BOLD Innovators podcast Bristol Myers Squibb

In this month’s episode, we have the pleasure of speaking to Awara Gbeblewo, senior manager, RCO, vendor operations and engagement. This episode was hosted by Bryant Powell, associate director, social media, Digital Platform Strategy, and host for the BOLD Innovators podcast series.

Awara leads a team of SRMs who are responsible for building and managing clinical site relationships for outsourced studies in Europe. Since joining BMS, Awara has been actively involved in inclusion and diversity initiatives. She founded and led the BOLD chapter in Switzerland for more than two years, was on the leadership team of the local B-NOW chapter and is now the co-lead for the BOLD LIFT program.

Awara shares her inspiring story of perseverance in the face of setbacks and adversities. She discusses her journey from being a first-year medical school student to selling camera lenses for a decade before returning to school and pursuing a career in life sciences, fulfilling a lifelong ambition.

When asked about moments of being boldly urgent in her career and personal life, Awara credits her mother and husband, both of whom have careers that require composure while being urgent. She draws motivation from them and emphasizes the importance of proper planning and anticipation, which leads to faster acceleration and efficient execution.

Awara’s biggest life lesson is always to have a contingency plan. She says, “Something I learned is to always have a Plan B even C and D, because if your first plan doesn't work, you need to have something else because otherwise you feel really helpless.”

This season we will be focusing on a new Bristol Myers Squibb core value. In season 2, our focus was on Passion. In season 3, we will be focusing on Urgency, and how that has driven our guests throughout their careers. For BMS, urgency is best achieved with all of us working together to move forward with speed and quality because patients are waiting.

In this month’s episode, we have the pleasure of speaking to Angelique Hopkins, Vice President, Enterprise Strategy, Portfolio, and Planning Analytics. This episode was hosted by Bryant Powell, associate director, social media, Omni-Channel Capabilities, and host for the BOLD Innovators podcast series.

Angelique supports total company analytics, insights, and processes, including long term financial planning as well as strategy and portfolio prioritization. Outside of BMS, she sits on the board of directors for women of color in Pharma, a BMS-sponsored nonprofit professional society focused on transforming the pharmaceutical landscape for women of color, where she draws on her unique perspective and cross functional experiences.

Angelique shares her story of how she stumbled into the pharmaceutical industry. She came to BMS as an intern straight out of undergrad and pursuing a Master of Public Health, and as she put it, “I joke that I came to BMS as an intern and they kept giving me stuff to do, so I never left.”

In this month’s episode, we have the pleasure of speaking to Deidra Harper, senior access and reimbursement manager. This episode was hosted by Bryant Powell, associate director, social media, Omni-Channel Capabilities, and host for the BOLD Innovators podcast series.

Deidra Harper is responsible for access and reimbursement for the oncology business at Bristol Myers Squibb. Additionally, she is the co-lead for BMS’ Tomorrow’s Innovators program at North Carolina A&T. In this role, Deidra is responsible for creating a talent pipeline for students of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Deidra shares her passion for mentoring and creating opportunities for students of underrepresented communities, particularly people of color. And, as co-lead for the Tomorrow’s Innovators program at North Carolina A&T, she visits the school at least twice a year to recruit students for BMS’ cardiovascular sales internship.

This month’s episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Bryant Powell, associate director, Social Media, Omni-Channel Capabilities. This episode was hosted by Terris Moss, associate director, enterprise governance and creative director for the BOLD Innovators podcast series at the 2023 Future Pharma Conference in Boston, MA.

Bryant Powell is responsible for leading the podcast and social audio capabilities within the commercialization organization at Bristol Myers Squibb. As well, he is also responsible for increasing BMS' evolving capabilities in social listening. Bryant is part of the Communications Leadership Team within BMS’ Black Organization for Leadership and Development (BOLD) People Business & Resource Group (PBRG), where he uses his former experience in the marketing and entertainment industry to create and proudly hosts his passion project - the global podcast series, BOLD Innovators.

Bryant spoke to his passion for creating and building platforms where individuals and customers can speak about their experiences, while communicating their value and impact to the world. When trying to incorporate his passions at work, Bryant advises using the power of focus. “Double down on your strengths and brand yourself to others, what you want in your career,” he says. Focusing on his strengths and passions while uniquely branding himself as a digital content and social audio subject matter expert paved the way to where he is in his career and led to the creation of not only the BOLD Innovators podcast series, but also Bristol Myers Squibb’s podcasting ecosystem.

In this month’s episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Paul Ashley, senior director, strategic engagement and inclusion within the Global Procurement Group at Bristol Myers Squibb.

Paul Ashley is a seasoned procurement leader with over 20 years of industry experience. Paul holds a bachelor of science in industrial engineering from Northwestern University, as well as a master of science in industrial operations and engineering from the University of Michigan.

Born and raised in Detroit, MI, the capital of the automobile manufactory industry, Paul Ashley decided to focus his higher education pursuits on engineering. After grad school, Paul landed a job at IBM where he was first exposed to the field of procurement and his love of bringing diversity to companies' supply chains from business owners of color, the LGBTQ+ community and women.

When asked what Paul is boldly passionate about, he refers to his social media profile which demonstrates Paul is unapologetically black, gay and Christian. Paul is passionate about uplifting these communities by being an example of how to live the intersections of these communities freely. “In times where I've had to navigate troubled waters is in the intersections of being, black, gay and Christian.” Paul had to learn to fully embrace and love all of himself, unapologetically. He advises others to “stop coming out, just be out and be who you are, and people will figure it out.”