Looking Back, Again – Reflecting on My Term as Boston Area Chapter President & Welcoming the New Board

Serving this past year as the Boston Area Chapter President was both a great pleasure and a humbling experience. I had the unique opportunity of formerly serving as President of the New England Chapter and initiating the process of merging the Chapters into the current Boston Area Chapter. Therefore, beyond the task of leading the largest ISPE Chapter and sustaining the Boston Area Chapter’s brand as an acknowledged Chapter of excellence, this year was an extraordinary one for me as I was able to participate in overseeing an amazingly committed group of energized volunteers who work tenaciously to bring value to our membership and to our industry.

It is long recognized that our biopharma industries’ number one priority is “Trained Human Capital.” Our ISPE organization has long been fundamental in attracting talent to our industry and supporting the industries’ work force with education and training, career building and resources, as well as developing the network of resources to achieve our objectives.

The Boston Area Chapter, as illustrated by some rough numbers: 1,600 members spread over 80,000 square miles in seven states with 175 dedicated volunteers and a dozen committees producing a myriad of events each year from educational programs, to social networking, to our flagship Product Show at Gillette Stadium with over 3,300 attendees and 425 exhibiting companies. A significant achievement by our Chapter was the culmination of the long legacy of supporting scholarship, by creating a Scholarship Foundation, a separate, tax-advantaged charitable entity to best assure this key membership benefit supports new trained talent for our industry.

Add to these Chapter staples, new initiatives including a robust mentoring program, Women in Pharma (WIP), a new Spring Conference and a re-energized Industry Advisory Council, and it’s easy to see why our Chapter is among the best of the best.

To be associated with this success and the dedication of so many innovative, generous volunteers is, as I previously stated, “a great pleasure and humbling experience.” To have been its leader is a noteworthy highlight and I am eager to continue to apply my efforts to support ISPE in future roles and endeavors.

There are others who will also be transitioning their roles from participating as part of our Board of Directors. Such service deserves recognition both for its results and for the hundreds of committed hours it represents:

• Past President Jack Campion, for serving on the board since 2012 and providing the Chapter with his wisdom and expertise in a variety of roles since the 1990’s.
• Jan Vanselow, for serving on the board from 2017-2019, and functioning as the Membership Committee Liaison, as well as volunteering on the Student Development Committee and Mentoring Program.
• Chris Blackwell, for serving on the board from 2017-2019, and functioning as Chair and then Liaison for the GO Committee.

To all our departing board members – thank you on behalf of the membership. I hope to see you at an event soon!

The challenges of bringing value to our membership are on-going. The ability to innovate and continuously adapt in order to remain relevant as our industry evolves is enhanced with the addition of new board members.  This year two new board members have joined the team, both of whom have been ardent contributors to the Chapter for several years. We look forward to their efforts and energy bringing new value to our Board of Directors:

• Caren Jenkins is the Marketing and Business Development Manager for B&V Testing/Certco a Cantel service. Caren has been involved in many different roles and committees including the Product Show, Communication Committee and has been instrumental in the success of our Women in Pharma (WIP) initiative.
• Katherine (Katie) Leitch currently serves as Director of Technical Services at Alexion. Katie is a co-founder and serves as Co-Chair for the Women in Pharma (WIP) initiative.

Finally I want to wish to congratulate the newly elected slate of officers for 2019-20:

• President Eric Felz – Associate Director, Validation at Takeda Pharmaceuticals
• Vice President Cory Siddons  –  Senior Director Manufacturing, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
• Treasurer Mike Levesque – Lead Validation Engineer at GE Healthcare
• Secretary Tom Struble  – Director of CQV Operations with DPS Group

On behalf of our Chapter membership, I extend a warm welcome to our new board, and thank board members for their commitment. Members can be confident that the Chapter is in good hands and can expect more great things in the year to come. Best of luck, colleagues! In my next role as Immediate Past President, I look forward to seeing you around the board table, and/or rolling up our sleeves together to develop new ideas for enhancing our value proposition or executing the on-going legacy of great events and programs.

I will wrap up by reinforcing the message that we invite you, our members, to consider volunteering your efforts and contributions to relentlessly support the growth of our ISPE Boston Area Chapter. Although I may risk presumption, I feel confident expressing the view that volunteering for ISPE offers a hefty return on the investment of efforts you extend to others, in terms of significant benefit from the experience provided to you. Volunteering is an opportunity to try new roles in a supportive environment where you can develop new relationships, learn new skills, and build confidence and knowledge relevant to our biopharm industry.

With warm regards,

 

 

 

Kevin M Chronley