In today's episode, we are joined by Stephanie Martin, Director of QA and Product Quality Lead at Adaptimmune.

Stephanie's journey into quality leadership is anything but traditional. She started out as a nuclear engineer at a shipyard before pivoting into biotech and building a career in quality.

What stands out is how she has faced bias around her age and appearance head-on, and still accelerated into leadership roles by focusing on EQ, credibility, and consistent performance.

Stephanie's story is a brilliant case study in how you can lead without waiting to be told you're ready.

We talk about the following:

🎙️Starting her career in a shipyard as a nuclear engineer.

🎙️Developing emotional intelligence in an industrial setting.

🎙️Transitioning into biotech and discovering her passion for quality.

🎙️Why a Director saw leadership potential in her before she did.

🎙️How she learned to influence without direct authority.

🎙️Overcoming bias around age, appearance, and experience.

🎙️Building credibility and scaling her impact at TCR² and Adaptimmune.

🎙️The mindset shift from tactical to strategic decision-making.

🎙️Her approach to hiring and coaching future quality leaders.

🎙️The advice she’d give to other young leaders looking to make their mark.

Stephanie is a thoughtful, driven, and emotionally intelligent leader who’s helping shape the future of quality in cell and gene therapy.

Thank you Stephanie for sharing your incredible journey.

Hope everyone enjoys the show!

In today’s episode, I was joined by Megan Callan, Vice President of Quality at Abeona Therapeutics.

I really wanted to speak to Megan because her last few years at Abeona have been a masterclass in building a quality organisation that can handle the demands of commercial manufacturing - all while driving a digital transformation and keeping a patient-first mindset.

Megan has a unique career journey, moving across different industries and company sizes, and in this conversation, she opens up about how she’s navigated the shift from tactical to strategic leadership, what it takes to scale a quality team rapidly, and how AI is already influencing the role of QA.

We talk about the following:

🎙️ Megan’s early career moves and how she found her way into quality

🎙️ Leading Abeona’s scale-up from early clinical to commercial readiness

🎙️ Growing a QA team from 5 to 60+ people in a short timeframe

🎙️ The shift in mindset from tactical execution to strategic leadership

🎙️ Lessons learned from a major digital transformation project

🎙️ How to align quality with business objectives and patient needs

🎙️ Building resilience and navigating change at pace

🎙️ The role AI and IT now play in quality operations

🎙️ Advice for aspiring quality leaders who want to step into senior roles

Megan is a thoughtful and forward-thinking quality leader whose approach blends business acumen, strategic foresight, and a deep commitment to patient outcomes.

Thank you, Megan, for sharing your incredible journey.

Hope everyone enjoys the show!

In today’s episode I was joined by Nolan Polson, Vice President of Quality Assurance and Product Quality at Iovance Biotherapeutics.

I really wanted to speak to Nolan because he’s one of the few leaders who’s built quality teams at every stage – from biologics at Amgen to radiopharma at Janssen, to launching two first-in-class cell therapies at Juno/Celgene/BMS.

Nolan’s career path is a great example of what it looks like to carry foundational quality principles into fast-paced, high-growth settings. He talks about his early scientific passion, how he transitioned from R&D to Quality Ops, and the leadership mindset required to scale from clinical to commercial.

We talk about the following:

• How Nolan's scientific roots in chemistry shaped his quality mindset
• Transitioning from R&D into Quality Ops and building speed with structure
• What Big Pharma taught him about good science, mature systems, and agency collaboration
• Scaling product quality teams from 2 to 45 during two cell therapy launches
• Building empowered leadership teams and the traits he looks for when hiring
• How AI can help quality teams move toward review-by-exception and proactive oversight
• The difference between biologics and cell therapy mindsets in a commercial setting
• Creating a culture of continuous learning and succession planning
• Lessons from moving across Amgen, J&J, GSK, BMS, and Iovance
• Why autologous cell therapy still holds massive curative potential

Nolan is a thoughtful, experienced quality leader who blends deep scientific expertise with a calm, strategic leadership approach.

Thank you Nolan for sharing your incredible journey.

Hope everyone enjoys the show!