“Every Time You Walk in the Room, You’re Being Evaluated” - Ricky Hopson, Catalent Group President and Chief of Staff

Hi, and welcome to Executive Land. I'm Elizabeth Friedman, and this is where top leaders go off of script to share this straight talk and the unwritten playbook about life in the C-suite. For more ideas, visit eastsuiteleader.com.

Now let's dive into today's episode. All right. Well, welcome back, everybody, to another episode of Executive Land. And I am thrilled to be joined today by Ricky Hobson.

And Ricky, I'm going to jump in and introduce you right away as the president of CSS at Catalan. You're also the chief of staff to the CEO, but I want you to explain to us what that means. Tell us about Catalan and tell us a little bit about you. Thanks, Lisbeth.

Thanks for having me here today and uh excited to have this uh this discussion with you. So, yeah, my role today is uh I head up our CSS business. So CSS is our clinical and specialty services segment in Catalan. So in Catalan, we operate and in the go to market is three segments, uh, and this is one of those three segments.

It's uh it's really our clinical supplies segment. So we have a nine-site clinical supply network that spans the globe. We do predominantly clinical PAC label, storage, and distribution of clinical supply uh materials uh part of that uh clinical trial uh network. Additionally, we have some uh specialty businesses in there, notably micronization of APIs and uh spray drying and nasal facilities here in the uh US.

Um yeah, myself, I've been with Catlant now 25 years. Um I started in the UK, I started at our Swindon facility, which is still uh a thriving facility in the the west of England where we have our terrific uh Zydis technology. I started there and uh took the leap of faith to move to the US. I'm currently based uh East Coast um New Jersey area.

Um so this uh this this west country uh New Jersey East Coast accent going on. Um I I initially came for a couple of years actually to the US, but uh I met my met my wife on New Jersey transit uh going as one does, Ricky. As one does. Um and you know the rest is history.

So uh we we we we got married. I have uh have four children, four girls actually, uh aged uh 14 and in uh 14, 12, 9, and uh 5. Uh keep me busy in addition to the job that I do at Catalan. My job outside of Catalan is is just as just as busy.

Um and yeah, in addition to that, Elizabeth, as you mentioned, I do have chief of staff responsibilities. So this is uh a great opportunity to get exposure to you know broader uh company-wise enterprise events outside of just the CSS uh network, including exposures to you know uh the board and uh various certain strategic aspects of Catlump that, as I said, wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily normally get involved in in my role and responsibility of managing our clinical supplies uh business.

Well, uh we're gonna talk all about I think the different hats that you wear for the company. But Ricky, for people that really don't know anything about this industry or even about who is Catalint, tell us just a little bit about what Catalint does. Um who does Catalint work with in the world? Who who are your clients?

Yeah. Um so Catalint really is a full-service uh CDMO, which is uh a contract development and manufacturing organization. Uh currently we're a privately held organization owned by Novo Holdings. Um that was a transaction that uh closed in December of 2024, roughly after about 10 years of Catalan operating on the uh the New York uh stock exchange.

It was a widely publicized uh transaction that, as I said, closed in December, whereby it was very unique in that three of Catalan's fill-finish facilities were uh sold ultimately to Novo Nordisk, whilst Nova Holdings, uh the holding company, picked up the rest of Catalan. And ever since we've been you know part of the Novo Holdings family, and it's been a uh it's been a terrific experience uh over the last uh 13, 14 uh months or so. So, yes, we do operate in the uh in the in the uh contract development and manufacturing world.

So, what that really means is we do a lot of the behind-the-scenes development in clinical and commercial manufacturing for pharmaceutical drugs that eventually make it to the market. So we work with a lot of large farmer, uh mid-sized farmers, biotech as well, biotech certainly that don't have the capabilities that large pharma has by providing those uh development services, the formulation work, the analytical work. Uh, as I said, the clinical trial manufacturing needs to support those uh clinical trials.

And then additionally, if the product is successful, we do uh offer the uh the commercial scalability across multiple dosage forms, including soft gels, oral solids, uh drug product uh fill finish as well, and of course uh our drug substance capabilities. Yeah, I mean, it's really an extraordinary business. And I think for people listening, I mean, and Ricky, you can correct me here if I'm like grossly oversimplifying and doing Catalan a grave injustice, because I always think, you know, you go into a CVS and you see, right, the the things that we're able to buy on the shelves, right?

You know, how did that aspirin get into that bottle, for example? How does the, you know, the the the I don't know, the medicine get into the vial that we're able to inject? Um it's companies like Catalint, and so of course it's a massive operation around the world. And and so it's a hugely important role you play.

But one of the things that I really want to ask you about here, Ricky, because in fact I've known you wearing a number of different hats, not just president of an important business at the company, not just as chief of staff, but you've also played some very significant finance roles. So talk to us from like a leadership perspective. What's different if you were just advising a group of leaders to say, here's the biggest difference between leading a finance kind of organization, a business versus a chief of staff?

Like, what are some of the key takeaways here? What's different about each of those? Uh look, I I uh I typically bring the similar playbook to the role that I'm uh in, whether it's a chief of staff role, a finance role, or or leading a business. In in the finance role, and that is uh, you know, that is my core DNA, that's my background, is is one of finance, as you said, wearing multiple hats uh for over 20 years here in Capitoline, including uh wearing the CFO hat in 2023 for a shortened uh period of time.

Um, you know, when you're in the function, you're very much focused on the function in delivering for the function, but also providing that expertise and that support for the business. So you're playing a different role, uh, a different leadership role. You're playing playing one of a support role. When you're in the leadership role in a business role, you're no longer that support role, you're running the business.

Full accountability stops, starts and stops uh with you in such such roles. So look, Elizabeth, fundamentally, though, the leadership attributes don't change. And one of the difficulties in those roles is making sure that you've got the people around you to deliver. Uh because as you know, we all say it's only you're only as good as the team around you.

And when I was in the finance uh organization, it was important to me that we were building a global finance organization that had succession planning in mind. So when I was able to step out of a finance role, there was someone able to step into my role. And it's no different when I'm in the president role now. It's just I'm not just thinking about one function, I'm thinking about multiple functions, multiple business leaders, and how also we can have the right cross-functional team represented in running the CSS uh business.

Well, you know, I don't know if I'm about to insult all the CFOs of the world listening to this, thousands, maybe millions that are, Ricky, of course. Because like here's the thing, you know, as CFO, and we often, I mean, see so many extraordinary CFOs become CEOs inside organizations. So it feels like it's a nice logical transition. At least this is what I'm telling myself.

But I have to wonder, Ricky, there you are, like many years in the finance function, really running an entire business, including all of sort of the commercial side of it. We have to grow, we have to sell, we have to engage with clients. How's that transition? Because I have to believe that's a learning curve, no matter how much time you spent in a senior role in an organization.

But what was it like for you? That was the funniest part of the role, quite quite frankly. Uh in the in the finance world, um, you don't always have that seat at the table in front of the client. You're behind the scenes, you know, the meetings taken place, you've got the feedback, now you're off to work to see what we can do to meet customer pricing demands, or how we can um come up with a creative solution to generate uh you know uh uh uh an investment into one of our facilities in support the client's you know volume needs.

So it's very much a behind-the-scenes support in type role in the finance uh uh world, but transitioning to the business role, you are you you you bring all of those skills and those attributes to the table, but you're actually at the table negotiating and having those fun conversations with the client, and they have to be fun conversations. Um, because what's the point in having those conversations? Okay, so Ricky, we have to pause on this. Please tell us how you're able to create fun because these pre these conversations can get a little tough, a little tense.

How uh what is your definition of fun? Maybe that's a better question. And how are you able to bring it into some of those scenarios? Well, I always try to think of it from also the client's perspective.

So I'm bringing my perspective to the table, but I'm also thinking about the client and what the client is looking to achieve. All right. And if I'm coming up with a solution or a proposal that works for the client that doesn't work for me, then I'm not gonna leave the table too happy. And it's not going to be that win-win relationship.

So I think in any negotiation, there has to be fun because you have to leave that table, that negotiating table, with an outcome that's been positive for both the client and for ourselves in Catalan. And that's how I typically approach things, knowing that, hey, if I get what I want, but the client doesn't get what they want, then there's not going to be the fun. There's not going to be the level of expertise or attention given to the deal that we've just struck with the client.

So I'm always trying to figure out and find out how best we can achieve that win-win solution. Uh and both parties leaving the table kind of fun and happy. You know, you talked about having a great team around you. And I'm wondering also when you're running a business, but you've formally worn the hat of CFO, you've lived finance.

I just gotta ask you some questions about your finance leader on your team inside the business. And we're speaking generally, everyone, right? Ricky's got an incredible team, but uh I don't know. I feel like there's a lot you know that could be interesting, right?

Uh what when your boss is is is a former CFO. I don't know. Is there less wiggle room? Um, is it a little bit more challenging?

Do you know sort of all the tricks uh up our sleeve, Ricky? I I feel like you might. Yeah, probably one of the hardest roles on my leadership team is the the finance leader. Feel sorry for the finance leader, right?

It can be a little challenging, no doubt about it, because I I I want it's important for me not to be seen as the finance leader. And with my background in in certain internal meetings, I can it it can easily be well, you know, Ricky is wearing the finance hat, and I don't want to be seen as just wearing that finance hat. So it's it's it's important that sometimes I I do. I take the back seat and let the finance lead lead the finance discussion, uh, as opposed to me kind of feeling like I should be stepping in and leading that finance discussion.

But frankly, look, finance is such an important area of understanding the business. A lot of people believe they understand finance by understanding the PL in revenue and what generates profit. But the key for finance in what makes a good finance leader is really understanding the balance sheet. Um, that's really where the the finance uh leaders differentiate themselves is really navigating and owning um the the the double entry bookkeeping on a balance sheet.

And uh that's where I've got a lot of experience, and finance leader on my team has got a lot of experience as well. And between the two of us, um it makes for an interesting in an interesting dynamic, Elizabeth. But as I said, I I deliberately try to take that back seat so I can allow my finance manager, my finance, well my CFO, I guess I should say, to to do the role that they're uh they're they're they're there to do. But it's saying that if I feel like we're taking the wrong direction in a certain area when it comes to finance or when it comes to capacity, I'm not gonna be a uh a shrinking violent.

There it is. CFO, you you you've heard it. We we we we've heard it from you, Ricky. Um, you know, the other question I think I have just in general is around sort of the profile of of an exceptional finance leader.

And I want to talk to you about that for a minute because g give me your quick reaction to what makes a great CFO, for example, being really tough. Does a CFO have to be the really, really tough one inside a company? Because I often hear this as sort of we need someone who can be tough, Elizabeth. What do you think of that?

I don't know if I agree with it. No, I don't necessarily know if I agree with that. Um, I I think a CFO has a good CFO has to um look past just the financials and appreciate all of the business dynamics that are coming together to create the financials. The financials are the end result.

So if you're just looking at the end result and not understanding the inputs that make the end result as a finance leader, I don't believe that you're doing yourself as a justice is a good and challenging CFO. So if you understand the inputs, like you know, sales or like operations or like quality or project management and understand some of those challenges and help get involved in resolving some of those challenges, then your support will end up resulting in a better looking PL, which ultimately the CFO in all of us want to want to see.

So and you know, I think our current CFO does does that tremendously at Catalan. It isn't just focused on the end result, the PL or the balance sheet, but is focused very much upstream on how sales are generated, or do we have the right people in the right territory? Do we have the right coverage? Are we asking the right questions?

Do we have the right operational leadership? A good CFO is asking all of those questions as opposed to just coming to the war scene after the event and kind of you know just helping pick up the bodies. They're not doing that. The CFO is there, they're in the heat of the battle, and they're very much part of the team.

So fortunately at Catalan, we have a very good CFO that really plays that that role. And uh that's that's that's that's what I see as the good attributes of a CFO, really getting involved, asking those difficult questions, absolutely, not being that shrinking violet, but also being supportive of the team and being supportive of the other functions that are driving the business. So, what maybe has been a surprise for you, Ricky, as you've come out of maybe the finance function into some of these other roles?

And so going back to the different hats that you wear at the company, including talk to us about the chief of staff role, because to me, this is where the art of let's just say diplomacy really, really being attuned to the needs of stakeholders is just everything. Tell us first, because I want to understand why you were asked to play this role. Um, yeah, some interesting background there, Elizabeth. Um so our current CR CEO, Alessandro Maselli, who's been our CEO since July of 2022, um, replaced our long-serving CEO John Cheminsky.

Um Alessandro actually and I worked together for multiple years prior to July of 2022. I was Alessandro's finance partner when Alessandro was our uh uh chief uh chief operating officer. So we we had some some background together, uh worked very well together as well. And Alessandro came into the role.

And at that time, when Alessandro came into the role, my role in Catalan was the uh the controller. I was the corporate controller of Catalan. So our paths weren't crossing that that often. Um, but then in April of 2023, um, you know, we had some difficult uh financially challenging times at Catalan.

And Alessandro asked me to to step in and uh take on the uh CFO role. And that's really when our relationship started to develop more. And um, you know, in Alessandro knew my finance background, he knew my business uh background um in the roles that I've had with him. And um, and then of course, during this time we'd worked closely together on a lot of uh board matters or matters associated with analysts or investors, so myself seeing the bigger picture just outside of that finance function.

So then when that CFO kind of stint ended and we brought in our current CFO, I think you know, working with Alessandro, I wanted to make sure that we stayed close to each other in that capacity. Sure. And Alessandro, given the responsibilities that we had, and of course the rest is history after you know June, July of 2023, in terms of where we ended up with a sale of cattle in December 2024, knowing that there was going to be a lot of activity over that period of time, Alessandro uh asked me to step in and help take on some of those responsibilities, as I said, in dealing with the uh external community or in dealing with some of our uh in internal stakeholders.

So that's the role I did uh during that transition period, I would say, when we were, you know, between when we had uh announced the transaction with Nova Holdings and then when we had closed the transaction with Nova Holdings. And I've continued to do that role uh since as we've uh morphed into a private organization. So a little bit of background there, Elizabeth, on how it uh transpired. And then, you know, specifically on the question around the role it itself.

Yeah, it's as I said earlier, it's a it's a great opportunity as chief of staff is to get involved in kind of CEO type activities that you typically wouldn't see within your function or your business uh role. And that could be exposures to strategic MA activities, divesture activities, it could be exposure to board-related events that typically you wouldn't get involved in. So it does give you that broader horizon just outside of the swim lane that you're asked to uh operate in.

Yeah, I mean, I always say if you have the opportunity to take on a role like that, take it the visibility and just the understanding. But you know, why you, I mean, trusted, obviously deep relationship that you would establish with your CEO years in the making, Ricky. But I also like that element of just it being very context specific, knowing, right, he needed someone with a really strong finance lens and you were able to bring that. I think sometimes we think of chiefs of staff sort of as one way, but in fact, right?

Well, so I want to go back to sort of the the element of just one has to be a master, I think, of diplomacy and reading the room exceptionally well in a role like that. So imagine, Ricky, you're giving us guidance and insight. And this is not just about your company or your CEO, but generally speaking, what what would you advise us? How do we work effectively with a CEO, with an executive team?

Like, what have you seen as chief of staff that you would say these are the things to do or not do? Well, you know, uh, I spent most of my career here in Catalan, in growing up in Catalan, in in, you know, first getting exposures to uh the C suite and then ultimately the board. You can have a tendency to want to be heard because you're new on the scene and you want your points to come across, you want your voice to be heard. Um, but I I think as you you you you do.

That more, and you mature and you understand the room and you read the room uh and you pick up on those subtleties, you you realize that perhaps it's not always best to be heard. You don't need to be saying something just to uh you know to be the voice in the room. And I think that's one of the subtleties, as I said, that certainly I've learned and picked up on over my last few years in transitioning into more C-suite roles at Catalan is, you know, just uh, you know, you can you can raise the point when there's a point to be raised.

Otherwise, you know, best just to stay silent and let the conversation uh go in the way that it's it's it's correct. If you've got a point to be said that's going to help the conversation, then certainly say it. It's worth saying, but uh otherwise um stay silent. It's okay to be silent in these read in these meetings.

It's okay to let uh the tensions uh raise a little bit. And it's not your job necessarily always to bring those tensions back down. Ah, you know, that's so interesting because I think a lot of the times we get this guidance about how do we prepare our messaging and you know, sort of spend all this time behind the scenes pulling together the slides and the decks. And while we need to do that, I love what you're saying.

Sometimes just listen. And right. But but on the note of being able to come in well prepared, what else would you advise there, Ricky? Because again, you know, what what is the good, the bad, and the please do not do this that you well, you know, uh a mentor of mine many years ago gave me some advice, and I still give my advice to this team, uh, my team today.

And uh you can hope hopefully hopefully it's appropriate, uh Elizabeth. But every time that my team uh and myself, we go in front of the CEO, we go in front of the executive team or the board to present on our business. Um, you know, it's good to add that little bit of pressure and make it real. And the point I'm making is that think of this as a job interview.

Every month, every time that you go in front of that executive committee, it's the executive committee's opportunity to review you as an individual, as a business leader. And are you the right person still for that functional role or for that business role? And as a CEO or an executive, you don't get that many opportunities to be exposed to you know a senior leader within the company. Um, and when you do get exposed to it, you're asking yourself those questions.

Is this still the right person to be leading that business or on that team leading that business? So I always say to my team, look, you got to bring your A game. This is an important meeting, right? It's a monthly update or whatever the meeting may be, it's a business update, it's a strategy update, it's a budget update, whatever that meeting is, it's your opportunity to sit across this uh the table from the CEO, from the CFO, from board members, and articulate to them why you're clear in what you're doing, why you're right in what you're doing, how you're executing on the strategy, and why you're still the right person.

Um have you um brought your own A game into some of these situations? What else have you found as work for you, Ricky? Uh well, one one thing I I do find is you can get uh you can get paralyzed by PowerPoint slides, Elizabeth. Uh and we've done that, um, not to get into too many specifics, but we've certainly done that during various different uh phases that we've been through in in Catalan and uh you know you can come to an hour presentation with 47 slides, and you know you're not going to get through 47 slides.

Right, right. So I think we've we've got a lot, lot better at that that now and understanding the the time that you've got. And the key is uh the slides can say what the slides can say, but the messages you want to get across is not on those slides, it's in the words in the vernacular that you want to that that you want to get across. It's in your narrative.

So again, always encourage my team that what you pull up on the slide, what you present is it's fine. It it's it's the it's the it's the ticket to entry to get into the meeting, all right, is the slide. But really, where you're going to bring your A game is articulating what is not on the slide and what you're doing to drive business improvements. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. You know, I had asked earlier about sort of the the profile of say a CFO, but even if we were just to say what we really need and want to see from executive leaders, and you know, I don't know if you're feeling this, Ricky. I'm finding like in 2026, people are feeling like some pressure. Um, if I were to sort of look across the companies I'm working with and we could talk about all kinds of reasons why, but I'm wondering what you have found really works when we talk about inspiring leaders, really.

Um you know, I believe I I think this is part of the job. We gotta create an environment where people feel willing, energized, optimistic, um even when the business is hard and there are challenges. Yeah. Okay, so that's my soapbox.

How do you think about this? How do you approach this? Uh well, um look, I I love the job I do, I love the company I work for. And if you can't say the same, then you probably want to think about is this the right role or the right company that you're in, quite quite frankly.

Um uh I've got a passion for what I do, and I bring that passion to the table. My team see that passion. I have that, I believe I've got that that fire, that hunger in the belly to succeed. And it's it it comes across from me, it resonates with the team.

And I think when the team see me engaged, when they see the hunger and the desire coming through from me, they can see that this is important. What we're doing here is important. And if you don't demonstrate those behaviors um that I'm looking for, then yeah, that's that's gonna be a challenging conversation that we're gonna have at some point in time about whether you still want to be as part of the leadership team. Because um, you know, I feel it's important that you know you you enjoy the role that you do and you have a sense of purpose of what you do.

And if you don't have that, you don't see that, you don't have that fire, that passion, um, then as I said, it's it's not the right, it's not the right role for you. So having that hunger in the belly, I think is very important, Elizabeth. And demonstrating that to your team is equally important. Yeah.

Yeah. And you know, I mean, I think what you're also pointing out here, Ricky, is it it's sort of a two-way street if we want to feel kind of inspired, energized, engaged. In other words, it's not just the role of the leader to demonstrate those, although that's important, but it's also, you know, kind of do you want to be here? Are you excited about this?

Right? That two-way street. And it brings us to a uh another conversation there, Elizabeth, about about people. And uh, you know, as is business leaders, you are paid to make the tough decisions.

And if you have a team and you don't have uh, if you have a team with people on that team that don't demonstrate those behaviors that you're looking for on the team, then you are paid to make that tough decision about that individual and to make the the right the right decision. So it's uh it's something that is important for us here at Catalan is making sure that we have the right teams in place and we're also always challenging ourselves uh as to whether we should be or can be or need to be uh making some talent upgrades at the appropriate time.

You know, that's like to me the hardest part of the job, I think, Ricky. It's kind of it is. Um and again, for any leader, I think who who may love the team, has a lot of history with the team. Sometimes the fact that you have these really deep relationships become, let's call it the strength and the overstrength, because honestly, it's so hard sometimes to have those kinds of conversations.

And so what have you noticed that's worked and maybe hasn't worked, and maybe anything you wish you could do over in this area, like, oh God, right? Did I hang on to someone too long, or maybe you had a blind spot? What's been your I think we all do. I think we all have blind spots here and there.

We all hang on to people. Maybe in hindsight we should have made that decision sooner rather than later. And it's also, I think it's very useful to bounce ideas off of people, right? It's not just it can be it can be lonely, uh, you know, trying to make uh trying to run a business and make decisions uh yourself.

But if you've got a strong team around you, especially if you've got a strong HR partner, which which I'm fortunate to to have on the uh on the CSS business, you're bouncing those decisions off a strong partner and making sure that uh you know you feel like you're making the right decision can be uh can be truly impactful. And we've had some of them, Elizabeth, quite frankly, over the last 12 months. We've we've made some leaps of faith on decisions around people. And looking back, it was absolutely the right decision to make.

But at the time, it was like, are we are we really doing the right thing here? You know, it was as I said, it was a leap of faith. But you have to have that that trust, that confidence in your ability to make good, strong decisions. And um, you know, fortunately for for me and the CSS team, we've made some good decisions in that in, you know, we've been able to really uh bring in and upgrade some good talented people on the team.

Well, so you know, I mentioned 2026, and just from my own perspective, I'm feeling like I don't know if it's just more uncertainty in the environment generally, kind of just whatever macro conditions are existing. And again, I'm speaking across industry, but are you sensing that that also again is are you feeling that in any way? It's it's less certain, and so therefore, maybe we have to lead differently or think differently. How is that translating for you, Ricky?

Yeah, yeah, it's uh, you know, we're on a we're on a different journey. Um, is a public company. Um, you can be sometimes caught up in in chasing the quarters. Um, we're no longer a public company, as I explained earlier.

We're a private company, so we more have more of a longer-term outlook uh now, and we can certainly be making decisions that are uh in the best interest of the long-term outlook for the company. So I do think that uh helps a company like uh like Catalan. But I I think uh there's pressures everywhere, Elizabeth. And it's not just uh it's not just Catalan.

It's you know, I talk to some of my uh you know um uh global partners from a vendor management uh standpoint. I talk to um uh you know my customers as well, my clients, and uh there's there's a lot of pressure all around, um pressure to grow the business or pressure to to cut costs. Um certainly talking to a lot of our larger clients at the moment, and it's more so that that latter with public companies um whose stock is underperformed, uh the pipeline isn't as strong as it needs to be from a development, from a farmer development standpoint, and thus short-term measure is one to cut costs.

And when they cut costs, it's not just those internal costs, but it's it's costs on company like companies like like Catalum uh who provide that uh CDMO service. But nevertheless, it's still a third-party cost that um can be can be eliminated. So, you know, we are we are looking also at an environment where um capacity utilization is important, Elizabeth. And some of our clients have the capabilities that we have, they have them internally.

So they would look perhaps also to say, well, let's fulfill that capacity internally before we start shopping around for external um suppliers of those services. So it's also another challenge in our world that that we face um to try to um you know partner with a client, uh a large farmer, for example, to use Catalan services because of our expertise, because of our flexibility as opposed to keeping uh work in-house. Yeah, I mean, it definitely requires us to sort of raise the bar in all areas, including the the leadership area.

And so maybe Ricky, before we wrap up, tell us kind of what's next for you, particularly on, and I want to hear about the leadership front because you know it wouldn't be me if I didn't ask you a little bit about that. How are you thinking about the year for you? What are you looking forward to? Kind of what what what's next for you, Ricky?

Next for me. So um, as I articulated a little bit, I've moved around over the last few years, done a few different jobs. I I was in the I was in the the the CFO seat for a period of time. I was running the drug product business ultimately that went to Novo Nordisk.

So I've been in charge of our clinical services business now for 12 months or so. And you know, in the first 12 months, it was really about setting the baseline, establishing, you know, putting the firm uh footings in place of this business, um, really rectifying some of the small operational challenges that we had in the business that have now been uh corrected and putting a strategy in place uh for the growth that we expect coming from our clinical business. So uh had the opportunity to do that in 2025, uh, created that baseline, put those foundations in place, resolved some of those uh operational challenges to where we are now in 2026 with some real good growth momentum, some upgrades, as I said, to talent, some changes on our operational systems.

We've just recently rolled out a terrific new tool, Elizabeth, called OneHub to our clients, which is really an automated offering. So our clients can now see the status of their clinical trials all through an automated platform. Awesome! Oh, congrats project management or spreadsheet.

So we've done a lot of exciting stuff in 2025 and excited to see uh how that's gonna develop and uh you know grow in in 2026. But uh, as I said earlier, it is um it is a fantastic place to be at the moment is in in Catlan. And you know, sometimes companies are best suited under private ownership because we're not forever looking at those short-term decisions just to make a quarter and uh not that Cathline was always doing that, but now you've certainly got more of a longer-term uh view of how uh the business should be established as opposed to perhaps a more shorter term view.

That's exciting. And now, right, with some of those nice sort of foundational elements in place for the business. It's like, what's next? Well, Ricky, we we will keep our eye on you and and on the business, of course.

And we'll have to have you back anytime to give us an update. But thank you, Ricky. Great to speak with you today. Thank you, Elizabeth.

Thank you. Well, that's all for today in Executive Land. Thanks for listening. And if you're looking for more, check out my website, insweetleader.

com, where you'll see all kinds of free resources and take the free executive readiness assessment. It shows you exactly where you're strong and where to focus next in your own leadership. And don't forget to subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode. I'll see you next time in Executive.