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Leading Through the Storm. How Biotech CEOs Can Stay Resilient in Turbulent Times

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The biotech sector is built on hope, innovation and possibility, but right now it is navigating some of the most complex headwinds in memory. For any CEO of a biotech company today, the challenge is two-fold: you must not only advance the science and commercial vision, you must steer through turbulence without losing momentum or morale. Based on current data and my time working with biotech leaders, here is a framework for how to understand the challenges, and how to stay resilient as a CEO during this phase. 1. The Current Landscape: What’s Really Pressuring Biotech It’s worth beginning with a clear-eyed view of the major stress-points in the industry, so you and your leadership team can align on reality (rather than hope it will go away). Some of the key issues: Capital and funding constraints The industry entered a funding correction after the COVID-era boom. In 2021, biotech startups raised huge sums; by the later 2022–2023 period, investment dropped by 35–40% compared to the highs...
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Why Hiring an Executive Coach for the CEO is Good for the Business

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I was recently asked by a couple of early-stage biotech company CEOs how executive coaching for them would benefit the company — not just their own leadership skills or career. Both were navigating investor demands, building teams, and steering their companies through strategic pivots, all while carrying the weight of being the ultimate decision-maker. Their question was clear: beyond personal growth, what tangible business impact could coaching deliver? The short answer: a lot more than most people realize. When most people think about executive coaching, they imagine a personal development tool for an individual leader. But when it comes to coaching the CEO, the impact goes far beyond personal growth — it ripples through the entire organization. The reality is simple: a stronger, more effective CEO means a stronger, more effective company. In fact, many of the world’s most successful organizations — from Fortune 500 giants to high-growth start-ups — view CEO coaching as a strateg...
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7 Key Principles for Driving Change the Right Way

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In the life sciences sector, change isn’t the exception, it’s the norm. From scaling new teams to integrating acquisitions, evolving pipelines, or navigating leadership transitions, companies are constantly in motion. But here’s the catch: most change efforts fail to deliver on their promise, not because the ideas are bad, but because the execution is flawed. Real transformation doesn’t just depend on strategy or structure. It lives or dies in the way change is led. Over the past three decades, we've led transformations as a CEOs, advisors, and coaches. We've helped organizations reinvent themselves and watched others falter despite the best of intentions. Through that experience, we’ve found that successful change always reflects the same core truth: Change is not a one-time initiative. It’s a leadership competency. If you want your next change effort to succeed, not just on paper, but in culture, behavior, and outcomes—these seven principles are your foundation. 1. Cl...
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Culture, Clarity, Capability: The Foundations of Change That Sticks in Life Sciences

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Leading a biotech company has never been more demanding. Between capital market pressure, workforce turnover, and the relentless pace of scientific advancement, the ability to navigate organizational change has become a core leadership competency. And yet, the same scenario plays out time and time again: A promising biotech company stalls—not because the science isn’t sound, but because the organization wasn’t equipped to handle the internal friction, culture misalignment, or leadership gaps that surface when change isn’t managed intentionally. The Truth: Change Fails from the Inside Out PwC research shows that roughly 75% of organizational change efforts fall short of their goals, with cultural misalignment and lack of clarity emerging as two of the most common root causes. Three Foundations That Make Change Stick: Culture Alignment Your organization’s culture can accelerate or derail change. If culture fights the change, the change loses. Leaders must assess, shape, and align cultur...
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