by Linda Foit, PhD
Marta New is a Principal at Baxalta Ventures where she identifies, evaluates and executes new investment opportunities in healthcare and biotechnology. She holds a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
In her current role in corporate venture capital, Marta uses strategic and analytical approaches on a daily basis when assessing the commercialization potential of new technologies to invest in. However, she has also successfully applied this line of thinking to find a fulfilling career path that best matches her interests and abilities. For instance, when nearing the end of her PhD training, she conducted some major soul-searching to determine which career would best fit her personality and her lifestyle expectations. After an initial goal to pursue an R&D position in the private sector but ending up doing a postdoc instead, she devised a plan on how a postdoctoral fellowship could best help her develop the skills she needed to succeed in a career in industry after academia. “I looked at everything I did during my postdoc through the lens of how it would look on my resume and how attractive it would look to big pharma”, Marta explains. By volunteering to take over management of the laboratory budget for example, she quickly gained experience in accounting, negotiation tactics and project management, skills that are highly valued outside of academia.
The single most influential decision however that Marta made during her time research time at Northwestern was to enroll in Kellogg’s MBA program. “Thinking like a PhD means thinking about problems very deeply” says Marta when explaining how business school has opened her up to new ways of approaching problems. “As an MBA, I now believe that there is value to thinking more broadly, knowing a little bit about everything, and then solving a problem as part of a team”. It was in one of her classes that Marta met Alicia Loffler, who taught a class on biotech management and is currently the Executive Director at Northwestern’s Innovation and New Ventures Office (INVO). “By asking lots of questions during and after class, I learned a tremendous amount from Alicia about the commercialization of technologies”, says Marta, underscoring the importance of identifying mentors one can learn from. The questions she asked after class were apparently good ones, as Alicia offered her a newly created position as Entrepreneur in Residence at INVO while pursuing her MBA. In this role, Marta provided strategic recommendations for patenting, licensing and commercialization of early stage therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices developed at Northwestern and also contributed to new venture formations at the Feinberg School of Medicine.
After successfully applying her business skills in an academic setting, Marta moved to the private sector to help manage the global portfolio of dialysis products for Baxter Healthcare. One of the challenges she faced during this transition was the difference in communication styles between scientists and business professionals. Marta explains that while in scientific discussions opinion discourse is highly encouraged, during business meetings open criticism is not necessarily appreciated. Instead of playing devil’s advocate, a constructive, solution-oriented feedback that leads to consensus is much more valued in a business setting. While Marta enjoyed applying her business knowledge to products on a global scale during her work in Baxter’s marketing division, she felt she did not utilize one of her biggest assets enough – her extensive scientific training. Again, to solve this problem Marta developed a strategic career plan so that she eventually would be able to better combine her savvy for business with her passion for science. After doing some research (like a true scientist), she identified a profession that would allow her to use both her PhD as well as her MBA training on a daily basis – venture capital. Through long-term networking and skills building, Marta was eventually able to secure a position in the highly competitive field of Venture Capital, a field that speaks both to her love for science and her interest in business. She also found a new mentor, her current supervisor Geeta Vemuri, Managing partner of Baxalta Ventures, who continues to coach Marta on relevant skills important in this industry.
To somebody who seeks to break into a new professional area (as Marta has done multiple times) she has the following advice: “First, identify where you want to go. Then identify two or three people in that field and offer your help for free.” Such project-based work is not only an excellent opportunity to receive feedback and get guidance on how to improve ones’ skills. In the end, offering rather than asking for help is also a great way of building lasting relationships.