For this data driven alum, success is about people

From UBC labs to biomedical boardrooms, Dr. Barb Kinnaird learned valuable lessons on what it takes to be a successful leader and innovator. Now she's tackling a new role as a leadership and business coach, passing on knowledge gained over 25 years of developing products and guiding businesses in Canada's medical technology industry.

After a BSc in genetics biology (1990) and PhD in microbiology and immunology (2000) from UBC, Dr. Kinnaird conducted post-doctoral research at the Michael Smith Laboratories in genomics and gene expression profiling. Since then, Dr. Kinnaird has maintained her ties with UBC as member of a panel that explored women’s underrepresentation in STEM and serving as an alumni representative at graduation.

In this conversation Dr. Kinnaird shares some of her thoughts on leadership, careers in science, and how the U.S. government’s shifting health care policies will impact researchers.

Q: With such a strong science background, is it surprising that your professional life focuses on growing businesses rather than labs?

Barb: Business is like a science.  Business is full of complex information or data that needs to be connected across the organization to make good decisions. As a young person, I was very data driven and liked the sciences. I disliked the drama that people could bring to the workplace. I wanted to work in a lab—I didn't really want to deal with people. When I got into business, I realized that I had an aptitude for it, rooted in my training and experiences as a scientist in that I learned how to connect complex data.  

My “aha” moment was when I realized my business success was going to depend on other people's success, I had to transition from an individual contributor mindset to a mindset of coaching other people to do their work well. I was humble enough to know I also needed coaching. I found a great leadership coach, and eventually brought in a business coach and provided leadership coaching for the broader team. Running a business is like being an Olympic athlete, you can't do it well without a coach.

Q: What is the state of medical technology in Canada?

Barb: I think Canadians are excellent at innovation in med tech and we are known as such on the global market. Generally, what I witnessed over the years is that foreign companies come in and buy our innovations which then limits the number of Canadian owned companies of a certain size staying in Canada. This results in talent with commercialization expertise living outside of Canada which then impacts our ability to find the right talent locally to help you grow your company. I had to tap into a network of diagnostics CEOs in the U.S. to find the right people to help teach and train me and my team. Finding manufacturing talent in Canada was a bit easier partly because we were able to tap into the food manufacturing sector as a regulated market. However, there are more local medical manufacturing companies keeping manufacturing in Canada now.

There are more open discussions now about how we train and keep talent in Canada. The Provincial Government and Life Sciences BC are supporting biomanufacturing training and Western Medtech is making med tech more visible. As well, we have a lot of medtech innovation here in Canada and it would be great if we could remove the barriers in procurement to drive innovation into our own hospitals faster to improve patient lives.

Q: How has the biomedical industry evolved since you graduated?

Barb: When I left UBC with my PhD there was a big brain drain. A lot of my colleagues left for the U.S. Now, with the new situation in the US, I predict many of them will return.. With the new U.S. administration cutting National Institutes of Health funding, the PhD scientists that went down to the States will be impacted. A lot of the work they're doing—even if they're in big companies—is research and data driven. There's a strong feeling that that kind of authentic data work—which we need to make good decisions and to do research isn’t respected as much as it used to be.

Q: What opportunities exist for graduates with science degrees in the med tech industry today?

Barb: Graduates with a PhD that want to work in industry generally end up in the lab. But in the medical industry, that kind of science background becomes quite important in many of the departments of a business.

I was on a UBC panel for women leaders I participated in some years ago, this gave students an opportunity to learn about the different career paths available to them if they stepped out of the academic world and into the business world. I don't know what the culture is like today, but at the time leaving academics to move into industry was considered “going to the dark side”. I hope that’s less the case now. We need to help students diversify and understand there are many opportunities in different areas of an organization. The ability to be data driven is important in all aspects of a business.

Q: What does it take to make a good leader?

Barb: You have to be authentic, honest and transparent to create trust with a big team. It’s about empowering them to do more than they think they’re capable of, which results in you putting your own personal needs aside. You can't have a big ego and be a servant leader. Being a leader is all about the people, because the people create the culture in the business and help it grow. Thus if the people aren't developing and growing, the business doesn't develop and grow.

Q: What does it take to be a good mentor?

Barb: A good mentor needs compassion, care and empathy to understand where a person who's just stepping into the world is coming from and opening their eyes to opportunities they may not see. Asking good questions is more important than advising. I strongly believe that good questions help a person make connections in their own brain and make their own decisions in a better way. Rather than jumping quickly into offering advice, I think people learn better if they figure out for themselves and determine what direction to go in.  Even as an advisor, the person you’re advising knows themselves best, all you can do is steer.

Q: How is the business of coaching?

Barb: I coach, lead and support the CEO and the leadership teams of multiple businesses. I find I can really help them, because I did that transition myself. I ask hard questions to help them push themselves forward. Business leaders need to know that they're not alone, and they need a coach to remove the blind spots and get them where they need to go faster.