Enabling Through Sisterhood: My Year as the 2023 HBA Woman of the Year

Celebrating and redefining sisterhood’s power and strength by lifting each other up with encouragement and candor, defines my year as the 2023 Woman of the Year (WOTY).

As I excitedly await the unveiling of the 2024 HBA Woman of the Year (WOTY), I reflect on my year as recipient of the 2023 WOTY. From the announcement, to the luncheon in NYC, chapter and mentoring conversations, the international conference in Chicago and more—the year contained bright spots and also reminded me that there is still work to do to support and advance women in leadership.?

Receiving the recognition has meant and validated for me that pursuing a purposeful career authentic to your personal true north is no longer considered a rogue, off the path choice but valued and necessary to truly live a full life.?I also receive it as an acknowledgement that empathetic leadership can be and IS a strength, not a weak leadership quality.

I have spent much time mentoring and speaking with so many talented leaders, even more so this past year with the broader HBA community, and thankfully the conversations about career advancement are starting to change. In the past, most questions I received from mentees typically centered around a request for a roadmap or a playbook they could follow that would give them clear direction on what was expected from them to achieve a leadership role in the C-suite.? For example, a typical question was “what did you do to advance your career that I should also do?”? ?

Capable leaders were looking for answers from HR, their boss, or executives of the C-suite and unfortunately not looking inward on the strengths they bring and intentionally evaluating and choosing where and how they wanted to deliver that value.?

What is so inspiring to me is that, although slowly, leaders are now starting to take the time to self-reflect and align their career choices with their purpose-their own true authentic self and what value they bring to the world.?They are starting to look at their whole spectrum of life and ensure their career choices are aligned to the fulfilling life they want to lead.?

People are thinking less and less in terms of a sole focus on career advancement in a particular company but are evolving now to think about their impact more broadly. Instead of searching for what to do or how to be to get the next role, they are starting to think about their own worth and identifying for themselves the roles in the industry where they can bring their value to bear.?It gives me such hope for our industry’s future when I hear mentees, more often now, ask a different question, “Christi, how can I stay true to my authentic self AND be a successful leader?”?

However, I have also observed through these conversations over the last year that although there are successes, there are continuing challenges. My interactions confirm for me there is work to do to help others realize their worth, take back their power and determine their own destiny.? Reflecting on my own personal experience, it takes grit, determination, and much resilience to carve your own path, to resist aligning with direction you do not believe is in the best interest of patients, to emulate leadership inauthentic to your true self or to have courage to say no to a role that does not give you energy.?

Let us support each other to make it less difficult and enable each other to be more successful, for the benefit of patients.

In an industry where patients depend on us, it is your true north, your authentic self that provides the leadership that is required. Patients depend on us to share our individual strengths, our vulnerabilities, and to accept and value that in each other so that we can work together to solve the world’s most difficult healthcare problems.?

Because in the end, this diversity represents the diversity of the patients we serve-the patients who deserve better outcomes because we bring our genuine selves to them every day.

I hope by demonstrating the courage to forge my own path, I enable leaders to not follow mine, but to follow more easily your own.?

Authored by 2023 HBA Woman of the Year Christi Shaw .

Christi Shaw is a life sciences leader and patient advocate with over 30 years of 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 patients battling difficult-to-treat diseases.?

Most recently, Christi served as Chief Executive Officer of Kite, a Gilead Company, and was a member on the executive committee and the board of directors for Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). She also held senior executive positions at Lilly, Novartis, and Johnson & Johnson.

Christi has been commended for her unique understanding of both the patient and business side of the industry, as well as for the determination and empathy she brings due to the personal experience of losing her mother, father, and sister to difficult-to-treat diseases. She has found tremendous success in her belief that when you put the patient first, the business achievements follow. Christi fosters cultures of inclusion and opportunity, developing enterprise mindsets at all levels and leading without labels to cultivate teams that share a purpose and passion.?

While being a caregiver to her older sister, Christi and her younger sister co-founded the More Moments More Memories Foundation, an organization providing grants to help patients and caregivers access oncology clinical trials for potentially life-saving treatments.?

Christi holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Iowa State University and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin. She currently serves on the board of directors of Avantor and HBA’s Advisory Board. Christi is very active in sustainable farming and resides with her husband and son in Santa Monica, CA.