Malin Kreitz is Insife’s new Business Development Director and brings a wealth of drug safety, PV and IT experience to her role.
It all started with rocks.
Growing up in Sweden, Malin Kreitz often went backpacking with her parents and young Malin became obsessed with collecting rocks. A career in geology potentially beckoned, as long as the family remained strong enough to continue carrying all the weighty rocks back home after a trek. Malin’s parents fostered her to be a very independent girl, sending her to a language school in the UK at the age of 11 and then to America for two years at 13 to study in a US High School. That experience changed Malin’s career path as the school system was so different to that in Sweden. They learned a vast range of subjects, from how to walk on a catwalk (something she has yet to find a use for in life) to basic computer programming. It was the computer lessons that changed the course of her career from geology to IT. Back in Sweden, when it was time to decide on a degree, she chose to study Computer Science at the University of Stockholm and they dived straight into programming and development. Malin was hooked immediately.
‘Not knowing how to do something is no reason not to do it.’
Throughout Malin’s career, the above motto has resonated. She’s always felt strongly that you should go with the opportunities that present themselves and with that in mind, she started her career, post university, with no exact plan in mind. She knew that she wanted to work in computers but that was all. Her first job was for the Swedish railways working on their personnel systems on a large IBM Mainframe computer. However, she quickly realised she wasn’t exactly passionate about personnel systems, so moved onto a consultancy role, working with Oracle based software. It was in this role that she got her first laptop, which she remembers weighing in at around 14 kg!
After a couple of years Malin got a job at Danish consultancy which was based in Basel, so she took the plunge and moved there.
‘And of course when you’re in Basel, you’re in pharma. And if you’re in IT you’re either working for Roche or Novartis. So that was my entry into the industry.’
In the first consultancy she worked with Roche, she then moved to another consultancy who worked with Novartis, so the experience she gained working for these two companies was extensive. Then while her daughter was growing up, Malin decided to work for herself as a consultant to give her more flexibility. She had a broad range of clients which developed her breadth of skills further. One client even asked her to start developing websites which she’d never done before. His view was ‘You’ll work it out’ and of course, true to her motto, she did!
From consultancy to a full-time role
In 2004, there were many changes going on in the two big Basel pharmas. There was a lot of work being outsourced to countries like India and Poland as well as many organisational restructures.
‘Then one day, someone from Roche called me and offered me a job. Just like that!’
Malin seized this new opportunity, happily joining the firm she’d consulted for and staying with them for 15 years. Her first role was as Application Manager working on the global implementation of the Clinical Trial system, a system she knew inside out as she’d programmed some of it back in her consultancy days. She went on to move up through the ranks, becoming Team Lead and then Team Head. In time, after a merger of teams, Malin was asked to move from clinical trials into drug safety. This was not an area she knew well, but she went for it, starting to really enjoy this new area of the business. She eventually led the operations and support teams for all the PV systems at Roche and thrived at her job.
During this time Roche was undertaking a full system overhaul. Working to revamp all the support systems, creating a clear and simple unified system from a fragmented one and implementing a consistent process throughout, was a tough job. But Malin loved the challenge and rose to it with the help of her team.
‘I was very privileged to have an awesome team to work with.’
Her final period at Roche was fully emersed in PV after taking over the Area Head role covering all PV systems for the whole of the company. She became a member of the PV leadership team and was involved in all areas, including working on redefining the whole PV strategy. It was a very exciting journey.
Time for a big change
But all journeys come to an end, and in 2019, after 15 years at Roche, Malin and her family decided to move from Basel to France where she started to consult again. But that wasn’t all. As well as developing her consultancy business, Malin decided to start something else new, something she’d never done before. She opened an alpaca farm! The farm continues to be a big success with over 50 alpacas in situ at the time of writing.
After five years consulting and working with the alpacas, Malin was approached earlier this year by Insife’s Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Jen Markey who she knew from when Jen worked for Roche when consulting for Deloitte.
‘Jen rang to ask if I was available for work as she was expanding her team at Insife. I jumped at the chance. It was like Christmas and my birthday all together! Once again, I’d not been actively looking, but it just came at the right time.’
The opportunity at Insife
At the time of interview, Malin has only been at Insife for three weeks, but she’s already excited about what her role and involvement will be. As Business Development Director, she will be working on contracts, RFPs, RFIs and overall helping customers navigate what Insife’s systems can do for them. She’s very impressed with HALOPV, particularly how quickly the Insife team has got such a comprehensive drug safety product to market.
From her perspective, the key strength she thinks she can bring to the company is her long time working for Roche.
‘I was client side for a long time, so I’ll be able to play devil’s advocate and pre-empt customer’s needs and questions so we can be more prepared. I’ve ripped people like us in pieces in the past, so I know where a large pharma might make life a little difficult for us. I think that’s a real strength I can bring to the team.’
As for location, Malin is working during the week back in Switzerland, in Insife’s Basel office. So, she’s commuting weekly from her home in South West France.
‘It’s a short flight from Toulouse so I’m very happy to do this and live between the two places, but when I’m in Basel I do miss the alpacas, along with the dogs, cat, horse and donkeys! But being there at weekends means I really do get the best of both worlds.’