Building Your Company Culture and Developing Your People
#WESTculture

Corporate Culture is a hot topic these days especially in our ever-changing world. As an employee, manager, or executive, have you ever asked yourself:

• Is my company’s culture something I can design or is it something that just happens?
• How I do ingrain learning and development into my culture?
• Is there a “right” culture for my company?
• Does my company's culture attract really great people to join?
• What should my role be in defining and influencing my corporate culture? Does my role as I progress into management?
• How can I influence and encourage diversity and inclusion at my company?
• Who “owns” corporate culture in my company?

There are many questions and maybe even more answers. To learn more and engage in the dialog, please join us for a provocative and lively panel discussion about "Building Your Company Culture and Developing Your People” moderated by Jo Viney, Co-Founder and CSO of Pandion Therapeutics. 

Panelist include:

Chesley M. Chen is an entrepreneur, Chief Executive Officer, and Board Member. He currently holds two simultaneous CEO positions as CEO of g.Root Biomedical and as CEO of Air Systems Technologies. Prior to that, he was CEO of Safety Partners. Chesley has over 30 years experience in launching, scaling, and reinventing businesses in life sciences, high tech, and financial services with firms that include Avantor/VWR, Health Dialog, Good Measures, Goldman Sachs, and Hughes Aircraft Company. Chesley holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Tufts University, an SM in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He dedicates his time to mentoring new and experienced entrepreneurs. Chesley is on the Advisory Boards of two start-ups: Scismic and of Benefunder.  He also serves on the Strategic Advisory Board of the U Mass Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Tufts Launchpad Accelerator Evaluation Committee. He is a devoted family man, rock climber, and black belt in Shotokan karate.

Erin Deemer brings 20 years of experience in organizational effectiveness, talent management, and culture development to her consulting practice. Her passion lies in helping scientific and high-tech companies build the leaders and organizations required to bring innovative products to patients and customers. Most recently, she led the People and Organization Development group at Biogen, where she worked closely with the top leadership team to align the strategy, culture and organization, through leadership development, performance and talent management, learning, and people analytics. Prior to Biogen, Erin led Organizational Effectiveness at Nikon Precision Inc., where she designed and rolled out company-wide talent management and business alignment processes. She also spent six years as a consultant at Towers Perrin (now Towers Willis Watson), in Singapore and San Francisco. She focused on helping companies build high-performance cultures through leadership, competency development, and rewards. She has led projects with a variety of clients including the Singapore Ministry of Defense, the former PeopleSoft, and Pacific Gas and Electric. Erin began her career in the nonprofit sector, where she spent six years working on educational initiatives and child care reform. Erin received an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a BA from Middlebury College. She currently lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Theo Proukou is currently the Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer of Rubius Therapeutics. He  has been with Rubius since the summer of 2017. Theo brings 20+ years of experience in the pharma, biotech and tech industries. He spent sixteen years at Novartis Pharmaceuticals holding numerous roles with increasing responsibilities in Human Resources, Marketing and Sales. In 2014 Theo joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals leading the HR team for Commercial and G&A. In 2015 he was promoted to Vice President of Talent Acquisition and Development where he led efforts to recruit, retain and develop talent across the organization. In 2016 Theo joined TripAdvisor, where he led the global HR Business Partner organization until joining Rubius. An area of particular interest for Theo is helping employees to be continually focused on their self-improvement each day, week, month, quarter and year – in a never ending effort to become our “best selves.” Theo holds a M.B.A in Marketing & Management, a M.S. in Education for Counseling & Psychology and a B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication. All of his degrees are from St. Bonaventure University.

Carol Yamartino is an expert in leadership development, executive coaching, team effectiveness, and mentoring programs. Following a 20-year career in life sciences and biotechnology, she founded The Yamartino Group LLC in 2008, and works with companies across all industries, including large publicly traded corporations, young companies and startups. Carol held a number of positions at several biotechnology and life science companies, including 14 years at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., as it evolved into a public company launching leading medicines in oncology.  She held various Human Resources positions at Millennium including Senior Director of Learning & Development where she was responsible for leadership development, succession planning and key talent initiatives including executive coaching and women’s development. Previously, Carol worked at Collaborative Research (now Oscient Pharmaceuticals), The Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, VNA of South Shore and St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Boston. She earned a Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychologists. Full Bio