Key Takeaways

• Discover how a give-to-gain mindset, investing in others without expectation of return, generates authentic professional relationships and long-term career momentum in life sciences.
• Learn why sponsorship drives faster career progression than mentorship: a mentor shares wisdom, but a sponsor puts their name and reputation behind you in rooms you are not in.
• Explore how senior leaders advocated for emerging talent at high-stakes moments, including Cam’s experience of leading a team at 26 and Soteropoulos’s pivot from engineering into a business unit through a sponsor’s direct intervention.
• Identify why women in life sciences accumulate mentors but fewer sponsors, and gain strategies for becoming visible to senior leaders through stretch projects, cross-functional exposure, and deliberate networking.
• Apply Soteropoulos’s approach to advocacy: identify one person this week and actively recommend, introduce, or elevate them within your network.
• Gain Cam’s perspective on self-care as a leadership foundation: filling your own cup first ensures that giving to others does not diminish you.

Snippets

• “Get very clear on who you are, what you stand for, what you value, and pursue it relentlessly because everything else is noise and it should be treated as such.” (2026, Jessica Wagner Keliher)

• “The giving…is the most meaningful part of my career, really investing in others, building those trust based relationships, those compound over time.” (2026, Paula Soteropoulos)

• “I had to accept, I don’t know. And it was not easy to accept that I didn’t know because I thought I had to know everything. I had to have all the answers. But that helped me early on, that it’s okay that I don’t have everything figured out.” (2026, Ayse Cam)

Timestamps & Topics

• 00:00 — Intro: Lift Up mission, International Women’s Day context, give-to-gain theme, and panel introductions
• 14:37 — Guest Introductions: Ayse Cam, Jessica Wagner Keliher, and Paula Soteropoulos
• 19:08 — What Give to Gain Means: How the principle shapes each guest’s career and leadership philosophy
• 24:43 — Pivotal Moments: How sponsorship changed the trajectory of each guest’s career
• 31:15 — Mentorship vs. Sponsorship: Key differences and why sponsorship drives faster career progression
• 34:16 — Getting Sponsored: Becoming visible through stretch projects, cross-functional exposure, and stated intentions
• 41:39 — Women Supporting Women: Why intentional support remains critical to closing the gender gap in life sciences
• 50:54 — One Action This Week: A single practical step to live the give-to-gain mindset immediately
• 54:04 — Advice to the Next Generation: Authenticity, self-advocacy, and sustaining the energy to give

Resources

• Follow Ayse Cam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aysecam1/
• Follow Paula Soteropoulos on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulasoteropoulos/
• Follow Jessica Wagner Keliher on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicakeliher/
• Follow Louise Williams on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/executivesearchretainedstaffingtalentsolutionsmanagingdirector/
• Join Lift Up: https://fraserdove.com/lift-up-women-life-sciences/
• Follow Lift Up on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/lift-up-women-in-life-sciences/

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Feedback?

Have questions or feedback about the broadcast or want to feature as a guest? Email us at hello@liftup.fraserdove.com