Transitions

A farewell note and some words of gratitude to accompany my recent status update on LinkedIn. Aimed at all my former colleagues and collaborators, wherever your lives may have taken you.

Dear friends and colleagues,

After 6 wonderful years at Covance, it is my turn to say goodbye. As many of you know by now, I have decided to take an exciting new position outside the company. Starting on Monday, I will be assuming the role of CIO at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, responsible for their global IT and Informatics organization. This is a unique opportunity to join one of the most forward-thinking, innovative, and talent-rich companies in the world with an outsized impact on human health.

My experience at Covance is one that I will treasure for the rest of my life. There are so many people I want to thank that singling out particular individuals would be both impossible and unfair.

It is fitting to start with those who are no longer here but had the wisdom and the foresight to create this transformative group. It is easy to recognize the value of something once it has already taken shape; it is a completely different matter to envision what does not exist and assemble the team who can make it real. I am grateful to Covance's original executive leadership for recruiting me and our team into the company, embracing our unique way of working, and giving us the freedom and resources to implement our vision.

I am equally grateful to Covance's and LabCorp's current executive team for their continued support of Xcellerate and Informatics. We have built something truly remarkable here, but like most innovations of this kind, one cannot fully harness its power unless they are willing to re-imagine the way they work. I hope you will continue to fuel the innovation and the spirit that brought us to this point and further drive the adoption and dissemination of this disruptive technology, passing the benefits on to our clients and, by extension, to the millions of patients around the world who depend on our work to bring comfort and hope in their lives. Your sense of urgency must remain unrelenting. For many people, our efficiency and effectiveness is a matter of life and death.

To the wonderful Covance family, I am grateful for your partnership, your generosity, your receptivity to our ideas and your willingness to offer yours in return. You are some of the most thoughtful, dedicated, and hard-working professionals I have ever met, always willing to lend a helping hand and sacrifice your personal time to deliver on our client commitments. That spirit needs to be treasured, celebrated, and rewarded.

To our clients who are not copied on this email, their support and collaborative attitude has been a source of immeasurable inspiration and motivation to my team and to me personally. More than customers and collaborators, they have become trusted friends, and nothing would please me more than seeing our existing partnerships continue to thrive and new partnerships take root. I know they will not be disappointed.

Which brings me to my beloved, wonderful, amazing team. Words cannot express my gratitude for agreeing to join me in this improbable journey, and for your unparalleled talent, commitment, resilience, and customer focus. But above all, I am grateful for your team spirit and ethos. Watching you work with each other, support each other, and care for each other has been the most rewarding experience and the greatest gift you could have ever given me. Trusting me with your careers and your livelihoods has been a sobering responsibility and a humbling honor. I know I will never be able to repay the debt that I owe you. I just hope I have made a positive contribution to your lives.

One final thought before I leave you. Drug development is a tough, unforgiving business and sometimes it is easy to get discouraged and lose sight of what truly matters. Remember that what you do every day saves lives. Let that always be your compass and guiding light. Do not look for others to inspire you. Albert Camus once wrote, "Don't walk behind me, I may not lead; don't walk in front of me, I may not follow; just walk beside me and be my friend." Seek the inspiration within yourselves, find purpose in what you do, and help each other. Walk side by side and be each other's friends. And when things don't go your way, remember this: never make career decisions because you are running away from something, but because you are running towards something. Happiness and growth require patience and wisdom.

So, be patient, motivate yourselves, help each other, and stay in touch.

I have copied myself to my personal email at [email protected], where you can reach me from this moment on (as well as on LinkedIn, of course.) I would love to hear from you from time to time, and I sincerely hope our paths will cross again in the future.

With the most wonderful memories and deepest gratitude,

Dimitris