Upon meeting Maria Fernanda Prado, despite the physical distance and having to look through a screen, a warmth and passion for people become apparent instantly. For her new role, where she leads the Janssen commercial organization in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, she explains her aim straightforwardly as “to change the life of patients”. Throughout our conversation, the importance of binding people and building a shared strategy to improve the lives of patients forms the core of her story and her vision for Janssen Benelux.
Maria’s path to Janssen
Her path towards Janssen started 21 years ago, back in her home country of Brazil where after having worked in the consumer business she transitioned to the pharmaceutical industry where she held numerous commercial positions in multinational companies. Starting her time at Janssen as commercial director for Janssen Brazil nine years ago, she “brought the customer focus and pragmatism from consumer to this role”, and similarly her broad level of experience continues to form her leadership style to this day.
Passion for the industry
When asked about her switch to the pharmaceutical industry, her passion is indisputable; “I think it is the purpose. When you think of the kind of innovation, we bring for both physicians and patients, it is just so powerful and meaningful. Bringing transformational solutions to the patients is what keeps me engaged.” As she described how important this work is for her, she reiterates her passion for people; “the impact you can provoke in patients lives is so meaningful”, thinking for a moment, she drives home her point by stating “You touch people in a quite valuable way”.
Leading Janssen in Turkey
After leading several therapeutic areas at Janssen Brazil, Maria went on to become Managing director of Janssen Turkey, where under her leadership, performance grew consistently. This combination of a passion for binding people and a distinct commercial business acumen led to a tremendously successful time in Turkey.
Bringing people together in a pandemic
The next challenge lay ahead in Central Europe, where her passion for binding people was not only needed to manage a cohesive bloc of 14 countries, but the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic abruptly made this even more challenging. Describing this period Maria notes how “the pandemic boosted and changed the way we connect and relate to people. We are on this journey as humans and citizens but also as a company.” It is evident Maria cares deeply for her team and recognized the difficulties everyone was facing during this period. She passionately spoke about the mental health effects this pandemic had on so many colleagues and how through having a shared vision with her team they were able to stay on course; “What we do is not trivial. And we can only manage these difficult circumstances if we do it together and be available for our customers and our patients.” Realizing the importance of taking care of her team at a time like this, she focused on people development to make the organization stronger, all from her living room. Maria noticed how relations were changing due to the pandemic and it pushed her to rechallenge the ways of working to improve relations both within the organization and to the outside world. She believes that to face a challenge successfully, you need to bind people. This can only be achieved by “keeping teams engaged and by creating a shared vision” which is what she is most passionate about.
Vision for the Benelux
Discussing her new role as Managing director of Janssen Benelux, she is visibly excited and relishes facing the challenges ahead. She points out “the importance of recognizing the cultural differences in the Benelux, not only in terms of market dynamics, principles and rules but most importantly, the people”. In her short period living in Belgium, she has clearly taken the time to understand the countries she works in and highlights the importance of; “uniting these strong countries and markets, taking out the best out of them to strengthen a common agenda, while respecting all the differences”. Having lived and worked across different geographies Maria understands what it takes to adjust to new surroundings both personally and professionally; “moving brings you out of your comfort zone but it is a great way to learn and to connect with different cultures and minds”. In her role in Central Europe, connecting countries, cultures and different languages was part of what she most enjoyed, and she sees diversity playing an important role in the Benelux. Looking at the countries, she points out “it is a very blended region and I feel proud to be part of this very important hub within a huge Benelux ecosystem, where the common factor is the strong innovation mindset”.
Maria is clear in what she wants to achieve in the Benelux; “to continue our commitment to patients and to remain the benchmark in terms of reaching them.” When talking about where she hopes to improve, she doesn’t think twice by reinforcing; “we want to always serve our customers better, providing superior solutions to patients care, differentiating ourselves in the market”. The importance of succeeding in new launches, competing, and executing is in no way unbeknownst to her, but throughout this, she continues to stress the importance of a shared vision in her leadership team. Innovation is what makes the Benelux such a special place to be, and Maria’s desire is to build on that strength. “Innovation is in the DNA of our organization, which makes us so proud of working here. It is our commitment to deliver this innovation with excellence and to better serve our customers and patients every single day.”
EM-86639 JAN 2022