SmiLe has appointed Charlotte Leife as new business coach, thereby strengthening its expertise in the international pharma and biotech industry.
“I am very happy to be able to welcome Charlotte to SmiLe. With Charlotte we bring in another senior business coach to complement the team with extensive, international industry expertise in pharma and biotech. With her background in both large companies – which are future customers of our member companies – and small startups, combined with the fact that she herself has worked as CEO in a listed environment, Charlotte will be a great asset for our incubator companies,” says Lina Olsen Boreson, COO for SmiLe Incubator.
Charlotte Leife
Charlotte Leife has a BSc in chemistry and an MBA from Uppsala University and she has extensive experience in working with commercialization in both large international pharma and biotech companies and in small startups. For many years she worked for the American, multinational biotechnology company Biogen, both as Managing Director for the Swedish and the Nordic subsidiaries and as SVP Global Commercial Excellence. She has also worked as CEO for Sprint Bioscience, a Swedish, entrepreneurial pharmaceutical company focusing on developing drugs for cancer.
Through the recruitment of Charlotte, SmiLes’ member companies will receive additional support in analyzing their business ideas, understanding the market and the customers as well as identifying potential obstacles early in the process, in order to reach the market faster and more efficiently.
”I look forward to being part of SmiLes’ team and contributing with my expertise. I am passionate about entrepreneurship in small companies, and I want to help manage the special drive that exists in these startups in the best possible way. It is a challenge to go from being an innovator to being an entrepreneur. From being completely focused on your product you now need to consider the whole company with all the challenges that brings in terms of for example business development, sales and financing,” says Charlotte Leife.
Photo of Charlotte Leife: SmiLe
