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If you’re
a woman in the biotech industry, or want to do business with biotech
companies, you should pay attention to the up-and-coming Women in Bio
(WIB). It’s a rapidly
growing national organization headquartered in Washington,
D.C., dedicated to the success of women executives and
entrepreneurs in biotechnology and bioscience.
Nearly
250 CEOs and other executives – both women and men -- turned out to
celebrate and toast women entrepreneurs at WIB’s second annual dinner
in January. Appropriately,
the dinner was held at Washington’s National Museum
of Women in the Arts, during its special exhibit: Enterprising Women:
250 years of American Business.
The
theme of the evening was “Turning a Challenge into an Opportunity,” chosen because
women entrepreneurs throughout history and today have done exactly that:
turned the obstacles they have encountered into opportunities for
success.
Today, opportunities
for women and men in biotech are burgeoning. In just over a decade, the industry has mushroomed from revenues
of $8 billion to nearly $35 billion. There are nearly 1,500
biotechnology companies in the United States. More than one-third of them are located in the Mid-Atlantic
region.
A Conversation With Robbie Melton, President of Women in
Bio
Q: Women in
Bio (WIB) was founded to support women executives and entrepreneurs in
biotech. Tell us about some of these women’s accomplishments and
innovations.
Robbie: What we
characterize as an entrepreneur is someone who has taken a great risk
and started their own company, is a co-founder of a company, or came in
at the early stage of a company and was instrumental in turning the
company into a viable entity. Many
of these women are accomplished scientists in their fields and many were
primary inventors on patents. Some
of the women are on their second or third company. These companies offer a wide range of products and services,
including: diagnostic kits, medical devices, new methods for collecting
experimental data, protein production, bioinformatics, new treatments
for diseases and vaccine development. The technology they are creating is very exciting.
Q: What do
you think makes a successful entrepreneur?
Robbie: Carol Nacy, the CEO of Sequella and one of WIB’s
board members, really nailed it during her keynote speech at our annual
dinner. Carol said she never really saw the obstacles in her way until
they were behind her. I
thought that was so insightful, because entrepreneurs tend to think that
way. They don’t see the
roadblocks, or if they do, they go under, around or through them. Flexibility and being resourceful are also key factors in being
successful. You have to be
ready and open to changing your course of action when those roadblocks
arise and you have to be willing to seek assistance, get more education
or whatever it takes to make your company successful.
Q: When and
how did WIB develop?
Robbie: Cynthia Wong (Powell, Goldstein Frazer & Murphy, LLC,)
approached me back in 2001 about forming a networking group for women in
the bio industry. Cynthia
and I knew each other from attending a number of bio events. After
talking about our idea with women in the bio industry, we realized WIB
needed to be an organization that provided more substantive programs,
not just networking but also education, mentoring and access to business
resources. Anne Mathias who at the time was working for a venture
capital fund and Elizabeth Gray (Vice President of Potomac Pharma in Maryland ) shared our vision
and joined us in shaping Women In Bio.
Q. Why do
we need Women in Bio?
Robbie: Women in
the biotech and bioscience industry, particularly entrepreneurs and
executives, tend to feel isolated. Women
work long hours, especially if they are building a company and they have
to take care of their families too. They don’t have a lot of time to
socialize, or they don’t make the time. Consequently, they don’t build the kind of networks that men
have. Women in Bio creates a venue to build those networks for growing a
successful company. WIB
provides a great opportunity to meet other women with whom you have
something special in common and who support each other.
Q: And the
need for an organization like WIB doesn’t seem limited to the United States.
Robbie: That’s
true – as you know we had one woman who came to the dinner all the way
from Germany , because she said they
don’t have anything like WIB over there. We had another woman attend who represents Economic Development
in Switzerland. Our vision is to
eventually make WIB an international organization.
Women
in Bio (WIB) provides education, access to resources, and mentoring for
its members through educational, professional development and networking
events. Recent and upcoming events include workshops and executive round
tables on financing, capital growth, business operations, corporate law,
intellectual property, infrastructure design and communication.
For more information on WIB, click on;www.womeninbio.org
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