A CEO With A General Counsel's Perspective

By Ben Comer, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader

Should aspiring biopharmaceutical leaders focus on deep specialization and expertise in a singular area, or seek new and variable experiences across different parts of the business, developing a versatile skillset that can plug and play into leadership roles as needed?

For Mary Beth Sandin, former global commercial head and global brand leader at Pfizer, and now VP of marketing and communications at Affimed, it’s the latter: “Stay curious, stay adaptable, and never shy away from a new challenge,” writes Sandin. “Success comes from cultivating a career filled with diverse experiences, resilience, and the ability to lead in any environment.”     

I was reminded of Sandin’s recent guest column as I read through the interview transcript from a conversation I had during JPMorgan with Heather Turner, CEO at LB Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on neuropsychiatric diseases, including schizophrenia. Turner became CEO at LB Pharma in November 2024, after joining Carmot Therapeutics as COO in 2022, before quickly becoming president and CEO and orchestrating a $2.7 billion sale of Carmot to Roche by the end of 2023.

Seeing The Big Picture

Before Turner joined Carmot as COO, or LB Pharma as CEO, she worked as a general counsel for 18 years, at five different companies. During those 18 years as general counsel, however, Turner “took any operating leadership role that I could … I led many different functions, including HR, and finance. Biotech gives you that opportunity if you’re open to it,” said Turner. Most general counsels tend to stay in their lanes, in the legal department, but Turner said she was driven by a desire to learn new things. “I like seeing the connections of the company, and it actually made me a better attorney, because I could understand how the functions interact with each other, which helped me see the big picture.”

But what about the inverse? Did Turner’s career as a general counsel help prepare her for the top biotech leadership positions she has held for the past few years? “I think people should think about general counsels as CEOs more often,” said Turner. “It was incredibly helpful, and for a certain kind of general counsel — those that are very business oriented — it’s a chance to see the whole company and how they all interact with each other. That gives you a really good sense not just of the company’s objectives, but also the risks.”

Additionally, general counsels are typically “good project managers … as a corporate securities attorney, I did IPOs, I did financings, and I did M&As, which are essentially really large projects that need to be managed very well, because there are a lot of moving parts,” said Turner. “Once you set the strategy, execution is really about managing these projects in a robust and efficient way.”

Focusing On Execution

After the successful sale of Carmot to Roche, Turner left Roche last June without a clear destination. “I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go, so I decided to open myself up and talk to everybody,” said Turner. She found herself more excited by companies that had clear and focused objectives, compared with others that weren’t so locked in. “Sometimes in biotech, in can be, ‘maybe here, maybe there, maybe over here, maybe over there.’ And that’s a tough place to be as a CEO, because it’s difficult to allocate your resources when you’re all over the map,” she said. “A focused company has a bit of an advantage because it’s much easier to allocate your resources and build the company.”

With LB Pharmaceuticals, Turner “liked the fact that it’s a very focused neuropsych company; this is where we’re going. And I also liked the fact that there was a near-term catalyst with our Phase 2 clinical program.” In other words, the company had a clear strategy in place; all it needed was a leader who could execute effectively.

That kind of focus enabled Turner to be more intentional in meeting employees and getting up to speed as CEO, she said, without the need to try and litigate the company’s past decisions or performance. Instead, she could focus on progressing the company to the next level. “My job is to take us from here to a different place, and it’s a place everybody benefits from … it’s very helpful to be intentional when you are meeting colleagues for the first time, because it gives you a reset.”

Like Sandin describes in her guest column, Turner sees benefit in being adaptable, and taking advantage of opportunities to work in different parts of a biopharmaceutical organization. First-hand knowledge of the many functional areas of a company, and how they work together, can help leaders better navigate the opportunities and risks as they arise, and make decisions in a constantly changing environment.