PC: You participated in a roundtable surrounding women in trade. What were the key takeaways from that discussion?
Arthurs: It was interesting to me that the people in the room had similar experiences. What they liked the most about their trade roles was that they were challenging, they learn something new every day, and the importance of the trade role in the organization as a whole. They commented on that, and those were some of the key takeaways.
The other one was mentorship. We had four pillars as part of this exercise. One was networking, one was mentorship, one was allyship, and one was executive education. Every table ended up talking a little bit about mentorship and how important it is to find a strong mentor, whether it’s female or male, to help you grow in your career.
PC: How can women in the pharma trade industry continue to empower future leaders in this space?
Arthurs: I think it comes down to three C’s, communication, collaboration and commitment. Helping the younger generation or new individuals in this field by communicating with them, collaborating with them on some things that they might need to do or want to do to help their career, but also be committed to helping them.
I’ll get back to the mentorship. Depending on who you find as a mentor, that could make your career. You need to find someone that’s willing to go that extra mile for you, and I saw a lot of that yesterday. It was really interesting to see how quickly, how many people started sharing contact information and really wanted to help one another in any capacity that they could. At the end of the day, I think that’s what it’s about, just helping somebody else.