketing, and product management, bringing a depth of experience and excitement from other industries.

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QbDVision is an innovative software company pioneering the development of modern digital solutions for the pharma/biotech industry to accelerate the manufacturing development cycle, increase the probability of technical success, and help get therapeutic breakthroughs to patients that much faster.

For many of the newest therapies being developed, the associated manufacturing processes are complex and the next generation of software solutions need to move the industry away from document-centric and spreadsheet-centric information management. QbDVision has assembled a group of industry veterans with 100+ years of collective experience in process development, tech transfer, pharmaceutical quality, and regulatory compliance to develop the next generation of structured data solutions that will dramatically increase R&D efficiency.

www.qbdvision.com

At the 2022 edition of the North American Finance Executive Summit  series held October 23-25 in Phoenix, AZ, we spoke with Tom Hood, CPA, CGMA, the EVP – Business Engagement and Growth of AICPA-CIMA. More and more, finance professionals are leveraging digital tools as part of their growing role as strategic partners in their organizations' strategic decision-making.

What are some ideas and innovations to help finance leaders gain comfort and confidence with the new tools and capabilities at their disposal while also looking to the future of these accelerating trends? What should we do individually and as a community to allow a rising tide to lift all boats as we undergo this transformation together? How does the upskilling of technical skills fit into the larger conversation of skills development in the context of a finance maturity model? All this and more is discussed in this interview. Give it a listen!

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Tom Hood, CPA, CITP, CGMA is currently the EVP Business Growth & Engagement for AICPA & CIMA and the Business Learning Institute. Tom just stepped onto the global stage after 23 years as the CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs. He was named the second most influential person in accounting by Accounting Today Magazine for the ninth year! LinkedIn recruited Tom as one of their Top 100 Influencers with a following of over 750,000. He is a member of Forbes Finance Council and was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame.

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The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants® (the Association), represents AICPA® & CIMA®. We advance the global accounting and finance profession through its work on behalf of 696,000 AICPA and CIMA members, students and engaged professionals in 192 countries and territories. Together, we are the worldwide leader on public and management accounting issues through advocacy, support for the CPA license and specialized credentials, professional education and thought leadership. We build trust by empowering our members and engaged professionals with the knowledge and opportunities to be leaders in broadening prosperity for a more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient future.

cgma.org

At the 2022 edition of the Biomanufacturing World Summit series held November 13th to 15th in San Diego, we spoke with Amrit Chaudhuri, SmartLabs co-founder and CEO, about the power of modular enterprise-grade laboratories and related infrastructure that can be scaled and reconfigured as needed to fundamentally and dramatically change the price and timelines involved in developing the next generation of medicine. Far from an aspiration, the concept has already been proven to work and has assisted in the development of many of the first commercially approved Cell and Gene Therapies. This is not an episode you want to miss!

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Amrit Chaudhuri spent his first eight years in the industry working with hundreds of R&D leaders at universities, biotechs, and large pharma companies to develop commercial products from discovery to market approval. In 2007 he founded Advanced Peptides, a biopharma CRO. He holds patents in chemistry for global commercialized products, and he is one of INC Magazine's top 20 innovators in healthcare.

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SmartLabs provides teams of all sizes enterprise-grade labs customized within weeks for any stage of research or modality and can be reconfigured within days as your research evolves. Outsource your infrastructure and avoid the extensive costs of traditional lab builds while your own teams accelerate your research in a private lab.

www.smartlabs.com

At the 2022 edition of the North American Supply Chain Executive Summit series held September 11-13 in Chicago, we spoke with Justin Foley, the VP of Commercial Business Development and Implementation Services for C.H. Robinson, about supply chain resiliency in an increasingly more expensive world. How should shippers reduce the financial and customer impacts of global disruptions? How are 4PLs helping supply chain leaders manage their logistics in a way that adapts to changing circumstances, anticipates risk, mitigates disruption, and responds to changing conditions without blowing the budget? It is an important topic that many supply chain organizations are facing right now. Give this episode a listen to learn more.

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C.H. Robinson | TMC

C.H. Robinson solves logistics problems for companies across the globe and across industries, from the simple to the most complex. Our single, global multimodal transportation management system, Navisphere, connects our entire network of 200K companies to provide customers with greater supply chain efficiency, real-time insights, and visibility. Through our TMC division, we combine global TMS technology with a full suite of logistics managed services and consulting to help shippers optimize and automate their supply chain across all modes and regions.

www.chrobinson.com/tmc

Rachel Lei is the CEO of Keltic Canada Development, a real estate development company in Vancouver, British Columbia. She hosted a roundtable lunch and learn roundtable discussion on, "Benefits and Compensation: How to Incentivize and Motivate Senior Leaders" at the 2022 edition of the North American HR Executive Summit this past December in Orlando. Afterwards she sat down with us to share what the people around her table discussed. It was a wide-ranging conversation on the compensation, benefits, and incentive strategies that attract and retain the Top Talent and key performers companies need to succeed. Definitely give this a listen!

For those of you who enjoy this episode and are looking for more on this important topic, this conversation and others like it informed a recent column on the EP Thought Leaders Blog. 

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Rachel is the CEO and Senior VP of Finance and HR a Keltic. She also is a CPA and CIA of Singapore. Prior to joining Keltic, Rachel served as GM of Strategic Investments at a renowned A-share company in China, where she led the global investment from 2016-2018. Between 2007 – 2012, Rachel led a Sino-Swiss post-JV financial integration project in China, prior to which she worked for a few top-tier MNCs in their Asia Pacific regional HQ from 2000 to 2007. At Keltic, Rachel leads fundraising, investment evaluation, and deal structuring. Rachel manages a portfolio of over CN $1.2 bill. in Hong Kong and Canada combined. She is also a Director of Oriental Yuhong (Canada) Investment Holdings Ltd., wherein she promotes the company’s expansion in North America.