Kristen Oeltjen-Bruns on Building Culture in a Fully Remote Agency

Kristen Oeltjen-Bruns on Building Culture in a Fully Remote Agency

In a fully remote organization, the hallway doesn't exist. Neither does the break room, the impromptu lunch, or the moment you sit next to someone new in a meeting. So how do you actually build a culture? Kristen Oeltjen-Bruns [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-oeltjen-bruns-bbaa88b] is the US President of Ashfield Medical Communications [https://ashfieldmedcomms.com/], where she leads a 160-person organization working across 20 to 30 client teams. With more than 25 years in medical communications, Kristen has held senior leadership roles at global organizations, where she's overseen large multidisciplinary teams and led organizational transformations. She's passionate about building organizations where teams feel seen, valued, and inspired. In this episode, Kristen joins Kristen to discuss what it really takes to build a strong culture in a fully remote agency.

Sara Zelkovic on Building Patient-Centric Communications Strategies

How can pharma companies build marketing and communications strategies that truly put patients first?  Sara Zelkovic [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-zelkovic-b012648] is a communications leader with more than a decade of experience supporting life sciences and biotech organizations through critical growth milestones. As Associate Director of Research and Development Communications at Astellas [https://www.astellas.com/en/], she leads global scientific communication strategy and drives engagement across the company's gene and cell therapy portfolios. In this episode, Sara joins Kristen to talk about what patient-centricity actually looks like in the day-to-day work of communications.

Eileen Habelow on Curiosity as a Superpower

The best leaders aren't the ones with all the answers. They're the ones still asking questions. Eileen Habelow, PhD [https://www.linkedin.com/in/eileenhabelow], is the CEO and founder of Leadership-Link [https://www.leadershiplink.com/] and co-founder of Know 2 Grow [https://www.know2grow.com/]. With over 30 years of experience improving the performance of people managers, teams, and leaders across more than 110 companies—most in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries—Eileen helps smart professionals build people expertise grounded in empirical research.  In this episode, Eileen joins Kristen to unpack why curiosity is a leadership superpower and how leaders can model it in the workplace.

Zach Randles-Friedman on Leaving the Corporate World to Podcast Full-Time

What happens when your side project starts feeling more like your real calling than your full-time job? Zach Randles-Friedman [https://everythingandanythingpodcast.com/#about] is a podcast host, content creator, and corporate communications professional with nearly 25 years of experience across banking, pharmaceuticals, and biotech. He's the voice behind two podcasts: Everything and Anything…and A Bit Gay [https://everythingandanythingpodcast.com/] and Listen Up Girl [https://open.spotify.com/show/2mhtRYXWuO7xaCmY9ukTvO].  In this episode, Zach joins Kristen to talk about his winding path from psychology major to digital pioneer in pharma, and his recent decision to leave the corporate world and go all-in on podcasting.

Stephanie Roberts on Why Communication Doesn't Always Translate Across Regions

Why does the same communication approach work in one region and fall flat in another? Stephanie Roberts [https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieeroberts] is the Chief Communications Officer at Hitachi [https://www.hitachi.com/en-us/], where she leads teams responsible for brand, public relations, digital and social media, executive communications, reputation and crisis communications, and internal communications across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific.  In this episode, Stephanie joins Kristen Sweeney to discuss how her experience living and working in Tokyo over the past four years has shaped her approach to communication.