HBA Newsletter Europe - hbanet.org · organized by Sanofi-Aventis and Merck Germany, focused on female executives in the healthcare business in Germany. Did you know that Sanofi-Aventis

The EuroVoiceOctober 2010

THE MANY FACES OF PASSION

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HBA Europe Board of Directors 2010

President: Friederike Sommer, Founder Friederike Sommer Training & Consulting President elect: Jolanda Groenhuijzen, Managing Director, MyLanda GmbHVice-President: Isabelle Buckle, CEO, InGenBiosciencesImmediate Past President Barbara Gerber, Senior Director Client Services Europe, InterbrandHealthTreasurer: Gabriele Matthias, Research Associate, Novartis Research Foundation FMISecretary: Sabine Aslan, ParisChapter Mentor: Cathy Sohn, President, SHS – Sohn Health Strategies

Directors at large

Programs: Dragana ZivkovicBusiness Analyst, Novartis Pharma AGMentoring: Britta Luescher, Corporate Citizenship and D&I Executive Animal Health, NovartisEuroVoice: Silvia Pellegrini, Client Services Director, Sentrix Global Health CommunicationsCorporate Relations: Deborah Wong, Director CI, Novartis Pharma ADAdvocacy: Cherie Faiella, Executive Director, Office of the Chairman, Ernst&Young LLPTalent Management: Gaia Piraccini, Managing Director, MederisMarketing: Yasmina Eroglu, Associate Director Specialty Commercialisation, Novartis Pharma AGWomen in Science: Christine Billy, Scientific Coordinator, Novartis Pharma AG; Linn Hjortsberh, Project Manager, Archimed Medical Communications AGPR: Ritalba Lamendola, Associate, ValeoconManagement Consulting


the U.S. and in Europe do support efforts. Behind

those chapters and affiliates are hundreds of

dedicated members (women and men) that

passionately serve and support the organization to its

successful growth. I want to dedicate this issue of the

Euro Voice to spend some time on recognizing some

of those people and their passion for HBA.

Passion drives us in everything we do, it is the force

behind us giving our best in aspects of life that matter

to us, it makes us show that we care and are

committed. It is what keeps us going even when we

are tired, what makes us stay long hours in our work,

or dedicate our free time to our favorite cause.

Passion is the subtle link that bonds the volunteers of

HBA, men and women who believe in the importance

of creating a better place and bigger space for women

in their work environments and ultimately in the

world. Passion makes us feel proud for achievements

of our fellow colleagues and happy to have a

community to share our own achievements with.

On September 27 we had the first HBA meeting in

Zug, Switzerland, hosted by Amgen AG and co-

sponsored by Janssen Cilag GmbH. 60 Participants

discussed Personal Leadership Styles and how

diversity is key to success. -Continued next page-

The President’s Voice

The Healthcare Businesswomen‟s

Association (HBA) now exists since

1977 as a global not-for-profit

organization dedicated to

furthering the advancement of

women in healthcare worldwide. 14

chapters and affiliates throughout

http://www.hbanet.org/

“The President’s Voice”

However, members should be offered the opportunities to not only contribute to the

community, but to get an immediate return and we do that by offering ongoing events and

workshops. You will find committment and passion at each one of our events refected in

burning topics and great discussions.

So what will happen while heading up towards the end of the year? Local events are

happening continuously, please check our website for detailed information. We would like

to congratulate the organisers of two launch events in new regions: Zug (Switzerland)

and Frankfurt (Germany). In Frankfurt, the event, hosted by Ernst & Young in Germany and

organized by Sanofi-Aventis and Merck Germany, focused on female executives in the

healthcare business in Germany.

Did you know that Sanofi-Aventis just won this month the Healthcare Businesswomen‟s

Association ACE Award for Corporate Programs Advancing Women‟s Careers?

October 27-29, the Global Leadership Conference will take place in Philadelphia,

focusing on leadership impact delivered. Learn to Innovate, Orchestrate, and Perform at your

choice of seminars aligned under these 3 conference themes. Should you be in the US, don‟t

miss that opportunity to pass by.

November 11 -12, our 3rd HBA Pan European Leadership conference will take place in

Basel, Switzerland. You will find in this issue detailed information. I do hope to see you all

there.

Additionally, we now have newly created the HBA Career Center which offers two levels of job

postings. The first is to post only to the HBA site and that offers access to nearly 700 resumes

in our database. The second level is the network level. The HBA is a part of the National

Healthcare Network, a group of 220 associations with career centers. This option allows

employers access to a database of nearly 58,000 resumes.

Sincerely yours,

Friederike Sommer


WOMEN IN SCIENCE (WIS)WIS is an HBA programme dedicated to fostering the advancement of women working in a scientific function. WIS operates in sub-groups who discuss and research topics and then share their findings with the group at large during monthly dinners. The output of the research work can be a publication, training, conference, etc.

Each WIS member is offered to either work with a sub-group on an already identified topic or to select a topic on which she wishes to initiate sub-group activities. Sub-groups in Basel and Paris are currently working on: • How do analysts judge an R&D portfolio • How to transition from academia to industry • How to transition from one company to another or from a function to another • Boss/associate relationship and its impact on job satisfaction and career development • Innovation in Europe


HBA Pan European Leadership Conference 2010

Basel, 11-12 November 2010

Beyond the Business Case for Women; Moving from Awareness into Action

The business case for (gender) diversity is all too familiar. Research has shown that by

increasing the number of women at the senior management levels, organizations can

become more innovative and boost business performance. Especially organisations with 3

or more women in Senior Management teams have shown to be more successful.

However, we still see a gender gap between the number of women at executive level in

most healthcare businesses.

After Norway, 7 more European countries are considering legislation to set quota for the

number of women on boards of major corporations. The conference will focus on the quota

question: would this indeed be a successful strategy to improve performance by forcefully

increasing the number of women at the executive level? We are seeking the point of view

from Corporate boards, Senior HR Professionals and high potential professionals. We are

looking to inspire you with talks and discussions on how businesses can better leverage

their female workforce with examples from within and from outside the healthcare industry.

The Conference starts on the 11th of November at 4 PM with the HBA Europe Annual

Business Meeting, followed by an apero and dinner with a keynote speaker.

On the 12th of November the opening of the Conference will take place at 8.30 AM and the

day will run until 5 PM.

Registration fee:

Members

$210 USD until October 15th (approx. 150 EU)

$280 USD after October 15th (approx. 200 EU)

Non-Members

$385 USD until October 15th (approx. 275 EUR)

$490 USD after October15th (approx. 350 EUR)

More information on the program and how to register can be found on www.hbanet.org

http://www.hbanet.org/

Core aspects of Burnout Syndrome are emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (everything is black

around) and reduced performance ability. The original description was made on volunteers at social

institutions, people known to be indeed very committed to what they are doing. When does engagement

turn into Burnout? At some point, well-being, engagement, energy and efficiency of involvement turns into

exhaustion, cynicism and inefficiency. In between, the person has the ability to cope with pressure and this

ability is very individual. Burn out has earlier been thought of as „manager disease‟, however nowadays it is

recognized that it is much broader and involves equally people in very different life situations. How does

Burnout develop? There are different types of stress: positive stress or eustress, that is useful and

stimulates people to perform better and negative stress that causes permanent pressure and damages

health. The body is able to physiologically adapt to short-term stress by increase of blood pressure, heart

rate and respiration. This provides the energy required to get out of the situation. Facing longer-lasting

stress, the body answers with longer-term resistance mechanism. Exhaustion represents the break-down of

these adaptive mechanisms. Normally if stress disappears: the body goes back to normal baseline

functioning; if stress continues: people develop different kinds of psychosomatic disturbances. If it continues

far longer, it can cause a lot of serious diseases and not necessarily burnout symptoms.

There are seven stages in Burnout development. The first warning signals can be very individual:

increased engagement over time, decreased motivation for other activities and vegetative overreactions.

Next steps are reduced engagement and emotional reaction with pessimist inferiority feeling, irritability and

a negative self-image. Then, people display a decrease of cognitive activities with loss of motivation,

memory disturbance, loss of creativity and problem to concentrate. Further they tend to show flattening of

their emotional life and demonstrate indifference, avoidance, give up hobbies, put themselves down, have

sense of failure, and could abuse alcohol and medication. The latest steps are psychosomatic reactions,

muscle contractions, headache, eating disturbance, sleeping disturbance, etc. The final step can be

depression and despair from which it is extremely difficult to get out. To conclude, Burnout is a complex set

of behavioral changes and somatic symptoms.


by Sophie Jaeger, Ph.D, Study coordinator and Clinical Research Assistant, Pasteur Hospital, Colmar, France

Basel, WIS event, May 11th 2010. Dr. Ida Niklson

presented the features of the Burnout Syndrome,

an emergent disease of our times. According to

its definition , Burnout Syndrome is a state of

emotional, mental and physical exhaustion

caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It can

also be defined as an experience of long-term

exhaustion and diminished interest. It was first

defined in 1974 as a “complex state of body and

mind” resulting from failed adaptation of engaged

persons to requirement of the workplace and/or

private life.

During the question session , Ida was asked how to avoid Burnout? Her answer was “First be aware that it

exists, take care of your life/work balance, do something else than only work, know your limits and if you're

prone to Burnout”. There are typical personality traits which makes the person more prone to develop

Burnout: engagement, the major one being high level of engagement. Only people engaged and willing to

help, like nurses and people working in social institutions are specially prone to Burnout.

Burnout develops not just at work, it also happens at home for people caring for their family. Young

mothers have high rate of Burnout because they have their career, children, family, spouse etc to take

care of.

The social network, namely friends and family, are good in detecting the first signals of changes in your

behavior. “Recognize this first alarm signal that something has changed in your behavior is extremely

important. “When you are in the middle of Burnout, you don't notice it anymore”.

Only a fraction of Burnout people seek help; so the real frequency of it is not available. At work, it touches

mostly people in "sandwich positions", e.g. middle level managers to whom people who report to them are

usually former colleagues but nevertheless with a boss giving orders they are forced to comply, even if in

discordance with their personal beliefs.

The last question was: How to cure from Burnout? Ida shortly advised to go to a psychologist and discuss

the situation. Dependent on the stage of Burnout, the person will have to get out of work, and recover

physically. Very often when people recover from a severe Burnout and are able to think on how they want to

continue their life and work, they come to the conclusion that change in the workplace might be the best

solution for them.


IDA NIKLSON’S CAREER PATH

With a Ph.D in Human Development Neuroanatomy, Ida spent 17 years at the Medical Faculty of Novi

Sad University. She worked in nuclear medicine pathophysiology, specialized in pathophysiology and

neuropsychiatry and taught Clinical Physiology as assistant professor. Thinking backwards, Ida always

demonstrated high interest in publications of non-marketed drugs. She met a Clinical Research

Associate from Organon and got involved as investigator in clinical studies. With a job offer from

Organon, she started a second chapter of her professional life, working for pharmaceutical companies.

There she had different roles, but always responsible for global clinical CNS clinical drug development.

She relocated many times and presently Ida is Scientific Officer at Novartis.

She found some commonalities in her career: always leading global positions in drug development in the

CNS Therapeutic area, and always working in series of 7 years. The path required drive, interest,

motivation and curiosity, decisiveness, trust in herself, hard work and energy. Ida had to learn from the

different situations and be very determined. She mentioned that luck takes a part in one‟s career and

underlined the importance of preserving one own‟s work/life balance: “you need to get rest and hobbies,

and your family is also extremely important”! According to her: “every change is a change for better, even

if you don‟t see it immediately”. About stubbornness, Ida advised: “know what you want for the long-

term, don’t get discouraged if the short-term is difficult”.

Burnout Syndrome - continued

The EuroVoiceDecember 2009

Diversity & Inclusion sounds like a popular topic for HR but isn’t it everyone’s

responsibility?

I am often challenged by managers about the fact that the diversity topic is perceived

as the "fashion of the month" and everyone is overusing it! I simply believe that

organisation and certainly senior managers understand that valuing diversity in the

workplace by creating an inclusive working environment is more than just a nice thing

to do but a real business imperative. When you want to build inclusion, you must

carefully look at reviewing all HR management processes (recruitment, promotion,

evaluation etc.) in a way that is bias free. So there is a rigorous work to be done to

ensure meritocracy. At the same time, managers and employees must be aware of

their own biases and behaviours as exclusion is most of time the result of

ignorance. All should strengthen their inclusive behaviours. It is indeed a personal

responsibility but at the same time it should be clearly stated as a key competence

which is recognised and rewarded by the company.

A dialogue on diversity and inclusion with Isabelle PujolFounder and President of Pluribus Europe and HBA speaker at the „Authentic

Leadership‟ Event in Paris on June 29th.

Euroleader’s VoiceBy Gabriele SilvagniChair, HBA Paris - Events committeeDirector Client Services, Grey Healthcare Group Europe

How does diversity and inclusion influence the way we operate?

Diversity is a reality. It‟s a reality because we are all unique and operate with a distinct frame of

reference which we more or less share to varying degrees to others. This frame significantly influences

how we perceive and relate to others, situations & events. Inclusion is actually an option. Inclusion

should be embedded in the way we behave and we do business. However, individuals should go

through a personal learning journey. All need to have the humility to recognize that managing and

capitalizing on diversity is complex.

Based on your experience, what are the key actions for leading or creating an inclusive

organisation?

I was among the first European diversity & inclusion managers as I started to focus on the topic in 1994.

I have talked to many companies and run numerous benchmarking with high performing companies. 5

key insights have emerged from that experience: 1) the diversity & inclusion strategy should be led by

the CEO of the organisation. It is a real business issue. Without a visible commitment from the top, the

D&I strategy becomes just a nice initiative. 2) It is a long-term journey: the change doesn't happen

overnight. Be patient. 3) There is no miracle recipe. Each organisation must understand and build their

respective D&I business case and implement the strategy accordingly. 4) Resources and budget are

critical. Otherwise the implementation is not sustainable. 5) An inclusive dialogue between the top and

the bottom of the organisation should take place. It must led by the top but the top must also listen to the

concerns raised at all levels of the organisation.

The EuroVoiceMarch 2010

Is diversity a strategic approach to improve performance?

Many studies highlight that diverse teams are indeed improving the performance and the level of

creativity of the team. This can only happen if the diverse team is taking the time to acknowledge, value

and capitalize on the diversity of the team. Otherwise, a diverse team not well managed can create

chaos and demotivation. Only inclusion is the differentiator. In the rapid evolution of our global society,

companies must be in a position to respond to the spectrum of new risks and opportunities.

Beyond inclusive and authentic leadership - How do you fuel your passion to new levels for

inspiring yourself and others?

Regaining my passion and sources of inspiration must start with a pause for reflection. A pause to

reconnect with my inner self and my real voice.

Many of us find that in the process of striving to succeed at work, we have developed only part of

who we are while leaving vital aspects of ourselves behind. In the midst of substantial

achievement we often report feeling empty, burned out or invisible. I often dialogue with other women

and gain so many insights by hearing their stories. I am genuinely keen to hear and relate to others and

share my passion. My passion is about building inclusion around me and creating bridges between

people who are or feel different. It is important for me to "walk the talk".

I have been inspired by Gandhi: "Be the change you want to see in the world" and Nelson

Mandela "everything is possible". If you are authentic in your daily life and if your key values are

visible and palpable, this passion can be transferred and can fuel your personal energy to

support and help others.

Euroleader’s Voice

A dialogue on diversity and inclusion with Isabelle Pujol -continued

ISABELLE PUJOL’S CAREER PATH

Isabelle Pujol has 20 years of experiences working internationally in global organizations, including 14

years of developing and implementing Diversity and Inclusion strategies at global, regional and national

levels. She spent 17 years at BP in various roles including 10 years as a Diversity & Inclusion Manager.

While at BP, Isabelle worked in various positions in Commercial, Internal Communication and

Marketing at the BP Oil European Head Office. She chaired the BP Oil European Women‟s Network to

look at women‟s advancement issues and introduced mutual mentoring and job shadowing

programmes in Europe. Isabelle rotated through different roles, including D&I Manager for Europe and

the Middle East, then member of the Leadership Team of BP Germany as the Diversity & Inclusion

Manager to support and position D&I as a strategic value for cultural integration. She was instrumental

in initiating the German Diversity Charter, launched in December 2007. Isabelle is committed to

supporting men and women in fulfilling their full potential by understanding and valuing their respective

differences. She also acts as the European Director for the Heim Group to promote effective

communication between men and women and is the founder and President of Pluribus Europe, a

consultancy firm committed to developing individuals, teams and organisations to succeed through

diversity and inclusion. Isabelle lives near Brussels and is married with two children.

Basel, WIS event, May 11th 2010. Dr. Barbara Troup, Management Consultant and Business Coach

presented on “how to optimize team and leadership performance in remote and virtual team

settings”. During her 14 years in the pharmaceutical- and biotech industry, Barbara faced several

challenges leading international and virtual teams. This long experience led her to build her own

philosophy: “moving others by moving yourself”. With the aim to do what she likes, Barbara

established her company Motionsquare, based in Lörrach, Germany. She splits her experience in 4

key areas: consulting, leadership, analysis and development, and team development.

Due to growing globalization, the importance to diversify and work with other countries is crucial in

business. Companies are now hiring people from all countries and international teams set up and grow

everywhere. In parallel, advances in technology offer new solutions for those teams to get organized

and new ways of working together. Virtual Teams are teams where members don’t sit in the same

place. Even if they belong to the same organization, they work in different locations, or originate from

different departments within the same site. They can also be home-based and work in a more flexible

way. International teams have specific challenges; the main one is cultural diversity. Remote and virtual

teams will become increasingly important in the future and will bring new additional challenges. Leaders

and team members will have to overcome these challenges in order to optimize team performance.

Communication is the most obvious challenge. Very often poor quality technology infrastructures

(e.g. bad phone lines) make the communication even more difficult, sometimes virtual platforms are also

not mastered by the leader himself. The most appropriate technology will have to be chosen according

to the procedure. Team leaders should also create a code or rules telling when to use the phone,

when to meet face-to-face. Virtual team members have limited face-to-face contacts, limited

interaction. They show lower level of spontaneity and non-verbal communication is reduced when you

don‟t see the body language. All these elements affect the communication quality. Very often poor

communication also stands for irrelevant, insufficient, not targeted, unequally distributed information. It is

extremely important to deliver a timely and targeted information flow. Trust is a challenging goal for

virtual teams. It is very hard to build trust over the phone. For example, if one thing is agreed and not

done, nobody realizes why, maybe because the person had other more important things to do. One

should trust each other and Virtual Teams have to struggle for the development of a certain level of

trust. According to the usual high turnover (40%) within teams, to rebuild trust every time a new member

joins, is getting difficult. Barbara explained us that moreover, “Trust tends to build easier between same

cultural origins”.


The Key Success Factors for Managing Virtual Teamsby Sophie Jaeger, Ph.D, Study coordinator and Clinical Research Assistant, Pasteur Hospital, Colmar, France

Virtual Team identity is also very difficult to build. Common vision and goals, clear roles and

responsibilities, all these elements contribute to strong team identity. Unclear goals are the major

challenge for virtual teams: “Individuals remember their goals and, most of the time, don‟t

remember the team‟s ones”. To have clear and defined team goals is one of the most

important key elements for success.

Conflict management is also very difficult in Virtual Team settings. The tendency to avoid

conflicts comes with the lack of personal communication. This is reinforced by cultural

differences. The use of English for non-native speakers also doesn‟t help people to proactively

manage conflicts.

Diversity is another point to be considered in Virtual Teams, as well as in any other multicultural

team. According to their originating countries, people react differently: some are more respectful

towards hierarchy, others have a higher level of individuality, are very competitive or less

comfortable dealing with uncertain things. This is the source of challenges to cope with. “You

have to be aware of that, you cannot ignore it”. Very often leaders are not trained to face cultural

differences and Virtual Teams. Barbara informed us that “Cultural trainings” are available to

those who want to improve their management skills. Sex and age are other diversity factors to

consider. Nevertheless, according to Barbara: “Diversity is also an opportunity!!!” She

emphasized that it is really important for people within the team to understand that they are

different. Leaders should make them aware of that fact, so that they can deal with it and

synergize to boost the team performances.

Virtual Team leaders have additional challenges to face. It is not easy to get the people all

together. Some may need to travel, or have different working time frame. Similarly, it is difficult in

a team meeting to integrate all participants and have them committed on the line, not reading

emails in the same time or dropping out from the conversation. Leaders have thus to motivate

their teams and bridge the distance and isolation of team members. Supporting motivation and

trust within the team is one of the biggest challenges for a Virtual Team leader. Other

requirements: planning, coordination and accurate monitoring of projects. It is also very

important to ensure sufficient resource allocation to the team.

The key success factors for Virtual Teams to perform at their best are to respect cultural

diversity, display a high degree of self-management and self-discipline with respect to

agenda, time management priorities, organization follow up. Team members should have a

high level of intrinsic motivation, the willingness to work independently and result oriented. Also,

a strong focus on communication with preset rules and good English, goal settings,

responsibilities, objectives and milestones. A well-defined team identity and trust are crucial.

Successful Virtual Teams Leaders are excellent project manager, result oriented, with

good coordination. They have good personal skills demonstrating exceptional leadership to

motivate the team, being a role model of integrity and trust, have excellent communication and

negotiation skills, master technologies, appreciate individuals and acknowledge team

performance. Moreover, they preserve trust and team identity by careful integration of new

members.


Managing Virtual Teams

A DOUBLE INTERVIEW ON PASSION

I am a Molecular Biologist based in Basel

(Switzerland) and I work as research scientist at the

Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research,

a basic research institute which is part of the Novartis

Research Foundation. My first contact with HBA was

a weblink on the Novartis intranet with Amy Rojas

announcing that HBA will come to Europe. Just a few

weeks later the founding meeting took place in

Lucerne and Amy Rojas became the first president of

the European chapter of HBA. I wanted to know

more so although I could not attend the founding

meeting, I took the next chance and went to the

London meeting in May 2006 with the topic "Develop

Your Brand. Promote Your Potential." This meeting

and the participants left me very impressed and I

decided to attend more events.

My second HBA meeting was the

“Healthcare2020.forum” in June 2007 at INSEAD.

There I met several 2007 HBA Europe Board

members and Friederike Sommer referred me to the

founders of the “Women in Science” affinity group,

Isabelle Buckle and Catherine Cornu-Artis. Back in

Basel they kindly invited me to the first dinner of the

“Women in Science” and from then on I became

involved as a volunteer.


I am the Founder and CEO of Bench

International. We are the oldest and largest

woman-owned global retained Executive and R&D

Search Firm in the world. I founded Bench in 1974,

at a time when no women were found in board

rooms and very few conference rooms. Back then,

when I walked into a conference room or a board

meeting, there was an assumption by many of the

attendees that I was there to serve food, not to

participate. The past 30 years have been a journey

of passion and of pain, trying to change the “face,”

and the “voice,” of the leadership making decisions

on behalf of patients and consumers. The good

news is that since founding Bench, over 30% of the

talented leaders Bench has placed have been

women and members of diverse populations. I

started as a bench scientist (hence the name of our

company is Bench). Very early in my career, I

realized that I could make a much larger and more

sustainable difference on the quality of patients‟ and

consumers‟ lives by broadly and deeply supporting

our client partners by bringing them the right talent.

A critical aspect to this has been to ensure that the

companies lead with decision makers who mirror

the people they serve. It has taken the better part of

30 years, however I can say that we are finally at

the Dawn of the Era of Women Leaders.

Passion is the subtle link that bonds the volunteers of HBA, men and women who believe in the

importance of creating a better place and bigger space for women in their work environments and

ultimately in the world. We have interviewed two HBA members to find out what ‘keeps them going’.

Tell us a bit about yourself, your role in business and

how you first started getting involved within HBA.

Gabriele Mathias

Research Associate, Novartis Research Foundation FMI

Denise DeMan-Williams

Founder, Chairman and CEO,

Bench International


Gabriele: Being a bench scientist I am

specialized and focused on my field of research,

but I am also very interested in broadening my

horizon and learning about different professional

worlds.

Throughout my life I have been an active

volunteer. Thus, when the opportunity to

volunteer with HBA presented itself, it was the

perfect match. Starting in 2007 as an event

organizer for the “Women in Science” events in

Basel I became in 2008 Co-director of the

“Women in Science” and HBA Europe Board

member. In fall 2009 I was elected Treasurer

and member of the Executive Committee. To be

ready for the job, I then bought a few accounting

books and completed a “Finance and

Accounting” course at Wharton.

I find volunteering to be a very rewarding

experience bringing empowerment which does

not stop with the task, but extends into all

aspects of my life. But above all, the

professionalism, the support and the

friendship provided by my HBA colleagues

are priceless.


Denise: I joined the HBA over a decade ago

because I believed then, and still do now, that

this organization exhibits the bravery and the

boldness to create a forum for women in

healthcare that raises corporate consciousness

and mitigates the lack of access for

women. HBA does this by building a forum filled

with passionate leaders who are steadily

changing that “face,” and that, ”voice” in their

own companies, top-down and bottom up. We

women have very few role models to look to as

our “horizon,” of what can be.

In my tenure in this world, I want to see to it

that women in healthcare have the same

access to role models as our male

counterparts have. On my watch, I want to

ensure that women leaders are charting the

course of corporate transformation in healthcare

around the world. I believe the HBA has the

passionate and dedicated membership to make

this a realizable goal.

What aspects of HBA made you continue to stay involved?

“Hope lies in dreams, in imagination and in the courage of those who dare to make

dreams into reality” (Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine)

“Care about the big picture, but love the detail as well” (unknown)


Gabriele: The list with examples of passion I

have witnessed in other HBA associates is very

long. I see true passion in the HBA‟s staff

members, in my fellow board members, our

dedicated volunteers or in the participants at

local events. The local event coordinators are

real HBA “passionistas” and I admire how they

put in their whole self, their time, energy, ideas

and contacts in order to stage high quality local

events for all of us to enjoy. I feel surrounded by

passionate audiences at HBA‟s large

conferences, such the Annual Leadership

Conference, the “Women of the Year”

celebration in New York City and the Pan -

European Leadership Conference. And each

single member‟s passion makes HBA the great

organization it is.


Denise: I happened to be working out of

Bench‟s Swiss office last year when Deborah

Dunsire was kind enough to come for a Town

Hall with the HBA members. Deb’s passion for

mentoring and guiding women leaders is as

differentiated and as profound as her

passion for patients. I watched her speak her

own truth around what it took to be standing

where she is today. I watched the faces of all of

the women in the room. There was such a

palpable hunger for Deb‟s guidance, for an

understanding of how to create such a roadmap

for one‟s own career. I watched the lights turn

on in the eyes of the women in that room.

Can you think of some examples of passion that you

have witnessed in other HBA associates?

What comes to mind when you think HBA and PASSION together?

Gabriele: The best way for feeling the passion

for HBA and to fully enjoy one‟s involvement with

HBA is to become active as a volunteer. You will

be able to meet highly talented women and men,

then work together with heart and mind for the

common purpose to further the advancement of

women in the healthcare world.

No matter how much time you can give and in

which area you get involved, being an active

HBA volunteer provides you the valuable

experience of acquiring and practicing new skills

and developing your talents. To make it even

better, you can do this in a friendly and non-

threatening learning environment and at the

same time develop long-lasting friendships.

Denise: The truth is I think about that night with

Deb Dunsire and how many women were

turned on to “what can be,” for

themselves. There is such passion and such

thirst for women to do more, to be more, to

influence more and to impact more. I believe

the HBA can be the vehicle to help women learn

to take leadership flight. By creating momentum

within the HBA constituency, by reaching out

more and more to connect with women seeking

to make a difference in their companies and

their own careers, by creating venues like that

Town Hall for role models to help guide women,

the HBA is uniquely poised to change the

“Face,” and the, “Voice,” of women leaders in

healthcare.

Documents

HBA Newsletter Europe - hbanet.org · organized by Sanofi-Aventis and Merck Germany, focused on female executives in the healthcare business in Germany. Did you know that Sanofi-Aventis