Even as a child I was interested in how things work. When I was six, my father got an electric razor for Christmas. That afternoon, my parents found me in my room with pieces of the razor scattered around. When asked what on Earth I thought I was doing, I replied, "I just wanted to see how it worked." Over time, my interests evolved into an interest in how the human body works. Living in South Carolina from age 11 through college, I was never really exposed to scientists. Consequently, I thought that the only way to delve into the mysteries of the body was to become a physician. Since I was very shy, the thought of dealing with lots of strangers was not appealing and I became attracted to pathology (dead people are a lot less threatening!) and I settled on becoming a pathologist as early as seventh grade.
High school was not a wonderful experience for me and I decided to leave high school after my junior year and enter the University of South Carolina as a non-high school graduate in the summer of 1969. Of course, my major was biology.
After my freshman year, I got married and had a child at age 18. Needless to say, this caused some changes in my plan to attend medical school and become a research pathologist. After my son was born, I returned to school right away, but had to attend at night so that my mother could baby-sit while my husband worked evenings. Back then, science courses were not offered at night so I worked on my electives for about a year and a half. When my son was two, I went back to school full-time and I graduated in December 1973.
Beginning a Career
Medical school seemed out of the question at that point, so I did the next best thing-I become a medical technologist at Moncrieff Army Hospital in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. This allowed me to become familiar with the general workings of a laboratory as I rotated through the various departments. I also got to deal with patients when it was my turn to go on the floors and draw the early morning blood samples. More importantly, I got to work with pathologists. When there was an autopsy to do, most of the technologists became very busy with other things. I, however, was always eager to help. Our pathologist was a wonderful teacher, and I learned a great deal about anatomy and pathology during these sessions in the morgue.
Soon I became bored with the routine of the hospital laboratory and decided to try to find a job doing "real" research. I moved to Northern Virginia to be near the National Cancer Institute and I started working for a contract research firm. Our specific task was to manage the preclinical toxicology of new anticancer drugs being developed by the National Cancer Institute. We did not perform the tests ourselves, but selected various subcontracting labs and then we provided an independent assessment of the results, including hematology clinical chemistry and pathology reports.
This job was one of the many turning points in my career. I was given as much responsibility as I could handle and I was supported by my boss, an excellent toxicologist. I also worked hand-in-hand with scientists at the NCI and at various pharmaceutical companies and universities. It was with the help of these wonderful friends and mentors that I gained the courage to go back to school 7 years after receiving my bachelor's degree.
Since I was a little uneasy about returning to school, I chose to attend the University of Vermont. At that time, Vermont had the characteristics that I was looking for in a graduate program, and two of my former colleagues were on the faculty. The pharmacology department was small, but Vermont had an excellent regional cancer center, and the laboratory and clinical staff interacted a great deal. I felt that I would be able to learn how to gear my research toward applications that would be important in patient treatment. I was not interested in true basic research, but in transplanting the principles discovered by the basic scientists into patient care.
My graduate school project evolved from my previous work with the anticancer drug doxorubicin and its analogs in an attempt to find a drug with reduced cardio-toxicity. My focus was the potential mechanism of this cardio-toxicity and ways to reduce it, and I developed models to screen new compounds for improved characteristics. I continued to pursue this research during a year of postdoctoral research at the Northwestern University Medical School and then I expanded this work to other anticancer agents with Dr. Alan Sartorelli at the Yale University School of Medicine. I had never aspired to an academic career, and after 2 more years as a post-doc, I decided that it was time to make my break into the corporate world.
The Business of Science
Because of my experience with antitumor drugs and my expertise in developing animal models, I was hired by a private biotechnology company to preside over the preclinical development of certain monoclonal antibody conjugates.
The biotechnology world was fascinating in a number of respects. The work was focused and the goals were clear. The company had approximately 70 employees when I joined and the atmosphere was very collegial. We were all pulling together toward the same end, getting a product on the market. Project management meetings exposed us to input from all areas of the company. I worked with clinicians to design animal models that would be better predicators of results in humans, I learned what things were important to our fledgling marketing and sales group, and I learned how to manage both a budget and people. Wearing many hats in a small organization is a wonderful way to gain at least some appreciation of all aspects of building a business.
During my time at the biotechnology company, management decided to pursue an initial public offering (IPO). This was a fascinating experience for me, since my involvement with Wall Street until that time was limited to a brief scan of the business pages in the local newspaper. It became even more interesting when we tried to close the deal in October 1987, the day of the big stock market crash. Not surprisingly, the deal was postponed until a better time.
After a few years, the fortunes of the biotech industry and this company in particular diminished. The products took longer to develop and were more expensive than expected. We went through one downsizing that was extremely painful, especially in a small company where all of the employees knew each other fairly well. Even worse, the first cut did not achieve the goals and there was a second layoff only a few months later. The moral of the remaining employees was at an all-time low. I decided that it was time for me to move on.
In considering my options, I was looking for something new. I had done the academic thing, contract research, hospital laboratory, Biotech Company. What was missing? Aha! A major pharmaceutical company was something I had not yet tried. That decision led to a move to Schering-Plough in the relatively new tumor biology department, where I was in charge of the preclinical work on potential new treatments for cancer.
Most people make a move from the pharmaceutical industry to the biotechnology industry, not the other way around-and now I know why. At a smaller company, everyone tends to work together. People wear many hats and you are expected to voice your opinions to help keep projects on track. It is a simple matter to talk to the vice president of research or even the CEO whenever you wish to express an opinion.
In a large pharmaceutical corporation, the organization and team approach does not usually kick in until lead compounds are selected and handed over to the clinical development group. Research is much less directed, and I felt as if I were spinning my wheels. I felt that I was moving farther away than ever from my goal of developing products to treat patients.
The Right Puce at the Right Time
As I was trying to decide what my next move would be, I talked to a friend who had recently attended a meeting where several Wall Street biotechnology analysts had given presentations. She told me that it sounded like the ideal job for me-they get to work on a variety of projects (hence no boredom), they travel (I like travel), and they get to interact with a diverse and interesting group of people (I have definitely outgrown my shyness).
It sounded interesting, so I begin to write letters to the analysts asking for information. Most important for me was whether they thought it necessary that I obtain an MBA before I could move into an analyst slot. Having spent a good portion of life in school and having just finished paying for my son's college, I was not anxious to tackle another 2 years of school and, more importantly, to lose income.
I received several polite replies, but in December 1991 received a call from the analyst at Kidder Peabody. This analyst had a Ph.D., but also had an MBA. At this time, the biotechnology market was really "hot" and investment banks were working on numerous biotech IPOs. Evaluating all of the existing and potential companies was too much for one person, and Kidder Peabody needed help. Again, I asked about the need for an MBA and was assured that the scientific expertise was more important at this point. (I have also come to realize that my experience working in the both the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries is equally important.) In February 1992 left Schering-Plough for Wall Street.
During my first few months, I was meeting with companies and evaluating technology nonstop. However, things quickly came to standstill when numerous clinical disasters caused the industry to fall out of favor with investors. On the positive side, this lull gave me an opportunity to get my feet wet without too much intense pressure. It was a good thing I got this time to come up the learning curve, since 6 months later the senior analyst left and I was on my own.
After about 3 years, a change was forced upon me. In late 1994, Paine Webber, another investment bank, bought Kidder Peabody and brought in their own biotech analyst -suddenly, I was out of a job. While in the past I have always been ready to move on after about 3 years, this time I wasn't even close to getting bored. Had I finally found the right job? And how could I stay in the game despite the merger?
Because being an analyst is a little like being an independent operator, I decided to see if I could use my experience and contacts to run a consulting service. I formed BioLogic, Inc., and began to work on a broad range of projects for numerous clients. These projects included investor relations strategies, writing private placement documents, providing valuations for potential acquisitions, and writing a newsletter.
After a successful first year, I was getting to the point where I needed to hire a full-time assistant. I had never before been responsible for paying someone else's salary, and it made me a little nervous. As I was wrestling with this decision, I received a call from a former Kidder colleague, now at Dillon Read. (The majority of Kidder's health care team ended up at Dillon Read.) Would I like to come back to Wall Street? I must say, the answer would probably have been no if it had been anyone else asking. But with this group, I knew what I was getting into and I knew that it would work as it had in the past. I have now been at Dillon Read a little over a year and I have just learned that we are being bought by SBC Warburg. (See, I don't have to keep changing jobs now, my job keeps changing on its own!)
