A Day in the Life of a Vice President in R&D & Engineering

In the Day in the Life of Series, we've already had the chance to get to know a range of people in various roles in the pharma industry. In the latest interview we get a glimpse into the R&D side of things from Jennifer Sorrells, Vice President Research Development & Engineering Global Life Sciences, Ecolab. 

Please could you outline your background and the career path that has led you to your current position?

I obtained a PhD in organic chemistry from Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA, and then continued my studies with a postdoc in polymer chemistry at the University of Washington in St. Louis, MO, USA and also Texas A&M University, TX, USA. After finishing my studies, I spent two years at a start-up company called Kior that was working on taking wood chips and turning them into renewable fuel stocks that can be blended into the current fuel system. I then joined Ecolab in 2012 beginning my journey with seven years in downstream oil and gas. I was a bench chemist and then a product marketer and then back to R&D management for five years, mostly focused on downstream fuels for example gasoline or diesel chemical treatments that Ecolab provides to refinery customers. 

I then got the opportunity in 2019 to join Ecolab Life Sciences. That was a unique opportunity because it was a startup within Ecolab. So, we took a couple parts of other businesses which were pulled together into one unifying business focused on cleaning sterile clean rooms and API manufacturing environments for pharmaceutical customers. 

While spending two and a half years there, I worked on the due diligence project for Purolite, and then jumped over to join the Purolite division to head up R&D at the close of that acquisition. With Purolite innovating in both API's and bioprocessing, as well as industrial purification solutions, it sort of is an amalgamation of my entire career pulled together. So, it's organic chemistry, it's polymer chemistry, it's industrial, it's life sciences – all packaged into one amazing job that I get to do every day.

What would be the perfect start to your day?

The perfect start to my day would be a strong cup of coffee and a 6 am meeting with the European team, where I would talk with them about some exciting results that we might be able to file a patent on. I've had a few of those starts to my day over the past couple of years, and each one has been a real highlight.

Could you describe a typical day in your role?

As the head of R&D for many international sites, my typical day involves either travel or virtual meetings, where I'm talking to the team about results and challenges they might be facing. I think the other large component of my job is working cross-functionally with the other aspects of the business, like manufacturing, marketing, sales, and quality, to support our customers and deliver the products we sell every day.

What do you most like about your role?

I really enjoy getting the honour of developing high-performing talent and working together as a team to solve our customers’ problems. When you bring a group of people together from different areas and backgrounds and collectively work to solve a problem, it can be very exciting to see all those different perspectives come to a customer-focused solution.

What are the biggest challenges you face? What issues affect your role?

You know, I think the biggest challenge in any job is that you have a lot of really phenomenal talent, but everybody comes at something from a different perspective. So, just making sure that you're communicating effectively, to get all the data on the table, so that we can form the right solution for our customers, or for the business. I think the other big issue affecting technical leadership is that we have a finite number of resources, and how do we ensure we're always prioritising the most important ones each day?

What would you consider your biggest achievement to date, what are you most proud of?

I'm most proud of the teams that I have built. I think building high-performing teams is the most important thing you can do as a leader. Watching the teams that I am no longer in charge of be successful after getting them together is really rewarding to me.

What advice would you give to other people aspiring to your position or getting into this field?

If you're interested in technical leadership, getting a real good understanding of business, because the technology piece for technology people is pretty easy. But I think what differentiates technology leaders is if you can use that technology knowledge to help further the business. And so, if you come at the technology from a business perspective, with a commercial mindset, this will help to better understand the challenges of your counterparts and leverage technology to support the business's growth.

What would you like to see from the industry to better support diverse people in STEM?

I think without a doubt that it's the continued mentorship and sponsorship of up and coming individuals in science and technology. I never would have gotten to where I am today without advocates who have provided guidance and support to help me get to the position I am in. And so, I continue to see what I can do to mentor, make connections, and help advocate for others to continue that path.

How can people in your position better support each other?

It's about keeping in mind regardless of any position that universally, everybody shows up to work to do a good job. Trying to keep that as the cornerstone of how you work, I think, has granted me a lot of success. When you come at it from the perspective that everyone's trying to do a good job, when something isn't going quite right, it's easier to see how to better support everyone and to get things back on track.

Do you have any further career aspirations? What do you think your next steps will be?

I don't know that I can necessarily say what my next steps will be. However, I want to continue to develop myself as an R&D leader and continue to take on more responsibility and see what we can do to help Ecolab’s customers solve problems. 

What do you see as the next big opportunity in your sector? 

I mean, I think globally, the continued presence of technology and AI will continue to evolve how we work. I think how we work five to 10 years from now is going to look drastically different than how we work today. So, I think it's going to be exciting to watch.

Is living sustainably important to you and how do you incorporate being environmentally friendly into your day?

Yes, in our family, we try to focus on recycling and reuse, trying to minimise our environmental impact as much as possible. I think that's one thing. I really enjoy being a part of Ecolab, which puts sustainability at the core of its mission by protecting resources that are vital to planet earth. One of the aspects I am really proud of is Ecolab’s Purolite resins, which leverage a unique Jetting technology, which can reduce the amount of water, solvents and carbon emissions needed to manufacture. We’re seeing that customers are also prioritising technology vendors that can help to support their own sustainability initiatives. The biggest impact globally will be corporations stepping up and taking the lead on this. I'm glad to get to incorporate that into what I do for my job every day.

If you weren’t in this field, what would you be doing?

Sometimes I wonder if I would have maybe been a computer programmer or something in computer science, some sort of computer engineer. I like to dive deep and understand how things work. I've taken apart computers in my spare time on occasion. So yeah, I could see myself being pretty engrossed in that field as well.