By Kris Steen, Vice President, Executive Search
I started my career as a research analyst, learning this industry from the ground up. Over more than twenty years placing executives at critical inflection points across life sciences, I have had the privilege of working with some of the most talented leaders in the field. Many of them are women.
What these women share is not a story about overcoming a system, though that is part of the reality. It is a story about capability, grit, and a willingness to build something meaningful even when the conditions are uncertain. This Women's History Month, I want to highlight some of the extraordinary women I have had the privilege of working alongside and share what companies that get this right are doing differently.
A Changing Pipeline
The progress being made in life sciences is real and worth acknowledging. In January of this year alone, there were ten female CEO appointments across biotech, with major leadership milestones at companies like Takeda and Sanofi signaling that the ceiling is rising. These milestones signal what is possible, and they are paving the way for the next generation of life sciences leadership to look meaningfully different from the last.
There are still structural dynamics that shape who gets to the top. Women continue to shoulder 2.5 times more hours each day on unpaid care and domestic work than their male counterparts. This inequality impacts who can travel constantly, fundraise aggressively, and absorb the unpredictable hours that early-stage biotech leadership demands. The capital access gap is equally stark: companies founded solely by women receive only around 2% of venture funding, and fewer than 10% of biotech investors are women. Leadership pipelines are shaped by who is writing the checks, which is why increasing representation in venture capital is such an important part of the broader conversation.
The narrative that exceptional women are not available or not ready for the most senior roles is simply not true. The pipeline exists. The question is whether companies are looking broadly enough to find it. And increasingly, I believe they are. More boards are asking better questions. More investors are willing to back first-time CEOs. The direction is clear.
Women Who Are Getting It Done
Charlotte Casebourne Stock
I first met Charlotte Casebourne Stock in 2017, just as she was stepping into her first CEO role at Theolytics, a pre-clinical, seed stage company where fundraising is relentless and the pressure to advance the science never lets up. From the very beginning, her intellect, her drive, and the way she led were remarkable. During her tenure, Charlotte raised $45 million in non-dilutive and institutional equity financing, advancing a pipeline of three novel biologics and moving the lead program into the clinic for ovarian cancer patients.
The investors who backed her took a chance on someone outside the conventional mold, and what she built is a clear argument for why that bet was worth taking. Since then, she has gone onto invest in multiple biotechs and serves as Chair and Independent Board Director across several companies. Watching her trajectory over the past nine years has been nothing short of extraordinary.
Dr. Amy Ripka
Amy Ripka, PhD, founded Lucy Therapeutics with a focus on novel approaches to neurological disorders, doing the painstaking work of raising capital before she had clinical data to show for it. What stood out immediately was not just her scientific acumen but the kind of leader she was: deeply fair, collaborative, and certain that everyone on the team is part of the outcome.
Amy secured funding from traditional investors and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, expanding her pipeline programs along the way. When she ultimately had to make the difficult decision to wind down Lucy Therapeutics, she handled it with the same integrity she had brought to everything else, sharing a transparent and deeply human reflection that resonated widely across the industry. That willingness to be open even when it is hard is rare. Instead of stepping back, she turned a difficult moment into an act of genuine leadership.
What Getting It Right Actually Looks Like
The companies that consistently bring exceptional women into leadership share one quality: intentionality. At the highest-stakes moments, whether a company is launching publicly for the first time, moving into the clinic, or approaching commercialization, there is natural pressure to default to leaders who have done that exact job before. That instinct creates a self-reinforcing cycle. The challenge is that the only way someone gains that experience is by being given the opportunity in the first place. If we keep drawing from the same narrow profile, the pipeline cannot evolve.
There are organizations and leaders actively working to change that. The founders of the Biotech CEO Sisterhood, Dr. Julia Owens, Dr. Angie You, and Dr. Sheila Gujrathi, are a strong example of what it looks like when accomplished leaders reach back to create pathways for others. Programs like Women in Bio's Boardroom Ready program, where over 90% of graduates go on to land aboard role, demonstrate what is possible when access is intentionally expanded.
The goal is not a separate track for women but ensuring that exceptional candidates across the pipeline have access to the preparation and networks that have historically been unevenly distributed.
Where to Start
For CEOs and board members who want to build more diverse leadership teams, the most practical starting point is the most straightforward: deliberately broaden your network. Call the female leaders you know and ask them for introductions. Hold your search firms accountable for presenting a genuinely diverse pipeline from the start, not as an afterthought. At Stevenson, more than 45% of our placements are women, and that reflects a consistent, strategic commitment to finding the best candidates, not just the most familiar ones.
For women building toward executive leadership, invest in your community and be direct about your ambitions. You do not need to be the loudest person in the room to advocate effectively for yourself. I have been fortunate to have mentors who invested in me along the way, and I try to pay that forward. Mentorship alone is not enough though. You have to be willing to ask for the next role, and sometimes to simply start doing it.
You also have to be willing to name what you see when something is not right. Early in my career, a male client once asked me, "Who watches your son when you travel?" My answer: "Who watches your kids when you travel?" The shift is real. But sustaining it requires all of us to keep showing up with intention, and occasionally, to name what we see.
This Women's History Month and beyond, let's make sure the momentum we are seeing is not a moment but a permanent shift in how this industry identifies, supports, and elevates its leaders.
