Active Ingredients

In this episode of the Active Ingredients podcast, host Thomas Dove interviews Joerg Ahlgrimm, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SK Pharmteco.Joerg Ahlgrimm has led global manufacturing networks at Baxter and Lonza, founded the gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) Centre for Breakthrough Medicines during COVID, and now leads SK Pharmteco’s global operations from the United States.In this conversation, he explains why listening, strategy, and fast decision-making remain his three active ingredients of leadership. He shares what changed when he moved from an innovator company to CDMO life, why trust takes years to build and one event to destroy, and how growing up in East Germany shaped his focus on community.Key Takeaways· Explore why CDMO leadership means working “behind glass”, where every deviation and delay is visible to the customer, leaving no safety cushion.· Understand what changes when senior leaders move from an innovator pharmaceutical company into a CDMO, where commercial skill matters as much as operations.· Apply Ahlgrimm’s view on trust: one bad quality result can undo years of goodwill, so proactive communication is as important as getting it right the first time.· Learn why listening, not authority, is Ahlgrimm’s first active ingredient of leadership, since assuming you already know everything is a big trap.· Discover why Ahlgrimm calls himself an “80% guy”. Chasing full certainty before deciding costs speed, and you still make errors regardless.· Gain insight into building a gene therapy CDMO from near nothing, with payroll run hand to mouth before financing closed on Christmas Eve.· Uncover how growing up without freedom of travel or speech in East Germany shaped Ahlgrimm’s lasting belief in community.· Identify why a strong support network, from family to team, carries executives through the loneliest stretches of building something new.· Take away Ahlgrimm’s advice for the next generation: learn the fundamentals broadly, put the patient first, and let results follow.Snippets· “Trust is something which you can’t earn in a very short transactional relationship… It takes a week, or one event, which destroys the trust, and it takes months and years to rebuild it.”· “If you believe that you are a good ops guy in the innovator world, and now you just replicate this to the CDMO world, I think you will fail.”· “Never forget that you will never achieve results by your own work. You will always achieve the results by everybody’s contributions.”Timestamps & TopicsThe following timestamps are approximations:· [01:25] – Active Ingredients: Listening, strategy and decision-making as Ahlgrimm’s leadership formula· [03:13] – Decisiveness: Why Ahlgrimm calls himself an “80% guy” over endless analysis· [27:28] – Behind Glass: What full transparency demands of CDMO leaders· [34:56] – Trust: Why it takes years to build and one event to destroy· [43:39] – Startup Scarcity: Building a gene therapy CDMO from nothing during Covid· [56:10] – Advice: What Ahlgrimm would tell the next generation of life science leadersResources· Follow Joerg Ahlgrimm on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joerg-ahlgrimm-315a925/· Follow Thomas Dove on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lifesciencesexecutivesearch/Don't Miss an EpisodeSign up to the Active Ingredients podcast at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.activeingredients.fraserdove.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Remember to tune into our next episode for more inspiring insights. You can also subscribe to the Active Ingredients podcast on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and other leading podcast platforms.Loved this episode?Share it with your friends, family, or your peers!

In this episode of the Active Ingredients podcast, host Thomas Dove interviews John Tomtishen, Cell and Gene Therapy Executive Leader and Recognised CMC ExpertJohn Tomtishen has spent over a decade in cell and gene therapy, helping deliver the first approved CAR-T therapy at Novartis, building the CMC strategy behind Legend Biotech's Carvykti, and now leading global field application and strategic alliances at Catalent.In this conversation, he shares the three principles- authenticity, integrity and self-sacrifice- that carried him from a 118,000-person pharmaceutical company to his role as Legend Biotech's fifth US employee and into a leading CDMO. He explains why empowerment must precede accountability, what separates a high-performing team from a cohesive one, and his three pillars of career success.Key TakeawaysLearn why John Tomtishen treats authenticity, integrity and self-sacrifice as the foundation of every team he builds.Discover why a cohesive team beats a high-performing one, and how non-verbal cues keep results consistent over months, not weeks.Understand why empowerment must come before accountability, and how stepping back strengthens delivery under pressure.Explore Tomtishen's three pillars of career success: what you know, who you know, and the pillar he rates highest, how you're known.Apply the lesson behind Kymriah's approval, captured in his mantra "the process is the product," to any team building manufacturing capability.Gain a grounded view of AI in leadership, where technology supports the work but face-to-face relationships still drive results.Uncover why celebrating small wins keeps teams motivated through the long, high-pressure journey of commercialising a cell therapy.Identify the two factors that decide commercial success against 70-plus rivals: time to market and product quality.Snippets• "I think there's three principles I'm always driven by: authenticity, integrity and self-sacrifice... to lead a team, you have to be willing to take the bullet for your team."• "A high-performing team can last a month or two. A truly cohesive team consistently maintains that performance over time, and can anticipate things before you even say them."• "There's three pillars I've always viewed career success as defined by: what you know, who you know, and how you're known. The most important pillar is how you're known."Timestamps & TopicsThe following timestamps are approximations:[01:26] – Active Ingredients: John Tomtishen's three foundational leadership principles[04:20] – Origin Story: How a research project pulled him into cell therapy[08:52] – Pivotal Moment: The Novartis lab experience that made him a leader[27:30] – Empowerment: Why accountability starts with letting go of oversight[29:14] – Team Cohesion: The difference between high-performing and truly cohesive[40:28] – Career Framework: What you know, who you know, how you're known[44:14] – AI Readiness: Using technology without losing the human connectionResourcesFollow John Tomtishen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-tomtishen-46b16881/Follow Thomas Dove on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lifesciencesexecutivesearch/Don't Miss an EpisodeSign up to the Active Ingredients podcast at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.activeingredients.fraserdove.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Remember to tune into our next episode for more inspiring insights. You can also subscribe to the Active Ingredients podcast on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and other leading podcast platforms.Loved this episode?Share it with your friends, family, or your peers!

In this episode of the Active Ingredients podcast, host Thomas Dove speaks with Anish Mehta, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Synthon.Anish Mehta is a global pharmaceutical CEO whose career spans engineering, strategy consulting, commercial leadership, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and private equity-backed transformation. From biomedical and chemical engineering to McKinsey, Baxter and Hospira, he has spent more than 25 years building businesses and creating value across innovative pharma and generics.In this conversation, he shares how he built leadership from the shop floor up, what it takes to lead globally, and how he creates value through win-win deals. He also explains the discipline of a private equity-backed business, and why patient impact remains his North Star.Key Takeaways· Learn why Anish Mehta names strategic conviction, growth mindset, authenticity and stamina as the ingredients that carry senior leaders through a demanding life sciences career.· Discover how growth creates value only when it serves a purpose, with a North Star anchored to something bigger than the profit and loss account.· Understand why the best leaders stay unapologetically human, taking the work seriously without taking themselves too seriously.· Explore how a summer milling antibiotic ingredients on Abbott's shop floor made Mehta a more relatable and empathetic executive decades later.· Gain a practical dealmaking principle: grow the size of the pie for both sides rather than fight over how a fixed pie is split.· Identify what separates a great dealmaker from a good one, namely the discipline to walk away when deal fever takes hold.· Apply lessons on leading a private equity-backed company, where accountability is absolute, and alignment on a credible plan comes first.· Take away why a better company means more than earnings, including a stronger pipeline, wider geographical footprint and greater patient impact.· Uncover Mehta's advice for the next generation: align work with your values, ignore the risk-averse voice, and become as AI literate as possible.Snippets· "When I win, and they lose, that is not success... I focus on how we increase the size of the pie, not how we split the pie."· "The simplest one is knowing when to walk away. Too many people get deal fever... deal fever is a real thing. I've been in the room, I've seen it."· "Take the roles that the little voice inside you says, are you sure, should you do it, is it risky. Don't listen to that voice. Take the roles that give you a chance to shine."Timestamps & TopicsThe following timestamps are approximations:· [00:00] – Intro: Anish Mehta's journey from Chicago to global pharma CEO· [02:58] – Key Ingredients: Strategic conviction, growth mindset, authenticity, stamina· [13:23] – Shop Floor: What milling APIs at Abbott taught him about leadership· [28:39] – Stepping Up: The 2007 challenge that made him a business leader· [42:50] – Dealmaker Mindset: Building win-win partnerships in generics· [48:56] – Private Equity: Leading with full accountability as a PE-backed CEO· [1:06:17] – Advice: What he tells the next generation of life science leadersResources· Follow Anish Mehta on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anish-mehta-66615a/· Follow Thomas Dove on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lifesciencesexecutivesearch/Don't Miss an EpisodeSign up to the Active Ingredients podcast at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.activeingredients.fraserdove.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Remember to tune into our next episode for more inspiring insights. You can also subscribe to the Active Ingredients podcast on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and other leading podcast platforms.Loved this episode?Share it with your friends, family, or your peers!

In this episode of the Active Ingredients podcast, host Thomas Dove interviews Michaela Griggs, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Ansella Therapeutics.Michaela Griggs is a turnaround CEO and board director whose career has encompassed global commercial leadership at Bayer and Allergan, CEO positions, and board appointments across healthcare, fertility, aesthetics, and biotech.In this conversation, she talks about what drives her to take on challenges others avoid, how a dyslexia diagnosis fuelled her determination, why the best leaders choose the harder path, and the development frameworks she uses with every team she leads.Key Takeaways· Discover why long-range vision grows more critical with every step up, and how thinking five to fifteen years ahead lets leaders adapt when the landscape changes.· Learn how Michaela Griggs turned a failing consumer health brand into a $100 million product by creating space to think clearly and finding the right thought partner.· Understand why building on a person’s strengths, rather than fixing weaknesses, is a more effective development approach, and why it also lifts areas where they struggle.· Explore Michaela’s one-page career mapping exercise that connects today’s role to a ten-to-fifteen-year vision and puts people in control of their development.· Gain practical advice on brave leadership, including how to admit to a sceptical sales team that you got the strategy wrong and present a clear new direction.· Discover the mantra behind Michaela’s approach to talent development: develop every person as if they could one day be your boss.· Understand why a lattice career of lateral moves and steps back can outpace a straight-line promotion path and builds the breadth that senior life sciences roles demand.· Learn why the most valuable feedback Michaela ever received was being told she talked too much, and how it now shapes the way she gives developmental feedback to her teams.· Explore what Michaela believes the future of leadership requires: stronger emotional intelligence (EQ), flatter team structures, and a shift to team-first thinking.Snippets· “Everybody I develop could one day be my boss, so I better develop them really well so that they’re a good boss.”· “I’ve got a rod of steel down my spine and I hide it in kindness.”· “The one big piece of advice I would give people going into leadership today: take your people with you and really lean into that. Think team first versus self first.”Timestamps & TopicsThe following timestamps are approximations:· [00:01] – Introduction: Michaela Griggs, turnaround CEO and board director in life sciences· [00:01:18] – Key Ingredients: Courage, people skills with integrity, and long-range vision· [00:09:01] – Background: Growing up, boarding school, and discovering dyslexia· [00:17:20] – Leadership Origins: The first moment Michaela knew she wanted to lead others· [00:23:17] – Turnaround: Rescuing a struggling consumer health brand from cancellation· [00:38:23] – Talent Development: Developing every person as if they might one day be your boss· [00:43:59] – Career Mapping: A one-page exercise putting people in the driver’s seat of their development· [00:52:08] – Brave Conversations: Asking for honest feedback after being passed over for promotion· [00:58:19] – Future of Leadership: Why team-first thinking and emotional intelligence matter more than everResources· Follow Michaela Griggs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelagriggs/• Follow Thomas Dove on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lifesciencesexecutivesearch/

In this episode of the Active Ingredients podcast, host Thomas Dove speaks with Michael Stanek, former Vice President (VP) and General Manager (GM) API Global at Thermo Fisher Scientific.With more than 25 years in the contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) sector, Michael has led turnarounds, integrated acquisitions and rethought how commercial and operational teams work together. He shares his dual sales model and what it takes to shift a big pharma culture into a multi-customer CDMO mindset.Key Takeaways· Understand why empathy, listening and curiosity are Stanek’s three core leadership traits, and why they matter most in high-pressure CDMO environments.· Learn how to look beyond first impressions when developing talent, and why investing in people before they believe in themselves can define careers.· Discover why tough environments build better leaders than comfortable ones, and how pressure sharpens the instincts that sustained success can quietly erode.· Explore how to keep teams focused under pressure, from repeating purpose at every level to celebrating small wins during a restructuring.· Identify why the disconnect between commercial and operations in CDMOs is structural, rooted in different time horizons, incentives and definitions of risk between the two functions.· Gain insight into why traditional sales models break in CDMO, and why expecting one person to win new accounts and manage complex long-term relationships rarely works.· Apply the dual sales model that pairs a business manager with a sales manager, eliminating handover gaps and building customer trust from proposal to delivery.· Understand what it takes to shift big pharma culture into a CDMO mindset, and why the cultural shift typically takes two to five years.· Take away Stanek’s advice for the next generation of CDMO leaders: stay curious, communicate openly and invest in people early, before they fully see their own potential.Snippets• "Tough environments teach you things that success simply can't. Success can be comfortable... it can dull your instincts."·• "Selling in our industry is not about charisma or persistence. It requires deep technical understanding, operational willingness, and the ability to navigate uncertainty."·• "Creating trust upfront and accountability downstream; that combination dramatically improves delivery and customer confidence."Timestamps & TopicsResourcesThe following timestamps are approximations:· [00:00] – Intro: Career spanning science, operations and commercial execution· [00:01:40] – Key Ingredients: Empathy, listening and curiosity· [00:06:34] – Early Leadership: Believing in people before they believe in themselves· [00:14:03] – Tough Environments: Why pressure shapes leaders faster than success· [00:19:59] – Commercial vs Operations: The structural disconnect in CDMO organisations· [00:30:06] – Dual Sales Model: Pairing business and sales managers to build trust· [00:38:00] – CDMO Integration: Shifting big pharma culture into a multi-customer mindset· [00:49:07] – Next Generation: Stay curious, communicate openly, invest in people earlyResources· Follow Michael Stanek on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-stanek-638b453/· Follow Thomas Dove on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lifesciencesexecutivesearch/Don't Miss an EpisodeSign up to the Active Ingredients podcast at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.activeingredients.fraserdove.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Remember to tune into our next episode for more inspiring insights. You can also subscribe to the Active Ingredients podcast on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and other leading podcast platforms.Loved this episode?Share it with your friends, family, or your peers!