The Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) has today (12 January) named its 2023 Woman of the Year as Christi Shaw, Chief Executive Officer, Kite Pharma.
The annual award is given to an outstanding female executive working in healthcare and pharmaceuticals who has a record of championing women in the workplace.
“Advancing medicine, advancing patient care, and advancing equity in our global workforce are shared values of this year’s honourees driving transformational change and impact,” said Wendy White, Interim CEO and 2022 STAR, HBA.
Shaw takes the top spot after working in the industry for over 30 years and holding a unique position as one of the rare female CEOs in life sciences – more than nine in 10 biopharma CEOs are men. She has acted as a role model and mentor for women throughout her career, which was picked up on by the HBA, in addition to her “authentic leadership”.
The CEO joined Kite in 2019 and under her leadership the organisation has transformed into the largest CAR T-cell therapy company in the world. This role followed senior leadership positions at Eli Lilly, Novartis and Johnson & Johnson.
Alongside her success as a business leader, Shaw is a fierce advocate for patients and co-founded a foundation that helps them access oncology clinical trials, as well as sitting on the board of directors of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).
Other HBA award beneficiaries included Jag Dosanjh, President, US Neuroscience and Eye Care, AbbVie, who was the recipient of the Honourable Mentor award, and Liz Paulson, Associate Vice President, Life Sciences for the Healthcare Business of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, who was recognised with HBA’s Strategic Transformation Achievement Recognition (STAR) volunteer leader honour.
The 2023 honourees will all be celebrated at a live event on 16 May in New York City, which will be streamed virtually around the globe.
