Histogen Founder Shares Career Advice for Women
Although women are making headway in life sciences leadership positions, according to the research company GMI, there are only 98 female chief executive officers out of 3,049 publicly traded life sciences companies, or about 3.2 percent.
Gail Naughton is one of those women. She is the former chief executive officer and founder of San Diego-based Histogen, and currently acts as the company’s chief scientific officer.
Since 2017, the company has what is called its Office of the CEO (OTC), which it describes as “a group of executives to lead the company through its next stages of success.”
The OTC is made up of Stephen Chang, the company’s board chairman, Martin Latterick and Stephen Hill. Cue jokes about how it takes three men to replace one woman.
Exceeding Her Own Expectations
Naughton grew up in Brooklyn, New York and indicates that she never expected to end up in business or have children. Yet, she ended up with a PhD in hematology, an MBA, and has successfully started up several companies, and also raised three now-adult children.
Naughton founded Advanced Tissue Sciences in 1986 and acted as its executive vice president through June 1991, and chief operating officer from June 1991 to 2000. Naughton was co-inventor of Advanced Tissue Sciences’ core technology.
She was also the dean of the College of Business Administration at San Diego State University from 2002 through 2011.
In 2007, Naughton founded Histogen and has been chief scientific officer since May 2017. She was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Histogen Aesthetics. She was the chairman and chief executive officer since June 2007, until the restructuring in 2017. She has also served as scientific advisor at Carmell Therapeutics.
In mid-2017, Histogen signed a deal with Allergan to market its proprietary multipotent cell conditioned media. The Multipotent Resignaling Complex (MRCx) within Regenica Advanced Rejuvenation System is a skin renewal product. Regenica was first developed by Histogen as a three-product line for anti-aging and post-resurfacing. It was licensed by Suneva Medical in 2012 and grew to the current Advanced Rejuvenation System of six products sold worldwide.
Offering Advice
When asked what advice she had for women in business, Naughton says, “Get to know women in powerful positions, make sure you have excellent oral and written communication skills, and learn how to negotiate and to think strategically.”
In other words, network. This can be at life science conferences, as well as through guest lectures. A networking and professional organization that women in the life sciences might consider joining is Women In Bio.
A high level of oral and written communication skills is a good thing to develop in life and for your career, anyway. If neither comes easily to you, consider taking business writing classes or seminars. Consider joining Toastmasters, which will provide coaching, training and opportunities for public speaking and developing your oral communication skills.
It’s also likely that most people think they do have good communication skills—even when they don’t. Career FAQs notes, “Having good communication skills in the workplace is all about being able to convey information to people clearly and simply, in a way that means things are understood and get done. It’s about transmitting and receiving messages clearly, and being able to read your audience. It means you can do things like give and understand instructions, learn new things, make requests, ask questions and convey information with ease.”
The Harvard Business Review offers four ways to improve strategic thinking skills. They are:
- Observe and seek trends. Part of this simply means to look up from what your own interests are and see what the bigger picture for your job and your company is. Understand why you’re doing what you’re doing and how it fits into larger trends.
- Ask tough questions. Learn more about those broader interests by asking questions.
- Sound strategic. This goes towards communication skills. HBR notes, “Strategic thinkers also know how to speak the language. They prioritize and sequence their thoughts. They structure their verbal and written communication in a way that helps their audience focus on their core message.”
- Make time to think and embrace conflict. It’s very easy to go from project to project, meeting to meeting, and back again, without understanding exactly why you’re doing all the things you do. HBR recommends setting time aside on your calendar to actually reflect on the issues and review options. In terms of embracing conflict, it might be more accurate to suggest embracing debate and inviting challenge—but don’t let it get personal, and continue to ask tough questions. Focus on issues, not people, and work with neutral peers to challenge your own thinking.
And finally, negotiating skills. It’s been said that all of life is a negotiation, but in the workplace, EC Sourcing Group notes five reasons negotiation skills are important. They include:
· A negotiation mindset is beneficial for everyone, clients and employees.
· Creates win-win situations. They aren’t about beating the opposition or getting your own way, but about creating situations where everyone walks away thinking they benefitted.
· Can improve your bottom line. As EC Sourcing Group states, “Ultimately, the goal of a negotiation is to get the best deal possible for you and your organization. In doing so, you are by definition improving your bottom line.”
· Make sure you can enter negotiations confidently. After all, confidence is an important aspect of negotiating.
· Build respect. EC Sourcing Group says, “The impression you leave after a negotiation can have a lasting impression, which can impact everything from future negotiations to your reputation in your industry.”