Optimal Talent Management in Biopharma with Mara Strandlund and Niamh Alix

July 17, 2024

In this month’s special episode of Evaluating Biopharma, host Ben Locwin interviews Mara Strandlund, chief people officer at National Resilience, and Niamh Alix, chief human resources officer at Prime Medicine, about the upcoming Talent in Biopharma Leadership workshop at the 2024 Bioprocessing Summit. Their conversation covers a wide variety of topics about talent management, including prioritizing talent retention, building agility into talent acquisition strategies, the importance of brand and culture, and more. They also share tips on what goes into creating a team of exceptional talent, as well as a sneak peek into the key themes of their opening keynote.

GUEST BIOs

Niamh Alix, chief human resources officer, Prime Medicine
Niamh Alix joined Prime Medicine in June 2022 as Chief Human Resources Officer.

Niamh is a passionate human resources leader who brings her experience, of helping to grow teams from small, early-stage organizations to global enterprises, to Prime. She has vast experience across multiple biotech and pharmaceutical organizations, where she led HR and Talent Acquisition teams from a couple of people to over 120 talented individuals.

Niamh joins Prime from Orchard Therapeutics, where she was Global Vice President, Talent, and HR Business Partner. She partnered with the leaders across all departments such as Research, Regulatory Affairs, Technical Operations and Commercial. Niamh and her team developed and deployed important people practices like Talent Management, Diversity and Inclusion and Learning and Development to the employees. Prior to that, Ms. Alix held global and regional roles at Lonza, including HR Business Partner for Americas, Mexico, and Canada where she led a large HR team and people strategy for a 5,000+ employee population across corporate and manufacturing clients. Niamh also held the Global Head, HR Business Partner role for the Cell and Gene Technology’s group which spanned three continents and grew rapidly.

Prior to that, Niamh was the Ireland Country HR Head for Novartis Pharmaceuticals and Oncology. Before this, she held additional senior roles of increasing responsibility at Novartis and Bristol Myers Squibb across Manufacturing and Commercial organizations.

Mara Strandlund, chief people officer, National Resilience
Mara Strandlund is a global Human Resources executive with deep experience in linking people and business strategies, using data to collaborate with leaders on complex talent, scaling, inclusion and cultural challenges in rapidly changing markets including life sciences, cloud computing, ecommerce, healthcare, academia, distribution, gaming, aerospace, oil, and construction. Her experience leading large-scale teams has spanned across 6 continents (missing Antarctica) and extended beyond HR in leading big data research, product development, and customer training teams. Outside of Resilience, she is an active volunteer supporting veterans transitioning back into the workforce and ensuring that the Internet is a positive force for good that improves the lives and well-being of people around the world.  She received her undergraduate and MBA degrees from the University of Chicago and is a certified Coach, Compensation Professional and Six Sigma expert.

MODERATOR BIO

Ben Locwin, vice president of project solutions, Black Diamond Networks
Ben Locwin is a healthcare executive and industry expert. His work has involved bringing new and innovative medical treatments (drug therapies, vaccines and medical devices) to patient populations with unmet needs across a variety of indications and health conditions. He has also worked with investors on the ‘next big things’ in the industry. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, The Associated Press, Axios, NPR, and other top-tier media.