After more than 20 years at Eli Lilly, Leslie Sam moved into independent consulting. To prepare for the transition, she focused on becoming technically deep and earning industry recognition.
When Leslie Sam founded her independent consulting business in September 2019, it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. She’d wanted to consult for years, as she’d been interested in using her experience and expertise to help organizations reach their business and stakeholder objectives.
“So, it wasn’t like ‘Oh, I’m bored, let me start a company,’” the president of Leslie Sam & Associates told BioSpace. “It had always kind of been a part of my plan.”
Thanks to that plan, Sam is now helping U.S. and global biotech and pharma organizations of all sizes elevate their clinical research and quality practices. She noted that doesn’t mean she’s looking to upset their entire way of doing business.
“It’s not just Leslie Sam coming in and saying, ‘This is how you’re going to do it,’” she said. “It’s absolutely a collaboration and a partnership.”
Laying the Foundation for Change
Prior to being an independent consultant, Sam spent 20 years at Eli Lilly. She had a variety of roles there, starting as a clinical research associate. Ten years into her tenure, she started thinking about consulting and began laying the groundwork for her transition into that space.
Sam worked to become technically deep in areas of interest related to clinical trial execution, operations and quality. For example, at Eli Lilly, she earned her Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and learned about the science and principles of quality. She also joined Linking Leaders, a group outside of the company that gives biopharma executives a place to discuss hot topics and challenges, benchmark progress and collaborate.
“The goal was to make each of us better at what we do, and then we would share our learning and our understanding with our respective companies when we returned,” Sam said.
In addition to becoming technically deep, Sam also prepared for consulting work by seeking industry recognition.
“I wanted people to know who I am, what I stand for and to recognize the value of my contributions to the industry,” she said.
As part of that effort, Sam made the most of her Drug Information Association membership. For example, she not only networked with other DIA members but also once served as chair of its Good Clinical Practices & QA community. The online forum is a place where DIA members can share information, raise concerns, mentor each other and publish their shared work.
Making Her Move to Entrepreneurship
After Sam’s final position at Eli Lilly as director of global quality systems-safety, efficacy and customer information, she took a nearly two-year break from employment. When she realized she missed working, she decided to move into consulting rather than join another company.
However, Sam noted that while she knew a lot about clinical research, quality and compliance, she didn’t have the business acumen needed to be a successful entrepreneur. So, when she founded her company in 2019, she started by subcontracting on projects with Wool Consulting Group. Sam credited working with Wool President Liz Wool as key to her transition into consulting.
Networking has also been important, helping Sam secure clients. She noted she loves it and feels she’s good at it—not just at meeting people but also at finding touchpoints they can relate to and breaking down silos. Sam has even co-led a DIA session about networking with David Fryrear, executive vice president and head of quality assurance at Astellas.
In describing the value of networking, Sam shared, “I can’t think of a time where I’ve had a door not welcomingly open to some sort of engagement. If I make a phone call, if I send an email, I always get a response. ‘Happy to help. Happy to help.’”
Loving the Business She Founded
Nearly five years after founding her business, Sam is enthusiastic about her work.
“I love what I do,” she said, noting that consulting is fun. “There’s never two days that are alike, so I really enjoy what I do.”
Sam’s consulting work often involves providing a service she enjoys: developing risk-based quality management frameworks for companies. Her clients include The Barcelona Institute for Global Health, ISGlobal, which is working to help close the gaps in health disparities between and within different regions of the world. Sam is partnering with ISGlobal on a mass drug administration study that has over 50,000 participants. The decentralized clinical trial was conducted in Mozambique and Kenya.
Sam shared that she helped ISGlobal streamline its approach to quality oversight so the organization could achieve its objectives of patient safety and data reliability while more quickly detecting and acting on meaningful signals. She described the project as a big win, noting it allowed her to leverage and apply her experience in innovative ways in a clinical trial setting that she’s never worked in before. As a result, she said, she was able to help transform how the organization executes—and thinks about—clinical trials.
Making Your Move to Consulting
If you’re interested in transitioning to consulting work one day, Sam recommended you begin planning now. Put a plan on paper and start executing it. That plan, according to Sam, should include becoming technically deep in your chosen areas of interest as well as networking and ensuring people understand your brand.
“Being a consultant is definitely a combination of what you know and, more importantly, who you know,” she said.
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