Working in pharmaceutical and biotech companies means adhering to strict rules and handling complex scientific work. The pressure is real because your work affects patients’ lives.

Getting into board-level roles takes more than technical skills. You need careful planning, real passion for the work, and a good understanding of how companies work.

I recently hosted a Lift Up: Women in Life Sciences broadcast about boardroom bravery. Three exceptional leaders joined me. Together, they bring over 90 years of experience in pharma, biotech, and venture capital.

Luba Greenwood is a three-time CEO. She spent years in pharma before running a venture fund for the Dana-Farber Institute. She has served on boards for many years. Her first for-profit board was a public company.

Michaela Griggs brings 30 years of experience in big pharma and healthcare. She has led prescription brands, biologics, and OTC products. Earlier this year, she retired from full-time executive roles to focus on board work. She now serves as fractional CEO at Ansela Therapeutics. She also sits on multiple women’s health boards.

Abbie Celniker is a partner at Third Rock Ventures. She started as a molecular biologist at Genentech in the early 1980s. She worked her way from batch scientist to business leader. She served as CEO of multiple biotech companies before joining Third Rock nine years ago.

These women shared ideas that change how we think about board-level leadership in life sciences. They took different career paths but reached the same conclusion. Board success takes careful planning, real motivation, and building the right skills.

Here are three valuable strategies unearthed from my conversation with Luba, Michaela, and Abbie. These can help you on your own path to board leadership in life sciences.

Strategy #1: Choose Board Opportunities Based on Passion, Not Status

The best board members join organisations they really care about. This real connection makes hard times easier. It also helps you add real value when tough decisions come up.

Luba Greenwood explained how passion shapes better board choices. “I think you would do yourself a favour, and the company a favour, by picking a board that you’re passionate about, where you love the company, the team, the product, or the science. You love what the company is doing and the purpose.”

This approach helps you manage the risks that come with board work. When you care about the mission, you focus on helping the company succeed. You stop worrying so much about protecting your reputation. “Everything we do comes with risk,” Luba noted.  “When you’re a board member, you have to be number one thinking about the risk to the shareholders, the risk to the company.”

Abbie Celniker agreed. In her experience interviewing potential board members, too many candidates struggle with a simple question. When asked why they want to be on the board, “…not just a board, but this board, people don’t have an answer,” she explained. “So I think that you need to have a real passion.”

In the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, scientific problems occur regularly. Board members who join for status alone often stop caring when problems show up. Leaders who really care about the science, the patients, or the new ideas stay committed through hard times. They give meaningful guidance.

Strategy #2: Build Big-Picture Thinking Through Different Experiences

Board members need to understand how the entire business works. They can’t just know one department. This wide view comes from seeking roles that stretch beyond your main expertise.

Abbie Celniker described this as moving beyond the usual career ladder. “Enterprise-wide thinking is really important, even when somebody is brought on to a board with a specific domain expertise,” she said. “All of the questions that the board is confronting are about the whole company. It’s about the strategic decisions that have to be made.”

She explained how this broad knowledge develops. “When somebody has been part of an organisation where they had seen how all the pieces click together and where things can work and where things can fail, that is very valuable brought to the board.”

Beyond understanding how departments connect, Abbie highlighted another crucial element: exposure to deals. “If you’re in a biotech board, having exposure to deals is really critical because almost every biotech board gets confronted with, should we do this deal or should we not?” she explained. “It can be a tiny deal to license something in. It could be a huge deal.”

The third element Abbie stressed was decision-making experience. “I think it’s very difficult for somebody who has never had real decision-making autonomy, and that they have this sort of pattern recognition for how a decision gets made. It’s very hard for them to contribute to the ultimate functionality of a board if they don’t have a lot of experience making decisions.”

In pharmaceutical and biotech companies, boards regularly face complex choices. Members who only know one function struggle to add much value. Leaders who have seen multiple parts of an organisation and made big decisions bring valuable perspectives.

Strategy #3: Map Your Board Journey 5-10 Years Before You Need It

The most prepared board members start building skills, networks, and experience years before they pursue their first board role. This long-term approach gives you time to develop the skills that boards need.

Michaela Griggs stressed the importance of this planning.  “I actually love this question because I think 5-10 year horizon is really important when you think about it,” she said. “Building your network is really important…, and things like this platform [Lift Up], I wish that when I was starting out, I had a platform like this that I could tap into and listen to people that had the experience rather than just muddling through myself.”

She outlined the practical steps this planning involves. “You’re trying to get experience that you think is translatable to that board based on what you’ve heard,” Michaela explained. “Putting a 5-10 year map out there of what experience, who do I need to talk to, and what skills do I need is critically important because it doesn’t come overnight.”

Abbie Celniker added, “Build your network, talk to people, figure out what people like and don’t like about being on boards, and try to understand why you’re motivated to be on a board,” she advised. “Because it is a lot of work.”

She warned that unclear motivation becomes obvious when people try to join boards. When candidates cannot explain why they want to serve on a specific board, it shows they have not thought it through enough. This means they’re unlikely to be effective members.

In life sciences companies, regulatory expertise takes years to develop. Understanding clinical development needs hands-on experience. Handling investor relationships takes good judgment.  Leaders who map their journey early can spot skill gaps. They build the right networks. They position themselves as strong candidates when opportunities show up.

Bringing It All Together

My conversation with Luba, Michaela, and Abbie showed that board-level leadership in life sciences takes more than ambition. Choose opportunities based on passion, not status. Build big-picture thinking through different roles. Map your board journey years in advance. When you do these things, you position yourself to make real contributions at the highest levels of pharmaceutical, biotech, and medtech organisations.

As these three accomplished executives continue shaping life sciences companies around the world, their approaches show what works. Board success comes from careful preparation, real motivation, and building the right skills. The leaders who do well in boardrooms are those who plan carefully, contribute broadly, and care deeply about the missions they serve.

Finding the right board-level talent who demonstrates these qualities remains important for life sciences organisations. These organisations face complex scientific, regulatory, and commercial challenges. These strategies help aspiring board members prepare well. They also help companies spot leaders ready for governance responsibilities.

Want to hear more insights from Luba Greenwood, Michaela Griggs, and Abbie Celniker? Listen to the full broadcast.