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ISPE NL Emerging Leaders (EL) Career Workshop
Natalia Vtyurina
ISPE NL Emerging Leaders (EL) Career Workshop

On the 1st of June'22 a Career Workshop took place in the European City of Science'22 – Leiden, the Netherlands. This workshop was organized by the ISPE NL EL Community of Practice (CoP) within the Life Science & Health Career Event hosted by Federation of Innovative Medicines Research in the Netherlands (FIGON) Dutch Medicine Days and Annual Conference of EUFEPS.

Prior to the workshop all the invited participants, including those joining the afternoon program of the FIGON conference, were invited at the historical city building Stadsgehoorzaal for the networking drinks. This way all interested in the career event audience could learn about ISPE Global, get introduced to the local Emerging Leaders CoP in the Netherlands, meet Board members from the local ISPE NL Affiliate, talk to our expert discussion leads prior and after the workshop and connect with the representatives from the sponsor company of the event DPS Group Global.

Natalia Vtyurina
QA, Manager of Operations
Bristol Myers Squibb

At 20:00 a one-hour workshop was kicked off by a Vice-Chair of ISPE the Netherlands Emerging Leaders Natalia Vtyurina (Sr QA Officer at Halix) highlighting opportunities that ISPE offering to their members locally and globally. Then representative from the company sponsoring the event WAFA ATOINI (C&Q Lead, DPS Group Global) introduced participants to DPS activities emphasising career opportunities available at the company for Emerging Leaders.

The main idea of the workshop was a speed dating with the experts from 4 different fields:

  • Quality Assurance (QA) - Geert-Jan Derksen (Consultant QA specialist, Yxion)
  • Commissioning & Qualification & Validation (CQV) - WAFA ATOINI (C&Q Lead, DPS Group Global)
  • Project Management (PM) - Geert-Jan Derksen (Project Manager, Yxion) and Edward Oostenbrink (Process Engineer, Yxion)
  • Good Automation Manufacturing Practices (GAMP) - Alessandro Zennaro Follini (Senior Manager Bioprocessing Technologies, Janssen Biologics, Leiden)

Each discussion lead had 20 min within which 5 min they dedicated to introducing themselves and explaining why they have chosen their current roles. Then for 15 min participants in the group of 5 people at the table could ask their questions about the work routine, latest trends, responsibilities, background, experience, personal and professional skills they need to have or develop in order to accelerate success of their career in Pharma and Biotech at the roles in demand. Then one time rotation happened and each lead received a new group of people.

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Through this speed dating setup participants explored which starting roles in Pharma and Biotech, after graduation, besides R&D might fit their profile best. It was an exclusive opportunity to get the insights of possible career options towards which they can develop and diversify in the future from their current role.

At the end >20 participants joined the event organised by 5 Emerging Leaders from ISPE NL EL CoP:

More representatives from our sponsor DPS Group Global joined the event:

  • Caroline Roeleveld (Operations Manager Contract Services, DPS Group Global)
  • Martijn Timmer (Director the Netherlands Operations at DPS Global Group; Secretary at ISPE NL Affiliate Board)
  • Wesley Kuils (Recruitment Specialist, DPS Group Global)
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After the main part of the workshop all the participants were invited to join One-on-one conversations with our experts and experts from other companies attending Career Workshop within Life Science & Health Career Event. After all attendees joined Festive closing with DJ Yani & Sergio Obergh and drinks with dancing.

We gratefully acknowledge the valuable contribution of our workshop sponsor DPS Group Global supporting a new generation of growing professionals in the pharmaceutical industry! Supporting ISPE is ensuring a bright future of your company.

Let us know if you want to volunteer to our community and organise events with us. We are constantly looking for great minds and ideas that will help our pharmaceutical community to grow and develop!

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Feedback from our participants:

On the evening of the 1st of June, I had the pleasure to attend the ISPE meeting related to career opportunities related to production, QA, QC and project management in the biopharmaceutical industry. This speeddate session, hosted by the ISPE, was a great opportunity to learn more about the job opportunities and career paths in the highly technological world of drug manufacturing! I mostly liked the chance to receive insights from people working in these positions on a daily basis; this provided the opportunity to ask all questions which came to mind. Due to the efforts of the various ISPE members giving up their free evening to share their passion with us, I have a very clear picture of what the work entails. For this I am very grateful and I would like to take this opportunity again to thank everyone involved in hosting this session!

Mathijs de Kleer, Medical & Development Manager, Eurodrug Laboratories

I was introduced to ISPE NL Emerging Leaders by Natalia Vtyurina. Since then, I joined several events, including the latest career workshop. I enjoyed knowing new people with different backgrounds but with similar passions and interests in their careers. The career workshop was very highlighting and there we were able to speak and ask questions to the already succeeded professionals in the pharma industry. I would recommend to emerging leaders to join the next ISPE NL local events because this is a great opportunity to learn insights about each of your career steps and to build a valuable social network.

Margarita Belousova, Clinical Trial Manager, HAL Allergy Group

I had the pleasure of participating to the ISPE workshop (please complete with the most accurate definition) held in Leiden to discuss some of today’s and tomorrow’s main topics for the pharmaceutical sector, with a new generation of tomorrow’s leaders. Well organised in a wonderful and accessible location in the city centre, the workshop has attracted numerous young talents that brought refreshing new perspectives and opinions. As discussion lead for Good Automated Manufacturing Practices, I initially guided the discussion on the current industry standard practices and compliance aspects of automation in the pharma sector, but quickly it developed through the numerous stimulating questions received. The approach chosen for the workshop really allowed for a dynamic interaction among attendees, leading to an open and interesting discussion on the prospects and possibilities for automation and digitalisation in the coming years. My pleasure and my thank you to the organisers, for the great event and for having me experience it.

Discussion Lead, Alessandro Zennaro Follini, Senior Manager Bioprocessing Technologies, J&J

The event, to me, was a great success, with a large turnout of interested participants. A clear introduction was given of what was to be expected of the participants and the speakers. The questions that were put to me, as a QA speaker, were substantive and goal-oriented, and the answers were eagerly sought after. One downside was the short timeframe given per session, not all participants were able to ask their questions.

Discussion Lead Geert-Jan Brouwers, Consultant QA specialist, Yxion

The ISPE evening is a good base to give juniors a good view on how the industry works. It was a very nice experience as a discussion lead. Hope to see some people I have met in the industry later on!

Discussion Lead Edward Oostenbrink, Process Engineer, Yxion

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About the Author

Natalia Vtyurina
QA, Manager of Operations
Bristol Myers Squibb
I was trained as a fundamental physicist at Moscow State University (2011). After graduation of BSc and MSc, I realized that I am not very...