Managing complexity with confidence: Q&A with Veranova CEO Mike Riley

In May, Veranova announced the appointment of Mike Riley as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Riley has extensive knowledge of the life science and CDMO industry, having spent nearly 19 years in the CDMO sector delivering innovative solutions and growing businesses.

We sat down with him to find out how he plans to leverage his extensive experience to shape the future of Veranova as it enters an exciting new stage of development and growth.

 

What have been your first priorities since joining Veranova?

Since joining Veranova last month, I have prioritized getting an in-depth understanding of our company, people, and capabilities. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit all of our facilities, spend time with our employees, and meet some of our key customers. These initial weeks have confirmed to me that Veranova has fantastic people, assets and experience and that we are positioned to service some of the most attractive growth areas in the pharmaceutical space.

 

What kind of culture do you want to create at Veranova?

At Veranova, we are looking to build a great company that matters. We have a great heritage in ensuring that critical medications reach the patients who need them. However, it is important to recognise that we are also in a rapidly evolving landscape where developing and producing those medications is becoming increasingly complex. We therefore need to focus on delivering the highest levels of quality and compliance, excellence in execution, leading technical and scientific capabilities and relentless focus on customer service. That is only possible by being a place where the best people want to work, and where they are enabled to be better every day.

 

How do you plan to approach partnerships and collaborations within the pharmaceutical industry, and what do you believe are the key factors for successful partnerships?

As a CDMO, we provide a critical service to our customers, which we believe is most effectively delivered in the context of a strong partnership. In our industry, we know that we will need to solve problems and deal with complexity. It is how we work with our customers to quickly and effectively solve those problems that will define us as a partner. Achieving that level of collaboration requires us to engage in open, transparent communication. That way, we can truly understand what our customers are trying to achieve (both now and in the future), and proactively develop solutions to achieve those objectives.

 

What do you see in Veranova’s future?

Veranova has strong experience in segments that are growing rapidly, such as antibody-drug conjugates, where we have already worked worked on multiple clinical stage programs and continue to perform commercial linker/payload manufacturing. We have an opportunity to build on this experience in ADCs, as well as in other technologies such as highly potent APIs, controlled substances and other complex synthesis applications, to become the partner of choice for companies developing new and innovative therapies. We already have a team with strong scientific and technical capabilities, spread across multiple strategic locations, that can form the basis for future growth. By further investing in both our people and our capabilities, we can deliver a unique value proposition to our customers and enable the next generation of transformative therapies to reach our patients.

 

Learn more about Mike Riley

Mike Riley, CEO of Veranova, is a seasoned executive with over 25 years of professional experience, of which nearly 19 years have been spent in the pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing operations (CDMO) industry building, leading, and growing global businesses.

Most recently, Mr. Riley served at Catalent, Inc. (NYSE: CTLT) as President of the Biotherapeutics business, a multi-site business unit with 6,500 employees and revenue over $1B.