A story of manifestation

Q: What is manifestation??

A from google: Think of something you want. Visualize it in detail, being as specific as possible, as though you already have it. Ask the universe for it.

A from my experience: Be careful what you wish for, as it might just come true!

8 years ago I was handing over the reins of Merck for Mothers to the wonderful Mary-Ann Etiebet, MD, MBA and planning the next chapter of my impact journey. Launching and leading Merck for Mothers with Naveen Rao - Merck's 500 million dollar signature initiative to stop women dying while giving life - had taught me a key lesson (amongst many!): multifactorial problems require multisectoral solutions, and the private sector could/should/does/must play a role in global health and development (as most issues are 'complex'). ?A lesson I believe I had learnt pretty late on in my global health career.

As I started to consider all the usual places where 'private meets public for impact' e.g. world bank, BMGF etc. the then CEO of Merck, Kenneth C. Frazier asked me why not stay at Merck and do my good work here? I was on my way out so I was brutally honest. I told him that though I had never met such a high concentration of highly competent, mission driven people AND believed that the products in the Merck portfolio were truly going to be game changing (think oncology treatments and vaccines!), my life’s mission was to ensure ALL people got to benefit from healthcare innovations so that by being healthy, they could unlock their full potential. This meant being especially focused on serving the traditionally underserved in high income countries and then of course those living by virtue of a 'birth lottery' in low and middle income countries. I continued to tell him how often the barriers to care had very little to do with what was solely in Merck’s control. They were things like local regulatory delays, weak health delivery infrastructure, mistrust in those communities, low health literacy and low priority for the government etc etc etc … so what was needed were partnerships and different ways of thinking and going to market.

That was 8 years ago and I am still at Merck so he obviously persuaded me to stay! He shared the FULL George W. Merck quote, pointing out the second half that often gets left out and I decided to stay to be part of making George W. Merck’s vision a reality.?

"Medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we have remembered it, the larger they have been. And we cannot rest till the way has been found, with our help, to bring our finest achievement to everyone."

George W. Merck, the son of our founder, a former chairman, and the architect of the modern-day Merck.

Due to incredible leaders at Merck trusting me, giving me bigger and bigger opportunities, letting me focus on the patients and people as well as the profits, (thank you Adam Schechter Michael Nally Louise Houson Kevin Ali Nico Van Hoecke John Markels, Ph.D. Caroline Litchfield Susanne Fiedler Tracey Franklin Eliav Barr Sanat Chattopadhyay Julie Gerberding Frank Clyburn ) I have had the privilege of learning while delivering:?

• leading the merger/integration of vaccines back into MSD UK and launching the vaccines and women’s health business unit (with a digital GTMM transformation)
• driving the successful business turnaround (strategic vision, operations, DEI, compliance and people) in South Africa and Sub-saharan Africa, including the organon spin off, and COVID crisis management
• setting up our vaccine confidence work with partners like META to address growing online hesitancy during the pandemic
• leading and driving the incredible growth story that is HPV now at Merck.

And of course, I got to work with amazing people, contribute to many people's career development stories and ensure I had ‘forever impact stories’ in all of these roles.

So now, I am super excited (and humbled) to share that I have been asked by our new(-ish) CEO Rob Davis to launch and lead a new team at MSD (or Merck as it is known in US and Canada) that is 100% focused on getting our medicines and vaccines to the underserved, especially those in low and middle income countries, in a sustainable way. Faster. Broader. Better.?

I know it won’t be easy, but nothing worth doing ever is! And I am humbled to have the trust and ambitious vision of Rob and his incredible leadership team, especially Joe Romanelli to help our company deliver even better on George W Merck’s vision than we have in the past. This is part of our DNA at MSD and I know that there are many inside and outside of the company that have true commitment to the cause. I am super excited to work with and learn from them to deliver on the second part of his quote that sometimes we forget. Watch this space and hold me accountable.

And remember, be careful what you wish for! You might just find you also work for an employer that knows how to find the sweet spot in the venn diagram below. Thank you Carl Segerstrom

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