Tech Update
OPPORTUNITIES IN PHARMACEUTICALS AND BIOTECHNOLOGY

Careers are hot in expanding fields of pharma, biotech & medical equipment

"Pharma is a global industry where your horizons are expanded and your efforts can improve the lives and quality of life of millions of people."
- Rubén Brignoni, Abbott

"Biotech is such a young industry and there's so much to learn."
- Larry Jones, Ortho Biotech

By Laura Gater
Contributing Editor

ME Lynn Lampley is senior manager of operational excellence at King Pharma.

Dr Luna Hilaire directs Medical Physics U.S., a component of GE Healthcare.

Rubén Brignoni manages pharmaceutical equipment engineering at Abbott.

Engineers and IT pros are finding plenty of opportunities in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical equipment fields. These industries continue to expand rapidly as medicines and technologies morph and improve.

It's a very serviceable two-way street. At the same time the techies contribute their valuable services to their companies, they're also growing and expanding their own capabilities.

Dr Luna Hilaire directs GE Healthcare's Medical Physics
Last April, Luna Hilaire, PhD became director of Medical Physics U.S., part of GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics R&D (Princeton, NJ). Her responsibilities include overseeing GE Healthcare's imaging technology personnel working on clinical trials to support imaging hardware, and managing image quality control for a number of medical diagnostics R&D clinical trials. She's also continuing as a technology team leader for clinical trials of a digital breast tomosynthesis (3D mammography) project.

"The imaging technology group continually reviews the images collected during the clinical trials to ensure optimal image quality. We provide feedback on image quality to all the test sites and centers," Hilaire explains.

Hilaire has wanted to be an engineer since she was seven years old. Most engineers in her native Haiti pursue the civil or architectural specialty, but when she moved to the U.S. and started high school in Brooklyn, NY, she learned about other types of engineering.

Biomedical engineering was ideal. It would please her mother, who really wanted her to be a doctor, and satisfy her own passion for engineering. In 1983 Hilaire graduated from Temple University (Philadelphia, PA) with a BSEE plus a BS in biomedical engineering.

She began working for GE's nuclear energy business (Valley Forge, PA and Lycoming, NY) right after graduation. In 1986 she moved to Siemens Medical Systems' MRI R&D department in Iselin, NJ as a tech rep/team leader. She was supervising an international team of engineers who were assembling and testing MRI systems before hospital installation. In 1988 she became a senior tech rep, and she was promoted to associate scientist in 1991.

Then she went back to school, working on her 1994 MS and 1998 PhD in biomedical engineering and MRI physics at the University of Kentucky while supporting herself as a graduate research assistant. After the PhD she did post-doc training at the University of Pennsylvania hospital.

In 2001 she became an assistant clinical research associate at Global Medical, part of GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics R&D. Then she was promoted to clinical research associate. She worked with technical MRI issues in collaboration with investigators, systems manufacturers, physicists and other scientists.

Hilaire became a senior medical imaging scientist in the imaging technology group in 2004. The next year she moved up to assistant director of Medical Physics U.S. She established and managed a medical physics team of four, as well as managing two image review center folks. In 2006 she stepped up to director.

"If you are passionate about what you do, the challenges you face are not really obstacles," says Hilaire. "This past year has been a very challenging one for me. This is an exciting time to be part of GE Healthcare. I'm looking forward to even greater opportunities to take on leadership roles."

Larry Jones is an IT VP at Ortho Biotech

Larry Jones.

In 2006 Larry Jones became VP of the global business information center of excellence at pharmaceutical company Ortho Biotech (Bridgewater, NJ). He's the lead exec responsible for managing the company's portfolio of technology infrastructure and projects. He has also developed customer strategies, created a new analytics framework to support marketing and sales franchises, and integrated CRM systems and third-party data for strategic analysis.

"I'm not a scientist, but I learned about the industry," he says with a smile. "As an IT person, you make yourself valuable to the organization by learning about the field. Biotech is such a young industry and there's so much to learn."

Jones grew up in East Orange, NJ with five brothers and three sisters. He got hooked on computers in high school, went to St. Peter's College (Jersey City, NJ) on a basketball scholarship and completed his BSCS in the late 1980s. In 2004 he received an executive masters of technology management from the School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.

Jones' first IT position was as a senior LAN analyst for Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in Milltown, NJ. He supported LAN hardware and software, and deployed and managed PC hardware, software and peripheral devices.

In 1991 he joined General Public Utility Service Corp (Parsippany, NJ) as senior OS/2 LAN analyst. He was an admin for four domains and more than twenty OS/2 LAN servers.

Then he returned to J&J, working in its Titusville, NJ facility as systems analyst and project manager. In just a few years he moved up to network/infrastructure manager.

In 1999 Jones became director of environment management at J&J Health Care Systems (Piscataway, NJ). It was up to him to ensure the quality and integrity of systems, apps, databases and outsourced infrastructure, and oversee integration of infrastructure products and services. In 2002 he advanced to director of enterprise technologies.

Then Jones joined Ortho Biotech. Over the next few years he developed an internally focused methodology for effective project management and technology deployment, developed organizational IT portfolio management principles and reduced data center costs for Windows and Unix. He stepped up to his VP post in 2006.

Jones is focused on his work and wants to "be really good at what I do." Off the job he spends time overseeing the Dahntay Jones Foundation, a nonprofit organization begun by his son, NBA basketball player Dahntay L. Jones of the Memphis Grizzlies.

Nancy Maher directs research IS for Schering-Plough

Nancy Maher.

"My marketing degree has been critical in helping me relate to my business customers," says Nancy Maher, who graduated from the University of Maryland in 1988 with a BS in marketing. She went to work for IBM in Paramus, NJ as a participant in an early new-grad training program.

She was offered a choice between technical and marketing career paths, and opted for the technical track. She became an IBM systems engineer, and then a systems architect in IBM's New York, NY office. She left IBM in 1994 for a job with Meldisco (Mahwah, NJ), a division of K-Mart Corp. A few years later she struck out on her own as a tech architect and development manager for process and business re-engineering.

"I like the technical path," she says. "I like to build things and I thrive on change, so this path fits my personality."

Schering-Plough (Kenilworth, NJ), the medicine and healthcare products company, was one of her consulting clients, and in 1999 she went to work there full time as assistant director/technical architect. The job included large-program management, process and business re-engineering, technical domain and document management.

Maher has been director of research IS at Schering-Plough since 2002. Her work involves interfacing with and supporting the company's partners and business customers through the whole development cycle, focusing particularly on drug safety, regulatory compliance and document management. She also supports production, distribution and vendor relations, overseeing a staff of fifty employees and contractors.

Maher is grateful to many mentors, who helped her learn business models and leverage IT to meet business goals. "I would like to continue to evolve and grow at Schering-Plough," she says. "I've been here nearly ten years, and I hope to stay in the research organization and work with the business to optimize IT. It's a pretty exciting place to be."

Elmer Gilliam, Jr: continuous improvement at Talecris

Elmer Gilliam, Jr.

In 2001 Elmer Gilliam, Jr became a utilities and tech ops facility validation manager at Bayer Biological Products, which is now Talecris Biotherapeutics (Clayton, NC). His job was to manage utilities and equipment qualification, process and cleaning validation related to dissolving/filtration and purification ops. He was also in charge of validation for the company's Gamunex manufacturing facility, including review and approval of protocols, validation plans, engineering test plans, user requirement specs and change control requests.

In 2005 Gilliam became continuous improvement manager. Now he's responsible for leading and managing quality, safety and financial improvements through lean manufacturing and other process improvement tools.

"We look for ways to improve quality and efficiency in the manufacturing process," he explains. "Our goal is to be more efficient and maintain a high level of quality in our products."

Gilliam has always been a problem-solver, and it's probably this tendency that drew him to engineering. His dad was in the Navy and young Gilliam grew up in many stations around the U.S. He graduated from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1986 with a BSEE.

After college Gilliam worked as an EE for Life Cycle Engineering (Charleston, SC). In 1989 he moved to the West Point, PA plant of Merck & Co as area maintenance supervisor. He coordinated replacement, installation and maintenance of manufacturing equipment and instrumentation.

In 1992 he went on to a process engineering job at Merck's West Point, PA facility, managing specification, purchase, installation and qualification of new equipment. He advanced to project team leader, evaluating and documenting the site's HVAC systems against original design specs and product requirements, and establishing qualification procedures to be sure all manufacturing equipment met quality guidelines. Then he became project manager, providing tech support for manufacturing, tableting and encapsulating ops.

From 1996 to 1999 Gilliam was manufacturing production coach at Merck's Wilson, NC site, where he managed a plant startup and did a short stint in manufacturing. And then he joined Talecris.

After work Gilliam attends North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, where he's working on his MS in industrial technology. Being a minority in engineering is beside the point, he says. It's knowing your subject that counts, and he's preparing to continue advancing in his career.

Lynn Lampley manages operational excellence at King Pharmaceuticals

Lynn Lampley.

In 2005 ME Lynn Lampley went to work for King Pharmaceuticals (Bristol, TN) as senior manager of operational excellence. King makes branded pharmaceutical products for the cardiovascular, metabolic, neuroscience and acute care areas. Lampley's job is to develop and implement operational excellence throughout the organization.

"I'm not doing true engineering work, but my engineering training has given me the ability to look at systems and processes and evaluate them. We work on a variety of projects, from equipment analysis to documentation systems analysis, which utilizes my skills in analysis and mechanical engineering."

The past year has been a whirlwind of activity for Lampley, as she implemented King's operational excellence program from the ground up. It has been very challenging, she says, and she's loved every minute of it.

Lampley grew up on Alabama's Gulf Coast with two brothers and a sister. She attended the University of South Alabama, starting in pre-med and moving to physics, which led to her 1984 BSME.

In college she co-opped with Teledyne Continental Motors (Mobile, AL). She worked in the stress and vibration lab, conducting tests and doing analyses.

After college Lampley went back to work at Teledyne. She was promoted to project engineer, and coordinated a project to develop a heat pump driven by a natural-gas engine. In 1990 she became an SPC manager.

Four years later she joined GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (Bristol, TN) as a tech training coordinator. She advanced to quality engineer, manufacturing technologist and, in 2003, operational excellence expert. She became GSK's operational excellence champion in 2004, responsible for embedding lean six sigma culture throughout the organization. And now she's doing similar work on a senior level for King Pharmaceuticals.

"Pharmaceutical biotech is a wide-open field for female engineers," Lampley declares. "There are many areas outside of actual engineering where you can use your degree, such as writing protocols or working in operational excellence. Don't pigeonhole yourself; be open to opportunities that arise."

Laura Robinson is Bayer's process safety specialist

Laura Robinson.

Laura Robinson became process safety/ loss prevention specialist at Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals (Berkeley, CA) in 2003. She coordinates safety reviews for capital projects, including two new production facilities, as well as fire alarm and suppression for the forty-three-acre site which houses about twenty buildings. She is also part of the site's emergency response team, responding to hazardous material spills and medical emergencies.

"I think my ChE degree is important because I can go back to what I've learned and apply it to anything I don't understand," she says. "Understanding chemistry and solving problems are good backgrounds for my current position. Every week I come across problems that I use my engineering knowledge to solve."

Robinson grew up in LaGrange, IL. Her parents were both math teachers, and their influence, along with a love of chemistry, led her to major in ChE. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, IN) in 1994.

Her first job was with the Green Environmental Group (Wheaton, IL) as an EnvE. She took soil samples and did other environmental assessments. In 1998 she moved to Nalco Chemical Co (Naperville, IL) as project manager for a corporate-wide implementation of data management software.

In 2001 she went on to Data Systems & Solutions (Houston, TX) as a software consultant, managing environmental health and safety projects by setting up software and retrieving data from large databases and integrated software systems. She joined Bayer two years later.

Robinson wants to continue improving in her process safety specialty. She's also learning more about all the work that's done at Bayer, so she'll be prepared for a variety of opportunities as they arise.

Rubén Brignoni manages pharma equipment engineering at Abbott Rubén Brignoni grew up in Puerto Rico. He has worked for Abbott (Abbott Park, IL), a global, broad-based healthcare company, since graduating from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez in 1993 with a BSME. His 2000 MS in engineering management is from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico.

Brignoni began in the engineering professional development program at Abbott in Barceloneta, PR. Then he was appointed a process support engineer in Abbott plant ops, establishing maintenance programs, identifying cost saving and safety projects and supervising the plant's 24/7 process maintenance team. He took on additional responsibility as a senior manufacturing supervisor in 1998.

In 2000 he joined the pharmaceutical projects group as a senior project engineer, responsible for sizable purified water projects in Barceloneta and Abbott Park. He coordinated structural, civil, mechanical, welding, electrical, fire protection and validation contractors in work that included upgrade and construction of buildings, installation of utilities, HVAC and process equipment, and installation of the ASME BPE-compliant purified water generation and distribution system.

In 2002 Brignoni and his wife moved to the U.S. so he could join Abbott's global pharmaceutical ops in North Chicago, IL. He worked in project management and capital planning, and was responsible for producing capital estimates on facilities for new products and product transfer projects, as well as development, logistics and testing for the global launch of IT systems for capital planning, and capital training procedures and systems.

In 2005 he advanced to manager of pharmaceutical equipment engineering, his current position. He manages a staff that works on capital projects in pharmaceutical manufacturing and packaging in all Abbott plants worldwide, and identifies and recommends new pharmaceutical equipment and technologies for the corporation.

Brignoni notes that he uses his bilingual skills daily because his staff supports plants in Latin America and Europe.

"Abbott actively pursues the development and growth of its minority employees," he explains. "Speaking Spanish is a great asset in this global industry. Having a different cultural background is valuable because it keeps you constantly aware that some aspects of the business are handled differently in different parts of the world.

"I think my Hispanic background helps me in building stronger relationships with people in the U.S.

"Abbott is a company that challenges you to make the best of your abilities and exposes you to the latest state-of-the-art technology in the field," Brignoni declares with enthusiasm.

Jeff Hargrave directs IT at Pfizer
Jeff Hargrave didn't start as a techie. Beginning with a 1980 BA in history and political science from Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), he has forged a career path that led him to IT, and now to the post of director of IT at Pfizer, Inc (New York, NY), the pharmaceutical giant.

He is responsible for all PC hardware and software for Pfizer's 100,000 people, three regions and better than 150 sites. In addition, he has defined a restructuring approach for shared infrastructure cross- services alignment and service delivery optimization, and developed a strategy/service model for Pfizer's global end-user services to support strategic objectives of the business.

After Harvard, Hargrave served three years in the U.S. Marines. Then he started at Banker's Trust Co (New York, NY) as a government security ops business analyst. From there he moved to JP Morgan Guaranty (New York, NY) where he worked in trading, marketing and management and dipped into IT.

In 1988 he became a VP at Sumitomo Bank (New York, NY), where he started a commodities trading program. In 1995 it was marketing support for the U.S. Committee for UNICEF (New York, NY).

In 1998 Hargrave got more directly into IT as a project analyst at Pfizer's helpdesk, leading an international team in developing a Web-based knowledge management system. He went on to manage end-user services, and in 2003 became director of service delivery management. The next step was IT director.

"We have some exciting work ahead of us at Pfizer," says Hargrave. "As we make changes, IT will be a key.

"Technology is an integral part of the business process, and my goal is to help our leaders craft business strategy, let them know what's available technology-wise, and show them how IT can help them."

D/C

Laura Gater is a freelance business and medical/ healthcare writer based in northeast Indiana.

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