Although biotechnology is largely a male-dominated field, Bonnie H. Anderson has made her mark. In 2011, her company, Veracyte Inc., booked $2.6 million in revenue, growing that to more than $21 million in 2013. Also last year, she was one of only two female CEOs who took their companies public.
“There’s a small handful of companies in our industry to do IPOs, so I think it was a little unique,” she says. “At my side was our CFO who also happens to be a woman. We probably made a rare pair on Wall Street as we went through that process.”
Strides being made
Although women have made great advancements in recent years in the corporate world, only about 5 percent actually hold CEO positions, a figure that’s even lower in biotechnology.
Anderson says that most CEOs, investors and bankers are men, so the style of leadership, motivation and nurturing of trust and culture in a company are done differently by males and females. She says the more women are put into these roles to create the different environments and styles, the more people will become comfortable with it.
“I have many men at the top of my organization who have flourished under my leadership, along with women,” she says. “It’s going to take some time, but it’s very encouraging.”
Women are launching businesses about twice as fast as men, but even so, there are still strides to be made in male-dominated fields such as biotechnology. Anderson, president and CEO of Veracyte, a South San Francisco-based molecular diagnostics company that is pioneering the field of molecular cytology, is one of a growing number of females making inroads in the biotechnology field.
Founded in 2008, Veracyte launched its first product, Afirma, three years later. Afirma uses a genomic test that helps resolve thyroid needle aspiration results, enabling many patients to avoid having their thyroids removed unnecessarily. The company’s goal is to improve patient care and lower health care costs by reducing diagnostic ambiguity before surgery is needed. The results to date have been outstanding considering that about 10,000 patients have been saved from having thyroids removed unnecessarily while saving about $150 million for the health care system.
Journey to the top
Establishing herself in biotechnology didn’t just happen. Anderson worked hard for it. After training as a medical technologist, she made her way into various leadership roles that armed her with not only the knowledge of clinical diagnostic testing, but patient level understanding as well. She also spent 18 years in management jobs at Beckman Coulter, a biomedical laboratory, partly as vice president of the company’s intrapreneurial program, Immunomics Operations.
“In some ways, it’s been easy to take on every new job I could and really focus on that job as well as I could, and I think that opens other opportunities,” she says. “I was an opportunistic career developer. I took many positions that were lateral moves to try out a new business segment or a new technology area that I had not been familiar with, and I think that opportunistic approach allows you to really move, grow and develop in ways that are essential beyond just moving up the ladder.”
Currently, about 60 percent of Veracyte’s employees are women, and more than 35 percent are minorities. The company’s IPO team was also made up mostly of females. Anderson says climbing to the top of the corporate ladder is getting easier for women, especially in the biotechnology field.
“We still really do live in a male-dominated leadership part of our industry in general,” Anderson says. “Most boards are men as are most directors of companies. It’s a challenge to find women with experience as directors who can also bring the industry knowledge and experience that you need.
Advice for tomorrow’s leaders
Women today are still fighting many obstacles on their climb up the corporate ladder, from having family and work priorities clash to simply not having the proper role models to guide the way. In life sciences, however, that view seems to be changing.
“I think there is a cultural shift, and it’s happened over the decades,” Anderson says. “I think the people we have to thank for the opportunities we have today are the women who really carried the flag on women’s rights and all those things decades ago.
“It started when women began to be educated. Education is the foundation of many roles we talk about to be able to move up. As we go forward, it will become a natural part of the way we work and what our work environment looks like.”
Anderson also believes that role models play a large role in helping women reach their full career potential.
“I didn’t have a ton of female mentors, but I did have one female mentor who was very supportive and very instrumental in me sitting in the CEO seat today,” she says “I also had many male mentors.
“Mentorships can be casual or purposeful, but finding people in whom you have trust and who can really help you grow in confidence and develop as an individual as well as professionally, is really important.”
Anderson added that finding ways to secure both female and male mentors can help give women feedback from both views.
“We live in a world that has both perspectives, and it isn’t always about you being a woman or not in terms of succeeding, but I think as women we have to definitely seek the mentoring and honest feedback that can help us grow and be comfortable in our own shoes.”
How to reach: Veracyte Inc., (888) 923-4762 or www.veracyte.com
To learn more about Veracyte Inc., follow on Twitter @veracyte.
