Episode 6: Mentoring and leadership with Nathalie Huther

Nathalie takes us through her career journey from studying chemistry to climbing the corporate ladder; and how the most challenging points of a career can lead to the most rewarding opportunities. Nathalie is the Chief Commercial Officer for High Force Research (HFR), where she leads the strategy direction and business development. 

Nathalie is passionate about opening doors for the next generation, and this has led her to carve out time for mentorship. We talked about the benefits of mentoring, finding a mentor, and the importance of giving back to your industry. Nathalie also shares some of her key advice, relevant for all stages of your career journey. 

Transcript

Episode 6:  Mentoring and leadership with Nathalie Huther

Emma   00:00

Okay, cue the music.

Emma    00:12

Welcome to Ctrl Alt Tech, the podcast where technology meets curiosity. I'm your host, Emma, and today I am joined by Natalie Huther. Natalie is the chief commercial officer at High Force Research, and in this episode, she talks us through her career journey from studying chemistry to climbing the corporate ladder, and how the most challenging points of a career can often lead to the most rewarding opportunities.

Emma   00:38

Natalie is passionate about opening doors for the next generation, and this has led her to carve out a lot of time for mentorship. We talk about the benefits of mentoring, finding a mentor, and the importance of giving back to your industry. Natalie also shares some of her key advice relevant for all stages of your career journey. Let's dive in. Hi, Natalie, welcome to this episode of Ctrl Alt Tech. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Nathalie   01:07

Hi Emma, a pleasure to be here.

Emma   01:09

Let's start with a little bit of an introduction to you. Could you please tell me more about who you are and what you do?

Nathalie   01:17

Yeah, sure. So my name is Natalie Huther. I'm currently a chief commercial officer at HFR. HFR is a UK based independent company. We provide chemistry led research, development and manufacturing services to mainly life science companys within the biotech, pharma and diagnostic sector, but also work in the broader chemical sector. So the line of expertise of the company is really providing chemistry services.

Nathalie   01:44

Anything we can do in terms of chemistry and maybe more about my, my role there and my responsibility as a chief commercial officer is mainly to, you know, lead the strategic direction and, add, basically help the company grow and managing mainly partnerships, trying to find new business and working, supporting the marketing, efforts as well. And, I guess it's a good challenge for me because it makes the, the science background and the way of helping the, the company grow and, you know, have a meaningful impact. And that commercial acumen is quite a good mix with the, the scientific background.

Emma   02:19

Yes. I would like to get a bit more into your experience of working in a leadership position. But first I'm going to pull it back a little bit and pick up on some of the things you mentioned there. You know, your science background, your business acumen. And let's dive a bit deeper into your own career journey, because I understand your background is actually in chemistry. So how, how did you end up going from chemist to COO.

Nathalie   02:48

Yeah. No that's a great, I think it's so great, great question. I guess it's obviously it's almost like the my life story. 

Emma   02:54

Yeah.

Nathalie   02:55

I was going to, to you know maybe go too, too far back. But you know obviously my accent may give it away a little bit. I'm originally from France and I initially studied it, maybe it’s worth talking about the, you know, the academic angle as well of my, my career. So I initially studied chemistry in Strasbourg in France, up to my masters, and I was fortunate to be able to take part in the Erasmus program. I'm not sure if you're familiar, but it's a program in Europe that allows students in European university to perform part of their studies in other European universities and so it gave me the opportunity to end up in the University of York.

Nathalie   03:34

I that's how I ended up in the UK. Again, I could stop there and then the rest is history. But I'll give you a bit more context on what happened next. So, after I finished this placement, which is initially only four months, I was offered, a position to continue in pursuing a PhD in chemistry at the same university.

Nathalie   03:53

So it was a, you know, a great opportunity. I was set to come to the UK for only four months, and little did I know that it would be a long-term, process at this time. And, so I'll talk about, maybe my professional career in a minute, but maybe to add another angle on the academic side, 20 years later, I have also did, embarked into a, onto an executive MBA at Warwick Business School, which, I've graduated from last January, so that's fairly recent. It was pretty much 20 years to the day after I graduated from my PhD.

Emma   04:28

Wow, that's cool.

Nathalie   04:30

Maybe it's thinking about what other degree I can do in 20 year’s time. 

Emma   04:33

Yeah.

Nathalie   04:34

You know, if I keep that cycle running.

Emma   04:36

So that makes sense on the academic side of things then. And more on your professional track then. Were there any kind of like highlights from your career or really important moments that you remember when you track your journey?

Nathalie   04:52

Of course, and I think maybe I can go in a minute into most of those pivotal moments. You know, that journey because going into the journey, the career journey in particular, it wasn't very linear or standard. I guess nobody really does linear career anymore these days. But, I guess like a lot of chemist or a lot of people studying chemistry, I saw myself having a long-term career in the lab as a chemist.

Nathalie   05:18

I didn't really think that that would be. You know, I love chemistry. That's why I chose to study chemistry. But, in 2006, actually I was working in a, in a large pharma company in the lab, and they, at the time they announced the upcoming redundancies. And, so that was kind of one of those pivotal moments where you kind of have to think, oh, God, what am I going to do now?

Nathalie   05:43

You know is, am I going to be one of the person being made redundant? What do I do? And, you know, things sometimes happen a bit, you know, when you don't expect it. I was just flicking through a magazine that, from the Royal Society of Chemistry, called Chemistry in Britain at the time. It's called Chemistry World, now, but then back, the back section there was a job section and there was a role for a product manager, which, so it was a marketing, like a product marketing role, but which what was interesting was the description of the requirements.

Nathalie   06:14

So the role was basically a description of me. It just missed my name at the top. And I didn't really think at the time that being a chemist in the lab was, could open door to move into a product marketing role. And so that leap really from lab to marketing, wasn't something I even envisaged. So that leap from lab to marketing wasn't something I planned, but it ended up being basically one of the main events that moved me into that commercial journey.

Nathalie   06:46

That was the first step into the rest of that career and then in hindsight, linking the market to the science, not just doing the science for the sake of doing science in the lab, but making it with the purpose was actually very, you know, enlightening at the time. So, I think things in life, I believe, happened for a reason.

Nathalie   07:07

So, you don't necessarily need to plan it. But and then after that, obviously once I've stepped into marketing, I then moved through different organization, having different role in strategic and tactical marketing and then eventually in business development. And, but the change is again, and I think as I mentioned before, you know, the career wasn't linear, but it was a mixture.

Nathalie   07:29

It wasn't necessarily my plan. Things happen around you that are not necessarily your decision, you know, and I've had to navigate through, restructuring, M&A, and also that, you know, the redundancy or rumours of upcoming redundancies that I mentioned. Challenges always create opportunities, as they say, right?

Emma   07:50

Absolutely. And it sounds like you've really managed to get the most out of the twists and turns. To be able to reflect on whatever stage that you're at and go, okay, let's take stock and let's assess and let's see what the next, the next step really. And to be able to, navigate your way through that, certainly a crucial skill to have.

Emma   08:13

I wanted to pick up on one thing that you mentioned when you were describing your journey and mixing your chemistry and your business. You said that you liked the idea of linking the science with a purpose. So the science you were doing in the lab and bringing, I guess, a reason or like value to, to that science. Can you tell me a little more about like what is your purpose, what gets you excited about your role or get you up in the mornings?

Nathalie   08:44

Yeah, I think for me, I guess, you know, the life science sector. I think has itself a really good mission or a really valuable mission because, you know, you, feel like even it doesn't matter where you are in the, you know, the value chain. If you see what I mean, you contributing to, you know, the greater good.

Nathalie   09:04

I know it's a big word, but I think it's, you’re contributing to helping a patient and helping a family, helping somebody living longer at the end. And I think for me, being in an industry where you have a purpose, which is, in hindsight, really helping others or helping people living better and in a better world, I think is really, it's really what drives me.

Nathalie   09:27

But I guess what I and there's a bit of a flip point as you get later in your career, and it's something I've realized more and more as I got older, you know, and as I got more advance in my career, there's a bit of a what drives me more and I guess is probably links to some of the mentorship we discussed as well.

Nathalie   09:47

It's kind of now, how can I share my experience and how can I look in helping other people? Because I, you know, we have a, I feel strongly that we have a duty, especially as we are advancing in our career, to make it easy for the generation that follow us, you know, not just sit and watch for them to fail, like we failed and have the of course they can.

Nathalie   10:11

They need to do their own journey as well. But if we can pull them up and if we can, you know, help them go to where they need to be faster and be CEOs earlier than we would be or be, you know, go on in leadership in their 20s, you know, and if we can really make it easy for them to get to those, you know, those inflection points to, you know, it has to be done, in my opinion, because, you know, it's and it's going to be so important for, for the greater good of everybody.

Nathalie        10:43

Right? So I think it's really having a role where the industry has got very valuable mission, but also making sure you help other people and you share best practice and you also learn from others and you know, I'm still you know, I'm not a, you know, at the top and end of my game yet, you know, and having people around me that are helping me, you know, to even, you know, making it easy for me to get to my next stages. And I think this is, this is really, I guess there's loads of side of what really motivates me and what drives me, but hopefully that gives you a bit of a context of.

Emma   11:15

Yeah, definitely. And I think it brings a spotlight on the importance of people throughout your career and having kind of your community around you, people who can cheer you on, people who you can learn from. And it's clear that mentorship is something that you are very passionate about. I'd love to ask you a bit more about that. I understand you've got experience as a woman in biotech mentor. Maybe, could you share what role mentorship has played in your career, whether as a mentor or mentee.

Nathalie   11:45

Maybe not structured mentorship done with my managers or people in my organization. That's so you know, the, my, my potential and really guided me. And, and now looking back, being a mentor and having trained to be a mentor, what they did was actually very structured mentorship. But it wasn't, in my case, a structured mentorship program that I was following as a mentee.

Nathalie   12:11

And that's, you know, mainly there were great leaders or line managers. I call them leaders because it's always the people that, you know, they don't necessarily they don't tell you what to do. They guide you. They, you know, they they do something amazing and you want to follow them. And the way they, they, the way they lead, you aspire to, to do the same or, you know, follow on that on that footpath.

Nathalie   12:36

Having that role it's so important for me to now not only show other women that it's possible because, you know, I've done it. If I can do it, anybody can do it. But also, you know, help them in that journey because I think there's still you could there's loads of evidence that shows that gender diversity is such an, an advantage to an organization, particularly in leadership.

Nathalie   12:59

I really associated with the, the BIA women in biotech program. I love the, the mentorship program from the BIA. And these are the group that, following basically a structural way of, of mentorship. Obviously, the training was there, but I do have a, you know, I think I'll probably help a lot of people on the side as well, which I mentor on a very ad hoc basis. And, and I feel it's a duty for everybody to help others because, yeah, it's I think it's just the right thing to do.

Emma   13:32

Yeah. I absolutely love to hear that. You know, I'm obviously a woman in software engineering myself. Yet certainly an underrepresented group and to have examples of women in leadership roles like makes such a huge difference. Like, it's so much harder to believe that you can do something or something is possible for you if you can't see that it's already in existence.

Emma   14:00

So to have, role models in industry is super important. And I love to hear you talk about how important it is to you to give that time and energy back and what you said about, you know, feeling like you've a duty to the people coming behind you and you want to do what you can to reduce those barriers, I think is just such a great message.

Emma   14:24

And I would love more people to avail of mentorship programs, whether there is a structured program in place for you, where you work or it's something that you could seek out more informally, they can be very beneficial. But one thing that I find is a barrier is that, people who are in the, shall we say, mentee position and are seeking out a mentorship can sometimes find it difficult to know where to start. And I wonder, do you have any advice for anyone listening who thinks, yeah, I would totally get benefit out of this, but how do I find a mentor? And what approach should I take?

Nathalie   15:05

I guess there's different options, and I, it's quite funny. I wasn't there an alumni conference of the weekend in Warwick Business School, which, they do that event every, every year, and they talk about their mentoring program, which I'm kind of now trying to join as well. You know, I think maybe I should be a bit more careful of how many things are trying to do outside of my work, but it's so much fun actually, to do it.

Nathalie   15:27

But there's I would probably look, especially if you studied in science and in universities, I think more and more alumni programs at university will have some sort of a mentorship program or mentoring program. I think there's a different way of saying it. And, but, I would look at that, because that I guess, more and more of university will offer those, those, those scheme.

Nathalie   15:52

And as an alumni, you'll be eligible to take part. But also I mentioned the SCI, the BIA, which I joined myself, but these are industry associations. So obviously the one I've mentioned are very specific chemistry or biotech, but they are rather industry association, membership and, you know, look into those to see if there's, you know, some mentoring program because they offer training for mentee/mentor.

Nathalie   16:19

And then, you know, you have regular check in. You don't need to do it face-to-face. I've try to have my mentorship done face-to-face as much as I can because the value of, human connection, I think is still so important despite, you know, all the pandemic we had and despite the pandemic challenges we had, you can do them online.

Nathalie   16:37

You know, you can do that on Team. You can have a, I don't know, a quarterly hour with your mentor on a regular basis. But if these are not accessible to you, you know, we all most of us are on LinkedIn. My point always is if you put yourself on LinkedIn, you are opening your door to be contacted because if not, don't put yourself on LinkedIn if you don’t want people to contact you.

Nathalie   17:01

But I think I would approach people you admire. You know, these people in your industry that are know, doing the job you aspire to do and just reach out. You'd be surprised how many people are actually, would take the time out just to have a chat with you. And, you know, it could be a coffee, you, you know, look at somebody in your area and say, look, you know what?

Nathalie   17:23

You know, I, I'm looking for, you know, maybe some support. Can I pick up your brain? You don't need to use the mentorship term, but I think people in general are very open to, to help. And it doesn't mean I guess, you know, obviously I mentioned women in leadership. It doesn't need to be a woman. If you're a woman, it doesn't need to be a man, if you're man, let's just look at people that have achieved or that are in position that you, you aspire to, and they and network.

Nathalie   17:50

You know, I can't say enough to people how important it is to network. You know there's loads of free networking events. I live in Newcastle in the northeast, we have a regular event called Biotech and Beer. It's a free event. It's, organized by a membership association. For our industry called Bionow, you know, it's a buy you own beer event.

Nathalie   18:12

They just provide the location, you turn up, you mingle with people, and it's, you'd be surprised how many people you talk to at those networking event that might be, you know, offer you some guidance, whether it's full on mentorship or if it's just, you know, giving you tips and tricks on what you need to do or introducing you to other people. So, I think you need to get out there.

Emma   18:44

Yeah, I think that's great advice. I think we've definitely covered a lot of the benefits that you can get out of a mentorship program, whether you want to use a formal term of mentorship or not. But I'd like to touch, more broadly speaking then, you know, we've said mentorship can be great, networking can be great. I want to pick your brain about other insights you have from your career journey so far. You know, as a leader now, or anything you've picked up at any other stage of your career, is there advice that you'd pass on to others earlier in their career?

Nathalie   19:17

If everything's set up in, you know, initially where just where is the challenge? You might find something a bit more exciting if you just try, you know, and I think this is one of the other, you know, piece of advice, what I was always saying. Oh, I'm not sure I'm ready. You know what? What do I need to do? I need to be, have all of those in place. Just do it. 

Emma   19:41

Yeah. 

Nathalie   19:42

And you'd be surprised what happens. Take something and, or take a decision and just go for it.

Emma   19:45

It reminds me of something that you hear now and again around career progression. And to do with women taking the next step, asking for promotion or going for a new role. That women won't put themselves forward for a role unless they fit 100% of the criteria. But a man with similar experience in the same position will put themselves forward if they match 60%, 70%.

Nathalie   20:10

Absolutely, absolutely. And this is so key, absolutely key to kind of just put your foot down. You know, I think what's the worst that can happen? You know, if you don't raise your hands, you know, to do something, you know, of course you'll never be considered. So yeah.

Emma   20:27

Yeah, I think that's great advice. I wanted to ask you as well, I've mentioned thinking about, you know, what advice you would have for someone earlier in their career. And I wonder if there's anything you'd like to share with those, maybe in a more similar position to yourself. You learn about how to, you know, reach a handout and bring the next generation with you. Or like, what's, what you what you would like to share with those in a similar position to you?

Nathalie   20:56

Yeah, I think, I guess there's maybe two things. I think it depends where you are in you. Because I guess your question may be leads. If people are, you know, questioning what they're doing, or is this, like, you know, are they stuck in what they in, you know, in where they all, you know, I guess, you know, because if people I find people don't tend to ask much when things are going well, you know, they obviously only ask for supports where they think are going, you know, not so well.

Nathalie   21:24

And I think particularly in mid-career, it's a hard position to be in when you ask for help. And, and I understand that because people think, oh, God, I already have a career. You know, I don't want to. Yeah. People might be worried that, you know, about what other people think. You know, I'm I am, I am, I right to ask for help?

Nathalie   21:47

You know, I'm already advanced in my career. It's always nice to take a step back and look from the balcony of what you've achieved, and kind of also give yourself a pat on the back, you know, the fact of doing that you do your job is already an achievement that needs to be celebrated. It's not just because you are doing your job that it's not, not worth being celebrated.

Nathalie   22:09

And I think getting that step back and just writing down, I think I find, and this is not everybody's necessarily the same, but writing down what you've achieved just gives you that sense of positivity. But also, if you're looking for a change or if you think, oh, I'm not sure I've done this job for, I don't know, ten years or this kind of job or fancy something else, it's always good to reflect on what aspect of your role so far you've enjoyed?

Nathalie   22:36

What gave you energy, but what was missing? And it's just like when you write it down and if you look at this, you know, I've really enjoyed this, but I would love to do some of this and even pick ideas from your, you know, outside of work. And this is like combining or combining all those ideas you figure out.

Nathalie   22:54

You might figure out another avenue of things you can evaluate. And I go back to the networking, see what other people are doing. You know, you don't want to necessarily copy, but that's how you get inspiration. It's okay to be different. It's okay to do something different, but it's okay to look at other people for inspiration. And, and so never and don't, you know, don't isolate yourself and stay in your home.

Nathalie   23:19

And just like thing, I hate my job. I don't want. I want something else, you know, talk to people, you know, and look, you know, read, watch podcasts, listen to podcasts, you know, talk to other people. And, but also, as I said, look back and see what you really enjoy because life's too short not to do something you, you enjoy, but find something that gives you purpose. Because I think the main challenge I've seen with people, a mentor, when they're really struggling is because they don't feel like they have a purposeful job or they don't see the purpose of the job they're doing. And, so, yeah, so that's, that's a deep, version of advice.

Emma   24:02

But, I think that's great. I actually think that'll be a really nice point for us to wrap up today. And I will encourage everyone to remember they are on their own individual journey and to reflect and your their purpose. Thank you so much for being so open with me today, and for sharing so many insights. Before I let you go, I do want to ask you our quickfire questions. Bit of a tradition here on the podcast, with all our guests. So I'm going to ask you very quickly to answer with the first thing that comes to your head. I will start with, do you use dark mode or light mode?

Nathalie   24:41

Dark mode.

Emma   24:42

What is one gadget or app that you cannot live without?

Nathalie   24:47

My WHOOP. It measures all my metrics. So that's the, my, yeah, that's my, because I like data I’m a scientist I like to track things by data. Sorry.

Emma   24:57

And tell me a scientist or tech innovator that you admire.

Nathalie   25:03

Right. So that's an interesting question because I think it might not be a quickfire answer.

Emma   25:09

That's okay.

Nathalie   25:09

You know, I, I don't really admire people, I mean, I admire successful people. You know what, I admire famous scientist, but what I really admire lately are those scientists that took the entrepreneurial leap. Which are they? I followed some the last few years that are really, really inspired me. There's a lady called Fiona Li. She's CEO of VasoDynamics they developing products for, to cure side effects for cancer therapy. She's a tower of energy.

Nathalie   25:45

Meritxell Teixido. I probably completely mispronounced her name, even though I've met her so many times. She was CEO of Gate2Brain. It's a company based in Spain, and they developing new peptides formulation, to take the drugs directly to the brain through the blood-brain barrier. I've got another list of maybe 20 but I'm going to stop with these two. I think these you know, watch out for people that are, you know, developing those drugs. And, you know, and really having the passion of, of taking those drugs to patient and to market, in a very challenging environment.

Emma   26:21

That's great. Thank you so much again.

Nathalie   26:23

Yeah. Thank you.

Emma   26:24

That is a wrap for today's episode. I want to say a huge thank you again to Natalie for joining me. And of course thank you all for listening. Join us next time on Ctrl Alt Tech.