Her Story
About Melindah
I started my career 30 years ago at Millennium Pharmaceuticals as a biochemist molecular biology major, working in human genetics and preclinical oncology therapeutics. While building my career, I was also a single mother raising my son, who is now an adult. I've had the privilege of working across research and development and commercialization throughout my career, with a real focus on product strategy in therapeutics, diagnostics, and devices. My work has taken me across South markets as an expert, and I moved around a lot with my son until he was in seventh grade. I came to New Jersey and did one role outside life sciences at Dun & Bradstreet in Finance, then went on to drive double-digit growth at Genpact through acquisition. From there, I worked on the Sanofi Global Regulatory Affairs program, and then joined J&J where we increased shareholder prices from $118 to $180 per share by changing the governance around capital investments for products. My day-to-day work focuses on taking products to market and ensuring they reach the patients who need them, minimizing burden along the way. I tend to focus on diabetes and cardiac disease because of my family history, but I also work across women's health and children's health. In my dream world, anytime I can make sure a patient receives care and doesn't have to face a systemic barrier, I'm happy. Beyond my corporate work, I started a nonprofit focused on educating young college students about sexual assault, incest, and rape. I'm also an investor and advocate for women's health and pediatric health, because I believe when you fund the woman, you fund the child, you fund the future.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Melindah
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my parents and my family, especially my father. I'm the first woman educated past 8th grade in my family, and as traditional of a man as my father is, he always believed in me. There's nothing he thought I couldn't do. He had me flying planes at a young age, flying Cessnas through Civil Air Patrol. My father and my children are my inspiration. I was very close to my mother who died very young, but my parents gave me the balance between East and West, being Indian American. My father always told me I could do anything, whether it's cooking up a great traditional Indian meal at home or running a boardroom and driving double-digit growth for a company because you're getting more products to more patients. He's always told me I could do more.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is to fail. You'll learn how to pick yourself back up really quickly. The other piece of advice, and it's overstated but true, is to ask a lot of questions. I'm that annoying person who is always asking questions because I always want to know more.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Be bold. Don't be afraid. I actually was just given this advice yesterday by a man: it's your time, go do you. But be unapologetic. The unapologetic part is very important.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The top three challenges, which are also opportunities, are: first, a lack of funding in the women's and pediatric space. Second is access to care and the challenge around reimbursement, financially supporting those needing care. And third is the need for more data. We need more data around more diseases that is sliced and diced by gender and ethnicity and age and size and weight, so we can be better about how we medicate or treat patients. I see the challenges as the opportunities, because as I believe, failure is what you will learn from, so those challenges will give you the opportunities.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me are passion, respect, and compassion. Be kind, be humane. Always think about how to serve others. These values cut across both my work and personal life.
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