GLG Institute Events

Sheri McCoy is former Chief Executive Officer and director of Avon Products, Inc. Prior to Avon, Ms. McCoy had a distinguished 30-year career at Johnson & Johnson serving as Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee, responsible for the Pharmaceutical and Consumer business segments that represented more than 60 percent of the company’s revenues.

Ms. McCoy joined Johnson & Johnson as a scientist in research and development and subsequently managed businesses in every major product sector, including consumer, prescription medicines and medical devices where she held roles including Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals Group and Worldwide Chairman Surgical Care Group. Ms. McCoy has experience in mergers and acquisitions and management of complex global structures.

Sheri serves on the public boards of AstraZeneca PLC, a global, science-led biopharmaceutical business; Stryker, a Medical Device company; Kimberly-Clark, a consumer company and Novocure, an Oncology company. Sheri also works as an Industrial Advisor for EQT Partners and is Chairman of Certara, a private company focused on biosimulation in drug development and regulatory sciences. Additionally, Sheri is a member of Catalyst, a global non-profit that helps build workplaces that work for women, and Stonehill College. Ms. McCoy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in textile chemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University, and an MBA from Rutgers University. She holds four U.S. patents and she has been on Fortune magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” list.

Padma Thiruvengadam served as CHRO at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company – a $30BN+ global Fortune 500 company with over 50K+ employees in 85 countries – where she led the business to achieve a Global Top Employer certification for 3 years in a row, while orchestrating the integration of the largest acquisition in the pharmaceutical industry. She transformed the entire global organization to deliver on the new strategy and refreshed corporate philosophy and purpose. She also architected a new HR operating model, people vision, and people platform and programs. She recreated board and executive compensation programs to meet shareholder expectations; and leading award-winning DEI initiatives in several countries around the world. Previously as Chief People Officer for The Lego Company – recognized as the planet’s most powerful brand, Padma embraced the Board’s charge to create a strategic pivot that would allow the company to address new market dynamics and revitalize the revenue stream. She drove organizational capability building, onboarded new executives, and led a company-wide shift to workforce agility. Prior to joining Lego, Padma provided strong leadership as CHRO and CVP, Strategic Initiatives and Operational Excellence for Integra Life Sciences where she partnered with the Board of Directors on CEO assessment and succession plan. Working closely with the new CEO, she built the transformation strategy and delivered on it to positively impacted corporate growth. Padma previously held General Management responsibilities as VP, Asia Pacific and Canada for Pfizer’s oncology business unit. As VP, Business Integration, she led all integration activities globally for Pfizer Oncology – acquisition of Wyeth. In her first role with Pfizer as VP, Human Resources, Padma advised senior business leaders on overall HR strategies while partnering with the President and GM of Pfizer Oncology to create and operationalize the new business unit. Earlier in her career, Padma served as SVP, Human Resources Executive in 2 different business groups at Bank of America where she led business and people initiatives to expand the company’s global footprint. Padma completed her Master’s degree coursework at the University of Madras and holds a Bachelor’s degree from Osmania University, both in India.

Christi Shaw is a life sciences leader and advocate for patients with more than 30 years of pharmaceutical industry experience across a broad range of therapeutic areas. Christi is driven by values, integrity, and a deep commitment to accelerating innovation and enabling access to offer unprecedented hope to patients battling difficult-to-treat diseases.

Most recently, Christi served as Chief Executive Officer of Kite, a Gilead Company, a member on the executive committee and the board of directors for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and held senior executive positions at Lilly, Novartis Corp. and Johnson & Johnson. Christi holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Iowa State University and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin. Christi is very active in sustainable farming and resides with her husband and son in Santa Monica, CA.

Fabrice Enderlin is the former Executive Vice President Corporate Human Resources of the UCB Group, and currently leads an independent consultancy, DiscernYard. He is currently setting up family talent strategies (governance, succession, people development) for family own businesses and supporting CEO’s, CHRO’s and C suite members. He has extensive experience within the Biopharma world initially with Ciba-Geigy where he joined a production plant in 1991, before supporting the Novartis merger in 1997 as Vice President HR Pharma France. He joined GSK in 2000 leading as Vice President HR France broad change management activities during the merger of the two Anglo-saxon companies. In 2003, he embraced an international career supporting the fast growth of the vaccines division of GSK as Vice President HR within GSK Biologicals, based in Belgium. At UCB, Fabrice took on additional responsibilities besides the initial HR activities, including the operational excellence team, the Global Communication department as well as the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) area.

Matthew Kohut, managing partner of KNP Communications, has prepared CEOs, entrepreneurs, ambassadors, scientists, and best-selling authors for events ranging from television appearances to TED talks. Prominent clients include Fortune 500 firms and 3 of the world’s top 10 business schools. Matt has held appointments at George Washington University and Bennington College. He is the author of Speaking Out: The New Rules of Business Leadership Communication, and co-author of two other books. His writing has appeared in publications ranging from Harvard Business Review to Newsweek.

Barbara Ryan founded Barbara Ryan Advisors, a capital markets and communications advisory firm for the life sciences industry, in 2012 following a 30+ year career on Wall Street as a sell-side research analyst and Managing Director covering the U.S. large-cap pharmaceutical industry, distributors and PBMs. Ms. Ryan has deep experience in equity and debt financings, M&A, valuation, SEC reporting, financial analysis, corporate and communications strategy across the life sciences industry and has raised well over $1.5 billion in equity and convertible debt offerings. Ms. Ryan has been involved in several of the pharmaceutical industry’s largest M&A transactions: Shire’s defense against a hostile takeover attempt by Abbvie, Shire’s takeover of Baxalta, Allergan’s defense against Valeant and Perrigo’s defense again Mylan. Ms. Ryan served as an executive team member and on the disclosure committee of Radius Health from January 2014 to December 2017 and played a critical role in Radius’ IPO and subsequent follow-on offerings which raised over $1 billion. Previously, Ms. Ryan was a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank/Alex Brown and head of the company’s Pharmaceutical Research Team for 19 years. She began her research career covering the pharmaceutical industry at Bear Stearns in 1982. Ms. Ryan also covered drug wholesalers and PBMs, and was the lead-analyst on many high-profile IPOs, including Express Scripts, PSSI, Henry Schein, and Flamel Technologies. Ms. Ryan currently serves as a director on the boards of Indivior PLC, MiNK Therapeutics as Audit Chair, INVO Biosciences, OcuTerra Therapeutics, and Safecor. Barbara also serves on board of The Red Door Community NYC, a non-profit organization for cancer support, and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Pharmaceutical Executive Magazine, where she authors a monthly Finance Column, and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Prix Galien Foundation and a faculty member at the GLG Institute and The Biopharma Hub. Barbara is the founder Fabulous Pharma Females, a non-profit whose mission is to advance women in the biopharma industry. Ms. Ryan has also led the development of women leadership programs at several biotech companies.

Denice Torres is CEO of The Ignited Company change management firm and Founder of The Mentoring Place, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping women advance in their careers. She has over 30 years of P&L, commercial, and strategy experience in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer healthcare. She served as president for several multi-billion-dollar Johnson & Johnson companies including Janssen Pharmaceuticals (CNS), and J&J Consumer Healthcare. Denice was also chief strategy and transformation officer for the medical device sector. Denice is credited for successfully leading and transforming the Tylenol company through an unprecedented time period marked by product recalls, manufacturing challenges, and a consent decree. She was named the Healthcare Businesswoman of the Year in 2015.

Prior to joining J&J, Denice had a highly successful, 14-year career at Lilly where she served in leadership roles of increasing responsibility, including executive director for women health and head of global marketing for a multi-billion CNS portfolio.

Denice has served on multiple boards and is currently a director of bluebird bio (BLUE), Karuna Therapeutics (KRTX) and Resilience. She holds an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan, a J.D. from Indiana University School of Law, and a B.S. in Psychology from Ball State. She is a member of the Michigan Bar Association.

Morra Aarons-Mele is the author of The Anxious Achiever, a Thinkers50 2024 top 10 management book. Morra knows that taking your mental health seriously is a leadership strength, and her work won the Media Award from Mental Health America in 2023. Morra helps people learn to love their tricky brains and thrive at work. She hosts The Anxious Achiever podcast for LinkedIn Presents,  a Webby Awards Honoree. Aarons-Mele founded the social impact consulting firm Women Online and created its database of female influencers, the Mission List, which she sold in 2021. Before starting her own business, Morra led marketing departments for startups, corporate offices, and political campaigns.

If you’d like to order books via HBR, email jordan.concannon@harvardbusiness.org