Another Friday of Diversity Series! Today meet Vincenzo and Kira. They are the newest additions at HEMEX and we are thrilled to have them on the team! Vincenzo is from Italy and has been working within the team for a month. He is a very diligent colleague to work with! Kira is from Switzerland, and she will start working with us next week. We wanted to officially say welcome to the team! Do you want to know a little more about their lives and how they have ended up at HEMEX?
So, then just keep scrolling 🙂
Vincenzo
“Don’t just read those success stories, create one of your own”
Vincenzo is a pharmacist by training. He was born in Sicily and grew up in a little town called Naro. During his high school, he studied in Canicatti and decided he would pursue a scientific career.
During his university years, Vincenzo wanted to gain independence; hence he decided to move to Perugia and study Pharmacy. He was passionate about this field during the last years of high school, where he loved chemistry wanted to improve the health of humans and animals. Over these years, Vincenzo remembers two significant experiences that made an impact on his professional career.
The first one was when he lived in Spain for a year because of the Erasmus grant. In concrete, he lived and studied in Granada, and he remembers this year with a smile on his face because he had the opportunity to learn Spanish and experience a new lifestyle. The second one was his experimental thesis, where he spent eight months at the laboratory of biochemistry and nutrition, and he was part of a team of researchers. He remembers, “These two experiences were fruitful for my professional career. During my research, I learnt to manage stressful situations, and I love to travel; Spain was perfect to learn soft skills like dynamism or flexibility”. Once he finished his studies, he decided to improve his English for five months by staying in Limerick, Ireland.
Vincenzo came back to Italy to work in a pharmacy in Rome. “It was a great experience; I learned how a pharmacy works and to interact with different customers. It allowed me to improve my skills in empathy.” However, he felt the need to improve professionally. Therefore, he decided to take a master while he was working in the Pharmacy. The master was in Pharmacovigilance, Pharmacoeconomics, and Pharmacoepidemiology. Thanks to this, he was able to work at the Italian Agency for Medicines (AIFA), particularly at the Monitoring Office for the Pharmaceutical Expenditure and Relations with the Regions. His job there was to monitor public tenders for the supply of patented drugs expired from 2015 to 2018, to understand if for the year 2019, there had been a fall in the price compared to that negotiated with AIFA. During this experience, he started to have interest in Regulatory affairs.
Last July, he decided to move to Switzerland and apply for a job at HEMEX. “I thought it could be a good experience for me to learn how health companies and industry works.” At HEMEX, he works in Clinical Operations, and we are thrilled to have him on the team. He is very charismatic and hard working. He likes the fact that all team members are flexible and easy to work with. “There is a good sense of team spirit, and all members inspire me in their different professional fields.”
Vincenzo speaks Italian, Spanish, and English, and like a good Italian, he is fond of football, especially, the Inter-Milan F.C. He also enjoys spending time cooking with his girlfriend. Vincenzo looks up to his last manager because she was an excellent professional. However, above all, he looks up to his mum, “I have never felt lost for even a single minute if I had her next to me.” According to Vincenzo, it is vital to be surrounded by people that inspire you and from whom you can learn every day. We want to finish this inspiring real-life story with a quote from Vincenzo, which we believe sums him up perfectly.
“The most important thing is to be forward thinking and to respect your co-workers. If you can breathe these two feelings, they are the recipe to success”.
As part of our diversity series, we asked Kira to sum up Vincenzo in one word. She said that for her, Vincenzo is OPEN-MINDED.
Kira
“Don’t wait for opportunity. Create it.”
Kira is a pharmacist by training. Born and raised in Basel, she attended high school in Magden and majored in biology and chemistry. Kira tells HEMEX she has always been really passionate about science, psychology, and philosophy.
Therefore, Kira decided that she was going to study psychology. She started her bachelor’s in psychology and politics in Lausanne. However, after a while, she realized she was very interested in knowing the mechanisms of action behind the human body. “It’s very interesting to see how such small molecules can have such a big impact on the human body.” Hence, she changed direction and enrolled at the University of Basel to study Pharmacy.
Kira is very happy with the outcome of this decision. She has recently finished a master’s specialization in Pharmacy, where she had the opportunity to do her thesis in Perth, Australia. For Kira, it is essential to keep learning and discovering innovative ideas. She tells us, “being surrounded by so many people from around the world made me see lots of new perspectives. New people and new ideas help you to think differently and discover new angles.”
Kira just came back to Switzerland in June this year to finish her state examination to be a pharmacist. After that, she decided she wanted to learn more about where the latest science is taking place, and she wanted to be closer to what is actually happening in the life-science world. This is why she decided to join HEMEX. Kira will be starting in one week, and we are so excited and looking forward to working together with her at the office! She tells HEMEX that she is also thrilled to start because innovative people and innovation always inspired her. “I think in the start-up ecosystem, HEMEX covers all the life-sciences world. Moreover, the team is very international, and I think working at HEMEX is the closest you can get to innovative people”.
Kira speaks German, French, and English, and one of her favorite things to do is dancing. In fact, she is such a good ballerina that she went to the US to participate in a dance exchange program when she finished high school. She also loves horse riding and used to do competitions in show jumping. Kira looks up to her brother, who has worked hard to be where he is now. She tells us, “He always had this dream, and he never stopped trying. It is very inspiring to see this strength in pursuing your dreams. When you leave your country, you don’t know what is going to happen, but you still do it.” For Kira, it is essential to be surrounded by an outstanding team spirit. We would like to finish this inspiring real-life story with a quote from Kira, which we believe sums her up perfectly.
“When people work together and are open to learning from each other, there is quick progress! The most important thing is to keep learning, evolving, and growing further and further”.
As part of our diversity series, we asked Vincenzo to sum up Kira in one word. He said that for him, Kira is DYNAMIC.
About HEMEX
HEMEX was founded as a private investment and consulting company headquartered close to the Basel global life sciences hub. Our primary focus is to bring innovative drugs, medical devices, and in–vitro diagnostics to the market. We specialize in supporting early-stage start-ups, and we offer tailored solutions to accelerate projects into successful and sustainable businesses. Additionally, HEMEX helps and supports start-ups to find non-dilutive and dilutive funding. We are now gaining fast recognition, and this is partly because we are transforming the culture by seamlessly bridging the gap between investors and entrepreneurs.