Top Talent Turnout For The CMO Leadership Awards
By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
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By Rob Wright
On March 13, 2013, Life Science Leader magazine hosted the CMO Leadership Awards Reception and Ceremony at the “W” New York Hotel, across from the Waldorf-Astoria. The winners of these awards were determined by the analysis of data gathered by Nice Insight, which surveys over 11,000 buyers of outsourced services annually to determine perception and awareness scores of CMOs for five different attributes (i.e. Innovation, Productivity, Quality, Regulatory, and Reliability). Those who walked home with a crystal trophy scored in the top 20% for one or more of these attributes. As I took the stage to kick things off, I was struck by the significance of how exciting it feels to be surrounded by top talent. For not only are these companies the best of the best, but many of the over 200 attendees hold very high positions within their companies. Let me give you a few examples of the type of companies and people which were represented at this year’s event.
Who’s Who Of The CMO Leadership Awards
The CMO Leadership Awards were originally conceived in response to reader requests. Pharmaceutical and biopharma execs suggested that having this type of information would prove helpful in doing their jobs. So it should come as no surprise that we had readers in attendance. For example, I had the opportunity to speak with Sobin Chang, CEO of Aquavit Pharmaceuticals. She explained to me how the two-year-old company is focusing on developing products geared toward actualizing personalized medicine. Aquavit presently has 11 products in various phases of development. In case you are wondering, we had some big name companies as well, such as 3M, Acorda, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli-Lilly, Ferring, Janssen, Merck, Pfizer, and Samsung just to name a few. We had industry consultants from the likes of Alvarez & Marsal, Binder Associates, and Rondaxe. We even had representation from our editorial advisory board. With regard to the CMO Leadership Award Winners, we had 37 companies represented. Some of these folks flew in from as far away as the EU (e.g. Boehringer Ingelheim) just to attend the event. In addition to being surrounded by all of this top talent, I was surrounded by top leadership as well, with 13 companies having either a president or CEO in attendance - AMP, DSM, Gallus, Halo, IDT Biologika, Norwich, OSOBio, Paragon, Patheon, Pfizer CentreSource, Siegfried, and Therapure. I really appreciated Terry Novak, Xander Wessels, and Mark Bamforth for taking the time to compliment me on the patient-focused presentation. But in addition to all of the compliments, the Life Science Leader team especially appreciated the feedback on what we can do to make next year’s event even better. What I am not sure we can improve upon is the top talent with which I was surrounded internally.
The Importance of Top Talent
Many of the CEOs I interview discuss the importance of surrounding themselves with top talent. This is something we take very seriously at Life Science Leader as well, and that’s why I would like to present a few of my own awards related to this event.
We sent a nine-member team to New York City to execute the CMO Leadership Awards. It was truly impressive to observe how each person executed flawlessly in roles outside of their normal purview. For example, around the office Matthew Penrod is the person we all go to with our IT issues. At the CMO Leadership Awards we took advantage of one of his hobbies and put him in the role of event photographer. Michelle Traphagen, whose normal job revolves around product management, became our event coordinator. Ann Krugger from human resources took on the task of registration, while Jenell Skemp handled all of the production aspects of the event. I received lots of compliments on how the event was truly “first class.” But the credit for the successful execution of the first CMO Leadership Awards Reception and Ceremony goes to the top talent with which I am blessed to be surrounded. I would imagine that the recipients of a CMO Leadership Award can appreciate the importance of being surrounded by top talent. We look forward to doing it even better next year.