An Open Letter to the BioPharma Community

Jan 10, 2017

We the undersigned support guiding principles and best practices to increase gender diversity.

On January 11, 2017, more than 100 life sciences industry leaders outlined guiding principles and best practices to improve gender diversity throughout industry. The full text of the letter is below.

If you would like to sign on to the letter and ongoing efforts to improve gender diversity in life sciences, please contact Edie Stringfellow.

An Open Letter to the BioPharma Community:

Now that it’s 2017, we are choosing to write this letter to provide recommendations for best practices to establish gender diversity as a priority for the biopharma industry.

Last year’s open letter to the industry sparked a dialogue that led to changes in some company practices, new training programs, regional gender diversity initiatives and much more. But we believe this is just the start of the work to be done.  

Below is the culmination of recent recommendations collected from industry executives for guiding principles and a top 10 list of best practices that we believe will continue the momentum of 2016 into 2017 and beyond.

 

Guiding Principles for Gender Diversity as a Priority for the BioPharma Industry:

  • We, as community leaders, commit to driving diversity and inclusion in the biopharma industry.
  • Diversity is good for the business performance of our industry.  Research proves that diversity leads to:
    • Better decision making
    • Increased productivity and financial performance
    • Enhanced engagement, recruitment and retention of talent
  • To ensure that the biopharma industry thrives and is sustainable, we, as community leaders, see it as our responsibility to drive diversity as a top priority.
  • Unconscious biases are ubiquitous and difficult to pinpoint and address. Still, we need to make a conscious commitment to eradicate unconscious biases in recruitment, performance evaluation, promotion and decision making in order to improve gender diversity.
  • While we recognize that there are many forms of diversity needed to ensure the future of our industry, there are clear best practices that can be implemented now to increase gender diversity.

 

Top Ten Best Practices for Increasing Gender Diversity in the BioPharma Industry:

  1. We as executives and board members declare gender diversity as a priority, as a key value and ethos.  We commit to living it visibly at all of our companies and organizations.
  2. We will create opportunities for open dialogue on enhancing gender diversity and ensuring an inclusive environment, both within our organizations and across the industry.
  3. We recognize the importance of formal sponsorship programs to ensure diversity in our executive leadership pipeline and commit to building these programs in our companies.
  4. We also recognize that it is important to provide formal mentorship programs to encourage women to engage with executives, both inside and outside of our organization. We commit to building these programs in our companies.
  5. We will ask our board members to be active sponsors of women who are “board ready” to pursue board appointments. We will endorse and sponsor our high potential female talent to take part in training programs to become “boardroom ready”.
  6. We will measure and track promotion of female talent to senior management positions.
  7. We will seek out and celebrate positive role models within our organizations.
  8. We will review our hiring processes and train our hiring managers on diversity and inclusion as a priority.
  9. We agree with the importance of setting concrete hiring goals to achieve gender parity and inclusion at each level of our organizations and to measure and report regularly on our progress towards goals.
  10. We will support the work of our trade organizations, like MassBio, on industry-wide efforts to improve gender diversity at the macro level.

We, as community leaders, have the responsibility to ensure our biopharma industry can continue to grow and thrive.  We need to take a holistic view on the next generation of leaders to prepare for the future. We believe that diversity and inclusion will deliver better results for our industry and society.  We have the opportunity and the responsibility to lead by example, setting the tone and pace for the biopharma industry.

We invite you to join us, to sign this open letter, and to work to implement these practices to ensure the continued success of our industry.

Robert K. Coughlin
President & CEO
MassBio

Abbie Celniker
Partner, Third Rock Ventures
Interim CEO, Goldfinch Bio

Steve Woit
Director
BioPharma Executive Council

Sarah MacDonald
Executive Vice President
MassBio

David Lawrence Lucchino
Co-founder, President and CEO
Frequency Therapeutics

Kate Bingham
Managing Partner
SV Life Sciences

Terry McGuire
Founding Partner
Polaris Partners

Mike O'Hara
Partner
Deloitte

Jay Bradner, M.D.
President
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research

Christoph Westphal
CEO
Flex Pharma

Annalisa Jenkins
CEO
Dimension Therapeutics

Steve Kafka
President
Foundation Medicine

Travis McCready
President & CEO
Massachusetts Life Sciences Center

William McDermott
Partner
McDermott, Quilty & Miller LLP

Chris Garabedian
Chairman
Xontogeny LLC

Christopher de Souza
Director
Broadview Ventures

Geoff MacKay
President & CEO
AvroBio

James Hoyes
Executive Partner
RxC International

Robert Gottlieb
Principal
RMG Associates

Melissa Bradford Klug
Chief Business Officer
Keryx

Antony Loebel
Executive Vice President & Chief Medical Officer
Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Alice Pomponio
Vice President, Corporate Affairs
Radius Health

Rick Russell
President & CEO
Stallergenes Greer Inc.

Marina Bozilenko
Managing Director
William Blair

Mark Perrin
CEO & Chairman
InVivo Therapeutics Corporation

Eileen Coveney
Managing Director
L.E.K. Consulting

Arthur Hiller
CEO 
Antyllus Therapeutics

Nancy Lurker
President & CEO
pSivida

Bob Linke
President & CEO
Embera NeuroTherapeutics

Ailis Tweed-Kent
CEO
Cocoon Biotech

Patrice Milos
CEO
Medley Genomics

Jonathan Lewis
CEO
Samus Therapeutics

David Moller
VP, BD, Emerging Technology & Innovation
Eli Lilly & Company

Ed Mascioli
CEO
Karos Pharmaceuticals

Bram Goorden
VP Global Head
Nestle Health Science

Doug Kahn
Chairman and CEO
TetraGenetics

Laurie Halloran
CEO
Halloran Consulting Group

Jim Jensen
CEO
CytoSite Biopharma

Carolyn Green
Director, Strategic Investments
Pfizer

Deborah Dunsire
Principal
Southern Cross Biotech Consulting

Patrick Tricoli
CEO
Nanobiotix

Bruce Rychlik
Managing Partner
Park Square Executive Search

Erik Lundh
Managing Partner
Park Square Executive Search

Tara Schutz
Vice President
Morgan Stanley

John Mendlein
CEO
ATyr

Kathy Williams
Head of Life Sciences
Sunstein, LLP

Chandra Ramanathan
VP and Head of East Coast Innovation Center
Bayer, U.S.

Vin Milano
CEO
Idera Pharmaceuticals

Marianne De Backer
VP, Johnson & Johnson Innovation
Janssen Business Development

Sue Dillon
Global Therapeutic Area Head, Immunology
Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals

William Newell
CEO
Sutro Biopharma

Steve Tregay
CEO
FORMA Therapeutics

Vivek Ramaswamy
CEO
Roivant Sciences and Axovant Sciences

Wendye Robbins
CEO
Blade Therapeutics

Elizabeth Franzmann
Chief Scientific Officer
Vigilant Biosciences

Filipe Gaspar
VP R&D
Hovione

John Furey
COO
Spark Therapeutics

Bonnie Fendrock
CEO
Cyta Therapeutics

Glen Giovannetti
Global Biotechnology Leader
EY

Rob Perez
Managing Director, Vineyard Sound Advisors
Founder and President, Life Science Cares

Ed Kania
Managing Partner
Flagship Pioneering

Adelene Perkins
Chair, President & CEO
Infinity Pharmaceuticals

Jeffrey Leiden
Chairman, President and CEO
Vertex

Rosa Notaroberto
Vice President, US Operations
Takeda Oncology

Kathryn E. Wengel
WW VP & Chief Supply Chain Officer, Management Committee Member
Johnson & Johnson

Walter H. Moos
Professor (adj.)
UCSF

Kevin Hrusovsky
CEO
Quanterix

Kris Vezuli
Management Consultant
RxC International

Joseph Gentile
Senior Vice President
Quanterix

Erin Albert
CEO
Pharm, LLC

Ambaw Bellete
President
Photocure

Kim C. Drapkin
Chief Financial Officer
Jounce Therapeutics, Inc.

Sheila Frame
Worldwide General Manager, Immunoscience
Bristol Myers Squibb

Lesley Stolz
Head, JLABS California
Johnson & Johnson

Michael D. Clayman
CEO
Flexion Therapeutics, Inc.

Bruce M. Wentworth
CEO
BMW Research Consulting

Kelly Magnuson
Chair
BioPharmaPM Network

Michael OBrien
President
Peloton Coaching and Consulting

Ron Cohen
President & CEO
Acorda Therapeutics, Inc.

Vijayalakshmi Agnani
Head of Office, External Innovation, BD
Sanofi

Alicia Secor
President & CEO
Juniper Pharmaceuticals

Marianne Lambertson
SVP, Marketing & Communications
Entrinsic Health Solutions

Luke Wallrich
Events and Operations Manager
LabCentral

Robert Connelly
CEO
Axcella

Charlotte Vernhes
Business Coordination and Operations Manager of Translational Sciences & Innovation and External Networks
Sanofi Pasteur

Nina Kjellson
General Partner
Canaan Partners

Stacey Detrick-Lerner
Partner
Park Square Executive Search

Kate Farrell
CEO
Paradigm Shift Therapeutics

John F. Neylan
Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer
Keryx Biopharmaceuticals

Christopher DeSimone
Senior Market Access Director
Aegerion

Stephen Rapundalo
President and CEO
MichBio

E. Smelt
Advisor
EgonZehnder

Joel Barrish 
EVP & CSO
Achillion Pharmaceuticals

Jim Boushell
CEO
ProMedDx, LLC

Tarek Fadel 
Assistant Director
MIT

Heidi Creighton
Founder & President 
Creighton Communications

Megan Aparicio
Research Consultant
Russel Reynolds Associates

John Glasspool
Head of CSCO
Shire

Jen Nwankwo
Management Consultant
Bain & Company

Gustav Christensen
Chairman
Morphic Therapeutic

Jacquelyn Marsac
SVP
VRC

Sarah Morrow
Sr. Admin Asst.
Shire

Nina
General Partner
Kjellson

Luke Timmerman
Founder & Editor
Timmerman Report

Hollie Swanson
Professor and Director of Women's Executive Leadership Development Program
University of Kentucky

Iya Khalil
Co-Founder & Chief Commercialization Officer
GNS Healthcare

Kyle Serikawa
Senior Program Manager
Immunexpress

Lisa Suennen
Managing Partner
Venture Valkyrie

Regina Au
Principal 
BioMarketing Insight

Jeanette Kohlbrenner
Principal
JWK Consulting

Alison Arter
CCO
Hillhurst Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.

Anna Chrisman
Group Managing Director
EBD Group

Leah Jordan
BD Associate
CLSI

Andi Cullins
Principal & Founder of the DirectHer Network
The McCormick Group

Laura Warwick
Business Development
PRA Health Sciences

Robin Swartz
Global and US Head Business Operations
Sanofi Genzyme

Donna Williams
Senior Research Nurse
Stanford University

Vika Boyko
Director
Pfizer

Laura Vitez
Life Sciences Analytics
Clarivate Analytics

Anisa Mohammed
Associate Clinical Trial Leader
Novartis

Craig Rayner
President
D3 Medicine, A Certara Company

Amy Williford 
Dental Hygienist
Dr. Chad Millay

Yael Schwartz
President and CEO
Or-Genix Therapeutics, Inc

Clarence Friedman
CEO
Antera Therapeutics

Donnie McGrath
Vice President, Business Development
Bristol-Myers Squibb

Katerina Fomicheva
CEO and Founder
Jerichons, LLC

Chesley Chen
CEO
Safety Partners, Inc.

Maria Talantova
Senior Staff Scientist
The Scintillon Institute

Will Adams
President, Chief Scientific Officer
Riparian Pharmaceuticals

Dagmar Rosa-Bjorkeson
Pres, Biosimilars
Baxalta

Ginger L. Gregory
CHRO
Shire

Bill Mordan 
EVP – General Counsel & Company Secretary
Shire Pharmaceuticals

Perry Sternberg
EVP, Head US Commercial
Shire

Paul Fanning
SVP, Human Resources
Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals

Mara G. Aspinall
CEO
Health Catalysts

R. Sanders Williams, MD
President
Gladstone Institutes

 

Cissy Young
Partner
Russell Reynolds

Jodie Morrison
CEO and President
Tokai Pharmaceuticals

Susan Windham-Bannister
President & CEO
BioMedical Growth Strategies

David Meeker
EVP, General Manager
Sanofi Genzyme

Michael J. Pellini
Chairman
Foundation Medicine

Phillip Sharp
Institute Professor
MIT

Ann Stanesa
President
Ten Bridge Communications

Lisa Olson
Vice President, Immunology Research & ABC Site Head
AbbVie

Edward Kaye
President, CEO, and Chief Medical Officer
Sarepta Therapeutics

Ivana Magovčević-Liebisch
SVP, Head of Corporate Development
Teva Pharmaceuticals

Suzanne Bruhn
Director
Pliant Therapeutics & Raptor Pharmaceutical

Robert Urban
Global Head
Johnson & Johnson Innovation

Scott Gillis
President
Pericor Science, Inc.

Michael D. Ehlers
EVP, Research & Development
Biogen

Geoff Cox
Principal
Beacon Street Advisors

Lawrence S. Wittenberg
Senior Partner
Goodwin Procter LLP

Kumar Srinivasan
VP, Scientific Partnering & Alliances, IMED Biotech Unit
AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals

Kathleen W. Tregoning
SVP, Corporate Affairs
Biogen

Mark R. Bamforth
President and CEO
Brammer Bio

Robert Ward
CEO
Radius Health

Tina Caporale
Managing Director, Audit
Deloitte

Andrea F. Rabney
President and Chief Executive Officer
Argot Partners

Christopher T. Walsh
Professor 
Harvard Medical School

Marian Nakada
VP, Venture Investments
Johnson & Johnson Innovation

Mike Rice
Founding Partner
LifeSci Advisors

Adam Gridley
CEO
Histogenics

Bob Carpenter
Director
Hydra Biosciences

Alexis Wallace
CEO
Thrombolytic Science

Deniz Kural
CEO
Seven Bridges Genomics

Praveen Tipirneni
CEO
Morphic Therapeutic

Paula Soteropoulos
CEO
Akcea Therapeutics

Philippe Lopes-Fernandes
SVP, Head of Global Licensing & Business Development
Merck KGaA/Merck Serono

Jennifer Wheler
Senior Medical Director 
Novartis

Sheila DeWitt
President & CEO
DeuteRx

Lisa McKerracher
CEO
BioAxone BioSciences

Michael Schopperle
CEO
CureMeta

Leslie Williams
CEO
ImmusanT

Rosanna Kapeller
Chief Scientific Officer
Nimbus Therapeutics

Art Krieg
CEO
Checkmate Pharmaceuticals

Anne Deconinck
Executive Director
MIT Koch Institute

Guy Villax
CEO
Hovione

Mary Thistle
COO
Dimension Therapeutics

Kathy Bowdish
Head and VP Global R&D
Sanofi Sunrise

Jody Rose
Executive Director
New England Venture Capital Association

Ron Renaud
CEO
RaNa Therapeutics

Joanna Horobin
SVP, Chief Medical Officer
Idera Pharmaceuticals

Cat Oyler
VP Strategy and External Innovation
Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Research and Development

Marion Dorsch
Chief Scientific Officer
Blueprint Medicines

Jay Luly
CEO
Enanta Pharmaceuticals

Lynn Seeley
CEO
Myovant Sciences

Alvin Shih
CEO
Enzyvant Sciences

Arielle Jackson
Portfolio Director
Boston Biotech Conferences

John Tagliamonte
Advisor Board Member
WntRx Pharmaceuticals

Jeff Marrazzo
CEO
Spark Therapeutics

Lisa Dalton
Head of Human Resources
Spark Therapeutics

Ana Maiques
CEO
Neuroelectrics

Javier Barrientos
Senior Director, Global Diversity and Inclusion
Biogen

Karl Simpson
Owner & CEO
Liftstream

Glenn Batchelder
Chairman
XyloCor Therapeutics

Steven Richter
Chief Science Officer
Avista Pharma Solutions

Danielle Silva 
Senior Associate, Business Development
Silicon Valley Bank

Barbara S. Fox
CEO
Tilos Therapeutics, Inc.

Samantha S. Truex
COO and Head of Corporate Development
Synlogic Therapeutics

Catherine Wheeler
Prinicipal
C A Wheeler Consulting LLC

Greg Madison
CEO
Keryx Biopharmaceuticals

Yvonne Lu 
Consultant
Russell Reynolds

Halley Gilbert
Senior Vice President & Chief Legal Officer
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Scott Morrison
U.S. Life Sciences Leader (retired)
EY

Niamh Marriott
Digital Editor
European Pharmaceutical Review

Lucas Martin
Director, Bayer Life Science Center
Bayer

Joan C. Wood
Vice President, Human Resources
Sarepta Therapeutics

Christopher Viehbacher
Managing Partner
Gurnet Point Capital

Mary Schiavoni
Head of Human Resources
Adimab, LLC

Kate Motte
Founder
CORE Consulting

Susan Hager
SVP, Corporate Communications and Government Affairs
Foundation Medicine

Colleen Wilson
HR Consultant
Goldfinch Bio

Barbara Tate
Venture Partner
SVLSA

Andrea Armstrong
Chief Administrative Officer
C4 Therapeutics, Inc.

Chip Clark
President and CEO
Genocea Biosciences

Amy Ronneberg
CFO
Be the Match

Jeff Jonker
President
NGM Bio

Laurence Reid
CEO
Warp Drive Bio

Simone Fishburn
Editor, BioCentury Innovations
BioCentury

Robert B. Linke
President & CEO
Embera NeuroTherapeutics, Inc.

Maya Nitzberg
Development and Communications Coordinator
The Possible Project

Pierre Cauouette
EVP & COO
BioAxone BioSciences Inc.

Lauren McCourt
Knowledge Associate
Russell Reynolds

Nick Roberts
Consultant
Russell Reynolds

Kate Haviland
Chief Business Officer
Blueprint Medicines

Jeff Albers
CEO
Blueprint Medicines

Margaret E. O'Toole
Vice President, Operations
LabCentral

David-Alexandre Gros
President & Chief Operating Officer
Neurocrine Biosciences

Brenda Sousa
Vice President of Human Resources
Constellation Pharmaceuticals

Diala Ezzeddine
CEO
Xios Therapeutics

Leora Schiff
Principal
Altius Strategy Consulting

Aditi Kadakia
Manager, Medical Affairs Strategic Research
Purdue Pharma L.P

Nancy Di Dia
Executive Director
Boehringer Ingelheim USA

Mary E. Wadlinger
Chief Human Resources Officer
FORMA Therapeutics

Courtney Denitzio
Organizational Effectiveness Consultant
Shire

Karoline Shair
VP, Legal & Chief IP Counsel
FORMA Therapeutics, Inc.

Helen M. Boudreau
CFO
FORMA Therapeutics

Rob Sarisky
CBO
FORMA Therapeutics

John Hohneker
EVP, Head of R&D
FORMA Therapeutics

Lucy Watson-Baker
President
Kingfisher Talent

Stephen J. Williams
Partner
Catalyst Advisors, LP

Maria Tereno
Global Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer
Boehringer Ingelheim

Susan Gregory
Global Program Leader
Takeda Pharmaceuticals Intl

Julie Rahman
Executive Search Consultant
Spencer Stuart

Kathy Connell
Senior Director, New Ventures ANZ
Johnson & Johnson Innovation

Kristine Steen
Vice President
The Sevenson Group

Cynthia L. Schwalm
Executive Vice President, North America Operations
Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals

Harald F. Stock, Ph.D.
Serial CEO, Director & Angel Investor

Paula Ragan
CEO
X4 Pharmaceuticals

Nancy Vitale
Vice President, Human Resources
Genentech

Joanne Kamens
Executive Director
Addgene

Sean Kevlahan
CEO
Quad Technologies

Liliana Alfaya
Worldwide Medical Director
BMS

Barry Labinger
CEO
Biothera Pharmaceuticals

Phil Vickers
Head of R&D
Shire

Flemming Orsnkov
CEO
Shire

Alise S Reicin
Head of Global Clinical Development
EMD Serono

Ann Powell Judge
Chief Human Resources Officer
Bristol-Myers Squibb

Matt Walker
Head of Technical Operations
Shire

Amri Johnson
Global Head, Diversity and Inclusion
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research

Melissa J. Moore
CSO
Moderna Therapeutics

Stephane Bancel
Chief Executive Officer
Moderna Therapeutics

Stephen Hodge
President
Moderna Therapeutics

Josef H. von Rickenbach
Chairman and CEO
PAREXEL International

         

 

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