9 minute read
Inspirational Leaders 11
Confidence is key to business success
After more than three decades working for pharmaceutical firms, HELEN MUIRHEAD bit the bullet. She quit corporate life and launched her own consultancy, GMPharma Limited.
With so much experience
behind her, you’d think it would be an easy transition to make – but Helen was beset by doubts over whether it would work.
As it turned out, she needn’t have worried. Four years later, the firm has built up partnerships with leading scientific experts and global research institutions and now has clients all over the world, including in Hong Kong and China. “We’ve been extraordinarily successful,” says Helen. “We’re committed to getting new medicines out to patients and supporting our clients in the development of drugs, particularly respiratory medicines. Essentially, we’re the technical support; we supply knowledge to clients so they can develop their products and get them to market. We have a deep understanding of regulatory compliance issues and the processes that need to be followed.” So, the worry that she felt four years ago had been misplaced? “Absolutely,” she says. “If I have one piece of advice for someone who wants to start a business, it’s that you should be confident in your abilities. Trust your instincts and remember the experience and knowledge you’ve built up previously. There will be good days and down days but if you remain resilient, you can ride out the peaks and troughs.” “Another useful tactic is to surround yourself with a strong network of people, experts who can help you. You might be really good in your field but you can learn from others who have a different set of skills and knowledge.” Helen has built up a wealth of industry experience since leaving school at 16. She landed her first job in the food industry, conducting quality control testing on ingredients in the labs, before moving to a medium-sized pharma firm. Eventually she entered the world of big pharma, working in formulation development in the respiratory division of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). “We are looking at numerous different ways of treating diseases via medicines delivered to the lungs, not just diseases like asthma and COPD” she says, “it is a very exciting time to work with dry powder inhalers and novel devices. These dry powder inhalers have a lower impact on the environment as opposed to traditional “puffer” inhalers which contain propellants. However, excitingly the industry is looking at changes to these inhaler propellants too, as I understand by monitoring recent scientific publications”. Helen, who has a chemistry degree, worked her way up the ladder at GSK and eventually headed up the respiratory centre of excellence at the firm. Then there was a change of heart. She says: “My husband and I both worked together in big pharma; he was accountable throughout his long career for many new products launched. We wanted a better work-life balance so we decided to quit in 2017 and established our own consultancy the following year.” It was a timely move. Given the wreckage left by the COVID-19 pandemic, respiratory disease prevention and control looks set to be a key growth area within the pharma industry. While Helen and Gordon will continue to support clients at home and abroad, they’re also keen to support local organisations, keeping the heart in Hertfordshire.
Helen teaches budding scientists by giving lectures at local universities, as well as working with lung charities, and sponsoring an annual emerging scientist award at St Francis College in Letchworth – where she and her mother once attended. She also sits on the skills team of the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership Group, which identifies skills that the pharma industry will need to continue making world-leading medicines in the UK.
What we can learn from nature…
We live in an unprecedented time in our history. The most serious challenge of our lifetime has been sadly brought about by our modern way of living, to say nothing of our related disconnect from nature.
As individuals and businesses,
we are forced to take on an active role in dealing with the biggest existential challenge. We are already seeing the impact of our actions, and frankly the delayed response to the climate crisis. We are also witnessing major collaborative approaches to deal with consequences of past decisions which will continue to influence future generations.
When Inspire magazine asked us if we are interested in publishing an article featuring our business, the question that first came to mind is ‘What do we talk about?’ The environmental, climate and ecological question is now staring us in the face and there is no point pretending that it is business as usual. When KMG Partnership began operation in 1991, it was a one-man band then evolved as an engineering practice, providing structural and civil engineering consultancy for a variety of clients and development types. It was around also that time that BREEAM - Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method - was established but it took another 10 years before BREEAM became a vehicle of support for design and assessment on master plans and building projects. KMG’s founder, who is now retired, realised the opportunity in providing our clients with a combined architectural and engineering design service offer. Over the past 25 years or so we have grown our commercial portfolio to include large industrial and pharmaceutical projects; however sustainable design and green architecture were always thought of as fanciful add-on features rather than being implemented as part of the project brief. In my role as Managing Director, I feel the responsibility of joining forces with the many who are taking actions and paving the way for a meaningful change. I am also an architect and an academic and very much involved in pushing the boundaries and advocating for sustainable solutions on our projects. Most architectural courses taught at universities now are focusing on green architecture and bio engineered buildings. A key part of modern, regenerative approaches to architecture and design is to explore what nature and natural systems can teach us and reconnecting with methods pioneered by our ancestors. This can achieve sustainable, closed loop design, which is more than the sum of its parts, achieving not just net zero but also net gain, which is essential to creating the resilient places we and the world need. The issue is that discussions around climate change can be abstract. Ocean levels rising, fire in a coal plant in a faraway place, all seem too distant for some of us who do not witness first-hand the devastation. We all live and work in buildings, therefore the connection between buildings and climate change is tangible. Buildings are what we all share, and they are contributing to almost 40 % of the greenhouse pollution – Data Source: Global ABC Global Status Report 2018, EIA. Every time we take a shower and plug in our computer, we are using energy that is creating greenhouse pollution.
We need a fundamental shift in the way we see and think of buildings. Current green categories and targets are really missing certain pieces of the puzzle. If we continue to follow it will probably slow the outcome but will not change where we are heading. It is now estimated that we have 8 years to save the planet and change the course of direction. There are a lot of net zero projects that we can learn from but what we need now is net positive. We need to think and design buildings that are fundamentally green rather than just applying elements of green technologies, and to apply whole systems, circular thinking to every aspect of the design, specification, and construction process. This holistic way of thinking, where all actions and consequences are properly considered and where designers use systems to create outcomes which contribute to the greater good, is something which is now known as regenerative design. In 2017 KMG partnership joined the RSK Group which is a fully integrated, environmental, sustainability, engineering, and technical services group consisting of over 100 businesses and employing more than 8,000 specialists across the globe. What started as an engineering practice is now a multi-disciplinary practice and part of one of the largest environmental consultancies in the UK with a diverse client base servicing key accounts for clients in water, energy, property, manufacturing, government, and transport. From our humble beginnings we believed in the collective approach to solving problems. To this day collaboration is at the heart of what we do - we team up with like-minded businesses and we partner with our clients to help them grow their portfolio. Some of our key clients are very open to engage and employ greener approaches to design and operations of their facilities, however like many others they constantly weigh the green credentials against cost and in the end opt for an affordable and sometimes short-term solution. Increasingly we need to look at whole life costs and the extra benefits that can be realised over time by investing in nature-based, regenerative approaches to design.
The Terrace, a proposed new biophilic mixed use development in Hemel Hempstead
The architectural concept is derived from the idea of “Babylon” a terraced landscape with horizontal rectangular massing which ascend from the south to the north of the site. Interrupted by a series of rectangular open and green spaces cascading at various levels of the development and include Communal gardens for visitors and tenants. The residential block is the highest and seats perpendicular to the commercial buildings offering uninterrupted views across the landscape. Image Credit: The Terrace by KMG Partnership
We are minimising damage but falling behind on all real indicators and trends. Nature and architecture are both rooted to place but sadly this is where comparison tends to end. Flowers get their energy from the sun thorough photosynthesis; a plant gets all its water needs from the amount of precipitation that it tries to capture in the root system below it. It does not pollute, when it dies it becomes food for the earth that supports it – a virtuous circle. Buildings can truly imitate nature’s life cycle from the choice and sourcing of smart materials, natural and sustainable energy sources, recycling of wate and repurposing of existing redundant buildings and materials. Adopting a true circular economy is one way of moving towards sustainable living. What we need to do is what Buckminster Fuller once observed: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete”. There are worldwide initiatives, however here in the UK we are behind other countries such as Germany in applying nature-based solutions. What is needed is a taxonomy model that outweighs the current model. A living building for a living future, a building that echoes nature!
Margarita Germanos BA (Hons) Dip UCL RIBA ARB BIID KMG Partnership is a member of the RSK Group https://kmgpartnership.com/ Contributor: Andrew Tempany BA (Hons) Dip LA FRSA CMLI www.stephenson-halliday.com
