This year’s winner of the Life Sciences Inspiration of the Year Award is Zeb Younes, Head of Product Development & Regulatory Consulting, Principal Consultant at Scendea.
Zeb joined the Scendea team as Principal Consultant in 2021. Zeb was nominated for inspiring team members across all areas of the organisation, showing both immense leadership qualities and unparalleled product development expertise, which was the catalyst in her promotion to Head of CMC. Zeb continues to show her commitment to the mentoring and development of regulatory professionals, evidenced not only through the management of internal training sessions, such as companywide “Lunch and Learns” and 1:1 mentorship, but also through her extracurricular participation at renowned TOPRA and ECCRT training courses.
Zeb has an impressive career journey with over 20 years of experience working in drug development, manufacturing, QC, setting up and managing GNP labs, working in consulting.
Despite a keen interest in physics and sci-fi, on Zeb’s enrollment day for university, she decided to study Medical Biochemistry at Royal Holloway, University of London. She loved this experience and felt like it gave her a really solid base for her career. During the interview with Zeb, she reflects on skills that she learnt during this team that she still uses now every day.
As a young career seeker, it can be difficult or overwhelming to have confidence in yourself when making decisions about your future. Zeb shared that she had never been a long-term planner and instead, she focused on doing what she enjoyed and felt right at the time. She recommended that anyone considering consultancy would benefit from getting hands-on experience to help you gain the knowledge and skills to give back and support those specific areas later in your career.
Yearly, Zeb found it valuable to reflect on the last year and ask herself whether she is enjoying the role and if she feels as though she is still being challenged. She advised that if there is something you are feeling unhappy about, instead of rushing off to find a new job, discussing the issue with your team can be a great way to start by working together to overcome the problem.
What is a typical workday to-do list like in the life of Zeb?
- A quick huddle with the team
- Troubleshooting calls with clients
- Writing comparability position statement
- Reviewing documents for the team
- Check the ‘brain pool.’
- Wrap up calls.
- Agency meetings (could be once a month or via email)
Towards the end of the interview, Zeb emphasised the importance of sharing knowledge and how this has a hugely positive impact on the industry as a whole.
We closed the conversation with a piece of advice for someone considering a career in regulatory and that was to experience working in industry (drug developer, CRO or CDMO’s etc.) before joining regulatory straight away. Zeb explained that this will help you when speaking to and understanding clients and their work. When looking for a role in regulatory, Zeb suggested that some of the key skills and experience you will need is:
- High attention to detail
- Technical writing
- Regulatory activities e.g., dossier writing
It was great to learn more about Zeb’s career and we are excited to share the interview with you.
Congratulations Zeb!