BUSINE$$ MINDS Season 2 WEEK 22 - CURIOSITY & VULNERABILITY: The Key To Growth

1.??????? Clinton Weber – Umoja Biopharma

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“I had a strange beginning”, Mr. Weber shared initially. After graduating from Marquette University with a mechanical engineering degree, Mr. Weber went on to start his career at PPG工业公司 . In this role, Mr. Weber would move 10,000 gallons in volume of chemicals across the country. “The first real project was building a new waste treatment center that made it so we didn’t have to incinerate the excess product.” During his time with PPG, the organization followed the rule book "to a t", however, even after treatment of the waste according to the letter of the law, Mr. Weber wasn’t comfortable contributing to the environmental impact it still had. After following his brother to Seattle, he eventually settled on the West Coast.

????????????????? “When I moved, we were pre-internet and the job I was going to interview for must have given me the wrong location as I showed up to a construction site in a full suit.” This happened to be the site for a new biochemical company whose head engineer happened to be onsite. “I talked with the head engineer for 2 hours and he eventually offered me a job with the new organization”, Mr. Weber added. In this new construction, Mr. Weber was in charge of assisting the team in building 3,000-liter bioreactors. Through this process, Mr. Weber learned that the actual biology process was more interesting than the mechanical process of moving the biology materials – therefore, Mr. Weber wanted to learn more about the biology process. Through this newfound passion, Mr. Weber discovered the stringent regulations in the industry as he learned to fill out the two different regulatory applications: The indication for a new drug (IND), and the Biological License Application (BLA). During this time, the organization he worked for, Immunexpress Inc. , went through a few mergers including being bought out by 安进 .

????????????????? “Back in 2006, I was the project director of building a new biopharma facility with a whopping budget of $100 million.” After he spent time in both the mechanical and biological spaces, Mr. Weber transitioned into starting a consulting arm with NovaNordisk where the goal was to assist companies in meeting FDA regulations. However, many organizations needed assistance with responding to warning letters instead. Therefore, Mr. Weber took on more of the warning letters during his four years with CMO . As of late Mr. Weber helped start a therapeutics company, Juno Therapeutics, Inc. , where they take cells out of an individual, engineer the T cells, and put them back in to fight cancer. However, a more simple and cost-effective process is called gene therapy where professionals inject a small virus to program certain T-cells to fight a particular cancer. “Overall, I think the best part of my job is solving problems”, Mr. Weber pointed out.

Mr. Weber went on to share how he believes one can only effectively solve problems is if “your guard rails are down”. With this vulnerability, a young professional can garner a vision for the future and execute objectively. “For example, I just wanted to do engineering and not become a manager. However, after being forced into the managerial role it turned out I loved it”, Mr. Weber shared. Contrary to when he was starting his career, Mr. Weber believes the young professionals of today are only focused on assimilating in the ranks and titles. Instead, Mr. Weber encourages young professionals to ask themselves what they want to know and experience. This line of thinking was heavily influenced by his mentor in his early career. Overall, having a sense of curiosity, vulnerability, and focused purpose, one can have a fulfilling career.