The Multidimensional Role of a Pharma CFO

Megan - 00:00:18: Today, my guest is Sharon Barber-Lui. Sharon has served in diverse executive roles in bio-pharma, biotech, and public accounting companies over the past 20 years, including commercialization, finance, and operations. Since June 2022, she has served as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of North America for Teva Pharmaceuticals, where she manages $8 billion in annual revenue and oversees a team of 180. Prior to joining Teva Pharmaceuticals, Sharon served as Senior Vice President Global Finance at EQRx, a biotechnology company out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 2022 to June 2022, where she implemented financial and accounting systems, processes, tools, and controls. Additionally, Sharon served as the Board of Directors Audit Committee Lead, oversaw a budget of $250 million and increased monthly earnings on cash from $100,000 to $5 million per month. Sharon laid the foundation for her career in a variety of roles during her long tenure at Merck, from 2000 to 2022, serving as head of US Oncology Portfolio Strategy, Operations, and Business Analytics from 2019 to 2022. From 2014 to 2018, Sharon served as Chief Financial Officer, US Oncology for Merck's US Oncology business, which grew from $50 million in 2014 to $5 billion in 2018. Sharon began her career as an accountant for KPMG, received her bachelor's and MBA from Lehigh University, and is a board member, the Audit Committee Chairman, and Transaction Committee Member at PureTech Health PLC. Sharon, thank you very much for being my guest on today's episode of CFO Weekly.

Sharon - 00:02:39: Thanks, Megan. It's wonderful to be here with you today.

Megan - 00:02:42: Yeah, today we're going to be discussing the multifaceted role of the CFO and the need for the CFO to connect with all aspects of the business. We'll also be talking a little bit about the importance of diversity, inclusion, and innovation. And I'm looking forward to learning about you and from you and your experiences. So let's jump right in.

Sharon - 00:03:03: Sounds great.

Megan - 00:03:04: So first and as always, your career path demonstrates an impressive journey through diverse leadership positions within the pharmaceutical industry. So can you just start off by giving us a little bit of an overview of your career and share a pivotal moment or experience within that career that significantly influenced your journey.

Sharon - 00:03:27: Sure. So I'll start with Megan. I have been very humbled with my career opportunities that I've had over the many years. I spent over 20 years in the biopharmaceutical industry, in life sciences, because I've been very attracted as well as motivated by the mission within the industry to help more patients. So even as a finance professional, that is very motivating on a daily basis to see how we as the finance community and profession can continue to help businesses succeed and especially in the pharmaceutical industry. A little bit about myself, I did have a pivotal moment in my career that really made me think about what I wanted to do in the future. And that happened when I was approached to be leading the finance organization. At the time, it was Merck, great, fantastic company that I spent over 20 years at in 10 different roles. That pivot for me or that motivation came from leading the oncology division from the finance side. What a great opportunity to be part of changing the history for patient care, but also help support that for the finance organization and transforming the business. So I was asked to come into that role, lead it, and I saw quickly how a finance organization, can partner very closely, both operationally, strategically, and a change agent for the organization to think differently. So for me, that was a key part of my career and changed my thinking of how finance can really support the business transformation. And along the way, I had great mentors and coaches, and that helped to shape me of who I am today.

Megan - 00:05:28: So did you always know that you wanted to work within the pharmaceutical space, or was that, did you just happen to fall into that space right out of school and that's where you found your passion?

Sharon - 00:05:40: Well, I started my career in public accounting after Lehigh University. So I attended Lehigh University as an undergrad and then went into what I would say is a very traditional approach of public accounting and worked at KPMG. Again, fantastic company, great experience. But after four years, I was seeking more to be connected with the mission of a company. And I looked at other industries and I was instantaneously drawn to life sciences, probably because of the innovation mindset. Life science industries and pharmaceutical space is really driven. The engine is from a research and development in developing new drugs and therapies into the market. And so I was very much attracted to that.

Megan - 00:06:28: And what personal values or principles do you prioritize in your role as a CFO? And how do these values guide your decision making and leadership style within the organization?

Sharon - 00:06:40: I think a key part of the success that I have in my life is the ability to have a very supportive family. So personally speaking, I have an incredibly supportive husband and three beautiful children. They make my life very well rounded. And I really try to prioritize not just being professional, but also being there in their lives. One of the ways I do that is... I can think about this from kind of an analogy of the Swiss Army knife. So if you think about the Swiss Army knife, it's very versatile. There's a lot of options and tools that you can have at your fingertips. And I try to equate that to my life in both personal and professional that I have lots of tools at my fingertips, but I can only really use one at a time. So whether that's being a mother or a wife or being a CFO within the company, I try to leverage all those different tools. But the key part is being present and using that specific tool for that moment to be successful. So the versatility, the agility is really what guides my personal values of how to prioritize my life in general, professionally and personally speaking.

Megan - 00:07:57: Yeah, I love that. I've always found it myself to be very difficult to multitask. And when I'm trying to be all things to all people, very bad at all of it.

Sharon - 00:08:08: I think we all have tried that approach and realized pretty quickly that trying to multitask, it look certainly, you know, sometimes we all have to multitask and we can try to do all things well or try to do some things extremely well. And I think the older I've gotten, I've said, well, how do I do things extremely well, not just well?

Megan - 00:08:31: And you've held various roles within finance, operations, and commercialization across both large corporations and emerging companies. So how has this diverse background shaped your perspective on the nature of being a multifaceted CFO? And how can you balance traditional financial responsibilities with the broader strategic and operational aspects?

Sharon - 00:08:58: I built my career on the theme of learning. So when I think about how that shaped me in my career and in the different roles that I've held, I've always tried to take on new areas, whether that is, you know, financial planning and analysis or treasury or understanding the international space and regulatory environment. I thought for myself, it's really important. And did I know I wanted to be a CFO one day? Perhaps, perhaps. But in the back of my mind, I was more attracted to learning and that continuous learning mindset, which was important for me. Because I saw that the pace of change in industry, whether it's pharmaceutical or otherwise, was going to be really important in how I think about reinventing my skills. And the way to do that was to make sure that I was well-rounded. So often, you know, I get questions from my own team. How did I build my career? I built my career by taking on things that were tough, things that not necessarily came naturally to me, that I needed to spend time learning. Because those challenges helped me to become more resilient and realize that I didn't know everything, that I needed to learn it. And continuous learning was a very important aspect of that.

Megan - 00:10:19: I'm curious, when you're hiring for your own team, do you try to make sure that's a common thread across your team, the continuous learning aspect?

Sharon - 00:10:30: Yes. So a theme, the way I say that is, is someone complacent? Are they always looking for how to become more innovative? And I think that's a mindset. It's not necessarily just a learn quality, it's a mindset. And so when I hire individuals, I'm looking at what is their mindset? Are they thinking about that they're not satisfied and that they always want to push the envelope and make things more efficient, more streamlined, better productive design? And so for me, that's a really critical skill set is that, and I think it's wrapped up into the mindset for always thinking how to do things better and being creative. It's interesting because as finance and accounting professionals, I think we often are stereotyped as not being creative. And I'd like to challenge that status quo. I think finance and accounting professionals are very creative and can do things in a non-traditional way to help the enterprise achieve its goal. I'll give you an example of this. So about 10 years ago, I was asked to take on a role that was very deep and heavy and transactional skills. For a particular area, was treasury operations. And at the time when I took on that role, things had not really changed for many years in the way that the tasks or responsibilities had been done. And I was asked to come in and transform that area. And I was told by many people, look, Sharon, you probably, you know, you'll look there, but there really isn't much to change. It's things are kind of set the way they are. And by the way, they work and they're compliant with the organization. So perhaps that gave me the challenge. And I said, okay, now this is a challenge. I got to figure out how we can do things better or more efficient. And that turned out to be the most one I had in one of the jobs that I had. So it's really the mindset. And I had instilled within the entire team that this was the expectation and that I modeled it. That's another key part is modeling that behavior.

Megan - 00:12:41: And if I look at the role of CFO, it's obviously evolved tremendously over the last 20 years, whereas 20 years ago, it was more about financial stewardship. Today, it's more about being a strategic partner to the business, driving growth and innovation. So how do you navigate this evolution? And what strategies do you employ to ensure that the financial decisions that you're making are aligned with the broader organizational goals?

Sharon - 00:13:14: Megan, I think you're touching upon a really important question, and that is, how are we as finance professionals evolving with the needs of the business? This is really critical. And for me, the key part of the CFO or other finance individuals in the organization is that we need to understand the business. We need to sit along with our business individuals and partners and understand who are our customers? What are our business opportunities or challenges, perhaps? How is the competitive landscape changing? What new products are going to be introduced? These are really critical because if we don't understand, if we as finance individuals and professionals don't understand the business, we are not unlocking the true potential of helping and support the business goals. And one term that I like to use is finance is the business within the business. We have a really unique aspect that we can be able as finance individuals to not only just understand what's happening in the business and the landscape and with our customers, but also bringing that back to what does it mean to our company and to our shareholders, to our investors? And that connectivity is really, really critical for the role of the CFO and how it's evolving.

Megan - 00:14:41: And you just touched on this a bit, but the ability for financial professionals to connect with every aspect of the business is crucial. So can you share some examples of how you've effectively bridged the gap between finance and other functions and how that's driven collaboration and achieved organizational objectives?

Sharon - 00:15:04: Sure, I can give you an example. And I think one important example is in the space of business development. Many companies are often looking at companies to either acquire or partner with or merge with. So in the space of business development, finance is often brought in to help provide the financial analysis. There might be the ROI or the NPV, and there's the traditional finance metrics that are used. But if we step back and think about that a little bit deeper, finance can be the connection and bring forward, why are we doing this deal? If it may not make sense necessarily economically or financially, but there might be a real strategic reason or from the future of the evolution of the business and how it might, where we want to be, that's a really key aspect. So I think finance can work across the organization especially as an example that I've seen in business development, where it doesn't always come down to the financials. Of course, that certainly helps and that's important and that's a key part of the decision-making, but there are other factors to consider. And it could be very aligned to the strategy of the company or where the company wants to be in five years from now. And so there are choices that are made from a business development perspective to get there. So, you know, for me, if, from that lens, I think finance can really be, again, the theme I say is the connective tissue across the organization and help across the organization understand why are we doing this? And that's a key aspect.

Megan - 00:16:45: And I'm curious, do you have advice for CFO or maybe someone who aspires to someday be a CFO, but how, and they're looking for maybe making a change or going to a new company, how do you, you go about learning the business?

Sharon - 00:17:04: Great question. So for me, like learning the business, I mean, I don't want to sound kind of simple, but it starts with looking at some of the tools and information at our fingertips. So looking at if it's a public company, look at the SEC filings, look at the financials. There's often discussion in the financials that are filed about the business, the state of the business, and what risks or opportunities exist. In addition, looking at competitive intelligence. And today, there is immense amount of information out there on the internet to understand more about companies, understanding about the business, the customer set, where a company might be headed, the science behind it. It does take motivation and drive individually to do that. So that's one aspect. That's more individualized kind of, you know, getting understanding of the company. The other is sitting across the functions, individuals and leaders taking time to do that. Something I often do when I start in a company or in a new role is I like to attend meetings that are not the traditional finance meetings that you would expect, like not the typical budget discussion or, you know, month-end processes, but more about what's happening with our customers, what is happening with, you know, new capabilities that the company is building, and unrelated necessarily to finance. For me, those are the greatest learning opportunities. And, you know, you can walk away with kind of new ideas, and those are very formative. So for me, I always recommend to my team try to, yes, it has to be motivated by the individual to do it. But that intellectual curiosity to want to learn more and ask the right questions, and not for the fear of asking kind of maybe not the best questions, but learning. So those are always, those are some tips that I give to my team on how to learn more about the business and to be there. Once you have that deeper understanding of the business and can provide ideas, now this is the key. This is like that continuum of the finance professional. Once there is that solid understanding of the business, and then a finance professional can give ideas and partner with business stakeholders, that's when the business or stakeholders can see the value of finance professionals and want to bring them in more. That's the true test that an individual is beyond just the numbers.

Megan - 00:19:50: Yeah, that's great advice. Thank you. It was a wonderful answer. So let's switch gears a bit and talk about technology and data analytics. So, I mean, technology has come a long, long way in the last decade or so. But the finance function is increasingly relying on data-driven insights to inform decision making. So how have you integrated technology and analytics into your role as CFO?

Sharon - 00:20:20: Well, I think what data and analytics provide, data-driven insights and analytics provide, is the speed and to inform better decision-making. In the past, and I think if you go back again many years ago, we didn't have all this data at our fingertips. Now we have an immense amount of data as well as technology that can help us streamline it and become more efficient and even analyze it. I'm very excited with technology and analytics. But it can also be very daunting, meaning where do you start and how do you use it? And are you using it in the right way or for the sake of saying we're using data and analytics? I mean, I often see organizations say data and analytics because it's the buzzword, AI, generative AI, and other different approaches. But it's not really necessarily the technology, but it's what are we trying to solve for? And that's critical. So to integrate technology and analytics into our role, the key part for me is where can it solve a problem or a challenge that we're having? So framing that use case, if you will, where are we trying to solve something better is really important. So I encourage my team and others, before you start to say we need to do data and analytics, what are we trying to solve for and how will it help us? And then let's evaluate what are the technology or tools or analytics that can help support us? Because often two times you might get enamored with the technology or AI and it may not really solve the issue and we wind up spending a lot of time, effort and money.

Megan - 00:22:05: And let's talk about diversity and inclusion. But obviously, these two things have become integral components of fostering innovation and driving business success. So how do you personally promote diversity within your own teams and what initiatives have you implemented to ensure that diverse perspectives are valued and integrated into the financial making decision process?

Sharon - 00:22:32: Again, a really important topic about diversity and inclusion. I think often we'll say it as diversity of thought. When you have people around the table, you know, five people around the table and everyone thinks the same, you're not really going to be innovating. You're just going to look to say, okay, let's do things maybe the same way or the way that we've been doing it. So diversity and inclusion really offers, and there's been studies that definitely have proven out that when you have a diverse workforce, a diverse board, a diverse organization, that our company looks like the patients or customers that we serve, that we're able to think through bringing them value. So that's been proven. Now, how do we do that? I think it takes a lot of time, effort, and attention. It doesn't just happen by accident. So if one day we're going to wake up and say, okay, we're a diverse and inclusive organization, that might not look good on paper, but it's really important that, and again, the key word I think is we need to model that behavior. So it starts with hiring the team, empowering the team, the way our team is structured. So that's a really key part of it. When I hire people for roles, and I'm really obsessed with this, not just for the roles that I hire, but for my team, if they're hiring individuals is, how does the diversity of the candidate pool look? Do we have... Have we really stretched ourselves to look broader than just the traditional approach? And if I have an individual on my team come and say, okay, we've looked at, you know, let's say three or four candidates, I'll say, you know what? That may not be diverse enough. We need to think more. That might mean that we have to go back and spend more time in the recruiting process. But often what I have found when you do it with such a sense of obsession to make sure that we have the right people with the diversity. It really yields the best result because you bring together individuals that can ideate and innovate and challenge each other.

Megan - 00:24:37: And speaking of innovation, but how is it that you foster a culture of innovation within your own teams? And how do you make it a safe place for people to fail and get back up and keep trying? And how has this contributed to the overall success and competitiveness of your organization?

Sharon - 00:24:58: You know, within finance, it's quite interesting because we are very focused on delivering results. That's what we are. We're finance individuals. It's about what's that next deliverable? What is it that we need to produce? It's very tangible as a finance individual to know what we're achieving or what we need to achieve or what to do next, whether that's that budget or that monthly close process or that financial analysis that we need to deliver to the business. But when you step back from it, it's really important that within the finance organization, we have room to innovate. Because the innovation, like I said, in life sciences, life sciences industry is about innovation. And so that innovation doesn't just start and stop with research and development. It is across the entire organization, entire enterprise, which includes finance. So for my team, I really try to ensure that they understand that the innovation is not just in one part of our organization. It is across our entire enterprise and that we are all responsible and accountable to deliver success and competitiveness for the organization. So the expectation is, and I like to show this, like whether it's in my team meetings or in a broader discussion, highlight where we have had innovation, and where we've done things differently. So that demonstrating that and sharing that with others becomes a learning opportunity. Now, you mentioned like room to fail. I don't actually think about it as failing because it's really about learning. If we say we failed, it sounds negative. And certainly we're not happy when things fail or things don't go our way. But I will say that every one of those has become a learning opportunity. And it instills an entrepreneurial spirit. So if you think about entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs about if something didn't work, then we're going to try something else. And that entrepreneurial spirit is very important, even in finance, so that we keep doing things differently, whether that's a new system or a business process redesign or thinking through how we're going to tackle a challenge with maybe less time needed.

Megan - 00:27:19: And we touched on innovation. But let's talk about. Agility and adaptability, which are both crucial skills for innovation and for finance professionals today. How do you cultivate these qualities within your team and how do they enable you to respond effectively to market disruptions? I'm also curious to know if you find any generational differences between the ability to be agile and adaptable.

Sharon - 00:27:52: I think it's interesting. In fact, I don't know if it's generational, but I do think that the adaptability is important because when you're working towards excellence in an organization, the ability to be excellent is the ability to adapt. And that adaptability has proven that you cannot just stay with the status quo. Again, going back to what I mentioned earlier, never being complacent, being that critical thinker. These are important values and finance individuals possessing this is so important in the organization. So how do we do that within the industry to respond? One of the techniques, again, that I use is before we say we're going to change, because changing for the sake of changing is really not change. That's just... It's kind of words on a paper. But what we need to do to adapt is listen. And this is difficult, right? Because listening takes time. It takes energy to understand where are we going to adapt? Because, I mean, if you have an issue in front of you, you could go about it a number of different ways. So it's important that to respond to market disruption and changing regulatory environments by listening. So, but not doing it to the point where you're not moving and adapting. But listening first is important. So often, again, I would say to my teams, what have we heard? Let's make sure that we are all on the same page with what we heard. And then let's understand how will we prioritize our efforts to adapt. So then by setting that expectation, it's really important for a high performing team to be able to be able to respond. Now, we are aligned on what's the common goal or purpose and how we are going to tackle it? So that's the technique that I use for adapting to the change.

Megan - 00:29:58: And you're also a member of the board and audit committee chairperson at PureTech Health PLC, which gives you a unique perspective on governance and risk management. So how do you balance the need for risk management with the imperative to pursue opportunities and drive growth. Sometimes those can be at odds.

Sharon - 00:30:19: Yeah. So a little bit about PureTech. PureTech is Boston-based biotech, and it is listed on the London Stock Exchange, but it also operates in the U.S. So it has reporting and governance and risk management requirements, both for the UK and the US. So you got the dual country aspects, which you would often think they're the same, but not necessarily. They could be different, and they often are different. So I sit on the board to the audit committee. I'm the audit committee chair, as you mentioned. And then I also have the opportunity to be part of the transaction committee and look at different strategic options for PureTech and advise them on that. It's a wonderful aspect to have that balance because, of course, the governance considerations are important and what it means to investors. And the external environment. So we're often balancing the rules, the regulations, and in the environment that we're in, it's ever evolving. You know, how we operated last year may need to be different or need to adapt to new rules and regulations. So that's really important. And I would say, you know, as an audit committee chair, we've got to get that right, because having financial stewardship and ensuring the company's complying with those rules, that's critical. So that's one. Now, in terms of the strategic options or opportunities, yes, the company won't exist if these are not considered. Well, I wouldn't say they wouldn't exist, but maybe the company won't flourish to the extent that we'd all want. So it's really important to think through what is going to create value, shareholder value, market value. And in this case, for me, it's really important that I see all aspects and being on the board. So today I'm, you know, I have a full-time job and operating within that role of the CFO allows me the opportunity to bring some of that right into the boardroom. And because I'm doing it from both the, my current role and then having the ability to advise on it for PureTech.

Megan - 00:32:40: And I'm curious, do you have any advice for listeners who are interested in serving on a board? First of all, how do you go about getting on the board of a company and how do you make sure it's a good fit for the skill sets you have?

Sharon - 00:32:53: I think it's opportunistic on the boards. In this case, those that want to be on a board, I think it's important to talk to other board members and speak about what it means to be on the board because it is, it is important that individuals are going into it with the right mindset. What can you offer that particular board? So each board might be looking for different skill sets or experiences to help advise them. In my case, having been in the, you know, operational CFO role, it was very important to PureTech to have that experience. So my advice is, you know, one, you need to start to speak with individuals and network to think about what board opportunities may exist and learn about different career paths that individuals took to get them to serve on the board. Because board is about serving that company. And then thinking about what skills and experiences do I as an individual or the individual who's seeking this, what can they bring to that board? Because it has to be mutually beneficial to the company as well as that individual. So that is some of the advice that I would give to anyone who's thinking about serving on a board. And then think about the time commitment because certain boards are more active than others and the time commitment is an important aspect of it.

Megan - 00:34:20: And last question, but looking ahead, what do you envision as the most significant challenges and opportunities for finance professionals in general and then maybe specific to life sciences industry? And how can they best prepare to capitalize on these trends?

Sharon - 00:34:39: I think it's what we talked about, Megan, about AI and data analytics. So one of the things that, of course, it's exciting that we have so much at our fingertips and there's so much more coming with technology and platforms and the pace of change is incredible. But at the same time, it's daunting to keep up with it because there is more technology than anyone can probably ever evaluate. So one of the significant challenges but opportunities at the same time is how technology is going to thrive and change our industry. And what are the skills that are needed in the future and are we preparing our students today and young professionals and those in their careers with that technology that's coming. So I think that's something that I think about. How can we do that? The other aspect is there is so much coming at a finance professional with companies and transformation, whether that is, you know, how the work is changing, what the business is expecting more from finance professionals. There is so much that is on a finance professional or CFO plate. So having the ability to prioritize ruthlessly on those that are the most critical, of course, there are things that we need to keep doing, but that are more of the operational and transactional nature and stewardship aspect. But so that we have time for more of the strategic and catalyst type work. But I think prioritization is going to be really important so that finance professionals know how to quickly discern and prioritize. And then in terms of the industry, I think the industry, I'll just say for life sciences, the amount of innovation for medicine and therapies is amazing. Immense. So for me, that's exciting. Being part of this industry and the focus on patients and delivering more types of medicines to help with patient care. So that's really exciting. And I think that's just, you know, every year we see more and more therapies come out. So exciting to see and be part of that.

Megan - 00:36:59: Sharon, thank you so much for being my guest today.

Sharon - 00:37:02: Thank you so much, Megan. It's great to be here and appreciate the time. And I look forward to future discussions.

Megan - 00:37:09: Yeah, I really enjoyed speaking with you. And thanks for finding the time to be here with us today to share your experience and knowledge. And I wish you all the best. And to our listeners, please tune in next week. And until then, take care.

Sharon - 00:37:22: Thank you, Megan.