The risk taker who jumped from Big Pharma - and never looked back

"We live and die by our results"

A willingness to take risks, resilience and a “can-do attitude” are the keys to success for the Johnian woman who became UK president of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca – then walked away to rescue a struggling biotech start-up.

In the latest episode of the new St John’s podcast Souvient, Lisa Anson explains the thrill of working for Redx Pharma, a small cancer drugs developer she joined after it went into administration and has rapidly turned around. “I love the decision making speed and the freedom and agility in a small company: we live and die by our results,” she tells College Master Heather Hancock. “And it's really exciting. In order to do that, I am relying on skills and judgments I've honed in multiple different situations.”

Her time at St John’s, where she studied Natural Sciences, helped prepare her for the challenges of her new role, Lisa says, arguing that today’s students need to take the time to try out a wide range of experiences, academic and otherwise, making mistakes as they go, to help them discover the interests that will build their career and future lives. She chose the College partly for its strong reputation in science, but also because it had only recently begun taking female undergraduates. “I like to take a risk. I'm not fazed by carving my own path. I never felt that being a woman has held me back in any way or form, and therefore it quite appealed to me to be one of the first women… This was going to be an exciting time for women in the College.”

Souvient is taken from Souvent me Souvient, the medieval French motto of St John’s College founder, Lady Margaret Beaufort, the matriarch of the Tudor dynasty. Souvent me Souvient, usually translated as ‘I often remember’, or ‘remember me often’ and is illustrated with little forget-me-not blue flowers.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.