Women in pharma

PME: What led you to your current role as CEO of Kanga Health?
Kay Wesley (KW): Starting out in biochemistry, then IT, my digital business career began in the 1990s, when at the height of the ‘dotcom boom’ I floated a multinational online recruitment company. I moved back to healthcare in the 2000s as global digital lead and brand director in big pharma, before moving to a top five agency. My experience led me to found Kanga Health in 2013, focusing on digital transformation and delivery for pharma.

PME: Has female representation in the pharma industry changed over your career?
KW: Not enough! The industry is about 50-50 female in terms of the gender balance of its workforce, but not in senior leadership. Of the top 20 pharma companies, only one has a female CEO (Emma Walmsley, GSK). Not surprisingly, GSK’s gender pay gap is one-tenth of the industry average. Representation is important: with 95% of top leaders being male, this directly correlates with the large industry gender pay gap of 10%.

PME: Did you face any obstacles as a woman as you advanced to leadership positions?
KW: Absolutely. Like a lot of women, more than once I felt I had to excel in performance in order to achieve the same rank as a mediocre male colleague. A recruiting manager once took my many years’ experience (across multiple fields) and deducted my maternity leave, as if parenting wasn’t work (having never been a full-time parent to his own four children).  More than this was the unconscious bias. A female boss once recommended me for a promotion, but the leadership said despite my achievements I ‘wouldn’t fit’ into the senior team…meaning I didn’t look or act like the current male cohort!

PME: What advice would you give to young women joining the industry?
KW: Don’t try to join the boys’ club. Be yourself and carve your own path. Ignore the discomfort of those stuck in stereotypes around what success looks like. The best leaders have empathy and emotional intelligence.
Support other women, and seek the support of other women and feminists (including male ones). Let’s reshape what ‘leadership’ looks like in our industry!