A day in the life: Alice Redmond

This International Women’s day, we bring you a series of interviews that provide a glimpse into the working lives of women working in the biotechnology industry. Here, Alice Redmond (left), Chief Strategy Officer for CAI (IND, USA) documents the foundation of Women in Technology and Science her involvement in Women in Pharma and the importance of making the most of a moment, be it professional or personal.

Please tell us about yourself and your company 

CAI is a global consulting company that provides technical, operational consulting, and project management services to life sciences and process manufacturing industries.

CAI offers a broad spectrum of services designed to enhance the performance and reliability of client operations. We deliver integrated solutions to facilitate operational readiness and operational excellence with a strong focus on ‘speed to market’ and ‘speed to patient’. Our solutions cover the entire planning, project execution, and production lifecycle for manufacturing industries. Some of our clients require the full spectrum of services or a mix customized to a particular project need.

I am an engineer, scientist, lifelong learner, and biotech “nerd.” My primary degree is in biotech/Chemical Engineering, which gave me a love of all things engineering and biotechnology and sent me on the path of doing a PhD in Cancer Research that led to the pharmaceutical industry. I have loved working across the globe in lots of different sectors and modalities of products. I am really excited about all the new modalities that are now becoming the norm and mapping the future of how patients are treated.

I have been involved in professional societies for all my career, with a particular focus on the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering, the Parenteral Drug Association (both MD, USA) and the Knowledge Exchange Network (NJ, USA). I have also been involved in the promotion of STEM for all my career both at undergraduate, postgraduate and emerging leader levels. I was a founding member of Women in Technology and Science, and I am on the ISPE Women in Pharma (WIP) steering team. It is an honor to work with ISPE WIP and meet amazing women across the globe. ISPE WIP provides women in the pharmaceutical industry a forum for connecting and collaborating on technical and career advancement topics. Women in Pharma’s community leverages a network of mentors through mentor circle, role models, and resources across all levels to foster balanced professional success.

I love the outdoors, walking, hiking and water sports. I am a mom to Doireann (age 20) and wife to Darragh, who I met in University in 1987.

What does a typical working day look like for you?

One of the joys of what I do is ‘every day is different’. When I am working from my home office, I usually start my day with a walk or run with my 2 dogs, I live by the sea in the South of Ireland, and I find a good blast of sea air and exercise in the morning gets me going (it also means my dogs won’t be howling for a walk during calls!). I maintain this morning exercise routine when I’m travelling also, it keeps me fit and gives me ‘thinking time’.

Once my workday gets going, it is a mix of internal CAI meetings with my team, working with clients on strategic consulting projects, key account management, internal projects, and volunteering with ISPE. I try to reserve ‘quiet’ time each day to progress items on my ‘to do list’ as continuous calls are exhausting.

We are a global company I tend to match my day to the global working calendar Monday to Wednesday to EST, which means I usually start a bit later. This means I clear a lot of my global meeting load early in the week.

It is great to get back to ‘face to face’ meetings, working remotely can be very productive but lonely and draining. I have loved getting back to seeing clients, team members and attending conferences.

Who is your biggest role model and why do they inspire you?

During my PhD program in multiple drug resistance in cancer research, I met a female oncologist who had a very successful clinical practice. She had a huge interest in research, was married with 4 children, and supported many young female engineers. I was lucky to meet her as an undergraduate and she still inspires me today. To me, she was like ’Super Woman’, she had a successful career, she had an amazing family, she was always learning new things, she was super cool and a nice person.

Her success was built on many things but what struck me as a 21-year-old, was her ability to connect with people of all cultures, ages and all levels within healthcare, industry, and academia. Her communication style was customized, factual, diplomatic, and appropriate. Her feedback was spot on, you listened to her. When you asked her opinion on something she would always challenge you to think of many different aspects to the same scenario. Even now, occasionally I ask myself that question, “what would Maeve say!”

She helped me develop “my way, my style and a holistic way of thinking.” I learned so much from her, helping shape who I am today.

What is the best part about your job?

The best part of my job is two-fold. The CAI team I work with is super smart, creative, innovative, forward-thinking and client-focused. They are a pleasure to work with! I love the diversity of the team; the collective power is amazing, and every day is an adventure!

Secondly, at CAI we have really managed to move the dial in terms of thought leadership in the pharma industry across many areas, whether it is a risk-based commissioning, qualification, and validation process, quality risk management, or designing an operational readiness program. It all culminates in us helping our clients speed to market, which is pivotal in the world we live in today.

What is the strangest thing that has happened to you while working?

As an Irish person, when you travel you always meet other Irish people or people of Irish descent and usually, you find a connection to someone you know.

You expect to run into former colleagues and classmates from school or university. My strangest one was last year when I was asked to take part in a ‘think tank’ for the life sciences industry. I got a huge surprise to find my eldest brother (9 years older) who worked in the IT/IS sector sitting across the table from me. He was there to give a perspective on the IT/IS industry. He was embarrassed because he really has no idea what I really did for a living, it was an interesting day!

If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

I have traveled extensively for all 33 years of my career, all of which I have loved and learned so much from.

I lived in Switzerland while working in Sandoz and traveled extensively in Europe, The US, and Asia. I’ve reflected on a few things: I regret not learning languages (French and German) and not using some of my travel time to explore. I visited great places, but sometimes only saw them through the lens of work, flights, and hotels. I would advise my younger self to take the time to prepare and plan your trip to embrace the language, sites, cuisine, and culture when you travel and take a breath to enjoy!