Talent Talkbox

About Talent Talkbox

Elevate is the podcast from Vector Talent bringing you honest conversations with women leading the way in pharma services. Each episode goes beyond the CV. We talk to senior figures across CDMOs, CROs, Biotech and the wider pharma services sector about how they've built their careers, the challenges they've navigated, and what it really takes to lead in this industry. No generic career advice. Just candid, experience-led conversations from women who are shaping one of the most complex sectors in the world.

Publisher

Vector Talent

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

5 Feb 2025

Latest episode

26 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

34 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   26 Aug 2026

   Elevate: Elizabeth Hickman on How to Be a Dragon

   In this episode of Elevate: Women Leading the Way in Pharma Outsourcing, host Marianne Gissane speaks with Elizabeth Hickman, CEO at AustinPx, about growing up around risk-takers, learning what confidence actually looks like, and why she keeps a note on her whiteboard that says "be a dragon." Elizabeth's path into the CDMO world started long before she had a job title, shaped by a mountaineering father and an entrepreneurial mother who each taught her, in different ways, to get comfortable with risk. She built her career on the business side of science rather than at the bench, moving through business development roles that taught her to listen to clients before anything else. She joined AustinPx as chief business officer in 2022 and became CEO in January 2025, bringing close to twenty years of CDMO experience from roles at West Pharmaceutical Services, Catalent, Pharmatek and PharmaForm. She talks candidly about the kind of feedback women get that men rarely hear, and the mentors who pushed her towards opportunities before she felt ready for them. In this episode, you'll learn: Why growing up around risk-takers shaped how she leads people through an industry that can't control most of its own outcomes What years in business development taught her about listening to clients before anything else How she's learned to handle feedback about her voice and presence without letting it reshape who she is Why "be a dragon" ended up written on her whiteboard, and what it means to her day to day What being part of the Biotech CEO Sisterhood has given her as a CEO based outside the usual biotech hubs The advice she'd give her younger self about speaking up before she felt fully ready Guest bio Elizabeth Hickman is the CEO at AustinPx, a CDMO based in Georgetown, Texas, specialising in bioavailability enhancement for oral small molecule drugs through its KinetiSol platform. She joined AustinPx as chief business officer in 2022 and stepped into the CEO role in January 2025, having previously held business development and marketing leadership positions at West Pharmaceutical Services, Catalent, Pharmatek and PharmaForm. She holds a BA in microbiology from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from San Diego State University.

2. 

   29 Jul 2026

   Elevate: Susan D'Costa on Serendipity, Courage and the Power of "So What"

   In this episode of Elevate: Women Leading the Way in Pharma Outsourcing, host Marianne Gissane speaks with Susan D'Costa, Chief Technical and Commercial Officer at Genezen, about building a career through serendipity, learning to be comfortable with failure, and why representation matters at every level of seniority. Susan traces her path from a self-described "medical school reject" studying microbiology in Mumbai, through a PhD in virology at Texas Tech and fourteen years in Rich Condit's lab at the University of Florida, to a chance conversation that led her into gene therapy manufacturing at Florida Biologix. From there she moved through Brammer Bio and Thermo Fisher Scientific into technical sales, then to Alcyone Therapeutics, before joining Genezen as Chief Technical and Commercial Officer. She talks openly about the mentors who shaped her, the leap into quality control she nearly turned down, and the husband who kept asking her one question: what's the worst that could happen? In this episode, you'll learn: Why treating a career as "serendipitous" doesn't rule out being deliberate about which risks are worth taking How summarising a conversation back to the room helps you, and everyone else too nervous to ask, actually keep up Why having more than one woman in a leadership meeting changes what gets said and what gets heard What her husband's constant question, "what's the worst that can happen", taught her about learning to fail Why she treats mentoring students and postdocs on LinkedIn as a genuine pay it forward rather than a favour "You gotta say, 'shut up, Bruno,' and move forward a little bit stronger." Susan D'Costa Susan D'Costa is Chief Technical and Commercial Officer at Genezen, a gene and cell therapy CDMO, where she leads AAV process development and manufacturing. She holds a PhD in virology from Texas Tech University and spent over a decade in academic research at the University of Florida before moving into CDMO leadership roles at Florida Biologix, Brammer Bio, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Alcyone Therapeutics. She's known for bringing technical rigour and a strong sense of mentorship to every role she's held, treating support for other women and immigrants in the industry as central to how she leads rather than a side project.

3. 

   24 Jun 2026

   Elevate: Jenny Gattari's Path from Engineer to Global Business Development

   In this episode of Elevate: Women Leading the Way in Pharma Outsourcing, host Marianne Gissane sits down with Jenny Gattari, Global Business Development Lead at Pfizer CentreOne. Jenny started out as an industrial engineer in a manufacturing development programme, then moved through supply chain and R&D, picked up an MBA, and made the leap into marketing and commercial roles. Around five years ago she moved into the CDMO space, where she now leads global business development. She talks candidly about why none of that was linear, and how every role she's held feeds the one she has today. What you'll learn in this episode: How an engineering mindset shapes the way she approaches technical, relationship-led selling Why moving from product selling to service selling meant talking less and listening far more What changes when you go from a regional remit to a global one, and why influence matters more than control How she communicates across cultures and puts customers at ease when English is their second language Why she's mentored with the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association for over a decade, and what it's taught her The job-description folder she recommends for working out what you actually want next "It's much easier to know the roles you don't want than the roles you do want." Jenny Gattari is Global Business Development Lead at Pfizer CentreOne. She holds a degree in industrial engineering and an MBA, and has built a career across manufacturing, supply chain, R&D, marketing, and commercial leadership in both regional and global roles. She's been a mentor with the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association for over ten years.

Who has been a guest on Talent Talkbox

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Elizabeth Malson
• Grace Kim
• Maya Pedersen
• Oksana Lukash
• Demetria Johnson

Podcast Authority Score: 47 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

95

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

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Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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