pharmaceutical leader - SPREADLOVEIO

Hope-Driven Leadership – Harout Semerjian

SpreadLove In Organizations

Hope-Driven Leadership - Harout Semerjian

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In this episode, you’ll be getting a booster shot by hearing from an amazing leader who believes that leadership is a privilege. Harout will give you his recipes of success in building highly engaged and performing teams. You’ll be positively surprised to hear the first ingredient!

“Even if we are standing, the world is turning and changing.”

MEET OUR GUEST Harout Semerjian, President and CEO of GlycoMimetics, a seasoned global pharmaceutical leader with a passion and focus in Oncology. Harout was elected top 10 emerging pharma executives in 2018, a strong believer in leading with care to deliver results for the patients we serve.

Harout is a seasoned biopharmaceutical leader with more than 25 years of expertise in commercializing specialty medicines across the United States, Europe, and emerging markets. He has built a reputation for building high-performance teams, leading transformations, and delivering exceptional results. He has deep expertise in oncology, hematology and rare diseases having launched more than 20 specialty products or major indications over the years. Harout spent 17 years in Novartis where his last role was Senior Vice President and global head of Ribociclib, the CDK4/6 inhibitor. Then he moved to Ipsen to be the Chief Commercial Officer and recently for a short period was the Chief Executive Officer of Immunomedics before its sale to Gilead. Currently, Harout works as a consultant and investor within healthcare.

Harout is passionate about healthcare disparities and coaching talent to achieve their full potential. In his spare time, he spends his time traveling with his family despite having a heavy travel schedule, as it provides an opportunity for his daughters to connect and expand their horizons.

Let People Fly – John Bamforth

SpreadLove In Organizations

Let People Fly - John Bamforth

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If you want to hear from a leader who knew every person’s birthday in his 100+ team, a manager whose passion is to find and develop the next generation of leaders who will change the world, tune in and hear from John Bamforth! An inspiring story with strong advice for all of us leading our teams towards success with genuine care and love.

John’s recommended readings: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, The Obstacle Is the Way, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World.

“Remove the shackles and let people fly!”

MEET OUR GUEST John Bamforth is originally from the northwestern part of the UK but emigrated to the US in 2001. He now holds dual citizenship. A pharmacist with a PhD in neuropharmacology, John joined the Pharma industry in 1989 with Eli Lilly. Spending most of his career in commercial functions, he became recognized as a builder of global brands and leader of highly engaged teams.

After retiring from Lilly after 30 years, John returned to academia to lead the Eshelman Institute for Innovation at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The institute was created by a $100M gift from Dr Fred Eshelman and is focused on translating the brightest and best ideas on campus into products and services that impact patients. In his current role, John continues to advocate for diversity and inclusion and its demonstrated impact on performance and innovation.
John is on multiple boards including the Structural Genomics Consortium and Akanocure Pharma, where he is chairman of the board. He is also interim Executive Director of READDI, a public-private partnership founded to develop novel anti-virals for the next pandemic.

John’s passions outside work are his family, he has two children (Thomas and Rebecca) with his wife Sue. They also have two West Highland Terriers, Luke and Lucky, who he takes for endless walks.

John and Sue founded the Ciara Arts and Science Foundation in 2017 to support college scholarships for disadvantaged youth. John is a keen golfer and general sports geek. He loves to attend big sports events like the Masters, Ryder Cup, Super Bowl, and Rugby World Cup.

Learning After a Year in the USA!

One year today in the US! Beyond all the craziness of 2020, I’ve been so fortunate to be part of an amazing team and lead passionate, dedicated, purpose-driven people.

My three “people” learning:

Unite through purpose

With all the cultural differences that we can imagine, the real true diversity that we have, leaders unite through purpose. It is incredible to come in a new country, go out for work and feel like you never left home. The underlying values and beliefs that create the company’s culture, fueled by genuine intent to strive for a noble purpose, then the power I watched here of deeply valuing hard work, made us navigate crazy times together without ever loosing site of our why and how.

Spread Love is universal

I hesitated for months coming here if “love” is a world to stand for at work in the US. I quickly realized that it is universal and desperately needed in our world at home and work if there still is any difference in both… It starts by genuine care, curiosity and listening. I learned so much from leaders’ tough stories, discovered what D&I is really about, educated myself on racial justice and I am convinced more than ever that spread love should be leaders’ priority. Spread love to create an inclusive equitable environment, a place where everyone feels safe to thrive, to have true tough discussions, open debates to advance the world and most importantly to imagine and invent the future… As I shared in a previous article, never forget that real love is not kindness.

What “community” really means

Many times, we hear about this outside the US, value of hard work in this country, praising success, looking up-to people, and this is really great! What I learned to be even greater is how people intentionally give-back to their communities, their friends, the causes they believe in. I experienced it even personally with tough moments being thousands of miles away from my birth country and watching it online being destroyed recently by a massive explosion. My teams were here not only to support me but also supported Lebanon through donations to the Red Cross. It is just beautiful to see the power of communities and the real sense of caring for one another.

What about my learning from a business standpoint?

Same personal leadership believes in a totally different marketplace. Everything starts with people first, great diverse talents and leaders striving towards our purpose, intentionally radically focusing on 2 to 3 priorities (making choices) and then relentlessly executing on those with excellence to deliver positive impact to the patients and communities we serve; this translates into great results.