To advance women’s leadership, an effort ‘has to be purposeful,’ says EMD Serono exec

The value of women in pharma and biotech leadership roles is no longer widely debated, but nonetheless, a gendered leadership gap still persists in the industry. In 2022, only 34% of biotech executives and 20% of CEOs identified as women, according to a BIO survey.

A decade ago, women were implored to “lean in” to their ambition. But an individual-focused, every-woman-for-herself strategy fails to consider the structural and institutional barriers that stand in the way, from a lack of inclusive family leave policies to severe underinvestment in women-founded companies.

“Especially within pharma, diversity doesn’t just happen — it’s reflected by our employees [and] in our patients and our science, and it has to be purposeful,” said Lori Lebson, senior vice president of North America medical affairs, at EMD Serono. “It’s incredibly important to create a supportive work environment, promote diversity in leadership positions and provide opportunities to share knowledge and expertise.”

Since joining EMD Serono in 2018, Lebson has immersed herself in the company’s work to advance women’s leadership, both within its own ranks and in the larger community. She is co-lead for the Women in Leadership North America Employee Resource Group at EMD Serono and is highly involved in EMD Serono’s work with Science Club for Girls in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“As someone whose career has been really fostered from within, I’m a strong advocate for advancing [women’s] careers here within EMD,” she said. “One of the goals we’ve had is fostering that inclusive workplace that recognizes, develops and promotes qualified women.”

The company also regularly hosts mentor circles, coaching programs, employee engagement events, unconscious bias training and community outreach.

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“My advice [for women] would be this: Be who you are and stay true to your personal authenticity. There are no societal roles that we as women need to follow.”

Lori Lebson

SVP, North America medical affairs, EMD Serono

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Here, Lebson discusses the ways EMD Serono — which itself is led by a woman via its parent company, Merck KGaA in Darmstadt, Germany, and won a Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association ACE Award in 2019 — has worked to advance women’s leadership, as well as her thoughts about how the larger industry can arrive at gender parity in the C-suite.

This interview has been edited for brevity and style.

PHARMAVOICE: Where is the industry still falling short when it comes to advancing women leaders?

LORI LEBSON: When you look at women-led companies, or if you’re looking at companies from women’s startups within pharma, it’s single digit percentages who receive funding. From that perspective, if there’s a way to build out an accelerator or mentorship program to help build networks … we’ll continue to give talented women the support they need.

Another is that you have a small number of individuals in the C-suite. It’s really challenging from a networking perspective or to define mentors as you move up within organizations.

There are [also] many challenges that women face in not having the role model of the work-life balance of being a mother [and] taking responsibility for child caregiving. Those still have great burdens for women and often result in a tradeoff between taking a promotion to a higher-level role within the organization or trying to decide the right option for that female leader and for their family or their loved ones. I think there are still imbalances and expectations for women that can continue to be improved.

Where are you seeing improvements in women’s leadership and why?

I think they’re improving because organizations are continuing to invest in programming at companies across the industry. We’re not seeing this topic go away. Although market conditions in the industry have changed … we’re not seeing any impact to investment around diversity, equity and inclusion across the industry. I think seeing the results and the impact that diverse groups can have, and the impact on business, is speaking for itself.

We can continue also to improve benefit offerings, [such as] maternity leave policies … and equal pay. I also think we’re building stronger networks of support for each other. Having that network helps people feel confident as they’re navigating the career ladder. To know that someone is supporting them from behind and from above, it creates the space for women to continue to do even more incredible things across the industry.