CEO Monthly Issue 6 2018

12 CEO MONTHLY / ISSUE 6 2018 , Symphony Clinical Research is the global service leader in providing in-home and alternate-site clinical services to patients in all phases and therapeutic areas of clinical trials. Recently, we profiled the firmand their CEO, Nicki Norris following her recent success inCEOMonthly’s CEO of the Year 2018 awards. Innovative, Patient Centric Services Symphony Clinical Research is the global service leader in providing in-home and alternate-site clinical services to patients in all phases and therapeutic areas of clinical trials. The firm works with Pharmaceutical and Biotech companies, as well as Clinical Research Organizations (CROs) and Investigator Sites conducting clinical research. In-home services can also be used in all patient populations from neonatal through geriatrics. Since 2003, Symphony has been bringing the clinical trial visit to patients’ homes and alternate sites, making it more convenient for patients across the globe to participate in clinical trials. Symphony’s services have significantly accelerated the pace of clinical trials by dramatically improving patient recruitment, retention, compliance and site productivity as well as increasing patient and investigator satisfaction. Beginning this interview, we ask Nicki to tell us a bit more about her responsibilities as CEO, what she believes is key to her remarkable success and how she would best describe her leadership style. “As CEO, I am responsible for directing the company in all aspects, taking into account strategic, operational, financial, opportunistic and risk management perspectives. As a leader, I am approachable, direct, honest, relaxed and decisive. I prefer to lead by example, and I am skilled at identifying the strengths of other team members. “Key to my success is my ability to work hard and trust my team. I always take an honest, ethical approach to business issues and make every effort to do the right thing for our customers. Also, I have benefited from a terrific education and wonderful experience, along with fantastic opportunities. As for key attributes, the ones which have helped to shape my success include being willing to take a risk, doing the right thing regardless of consequence, respecting and valuing my team, and always being willing to continue to learn.” Symphony Clinical Research employees are talented, driven, dedicated, innovative and ambitious. The firm’s mission is to improve patients’ lives through a shared commitment to accelerating R&D decisions by providing alternative site solutions to the clinical trial model. The team are guided by these four key values: accountability, proactivity, resourcefulness, and experience. Teamwork at Symphony is vital, and the firm are very proud of their result-oriented and engaged team members, as Nicki explains. “As a team, we are very customer- oriented. I believe that any manager needs to make sure team members understand their goals and how to achieve them; clearly define when things need to be complete; ensure employees have the tools and background necessary to complete their work; clear guidance if and when something falls short of goal; and stay out of the way and let people do what they’ve been hired to do. “Generally, staff members want to do a good job. When that isn’t occurring, it’s usually better to find out why, troubleshoot, and correct that issue.” Bringing the interview to a close, Nicki takes time to reflect on her own career, and gives advice to those who are looking to make a success similar to her own. “I have a BS in Finance and an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and have passed the CPA exam. Having spent 20 years at Baxter Healthcare Corporation, I was able to build a deep knowledge of healthcare, from different functional areas and across 1805CE09 different businesses. Then, I led three different organisations in healthcare, health services and clinical research: a high growth dialysis company; a blood collection and processing organisation; and a gold- standard laboratory accrediting organisation. I assumed the role of CEO at Symphony in 2009, where I have been honoured to lead a global management team for this high growth company focused on Patient Centricity. “I just shared this advice with a new college graduate who joined our team recently: Always remember: you are the CEO of your own career. There are no right and wrong answers at this point. There are only your values and evaluations weighing your different goals and opportunities in a way that pleases you. You need to find challenging situations where you can continue to learn and move towards those lifetime goals you’ve established for yourself.” Symphony has spearheaded the in-home study services movement and has continually been at the forefront of direct-to- patient, in-home and alternate site clinical services, mobile nursing, ambulant care services, virtual trial and remote monitoring for clinical trials. They constantly strive to perfect the model, always innovating better and more reliable ways to deliver high