The pharmaceutical and biotech industries move fast. New technologies appear. Regulations change. Companies merge and reorganise.

In this environment, the leaders who get ahead are not always the ones who climb straight up the ladder. They are the ones who make smart moves at the right time.

I recently hosted a Lift Up: Women in Life Sciences broadcast with three senior leaders who have navigated their way to the top of pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Together, they have over 60 years of combined experience leading teams at global organisations.

Aditi Singh Ulvskjold is the Vice President for Global Marketing Urology at Ambu. Her career has taken her through major pharmaceutical companies, including Novo Nordisk and Leo Pharma, working across both pharma and medical devices.

Heather Moses is the Global Commercial Director for Oncology at AstraZeneca. She has worked internationally across multiple disease areas and has held medical affairs and commercial leadership roles at Roche, Novartis, and AstraZeneca.

Kelly Beck is the Chief Executive Officer at Trench Therapeutics. She started in HR leadership, moved into investor relations, and then made the leap to CEO of a biotech company.

What I found fascinating was how different their paths looked from traditional career advice. They did not just work hard and wait for promotions. They made specific moves that opened doors others did not see.

Here are three valuable insights from my conversation with Aditi, Heather, and Kelly that can help you navigate your own leadership journey in life sciences.

Strategy #1: Build Your Network Before You Need It

Successful life sciences leaders treat their professional network as a strategic tool, not just a social circle. They invest time in building relationships across different functions, companies, and disease areas long before they need to make a career move.

Kelly Beck demonstrated this throughout her career. When she wanted to make a move into investor relations, a role she had never done before, her network made it happen. “I learned very early to build that network. And for me, I really attribute my success as a person, as a career woman, to the network that I have”, she explained.

What made Kelly’s network powerful was not just its size but its diversity. She connected with people across different functions and at different career stages. When she decided to pursue the CEO role at Trench Therapeutics, she had mentors who could guide her through the transition.

Aditi Singh Ulvskjold agreed with this approach. When discussing career advice, she said “I completely endorse what Kelly is saying about network. That is absolutely critical.”

The key is starting early. Kelly emphasized this point: “I still think it’s important, no matter what stage of your career you are, to continue to build a very diverse network because you just never know who’s connected to whom and what kind of support that they can give you.”

In pharmaceutical and biotech companies where specialised knowledge matters, having the right connections can help you learn faster or find opportunities that never get posted publicly. The leaders who succeed do not wait until they need help to start building relationships.

Strategy #2: Take Sideways Steps to Move Forward Faster

The best career moves in life sciences often look like steps backward or sideways. Leaders who gain experience across different functions, disease areas, or geographic regions build skills that position them for senior executive roles later.

Heather Moses explained this perfectly. “Your career is a marathon, not a sprint. And if you’re running straight up, you’re going to hit a ceiling potentially,” she said. Her own path proved this. She moved between medical affairs and commercial roles, worked across oncology, cardiovascular, and multiple sclerosis, and relocated multiple times between Canada, the UK, and Switzerland.

Each move gave her new skills and perspectives. When she took lateral moves, she was not falling behind. She was building the broad experience that pharma companies seek in their senior leadership teams.

Kelly Beck’s career showed the same pattern. She did not start as a CEO. She moved from HR leadership into investor relations, a completely different function. “I had never done investor relations before in my life. And so I reached out my network and said, hey, how do I learn about investor relations?… And I had some wonderful mentors who just opened up their playbook and said, here’s what you need to do,” Kelly shared.

That sideways move into investor relations gave Kelly the financial skills and stakeholder management experience she needed to become a CEO. It looked risky at the time, but it positioned her for bigger opportunities.

Aditi Singh Ulvskjold’s career also moved across different areas. She worked in pharmacovigilance, life cycle management, business development, and marketing. She moved between pure pharma and medical devices. Each shift gave her new experiences and capabilities.

These lateral moves work because pharmaceutical and biotech companies need leaders who understand different perspectives. A commercial leader who has worked in medical affairs understands regulatory constraints better. A marketing executive who has worked in different therapeutic areas can spot patterns others miss.

Strategy #3: Make Decisions Based on What You Will Learn, Not What You Might Lose

Courageous career moves happen when leaders stop focusing on the risk of failure and start focusing on the cost of missed learning opportunities.

Aditi Singh Ulvskjold shared a powerful framework for making bold career decisions. When evaluating opportunities, she asks herself: “What is the upside and the downside?” She explained: ‘If I don’t do this I’ll miss out on that opportunity. For me it’s about what is the upside here. The risk here is to learn. I could be wildly successful and still learn. I could be failing and still [learn]”.

This approach frees you to take chances that build your capabilities, even when the outcome is uncertain.

Kelly Beck lived this principle when she decided to become CEO of Trench Therapeutics during the pandemic. She was leaving stable employment to join a startup that relied on grant funding. Many people would have seen this as too risky.

But Kelly focused on what she would learn and contribute. “At some point, I think this also comes with age and maturity. I think you get to a place where, like, that’s not as important to me as what am I contributing? Am I happy in what I’m doing?” she explained.

She had worked in a toxic culture before and learned that titles and compensation matter less than fulfillment. “I chose to leave and walk away from that because I knew that in the end, I was going to be happier,” Kelly said. That experience taught her to make decisions based on growth and purpose, not just safety.

Heather Moses also emphasised learning over knowing. She talked about how leaders do not need to have all the answers. Instead, they need to be “the seeker and the helper of a group to orientate, you know, and proceed around the goals.”

In pharmaceutical and biotech environments where innovation requires calculated risks, leaders who ask “What will I learn?” rather than “What if I fail?” create more opportunities for themselves and their teams.

Bringing It All Together

My conversation with Aditi, Heather, and Kelly revealed how strategic relationship building, lateral career moves, and learning-focused decision making create competitive advantages for life sciences leaders. By investing in your networks, gaining broad experience across functions and therapeutic areas, and making career choices based on growth rather than fear, you better align yourself for senior leadership positions.

As these three accomplished executives continue to shape the life sciences, their approaches show that power moves are not all about self-promotion or taking the obvious next step. They come from building relationships, gaining experiences, and having the courage to choose learning opportunities  over certainty.

The question I am left with is: which of these strategies will you use first to accelerate your own leadership journey in the life sciences? Whether you start by reaching out to someone new in your network, explore a lateral opportunity that expands your skills, or choose your next role based on learning potential, these approaches can transform the way you approach your life sciences career.

Want to hear more insights from Aditi Singh Ulvskjold, Heather Moses, and Kelly Beck? Listen to the broadcast.