Lynn Fenicchia has held numerous commercial leadership roles in pharma.  She is a former Senior Vice President at Astellas where she was a Business Unit Head in the US commercial organization, leading a team of 550 employees generating $1.9B in revenue. 

With more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, she has held senior level roles in the areas of sales and marketing leadership, corporate strategy, and commercial operations, including Vice President of Commercial Strategy and Operations, and Vice President of Sales of a 650 person team.  

Throughout her career she has been recognized for her authentic leadership, ability to simplify complex issues, change leadership, and ability enhance team performance, culture and engagement.  

Lynn was named a Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Luminary in 2015 for her commitment to coaching and development, and holds an MBA from the University of Notre Dame, a Master of Science degree in exercise physiology from Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree in biology from East Carolina. 

She lives in Chicago and has 2 daughters who are students at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, and a son who is in middle school. 

1.      Career Evolution: Navigating Growth and Leadership in Biopharma

Question: You've built an extraordinary career, progressing from regional sales manager to Senior Vice President at Astellas, where you oversaw a $1.9B P&L and led multiple teams. For leaders in biopharma looking to navigate similar transitions, what critical decisions or experiences helped you grow and succeed in such a fast-paced, high-stakes environment?

It's really important to have diverse functional experience. Having an appetite to do different things—working in different functions, even if you've never done them before—to expand your skills is crucial. I've seen people say, 'No, I'm a marketer. I only want to do marketing.' But you sell yourself short because when a VP of Marketing position opens, those with a variety of functional roles are often looked at first. They have a broader perspective; they've got the full picture. So my advice is to diversify your functional experience.

I was never afraid to take lateral moves. Progression isn't always linear; it's not always upward. Sometimes you have to take lateral positions to expand your scope. At one point, I actually took a step back to get marketing experience. I was already at a director level, but it’s difficult to go into marketing as a director if you haven't done it before. So I went back as an assistant director. Taking that step back in title was like a springboard because it propelled me forward for my next role. It made me more marketable because I had that marketing experience. I'm not sure I would be where I am today had I not taken that step back to move forward; that's a really important perspective.

2.      Establishing a High-Performance Culture in New Leadership Roles

Question: When stepping into a new leadership role, especially in organizations with established teams and processes, how do you quickly establish a culture of high performance? What strategies do you use to align teams, foster collaboration, and get them focused on delivering results in a new leadership setting?

Whenever I've taken over a new team, I do three things right away to set the tone for the culture.

First, I assess the leadership team. Do we have the right leaders who are not just functional experts but also inspiring leaders who can build a positive culture? You can't build a high-performance culture without leaders who have the ability to create it.

Second, I spend the first few weeks just listening. I meet with people individually to really listen to what's on their mind: 'Tell me about yourself. What are your goals? What are your business challenges? Where can I make a difference?' When people feel that their new leader is interested in them and their concerns, it immediately helps build a rich culture. They talk among themselves, and your reputation for caring and listening spreads, positively impacting the culture.

Lastly, I co-create the vision and ways of working with the team. We step back from the day-to-day and discuss: 'What are we going to be about? How are we going to be a high-performing team? What do we need to add or change? What's our vision?' Establishing this together helps build team unity, contributing to the culture.

Additionally, it's important to recognize people and reward what you value—not just performance but also behaviors that lead to performance. Recognize people publicly and individually. Be enthusiastic about what your people do at all levels so they feel valued.

Finally, you need to know how to hire. I've always believed in hiring people who are humble, hungry, and smart. If you can attract such people to your team, you'll perpetuate a great culture."

3.      Retaining Talent in an Industry Where Competition is Fierce

Question: Retention of top talent is a critical challenge in the highly competitive biopharma sector. You've consistently built teams with strong loyalty and engagement. What strategies have you found most effective in retaining top talent, especially during times of significant growth or organizational change?

It's important to build relationships with your best people. They need to feel a sense of connection to you and the organization. When they feel connected to you, they feel connected to the organization. And when they feel connected, they're less likely to leave.

Secondly, recognize them as often as you can. Ensure they feel valued through both financial and verbal rewards. Give them opportunities, exposure, and brag about them to your boss. These things go a long way.

Lastly, invest in their development. They need to feel like they're growing. Give them opportunities to develop and help them reach their career goals. If they feel the company or you as their leader are investing in them, they're more likely to stay.

4.      Leading Through Organizational Transformation and Restructuring

Question: You've successfully led teams through significant organizational transformations, including restructuring and integrating various commercial and operational functions. How do you lead teams through periods of uncertainty and change? What's your approach to securing buy-in from key stakeholders and ensuring the team remains focused and motivated during these challenging times?

Leading through change is one of my favorite leadership capabilities. I've developed three guiding principles over the years.

First, don't be afraid to share your own initial reactions to the change. It's ok to let people know that you also struggled at first: 'I understand why you're struggling with this news because when I first heard about this change, I struggled too. But here's what helped me embrace the change...' This makes you relatable and helps others on their journey to accepting the change.

The second thing that I think is really important is to share the 'why'. You can't share it too much. There's no way that you could over-communicate the 'why'. The reason for the change—it has to be just like in sales where you have a key message that you're repeating with customers. You have to share that key message over and over with employees: 'Here's the reason behind the change.' Even though it seems like common sense to share the reason, many leaders either don't share it at all, or they only share it once when people are half-listening because they're so shocked by the change. So you repeat the reason, and when people understand the reason for the change, they're better able to digest it.

Lastly, highlight and connect with those who are embracing the change. Make examples of them, recognize their positivity, and let them become your change agents. You can't be the only one driving the change; you need people within the team to help lead others through it.

5.      Fostering Innovation While Maintaining Accountability

Question: In biopharma, there is constant pressure to innovate while meeting commercial goals. How do you create an environment where employees feel empowered to be innovative and experiment with new ideas, while ensuring that accountability is maintained and performance targets are met?

This has to be done both informally and formally.

Informally, encourage innovation daily by asking the right questions: 'How could we do this better? What do you need? What obstacles can I remove?' Recognize and reward innovation publicly, reinforcing what you value.

I also love the 'yes, and...' approach. When someone presents an idea, build on it: 'Yes, and how can we make it bigger?' This encourages others to join in and fosters collaborative innovation.

I also use more formal approaches, which have been very fruitful—by periodically setting aside time to innovate. Often, employees aren't innovating because they don't have time. They're on the treadmill of their job, getting things done, and they don't have time to stop and just think, which is a problem. So, as a leader, you have to create that space for them to brainstorm and innovate. For example, once a quarter, or however often you see fit, take a day and declare it a 'Blue Sky Day.' No emails, put the computers away. We're going to come together to solve a problem or generate new ideas. If you lead a very large team, maybe you hold a Blue Sky Day with just your leadership team or a sampling—perhaps pick 15 people from your department. It can't be the entire department if you lead a very large group; it has to be the right size. But you have these folks come in and say, 'This is an agenda-free eight hours where we're going to think about what we need to do to be successful this quarter or what we need to do to be successful with the rollout of a particular initiative,' and just talk and create.  

These are the best ways I've found to foster innovation, both on a daily informal basis and through creating this formal approach.

As a business leader, you have to give them permission to fail; otherwise, people will never want to innovate or do things differently. It's the old 'fail fast' approach: let's test this out, and if it's going to fail, let's fail fast and move on. It may sound like a cliché, but sometimes you learn the most when you fail—that's when you gain key learnings. You can't fail all the time because you have to grow your business, but it's about setting the example of how you handle failure and showing that it's okay. 'This didn't work the way we thought, but it's okay. How can we take that failure and learn from it? How can we change it so that it's not a failure? What do we need to add? What do we need to change?' I think that's important.

Someone recently asked me about product launches: 'Tell me about the most successful product launch and what did you learn?' I would challenge that perspective. I learned the most when things didn't go well at first, and we had to implement changes to accelerate progress. That's where I gained the most valuable insights, and we eventually achieved our goals. So, it's about being comfortable with that—it's okay to fail.

6.      Leadership Challenges in Scaling Emerging Biopharma Companies

Having played a pivotal role in Astellas' journey from a smaller company to a multi-billion-dollar organization, what leadership challenges do you think emerging biopharma companies face as they scale? How can leaders in these organizations build a culture that drives growth while maintaining high levels of engagement and operational excellence?

One significant challenge when scaling quickly is running the risk of getting away from your core—who you are and your vision. As you grow, there's a risk of deviating from that because you're focused on getting things done and processes in place. Leaders need to constantly check against the core vision of the organization.

The other challenge of a growth organization is that you run the risk of watering down talent by building too quickly, hiring too quickly, especially at the leadership level. I believe that middle management is the most critical layer in the company. Those are the people on the front lines. Those leaders set the tone for their teams. They do the hiring. They've either got an eye for talent or they don't. They either have managerial courage or they don't. They either have good performance management skills or they don't. And if you get the wrong leaders at that level who don't possess some of those critical leadership skills, then you just water down your talent, and you start hiring the wrong people, bringing the wrong people in. So I think that's probably the biggest challenge with a fast growing company. Fasten your seatbelts, prepare for this rapid growth, but make sure that you're paying really close attention and taking the appropriate amount of time to hire the right people as you scale. I think that's a big risk.

7.      Developing Future Leaders in Biopharma

Question: One of your core strengths is identifying and developing high-potential talent within your teams. How do you approach identifying future leaders, and what strategies do you use to nurture their growth and prepare them for larger leadership roles in a competitive, fast-paced industry like biopharma?

I believe leadership is a combination of nature and nurture.

On the 'nature' side, certain people have inherent leadership traits—it's just the way they're born. It's in their personality; it's inherent in who they are. As a leader, it's really important to observe your people and identify these traits. Those with inherent leadership qualities will stand out. They're the ones leaning in, whom their peers already follow and look up to, who are always part of the solution. Being observant of these natural-born leaders on your team is crucial.

But leadership is also about nurture. So how do you nurture it? One effective approach I've used is mentoring. It might sound basic, but taking the time to mentor these individuals, giving them your time, and scheduling regular mentoring conversations is invaluable. When you have these conversations, make them purposeful. Instead of just chatting, structure them around key topics. For example, I like to take topics we've discussed and, in each mentoring call, really dig into one of them, perhaps developing scenarios. I've mentored folks by presenting them with ten common situations I've encountered as a leader that they will likely face as well, and we discuss and bring these scenarios to life.

Mentoring can sometimes be theoretical, so it's important to also provide hands-on experiences—this is where people learn the most. Put them in charge of an initiative or a segment of a meeting where they're in front of others. They're on stage, leading in front of their peers. They have to figure out how to get it done, how to launch the initiative. They need to lean on people and be resourceful. These leadership opportunities are critical because they might fail or succeed in different aspects, but they'll learn and grow by engaging in real-world scenarios.

It's about recognizing those with natural leadership qualities, mentoring them formally, and giving them roles and initiatives where they can exercise their skills, be in the spotlight, and gain exposure.

Closing Thoughts

One of the most critical capabilities as a leader is having an eye for talent and the ability to discern true leadership qualities. It's an art, not a science. You need that skill to differentiate between genuine leaders and mere noise. Are they just being the loudest, or are they actually demonstrating leadership? Sometimes up-and-coming talent may not always be the most positive voices; they might be the ones offering constructive feedback—the key word being ‘constructive’. They're solution-oriented. Recognizing and nurturing such individuals is an essential quality for a leader to have.