Nordic Life Science 1
CAREERS IN A NEW JOB THE LATEST CAREER NEWS FROM
THE NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE INDUSTRY T E X T by M AL IN O T M ANI MANAGING DIRECTOR , UPPSALA BIO HR DIRECTOR AT LINK MEDICAL CHAIRMAN OF UMEÅ BIOTECH INCUBATOR BJÖRN ARVIDSSON has been recruited by the STUNS Foundation to fulfill the role of new operations manager for the foundation’s life science branch Uppsala BIO. “During his 10 years at Roche, Björn has had several roles within diagnostics and pharmaceuticals, from product responsibility to marketing and communication, and policy development. This, together with the acquired experiences from various parts of the Swedish innovation system, makes Björn an excellent fit for mobilizing Uppsala’s innovation system in life science and healthcare at a time when industry boundaries are being blurred and disparate areas seem to be intertwined,” says Andreas Larsson, CEO of STUNS. Arvidsson’s most recent engagement has been at the Swiss pharmaceutical and diagnostics giant Roche. Björn has a background in chemistry studies at the Uppsala Biomedical Center (BMC) at Uppsala University and has pursued doctoral studies focusing on early diagnostics in the Department of Analytical Chemistry. He has also been a researcher at the Swedish Defense Research Institute FOI in Umeå. Björn took up the position on September 1. 80 NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG MARTE FJELLE began her Oslobased position on October 1st. She will lead the company’s HR efforts across all Northern European offices. She will work to attract, develop and maintain a highly competent CRO team by implementing robust development plans for all company employees from 2020 and onwards, the company states. “I aim to contribute to the company’s continued sustainable growth and success through working with management to implement good people processes. A desire to develop is within human nature, and if you develop an individual’s skills, the company will develop alongside them,” says Marte Fjelle. Fjelle has longstanding experience in the field of HR, focusing on personal and career development. She joins LINK Medical after six years as an HR Director at AbbVie, where she worked to create an attractive environment for recruiting and retaining employees. Through implementation of employee surveys and workshops, her contributions led to improved feedback and reduced turnover. AbbVie was awarded 1st place in the Great Place to Work rankings in 2014, 2017 and 2018. LENA KARLSSON ENGMAN is a member of the Social Democrats at Umeå City Council and a former researcher at the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI). She is a trained laboratory assistant and chemist and has worked with research and testing for several years, mainly at FOI in Umeå. She has been a full-time politician since 2015 and a member of the Social Democrats at the City Council, as well as Chairman of the Technical Services Committee and the Rescue Services Committee. Lena Karlsson Engman also heads the board of Biofuel Region and has served as Chairman of Umeå Energi and affiliated companies between 2015 and 2018. “I am both proud and happy to have been elected, and also very humble about the task facing me. It will be especially fun to get closer to researchrelated work again. I believe my own experience of research can come in useful working with the board at UBI,” says Lena Karlsson Engman. Lena Karlsson Engman replaces Åsa Ögren as Chairman of the Umeå Biotech Incubator Board. HEAD OF FIMM TECHNOLOGY CENTRE KATJA KIVINEN has recently contributed significantly to the development of cardiovascular research at the University of Cambridge. She obtained her MSc degree in genetics from the University of Helsinki in 1998, and her PhD in bioinformatics in 2004 from the University of Cambridge and EMBL. After her first post-doctoral period at Karolinska Institute, she moved to Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in 2006. She initially started her career as a computational biologist, and then became senior staff scientist and scientific manager in the newly founded Malaria Programme. In 2014, she was appointed Manager of the newly founded Cardiovascular Research Centres at the University of Cambridge. Over the past five years her research community grew from 60 to >500 researchers, and at the same time the proportion of interdisciplinary research articles doubled. She has been a founding member in two preeclampsia research consortia (FINNPEC and InterPregGen), and plans to lead the analysis of FINNPEC samples that are being genotyped at FIMM Technology Centre. PHOTO JEANETTE HÄGGLUND PHOTO JEAN-LUC BENAZET