Her Story
About Deepika
I've been in clinical drug development for over 17 years, starting right after college in 2009. I came to this country as an international student with a clear vision to pursue biotechnology and clinical research. Unlike many of my peers who went into research labs, I knew from my leadership experience in high school and university that I wanted to interact with people and make a bigger impact outside the lab. I started at a small ECG core lab as employee number 18, learning everything from scratch at age 22. Within my first year, our CEO recognized my potential and had me split my time between operations and sales. We achieved our first commercial sale, and that's when I knew business development was my calling. As companies got acquired, my responsibilities expanded - I learned more products, trained people, and my verticals kept increasing. A couple of years ago, I was put in a leadership role managing the West Coast, which then expanded to all of North America, then North America and APAC. People told me I was doing three people's roles, but I managed just fine. I'm not someone who hops between companies - I stayed with my first company for a decade and my last company for 7 years. Last year, I joined Clinical Inc to take on a new challenge: selling a product that nobody in the market was willing to adopt. After I joined, we sold that product to a pharma company for the first time, something my colleagues who had been there for years thought was impossible. I believe it's my urge to constantly learn and stay relevant, rather than just being comfortable in leadership, that has helped me grow. To continue my education journey, I joined Harvard Medical School earlier this year for their Global Healthcare Leadership Program, a very competitive program that takes under 30 executives every year. I spend one week every few months in Boston with my cohort, and the program continues until early next year. Last month, I was named 40 under 40 for the State of Washington. My ultimate goal is not just about titles or accolades - I want to change the way we impact patients in our industry and simplify the patient's journey through healthcare.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Deepika
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the incredible mentors and leaders I've had throughout my career. I literally keep a diary of every mentor I've worked with - whatever I've learned from each of them, I still keep and have been maintaining it for 17 years. I think me as a leader, I am truly a combination of all of them, because I've taken the positives from each of them, and that's how I lead my team. Beyond my professional mentors, my two most influential people are my parents. The way they have navigated through their careers and their lives, passing on their values to me, has been foundational. They sent me to this country at a young age, not knowing anything, when staying connected was not a given - there were no smartphones, no nothing. That trust and sacrifice gave me even more motivation to make them proud. I also do a lot of work in the memory of my brother, who I lost a couple of years ago. His golden soul and how he's been there for people in the past has really given me a new perspective that you should keep aspiring for yourself, but make sure you're taking everybody with you. That value has carried such a big meaning for me as I lead teams. I think it's my urge to constantly learn and stay relevant versus just being comfortable in a leadership position that has really helped me grow. I've learned from so many different people, I've adapted from different people's styles, and I always try to bring my unique value proposition to everything I do.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say don't stay comfortable. Try new things. The field is so diverse, there are so many things happening. I know people get intimidated with AI now, and you know, what they can do, what they studied, but I just think you need to find your USP - your unique selling proposition of yourself. Think about, like, if you were a product, what is your unique USP? Because if you're going to do the same thing that 100 people are doing, are you really going to make an impact? And you'll never figure out your own USP if at a young age you don't experiment with more and more things. I always tell the high school kids I mentor, as long as you have some direction, get into it. Stick to the big picture. I stuck to clinical trials, but within clinical trials, there are so many different things that you can do. Don't hop on and pop off between industries - pick an industry, stick in that, but then experiment about what unique thing you can bring to the table, versus just being a product manager or a project manager, which is great, like, you know, we need all those roles, but if you really want to make an impact, then you have to think outside of the box and outside of job responsibilities that are listed on a paper.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The most important value to me is making a meaningful impact on patients. To me, that's more important than any title or accolades or awards, because all of us are a patient, and we have patients in our household. I just think that as we look into healthcare, so many things are siloed - everything is getting advanced, but at the same time, if you think about the patient's pain and the patient's journey through any of the things that they're dealing with, that has not drastically changed. They still feel the same pain, they still feel the same concerns about navigating all these complex systems. My ultimate goal is to simplify a patient's journey where they find comfort easier, despite whatever their course of treatment is. Another core value I learned from my brother is to keep aspiring for yourself, but make sure you're taking everybody with you. It feels small, but it has carried such a big meaning for me as I lead teams. Every value that I've learned from my parents - how to balance things between home, career, and at the same time still stay grounded and kind - I apply to my work till date, I apply it in school. Those are really my strongest pillars.
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