Martin Wiles, Vice President Business Development & Licensing from Almac Discovery- United Kingdom shares his roles, responsibilities and personal views with Biostandups.
BS: Can you share your current job roles and your journey with Almac Discovery?
MW: I joined Almac Discovery in November 2014 as the Vice President of Business Development & Licensing.
BS: What are the most important values you demonstrate as a Business Development officer?
MW: I believe it is important to be open to new ideas and be flexible and creative in seeking collaborations.
BS: Define relationship selling and how you implement it in your current job?
MW: Relationship selling is about being authentic, showing genuine concern, and being honest. You therefore need to be true to those qualities in any interaction you have and at any stage of that interaction from first meeting to conclusion of a collaboration.
BS: How long was your relationship with Almac Discovery? What was your profile roles before joining Almac Discovery?
MW: I have been at Almac Discovery for just over 2 years and prior to that was Senior Vice President of Business Development at BioInvent International AB, and prior to that Head of Business Development at K S BioMedix PLC and prior to that worked in both Business Development and technical roles at BioCompatibles PLC.
BS: Share about Almac Discovery and its services?
MW: Almac Discovery is a discovery and development company working in the area of oncology. It does not provide services although other companies in the Almac Group do.
BS: Please tell us about Almac Core team and their expertise?
MW: Stephen Barr – President and MD – 20 years at Almac Group
Tim Harrison – VP Preclinical Development – prior to Almac was at MSD
Martin Wiles – VP Business Development & Licensing (see above)
Gerald Gavory – Head of Biology – prior to Almac was at MSD
Colin O’Dowd – Head of Medicinal Chemistry – career at Almac
Aaaron Cranston – Head of Translational Biology – prior to Almac was at Mission Therapuetics, Crown Bio and KuDOS.
Lisa Rice Goddrad Head of Project Management – prior to Almac at Qiagen.
BS: Are you representing Almac Discovery here at BioAsia-2017. What is your goal?
MW: I am looking for partnerships for our development projects in particular ALM201.
BS: How do you feel about participating in such vibrant and excellent events like BioAsia2017?
MW: I think it is important to visit in person regions across the world to maximize chances of finding the best opportunities. It is my first time to BioAsia 2017 so I am looking forward to making new contacts.
BS: What is more important to you: maintaining clients or growing the business?
MW: We pride ourselves on maintaining good relationships within our collaborations however as we are not a service business we have few collaborations so are always looking to grow the business through new collaborations.
BS: What do you think is your role in closing deals?
MW: I lead the negotiations and the partnering process so am involved in most aspects.
BS: What is your strategy for converting a no into a yes?
MW: It is always important to understand why someone has said ‘no’ often it offers a means to find a way to the ‘yes’ you need.
BS: As a business development manager, how do you utilize all the various departments in an organization to spur success?
MW: Business Development is very much a matrix role and so we need to obtain help from our scientists and development colleagues to present information and respond to technical questions additionally we need help from our legal colleagues to formulate the formal agreements.
BS: Tell us your future goals with Almac Discovery?
MW: We wish to build Almac Discovery into a world class highly known and respected company dealing with cutting edge science.