Every month, we put one of our special members in the spotlight. We ask them inspiring questions and dedicate a specific session in our newsletter to that member! Curious to our spotlight members? Have a look below.
Are you TOPX member and would you like to become spotlight member? Reach out to us via topx@hyphenprojects.nl.
What is your current position and at which organization?
I am a lawyer within Allen&Overy's life sciences team. This means I'm focusing both on intellectual property and regulatory issues, as well as transactional questions on anything related to the life sciences sector. I advise both established companies as well as startups and policy organizations who have life sciences questions.
Who is your role model?
Any women who is authentic and stays true to her values.
Why did you join TOPX Network?
To interact with strong and inspiring women from industry and academia!
What is your current position and at which organization?
I am Strategy and Communication Manager and Deputy Director at BioPartner
Leiden.
Who is
your role model?
I am lucky to have many people in my life with qualities I admire. I especially
appreciate people who are strong and passionate, but also empathetic and open
to other people’s opinions.
Why
did you join TOPX Network?
My colleague Barbara Brunnhuber joined before me and was so enthusiastic that I
joined too.
What
do you expect to gain from TOPX Network?
What I enjoy most is the mix of information that is shared during the TOPX
events, with observations, scientific background, opinions, and open
discussions based on personal experiences.
Do you
have a book tip you would like to share?
I enjoyed the Ted Talk The Power of Vulnerability by Brené Brown. For me it helped redefine what
strength is.
What is your current position and at which organization?
I am a Principal Scientist at Genmab. My role is mainly developing/validating
functional assays for release of clinical batches for our late stage projects,
as well as characterizing the structure-function relationship of clinical
materials.
Who is
your role model?
As a kid I looked up to famous people (singers or actresses) and at a certain
point I realized that I didn’t want to become them, but rather a scientist. At
that point I realized that girls/women in science are not that visible, which
was reflected in the classroom during my studies, majority of students were
male and only 1 female professor. During my internships, PhD and further on I
encountered many strong, smart women with a clear purpose which gave me the
confidence to pursue my own ambitions.
Why
did you join TOPX Network?
I wanted to get in touch with other women working in the Life Science sector
and get inspired by their stories. Also I find it important to have the
opportunity to join workshops on diverse topics, thereby learning and enabling
growth.
What
do you expect to gain from TOPX Network?
I expect to get inspired, motivated and learn. In addition I hope to be able to
support other women at the start of their career in any way I can.
Do you
have a book tip you would like to share?
I must say I mostly turn to TED talks for personal development purposes. I
found the talk of Brittany Packnett called “How to build your confidence-
and spark it in others” very inspiring. Personally I have struggled with confidence
when I was younger, coming from a culture where girls are taught not to ask too
many questions and follow their superiors, which brings me to another great TED
talk by Reshma Saujani called “Teach girls bravery, not perfection”.
What is your current position and at which organization?
I work as Molecular Biologist at Eurofins Clinical Diagnostics. My job includes
the development of Next Generation Sequencing facilities, besides quality
assurance and process management for the high volume COVID19 tests we are
doing.
Who is
your role model?
I work as Molecular Biologist at Eurofins Clinical Diagnostics. My job includes
the development of Next Generation Sequencing facilities, besides quality
assurance and process management for the high volume COVID19 tests we are
doing.
Why did you join TOPX Network?
TopX focusses on two things that are close to my heart, biotechnology and
female leadership. What I like about it, is that TopX connects women with
different ideas and motivations, while still sharing the same passion. This
combination makes for lively discussions and this is why I decided to join
after visiting the first TopX summit.
What
do you expect to gain from TOPX Network?
Knowledge, inspiration, connections and -hopefully- some golfing skills
Do you
have a book tip you would like to share?
I just finished “De levens van Jan Six “ (by Geert Mak), a book about the
history of the family Six in the Netherlands. Geert Mak combines the small
history of this family with larger historical movements in the Netherlands and
Europe. He captures the ideals of people of different time periods very well. I
live in the same area as Jan Six II once did, and I like to take bike trips to
discover traces he left all around the village.
What is your current position and at which organization?
I am an independent European and Dutch patent attorney at Enelex innovation B.V. in Delft. Enelex Innovation is a patent firm specialised in patent issues in the life sciences. In particular for SMEs and start-ups. I started the firm in 2006, after my post-doc years in the lab as a scientist.
Who is your role model?
If I think of a role model, I think of wisdom. You look for someone who can answer the questions which are most pressing in your life at a certain moment. There is not one person having the wisdom to answer all your questions. I get my wisdom from interviews, biographies and daily life. For example, you know you should do something, but you do not feel like doing it. How to overcome? My role models for this aspect are David Goggins, Mel Robbins and my husband. I remember how they tackle this situation, and that gives me the power to tackle it too. There is also a lot of wisdom in proverbs, which hide a lot of female wisdom. Sometimes after years I say, aah, know I fully understand this proverb.
Why did you join TOPX Network?
The average age of the members in this network seems to be a bit lower than the average age in my other networks. It is nice to be in contact with people of all ages. The atmosphere is good, positive and open. Due to the pandemic, all sessions were online, which has one big advantage: you end up in a meeting room and have a conversation with several people you don’t know. Offline, this is much more difficult.
What do you expect to gain from TOPX Network?
New perspectives to reflect on. I also hope to encourage more female scientist to take credit for their work and think of themselves as inventors. Considering how many female scientists there are, there could be far more female inventors.
Do you have a book tip you would like to share?
I can recommend
by Susan Cain. I like it because the book discusses the strong points of introversion. I also like to mention a very special YouTube interview of Mel Robbins by Lewis Howes,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=supVPLOHWPg(especially at 17 -30 minutes). Mel Robbins warns us: If you do not use your instincts and inner wisdom, you are robbing the world of a gift!
Who is your role model?
So many different people come to mind, I cannot just pick one. On the
professional level, I admire/admired different leaders for different
things and tried to adopt the qualities that I thought were the most beneficial
to me personally because I knew I could adopt them authentically. Definitely
Cheryl Watson and Meg Leahey, two former managers who had a big impact on my
career and my development, I worked for them for about two and a half years
each and I learned more from both of them in that time than I had from previous
managers in five or ten years. For sure my current manager as well, Mehrshid
Alai-Safar. She is probably one of the kindest, most unassuming leaders I’ve
ever met at her level. On a personal level, Sally Miller, a yoga teacher I
trained with. Being with her was like sitting in the shade of a beautiful tree,
there was something so present, grounding and kind about her. I need more
of all of that, so I was very attracted to her quiet, reflective, considerate
and caring way of teaching and being with others.
Why did you join TOPX Network?
Well, I was nominated, which I was very grateful for, and of course, I was
happy to join. While I’ve missed the events so far, I love that I
can share this opportunity with my colleagues. My HR colleagues
were teasing me about having even gone a bit overboard in my excitement, having
asked too many colleagues to join in. Though I really think it’s
the right thing to do. The best way to create more opportunities for women in
industry is by lifting each other as much as we can and that’s by sharing
opportunities to grow, learn, and network.
What do you expect to gain from TOPX Network?
More opportunities to network, get to know more life science colleagues in
the Netherlands. I’ve lived in the US for almost 25 years and moved here just
before the pandemic. My network is still very small and I’d love to change
that… though time is an issue.
Do you have a book tip you would like to share?
One of my favorite books to read and re-read is Thich Nhat Hanh’s “The Art
of Communicating”. In an increasingly polarized, overstimulated, and distracted
world, how we talk and listen to one another is now more important than ever.
And I think especially if you’re managing people, it’s essential to master the
“when”, “how” and “why” of communication and to be a great active listener.
What is your current position and at which organization?
I am the founder/owner of MG Life Science. As independent coach and trainer I
help Life Science Professionals to become the best version of themselves and to
build highly motivated and effective teams that deliver above expectations and
make a difference to patients.
Who is
your role model?
I have many role models, female and male, depending on what I want to focus on
or which ambitious goals I would like to achieve. This is a mix of leaders in
Life Science organizations, young ambitious professionals that are the start of
their careers, world leaders, scientists, athletes, coaches, family members or
friends.
Why
did you join TOPX Network?
To be around other ambitious women in Life Science. I strongly believe that
women (and men) with a growth mindset are more successful in their careers and
at home. Too often, we just work, work and work and hardly slow down to invest
in our personal development and network. I want to make coaching
available to all (wo)men in Life Sciences, independent of the phase in their
career or level in the company. Together we make a bigger difference to
patients!
What
do you expect to gain from TOPX Network?
A great network of women (and men) that want to learn from each other, support
each other and help each other to reach our ambitious goals.
Do you
have a book tip you would like to share?
My favorite book is “The Culture Map” written by Erin Meijer who is an American
author and a professor of Cross-Cultural Management at INSEAD in Paris. In her
book, she introduces an “eight-scale model” which helps managers and leaders of
culturally diverse teams to improve their effectiveness by analysing the
position of one culture relative to another on eight dimensions, which gives
meaningful insights in why people behave like they do. The eight dimensions
are: Communication (high versus low context language), Evaluation (direct
vs indirect negative feedback), Leading (egalitarian versus hierarchical),
Deciding (consensus versus top-down), Trusting (task-based versus relationship-based),
Disagreeing (confrontational versus avoiding), Scheduling (linear versus
flexible time) and Persuading (principles versus applications first).
An absolute must read for anyone who works in cultural diverse teams (who isn’t
nowadays…)!
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