Women still hold fewer than 10% of CEO roles in biotech. Yet some of the biggest breakthroughs in biopharma are being led by women who didn’t wait for that number to improve.

I recently hosted a Lift Up: Women in Life Sciences broadcast on this topic. Breaking the Glass Lab brought together three senior leaders with decades of combined experience across large pharma, clinical-stage biotech, and venture creation.

Tanya Bos is a Global Biopharma Executive and Former Founding Member of CHIEF UK with 25 years in life sciences. Emma Tinsley is CEO and Founder of Elevara Medicines and CEO of Weatherden, the company she built to tackle the 90% failure rate in clinical trials. Catherine J. Pearce, MBA, DHSc, is CEO and Founder of AllRock Bio and JucaBio LLC, a serial biotech founder whose last company sold to AstraZeneca for $1.8 billion.

Here are three valuable strategies from my conversation with Tanya, Emma, and Catherine that can help you navigate your own leadership journey in life sciences.

Strategy #1: When You Don’t Fit the Expected Profile, That Can Work in Your Favour

Pharma and biotech have long had fixed ideas about what a senior leader should look like. When women step into executive roles without ticking every expected box, they often face quiet scepticism from colleagues and investors alike. All three guests had experienced it, and all three came to a similar conclusion: not fitting the template can be an advantage if you stop trying to hide it.

Tanya experienced this after a company acquisition expanded her role to cover both commercial and research and development (R&D) functions. She heard the corridor whispers that she was “too commercial,” that she wasn’t a scientist, that she couldn’t manage an R&D budget. Rather than try to argue against those doubts, she focused on what she did bring to the role.

“My advice is to always be your authentic self,” she said. “Don’t try to be something you’re not, but know how to flex the muscles in front of the audience to get the most out of them at the right time.”

Catherine faced a different version of the same problem. She was building a biotech company in Ohio at a time when most venture capitalists assumed serious biotech only happened on the US coasts. Rather than apologise for her location, she made it part of her pitch. “Being underestimated… really does become your superpower,” she said. “Here’s an opportunity where no one else is going. That is the definition of innovation.”

Emma became CEO of a drug development company at 31 with no drug development background. She decided early on that she couldn’t control what others expected of her, but she could control what she delivered. “None of those perceptions that people come with have any bearing on whether or not I can do my job.”

In life sciences, where credentials and track record carry enormous weight, this mindset takes nerve. But as these three leaders show, it is possible to build real authority from an unexpected starting point.

Strategy #2: Your Results Will Do More Work Than Your Arguments

Many women in life sciences spend lot’s of energy trying to prove they belong before they have the chance to show what they can do. In pharma and biotech, where trust is built slowly and reputations take years to establish, that energy is often better spent on delivery.

Emma founded Weatherden on a challenging idea: that the 90% clinical trial failure rate wasn’t just a biology problem, but also a result of skills gaps, poor decision-making, and misaligned industry incentives. That was a confronting argument for people who had spent careers in drug development. She was 29 and had no drug development experience.

She decided not to spend her time defending the idea. She focused on proving it. “If you stop spending your energy on worrying about what other people think and focus on delivering the outcomes,” she said, “very quickly the results will quieten that noise.”

There was another benefit she hadn’t expected. Being open about what she didn’t know made her team feel safer to do the same. “With that vulnerability, the fascinating thing that came out is you get this psychological safety for other people to open up… and actually push on that collective mindset of truth seeking and curiosity and discovery.”

Catherine told a similar story from the fundraising side. When she was raising money for Xencor, she faced rejection after rejection from investors. She kept “…a running list of the nos .Now we’re 50 nos. 50 venture capitalists have turned me down. I’m going to go into 51.” Xencor later sold to AstraZeneca.

For women in pharmaceutical and biotech leadership, the takeaway is straightforward. Getting your work seen matters, but the most durable way to do it is through getting results.

Strategy #3: Change in Big Organisations Needs More Than One Champion

In large pharma and biotech companies, new ideas tend to face resistance. That resistance rarely collapses because one person believes strongly enough. The leaders who move the needle talk about the same approach: find people who share your view, bring them into the effort, and push together.

Tanya put this into practice while building an international pipeline organisation at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. There was no team, no operating model, and no blueprint when she started. She had expected it to take two years. It took longer and was harder than she had planned.

What helped wasn’t pushing harder on her own. It was building a group of senior leaders who all owned the same message. “The international leadership team held my hand on everything,” she said, “and we together delivered the same message over and over and over again.”

She noticed a shift when that coalition started to take hold. “When people then own part of the change, and they see themselves inside the change, and they realise that change isn’t about disruption, it’s about risk mitigation… it’s not about more investment, it’s greater patient value. Then you start getting momentum.”

Emma built Weatherden’s entire model around a team of people who shared the same mission: improving how clinical decisions are made and reducing the rate of trial failure. The collective belief was what gave the company the staying power to work across more than 250 drug development assets.

Catherine’s advice to anyone pushing a big idea is direct: “Be a rabid champion for your idea… accept failure, welcome failure and people telling you no.” But alongside that personal resilience, finding others who believe in what you’re doing is what turns a lone conviction into something an organisation can actually get behind.

Bringing It All Together

Tanya, Emma, and Catherine reached the top of life sciences leadership by different routes. But looking at their combined experiences, three clear strategies stand out: use being underestimated as an edge rather than a weakness, let your results speak louder than your arguments, and build a group of allies who can carry your vision alongside you.

These are not just lessons for individual careers. They also point to what life sciences organisations need to do differently: creating space for non-traditional leaders, backing ideas that challenge old assumptions, and finding the talent that will push the industry forward.

Want to hear more from Catherine, Tanya, and Emma? Listen to the full broadcast.