Lab Workers

Skilled biotech workers are in big demand in North Carolina

The industry is expanding its reach to bring in people who may not have previously seen biotechnology as a career option
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North Carolina, once primarily known for its agriculture and textile industries, developed some years ago into a major science and biotech hub with the creation of the Research Triangle Park in 1959.

As the biotech industry continues to expand in the state, so has the need for a skilled workforce.

“As the biotech industry grew globally to a juggernaut—and nothing validates that more than the pandemic—we’re seeing the integration with agriculture, health, data science, and technology, all transforming everything. These are good jobs. Clean jobs,” according to Bill Bullock, senior vice president for economic development and statewide operations of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBiotech).

Bill Bullock, SVP, North Carolina Biotechnology Center (Photo: North Carolina Biotechnology Center)

NCBiotech is working to help lessen the workforce gap while increasing opportunities for workers who might not have previously considered a biotech career.

Working with three area universities—University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, and North Carolina State University—NCBiotech was created to support the evolution of the industry in the state and globally. And now its mission is growing to meet the workforce demand.

“We’ve expanded our impact criteria from what was originally innovation and investment to now adding jobs, opportunities, and solutions,” explains Bullock.

Working with Community Colleges to Prepare for Industry Jobs

One of those solutions is the BioWork certificate program, a partnership with community colleges. The program targets nontraditional college student populations—including veterans and transitioning military, education levels from high school graduates to Ph.D.’s, employed and underemployed, or those seeking to pivot.

At Johnston Community College (JCC), the first community college in the state to offer the program, students log 136 hours over five months to be able to work as process operators in biological products manufacturing facilities.

“It is our goal to train tomorrow’s workforce in the biotechnology field,” says Roxanne Curry, career development specialist at JCC.

An important component to the BioWork program is career development and work placement. Close to 3,500 students have completed the JCC program. Considering all graduates since 2007, the employment rate is 82% with an average entry-level annual salary of $40,615.

(Photo: Thermo Fisher Scientific)
Opportunity for High School Grads

NCBiotech piloted a career-related program Pharma K12 Workforce Development Initiative, targeting high school students about to graduate, but without plans for college or a job.

After leaving high school, students learn theory and manufacturing techniques during 20 hours of coursework over three days at Pitt Community College, training them for entry-level production jobs. Thermo Fisher Scientific was one of the initiative’s first partners. Nine Pharma K12 participants are now employed there.

“Nine students are not necessarily moving the needle when you need to hire 500, but if one of those kids who graduated didn’t know what they wanted to do and three months later, they have a career, we’re trying to replicate that,” Bullock says. “We’re impacting communities who wouldn’t necessarily see biotech as a career path.”

A collaboration with historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) is on the horizon. Bullock says talks are just beginning, and NCBiotech hopes to work in concert with life science companies and schools to expand connections and a talent pool for biotech jobs.

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.