I grew up in the German countryside, a bit of a nerd for biology and chemistry, especially microbiology. After finishing school, I completed a year of voluntary civil service at an institute for transfusion medicine. That experience confirmed my fascination with life sciences, so I decided to study biochemistry at the University of Greifswald, formerly known as Ernst-Moritz-Arndt.
During my bachelor’s, I focused on enzyme catalysis in the pharmaceutical industry. Later, in my master’s thesis, I worked as a junior scientist researching novel methods for replicating and quantifying nucleic acids, DNA and RNA. That’s when Business Development first crossed my path.
It started quite innocently with a colleague of mine, Giuseppina Sannino. I saw her name and title, "Business Development Manager", on the company’s organisational chart and realised I had no idea what that actually meant. Naturally, I asked her. She gave me a quick rundown of what it meant in her case and how she got there, and what she described immediately caught my interest.
Over the next two days, I dove deep into the topic. I quickly realised that the definition of Business Development varied dramatically depending on whom you asked. I discovered that I had already been doing elements of it myself, without even realising.
During my research work, I had grown curious about the potential applications of my project like who might use it, what their requirements would be, and how to reach them. I began researching markets and applications, emailing everyone from experts to government agencies and relevant companies, and even calling potential users, all from my university email account. I realised I had a knack for this kind of detective work and entrepreneurial thinking. Even better: it was fun.
Around that time, in mid-2023, I stumbled across the Business Development Podcast, which at the time had only a dozen episodes. It genuinely reshaped my plans. Before then, I had fully intended to stay in biotechnology R&D, probably pursue a PhD, and continue working for the company I was with. But the more I learned, the more I wanted to step into Business Development instead.
I began applying for internships and entry-level positions in Business Development across numerous companies, and even for sales roles within the industry—given that’s where Kelly, the podcast host, had started as well.
My real journey in BD began in autumn 2023 at a diagnostics conference in the German–Swiss border region at Lake Constance. There, I met the team from ETO GRUPPE (name that might be better known internationally as ETO Group, but the German form is the registered trademark). At the time, ETO, originally an automotive company, was actively diversifying its portfolio into several new areas such as agriculture, autonomous driving, elderly care, and, amongst others but most importantly for me, medical technology and diagnostics.
I must have left an impression on the head of their Business Development unit, because he later invited me to apply for a new position in his department. Fast forward a few months, and I became Project Manager for Business Development, responsible for everything related to medical technology while also supporting the care and agriculture segments.
The company is currently undergoing a broad restructuring, which has allowed me to lean more into the strategic and analytical aspects of Business Development to fully extend on my Sherlock Holmes investigative talents.
You see, that, to me, is the beauty of our field of work: when you stay adaptable and open in your thinking, you never stop learning. In fact, I believe Business Development offers more room for growth and learning (both professionally, as well as personally) than almost any other profession.
