Real Time with WLP

In this episode Chris Cummins, General Counsel Canada at GSK in conversation with Jessica Lovett, VP Business Development and Digital Innovation at Innomar Strategies shares his perspective on allyship and being an ally for women leaders. Chris opens up about his journey and growth as an ally and how to move past good intentions into action. ABOUT CHRIS Chris joined GSK in 2014 and has served in several commercial and legal roles. Chris is currently General Counsel for all of GSK’s commercial operations in Canada. He has an amazing wife, two spectacular boys and a passion for learning and mental health.

Our first podcast of the year is ready! Real Time with WLPinvites you to listen to  “DEI&B as a Catalyst for Impactful Change” with Christine Sakdalan, VP of Customer Engagement Strategy and Solutions for Otsuka Pharmaceutical as well as CEO of the non-profit organization Momentum & Value for People of Color (MVPOC).  Virginia Fairbank, with Lundbeck and our Diversity and Communications team member at WLP, hosts this thoughtful conversation.  In this new episode, Christine Sakdalan shares how she embraces and sponsors authentic diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace and her strategies to promote belonging and change in the short and long-term within the workplace. About CHRISTINE SAKDALAN Christine Sakdalan is VP, Customer Engagement Strategy and Solutions at Otsuka Pharmaceutical Companies where she is shaping and leading an enterprise-wide Consumer Engagement transformation centered on the patient journey. Previously, she led the development of market access and payer strategy, customer experience, end-to-end patient solutions, and strategic business operations as Head of Franchise Strategy and Customer Solutions for the Janssen Pharmaceuticals Neuroscience business. Christine’s prior roles include VP of Marketing / Interim GM at Amgen for the Bone / CV business unit, where she built a world-class commercial organization. Prior to Amgen, she spent more than 7 years at Novo Nordisk leading the company’s evolution to patient-centricity. She started her career at Novartis where she advanced to Executive Director in market research and then to Executive Director of Marketing Innovation Pipeline. As a strong advocate for DE&I, Christine is also the co-Founder, CEO, and Board Chair for MVP (Momentum & Value for People of Color). She created the vision, structure, and resources for this organization dedicated to providing young people of color with mentorship, strategic networks, leadership development, and internship opportunities. Since its launch In January 2021, MVP has engaged more than 100 leaders as mentors and several companies as internship providers. Christine completed executive education and leadership programs at Stanford University and The Wharton School. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University. A former Board member of the Google Healthcare Advisory Board, she currently serves as a Council member with the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG).

In our final podcast of 2022, we have compiled some of the Best Advice we have heard this year and sharing it with our listeners.  Episode 18 is a special year end podcast featuring some of our past guests (Cloe Caron, Tina Graves, Amy Gomez, Sarah Robertson, Helen Kontozopoulos, and Catherine Harrison) and the advice that they feel inspired and helped shape their own career paths in our industry.

Akwa combines strategic expertise and project management skills with superior global and local marketing knowledge obtained from close to 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Overseeing the execution of campaigns and development of strategies within pre-commercial, inline pipeline, and launch spaces for brands in numerous therapeutic areas, Akwa’s portfolio of clients has included AstraZeneca, Pfizer, BMS, ViiV HC, GSK, and UPMC. As a senior business leader Akwa earns accolades from clients and coworkers for her own dedication, as well as her ability to draw the best from those around her. She currently carries out two roles as WPP Global Client Lead for GSK and Managing Director – EMEA at TANK Worldwide based in London, UK. Akwa continues to deliver for existing clients while developing new agency opportunities in the EMEA region. In conversation with Joanna Wilson, Global Client Lead at Edelman, Akwa shares the importance and impact of the role of diversity and inclusion that leaders can foster within their organizations. And, in turn, empowering our leaders of tomorrow. Take a few minutes for yourself & listen to this empowering conversation.  

Striving for excellence while accepting human fallibility is at the heart of Human Centered Leadership, the 16th episode of Real Time with WLP. Catherine Harrison, President of Purple Voodoo in conversation with Jessica Lovett, VP Business Development and Digital Innovation at Innomar Strategies introduces leaders to the concept of real skills to foster belonging, interconnectedness, and community to solve the problems of tomorrow. Catherine Harrison has decades of experience as both a corporate professional and a multi-disciplinary artist. This gives her a unique perspective on realizing strategic, creative, and progressive outcomes, and enables Purple Voodoo to provide authentic and straightforward cultivation of ideas and solutions for individuals, small businesses, or large corporations. Catherine is a certified professional coach, expert facilitator, behaviour change specialist, seasoned team leader and strategic connector of dots. All of her work has an underlying focus on mindfulness, adaptability and accountability. To connect with Catherine visit CatherineHarrison.com or PurpleVoodoo.ca

“Intrapreneurship” – Recognizing and Supporting its Value Within Your Organization, presents a great conversation between Helen Kontozopoulos, Co-founder & Chief Technical Evangelist, ODAIA Intelligence and Jennifer Meldrum, President of Women Leaders in Pharma and Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Peak Pharma Solutions Inc. In this episode, Helen shares the difference between entrepreneurship & intrapreneurship and how leaders and intrapreneurs can succeed in their organization from a strategic and tactical perspective. Helen co-founded ODAIA in 2018, an AI-powered commercial insights SaaS platform for Pharma companies. As Chief Technical Evangelist, Helen brings her understanding of artificial intelligence, customer analytics and digital transformation to drive ODAIA’s thought leadership efforts, ultimately helping pharma teams adopt AI in their work and leverage data science and AI to achieve a competitive advantage. She has been teaching product development, design, and entrepreneurship for 9 years at the University of Toronto in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences. Helen co-founded UofT's Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab (DCSIL), an incubator that supports students and faculty to commercialize their innovations in emerging technologies. Her passion is making digital art.

In this episode, Sarah Robertson, Communications and Transformation Strategist, shares with us how to navigate through ambiguity and perform under pressure with a balanced approach to leadership. Sarah has a passion for communicating with purpose and creating possibilities. She builds strategies that enable transformation, close trust gaps, accelerates transitions, and drive engagement. She has a strong track record of delivering results and building communications capacity. Sarah has navigated major U.S. and Canadian public health crises, class action & litigation, U.S. bankruptcy proceedings, mergers & acquisitions, and has overseen social responsibility mandates for large organizations. Sarah knows that words matter and guides organizations and leaders to choose them carefully.  She was recognized in 2021 by Ragan and PR Daily as one of the Top Women in Communications (Crisis Navigator). While she leverages her more than two decades of experience to work on organizations’ toughest challenges, she’s a lifelong learner: in addition to her Bachelor’s Degree in English Language & Literature from The University of Western Ontario and her Post-Degree Certificate in Public Relations from Humber College, she has completed numerous executive courses and certifications: Yale School of Management, the International Association of Business Communicators, Prosci Certified Change Practitioner, Council for Continuing Pharmaceutical Education, and the Niagara Institute. She recently completed the Indigenous Canada program through the University of Alberta and is pursuing a certificate in Positive Workplace Culture with Dalhousie University. She currently volunteers as: Vice President of Women Leaders in Pharma; a member of the Corporate Leadership Council for College to Congress in Washington DC; strategic advisor to the Chair of the Board for Over the Bridge; Communications Chair on the Canadian Public Relations Society Nova Scotia Board; and judge for IABC/Toronto’s Ovation Awards program. Her views on Communicating in Canada were recently published in the fifth edition of Robert L. Dilenschneider’s “The Public Relations Handbook” for US readers.

In this episode, Dr. Cheng shares a profound perspective on how we can become further aware of biases in our daily practices. She discusses the importance of the Med Ed Pledge (www.theMedEdPledge.com), and how to activate change. Dr. Cheng is an Endocrinologist at Trillium Health Partners and Unity Health Toronto and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. She has been involved with the development of the Diabetes Canada clinical practice guidelines since 2003 and served as Chair for the 2013 version. Currently, she is an Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of Diabetes and immediate Past-Chair of the Professional Section of Diabetes Canada. In recognition of her contribution, she has received the national Charles H. Best Award and the Gerald S. Wong Service Award from Diabetes Canada. 

In this episode, Amy Gómez, SVP Diversity Strategy at Klick Health shares her experience implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion best practices inside and outside of the organization. The “Empowering Inclusion in Healthcare” will cover different angles of diversity and inclusion that sometimes can be missed. Amy is a cross-cultural marketing thought leader and a champion for health equity with over 20 years of experience helping Fortune 500 companies and leading not-for-profits communicate effectively with diverse consumers. Amy spearheads the creation of relevant and impactful communications for the segments driving growth in the U.S. today: Hispanic, Black, Asian and LGBTQ+, and develops global cross-cultural strategies that drive relevance across markets. She leads the Cross-Cultural Marketing capability for Klick Health, the world’s largest independent commercialization partner for life sciences, and spearheads the company’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. She has worked with a wide variety of health and non-health clients, including Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, The American Heart Association, Janssen, Merck, Nestle, Citbank, HBO, Marriott and Progressive Insurance. In 2021, Amy was honored by the PM360 ELITE Awards The 100 Most Influential People in the Healthcare Industry in the “Transformational Leader” category. In May 2022, Amy was honored by Clio as a 2022 Health Innovator, which honors the behind-the-scenes leaders pushing healthcare marketing forward.

In this episode Tina Graves, Senior Global Marketing Director Vaccines at GSK shares her perspective on making vertical and geographical career moves in the industry.  Whether you have recently made a career move or considering one, Tina’s experience in “Making Moves” will help you navigate and thoughtfully plan for all these big career transitions.