How my responsibility grew from an interface to the enterprise

Mandate

Maintain dependable enterprise technology and the interpretability of records through application and instrument change.

Outcomes

• Funded a twelve-week EUR1.4 million restoration-capability programme after three exercises lacked method context
• Held an electronic batch-record rollout for eight weeks at EUR620,000 continuation cost
• Retained a segregated reader after 144 of 1,200 sampled packages required it

Decisions in context

I became CIO as the company needed a clearer account of the dependencies carried across successive technology programmes. My responsibility combines continuing service with investment, but it does not include product release or the quality director's judgement. I report to Lucien Mervaul and work with Celiane Vaumery to distinguish the technical evidence from the decision it supports. The present 144-person team and EUR68 million authority are my scope for 2026, rather than figures attributed to every year since appointment. I have recommended delays, retained capabilities and a deferred analytics proposal when the proposed next step lacked an adequate basis. I present those decisions to directors with their costs and unresolved conditions. I have not joined the board. My continuing task is to leave each programme with an operating account that remains useful after its original sponsors and technical specialists move on.

Reason for the move

Current appointment; considering a limited external governance contribution subject to consent and fit.

Mandate

Coordinate enterprise applications and their interfaces with manufacturing and laboratory work.

Outcomes

• Established named owners for cross-application interpretation questions
• Separated transition completion from continuing support obligations in proposals
• Made the cost of retained technical dependencies visible in investment reviews

Decisions in context

The enterprise systems role moved my attention from a defined technical estate to the points where different parts of the manufacturer relied on one another. A change to an application could alter what another function saw without changing the underlying work. I asked teams to examine those handovers with the people who interpreted the material. The 2016 institutional investment also prompted more explicit reporting on capital proposals and the obligations programmes left behind. I led eighty-eight colleagues through five direct reports by the end of the appointment, with EUR26 million annual authority. I did not treat that budget as a claim to run the laboratories or manufacturing plants. My contribution was to connect the technical dependencies and give executives a clearer decision. Promotion to CIO followed in January 2020, widening the same discipline to continuing service, suppliers and the full technology portfolio.

Reason for the move

Promoted to CIO in January 2020 with responsibility for the complete technology function.

Mandate

Support laboratory applications while preserving the relationships required to interpret their records.

Outcomes

• Documented method and configuration dependencies with laboratory specialists
• Introduced interpretation exercises into proposed transition reviews
• Clarified the separation between technical availability and quality acceptance

Decisions in context

Laboratory systems changed my understanding of what a successful transition had to preserve. A displayed output could survive a move while the route needed to understand its method or earlier changes became difficult to reconstruct. I worked with laboratory and quality colleagues to identify those relationships before selecting the technical approach. My forty-six-person function supplied systems expertise and support; it did not replace the scientists' or quality specialists' decisions. With EUR9.6 million annual authority, I had to explain the cost of preserving a usable route as well as the cost of introducing a new application. I became more deliberate about recording what an exercise had actually demonstrated. The move to enterprise systems in July 2014 followed from that work: several important dependencies crossed the boundary of the laboratory applications, and I wanted to address them through a wider operating remit.

Reason for the move

Moved into enterprise systems to address dependencies beyond the laboratory estate.

Mandate

Plan plant application changes with production colleagues and maintain practical support ownership.

Outcomes

• Aligned technology maintenance with agreed plant operating windows
• Established responsibility for unresolved application exceptions
• Improved handover records between implementation and continuing support

Decisions in context

Joining Orvanel gave me my first sustained people-management responsibility. I led twenty-four colleagues through four reports and had EUR3.8 million annual authority for plant informatics. The role made the consequences of a technical timetable immediate: production colleagues needed to know what an intervention would interrupt and how an exception would be handled. I learnt to agree the operating conditions before presenting a change as scheduled. I also became responsible for the support arrangements after an implementation team left. A completed installation could still leave ambiguity about who answered a question from the plant. The company grew during these years; its 1,400 employees and EUR320 million revenue describe the final period of my appointment. I moved into laboratory systems in January 2009 to take on a more specialised record environment while retaining the habit of planning technology work with its operating users.

Reason for the move

Appointed head of laboratory systems as the company widened the remit beyond plant applications.

Mandate

Analyse manufacturing information flows and support users interpreting records across applications.

Outcomes

• Mapped record dependencies with experienced manufacturing users
• Documented the source of interface and interpretation questions
• Built practical experience of application support before entering management

Decisions in context

I entered pharmaceutical technology after completing my information systems master's degree in June 1994. At Cerlun I worked in an eight-person analyst team and had neither direct reports nor a personal budget. My assignments involved understanding how manufacturing information moved and how colleagues used earlier records. I learnt to ask an experienced user why a field mattered before deciding that it could be simplified. The company's final-period scale was 620 employees and EUR145 million revenue; those figures describe the business around my work, not a remit I managed. Over seven and a half years I gained a foundation in analysis, interfaces and support, while recognising the limits of a technical explanation. I left in March 2002 because the Orvanel appointment offered responsibility for the team and continuing arrangements around the applications, a natural next step beyond solving individual analysis problems.

Reason for the move

Joined Orvanel for a management role combining people, operating support and budget responsibility.