What I Learned As A Teacher That Made Me A Better Leader

By Percival Barretto-Ko

Before I started my career in the pharmaceutical industry, I was a chemistry and biology teacher. While my days in the classroom now feel like a lifetime ago, a day rarely passes that I don’t draw upon the range of skills I honed back then. My science background is certainly useful for advancing therapies to address unmet medical needs, but the skills I’m specifically referring to are the communication, enthusiasm, flexibility, trust, encouragement, and resourcefulness that teachers bring to their work every day.