I was a ‘late-starter’ as my interests covered a wide range of topics from arts to science. Finally, I chose to become a pharmacist, influenced by working during school holidays at my uncle’s pharmacy. I realized that the combination of health care and science while working with a team and managing and owning a business was inspiring to me. This is also true for what I do today – I’m passionate about our purpose and working with teams to have an impact on health care systems and providing access to medicines for patients across Europe – ‘a pharmacy’ on a bigger scale.

Looking back this was more of a topic in my early career. No one is immune to biases, the key to overcoming them is to recognize them. It takes courage to address those situations but it’s the only way to create awareness and change.

Whenever we decide not to speak up when we disagree with the group, we are falling victim to this bias. I’m fortunate to work for a company whose culture is very inclusive and where gender equality is not only supported, but also a publicly stated goal. Luckily, I got a lot of support in my career and I see it now as my personal task to support other female leaders and talents to achieve their career objectives and foster inclusive leadership.

Communicate your career aspiration, choose a working environment and company culture to support it and build a network to achieve it. Most importantly be passionate about what you do.