What is a Mentor?
A mentor is an experienced corporate professional who goes out of his or her way to help their mentee reach important life, education and career goals. A mentor is a guide who can help the mentee to find the right direction and who can help his or her mentee develop career related competencies. The mentor/mentee relationship is based upon mutual trust and respect. A mentor will help the mentee to believe in him or herself and the mentor will help to boost career-related confidence. A mentor will ask questions and challenge his or her mentee, while providing guidance and encouragement. A mentor allows the mentee to explore new ideas in confidence and to develop a broader understanding of the corporate environment.
- A corporate mentor will be matched with a mentee and meet their mentee once per month at RVCC at a prescheduled time.
- A corporate mentor will speak with their mentee on a monthly basis by phone or Zoom (that communication will be decided by the mentor and the mentee).
- A mentor will attend the training program in order to understand policies, appropriate boundaries and recommended topics to review with his or her mentee.
- A mentor will get to know his or her mentee, share their knowledge and be an active listener.
- A mentor will serve as a resource and allocate his or her time and energy for the scheduled sessions.
- A mentor will follow through on his or her commitments in order to promote a productive and enjoyable mentor/mentee relationship.
MEET THE SANOFI US 2023-2024 MENTORS
Eric Schiller
Sanofi: AVP, Head of Vaccine and New Device Tech
Eric has 25+ years in new product development across semiconductor, medical device, and biopharma combination product industries. Currently, Eric is accountable for the end-to-end development, industrialization, and life cycle management of medical devices for the delivery of innovative vaccines at Sanofi. In addition to the vaccine portfolio, he is responsible for technology research in drug delivery across various routes of administration, supporting all three Sanofi business units.
Prior to Sanofi, Eric was at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he held various roles in strategic product leadership, portfolio leadership, supply chain, and product & process development. He also developed and launched BMS’ first combo-product (prefilled syringe and auto-injector) for rheumatoid arthritis, built the CMC roadmap, and eventually was responsible for the brand end-to-end strategy.
Prior to BMS Eric was in product development leadership roles at Becton Dickinson (BD), where he developed products such as a next generation pre-filled syringe, retractable syringe for re-use prevention, and pen injectors.
Eric lives in Westfield, NJ with his wife, two daughters, dog, seven cats and goldfish.
Eric holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University. He has black belt training in design for six sigma and holds approximately 12 issued patents.
Michael J. George (Mike)
Head of R&D Patient Partnerships and Alliance Management
Michael J. George (Mike) is the Head of R&D Patient Partnerships and Alliance Management, a key role on the Patient Informed Development & Health Value Translation team within Sanofi R&D. Mike works to create and craft relationships with Patient Advocacy Groups & Organizations in order to bring patients’ voice, journey, and experience to ultimately help guide R&D decision making and ensure our development programs are rooted with patient input. Mike’s leadership role is one that he enjoys and is trusted to make smart, necessary, and accretive decisions in support of Sanofi’s research and development across the Specialty Care business unit. Mike has 12+ years of progressive work experience, primarily across Bio-Pharmaceutical businesses and pharmaceutical distribution.
Mike and his family live in Northern New Jersey and enjoy outdoor activities, traveling, making/trying new cuisines, and volunteering in programs in his town.
Mike believes mentoring is a critical skill set that every person should contribute to in their work-life as future generations should learn from the experiences and struggles of previous generations. Mike has previously been a mentor and volunteered across his church organization, INROADS, and through Rutgers.
Mike is a graduate of Rutgers Business School and is anticipating graduating with his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in the Spring of 2024 from The University of Iowa, Tippie College of Business.
Stefan Roehr
Lead Supply Chain for North America
I have spent my entire career (35 years) with Sanofi. I started at Hoechst Roussel Pharmaceuticals in 1985 as a summer intern in Finance and worked for 4 years in this group. In 1989 I joined the company as a financial analyst and worked in Bridgewater until 1995. I then moved to Kansas City, Missouri and over the next 9 years worked in plant controlling, global product controlling (Allegra), and regional controlling (Americas Asia Pacific) for Hoechst Marion Roussel and then Aventis. In 2004 I moved to Frankfurt Germany to take over the role of Global Inventory Management and then subsequently worked in Paris in the role of Global Key Performance Indicator management for Sanofi-Aventis. In 2008 I worked and managed Supply Chain for Venezuela on a special assignment and this led to taking over Supply Chain for the Latam Zone (not including Mexico and Brazil). In 2010 I took on additional responsibility for managing the entire Latin American region for Supply Chain until 2012. In 2012 due to operational urgencies in the generic business, I was asked to assume specific responsibilities for operations in Brazil related to all supply chain activities across all GBUs as well as plant logistics. Finally, in 2016 I was nominated to lead Supply Chain for North America and assumed these responsibilities in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
Education, Language, and Training: Undergraduate BA degree in Business Administration and Computer Science (double-major, minor in Finance) from Richmond University, London England
Graduate MSc Degree in Economics from London School of Economics, London England
Graduate MBA Degree in Management from Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey
I speak fluent German and English and have working knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese.
I have lived extensively in Germany, England, the US, Venezuela, Panama, and Brazil. I have also worked extensively for Sanofi in over 60 countries in North America, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Bryan Trimble
Director of Internal Communications US
Bryan Trimble is the Director of Internal Communications US at Sanofi. His team partners with colleagues cross functionally throughout the organization (Brand Communications, DE&I, CSR, Leadership, Global, R&D) to ensure employees are receiving the right communications, news and updates – via the right channels -- at the right time, often times “pulling the outside in”. Additionally, Bryan leads content development of employee spotlights on the Sanofi.us website that reflect Sanofi US’ values and reputation. Previously, he led US Vaccines Internal Communications as Director of Internal Communications & Employee Engagement.
Prior to Sanofi, Bryan spent time at B. Braun Medical and Olympus America in a variety of marketing and communication roles with increasing responsibility. He’s led teams of up to 7 employees and has enjoyed mentoring both younger colleagues on his team, as well as several interns over the years. A major highlight of Bryan’s mentoring past was mentoring students from both St. Joesph’s University and Northampton Area Community College. Many of which he is still in contact with today and proud of the career paths they’ve chosen (and are doing well in).
In his personal life, Bryan is passionate about family and fitness/sports. He enjoys reading books and listening to podcasts that are inspiring, educational and entertaining. During the summer, his family can be found vacationing on the beaches of Long Beach Island, New Jersey and Surf Side Beach, South Carolina.
Bryan is a graduate of Temple University (bachelor’s in marketing/Sports Management) and DeSales University (Masters in Marketing/Healthcare Consulting).
Jeanette Fontanes-Quiles
Employee Relations Director
Jeanette Fontanes-Quiles is the Employee Relations Director who leads a team of Human Resources professionals. Her team provides specific Human Resources support to Sanofi employee within the USA, which includes conducting workplace investigations and assisting managers through the performance management process. In her leadership role, Jeanette focuses on guiding team members not only through their day-to-day responsibilities, but also by being a strong advocate for the development of team members. Having established mentorship programs in a prior role and seeing the value of mentor/mentee relationships, Jeanette continues to enrich her career experiences by having a mentor herself.
In her personal time, Jeanette enjoys spending time with family and learning new hobbies. Jeanette possesses a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership.
Carlos Lemgruber
Clinical Trial Studies supply manager
Carlos is a Brazilian/American working as a Clinical Trial Studies supply manager- currently focused in early development of oncology drugs – First in Human studies. Most of his experience comes from leadership roles in distribution and Warehouse operations where he managed many teams and also 3rd party logistic operators. He also worked as a new managers trainer and quality auditing in parallel with his Supply Chain jobs. Outside work, he loves going to the gym, cooking and meeting friends. He lived in Brazil, US, France and UAE (Dubai). He is married and has 2 daughters (21 and 17). He loves interacting with people and learning about their background. He takes part in the Men of Charity group at his church contributing to events that make money to support people in need in the community.
He also enjoys gardening as this hobby is his only link to his graduate studies – he is an Agronomy engineer. He speaks Portuguese (native), English, French, Spanish and Italian.
Nancy Kennedy
Head of North America of Customer Support in Supply Chain
Nancy Kennedy is the Head of North America of Customer Support in Supply Chain. Nancy’s team is responsible for end-to-end customer care including but not limited to patient call center, commercial order management, master data and customer accounts, expired returns and claims, and NA exports. Her team is focused on projects and initiatives such as full new product launch readiness and global project support. There is a strong focus on business partner relationships between BU function leads on items such as customer management and systems and tools to conduct customer operations. Nancy has run point on several highly visible projects such as iShift integrations and supply chain process improvement projects. She approaches challenges collaboratively with a focus on identifying risks and trying to predict or identify any issues that can cause problems later. She enjoys balancing customer needs with finding Supply Chain efficiencies and optimizations. Nancy is also very customer focused and understand the Play to Win dynamic of acting for patients and customers firsthand. Managing customers and their unique needs can be very challenging but incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. Leadership is a core passion, and she enjoys developing her team and providing constructive feedback to shine light on what is working well and things to work on. Her team is supportive of one another and uses both humor and empathy to problem solve any challenge that gets in their way.
Nancy started her career at Genzyme in March of 2004 shortly after graduating from her undergraduate degree from the University of Scranton. As an employee with invisible disabilities, she lives passionately to have a voice for others and served as Co-Lead for the CAN ERG for two years. Helping people provides a lot of happiness, helps minimize or reduce personal issues, and prioritizes focus on others.
In her personal life, Nancy is married to her husband John and has an 8-year-old son, Christian. Nancy met her husband at college in Scranton, PA. They have lived in Monmouth County, NJ for 18 years and their home is full of pets including fish, dogs, guinea pigs, and reptiles. Nancy is also President of her son’s school PTO which provides her much joy in being able to support teachers, faculty, and staff as well as well-deserving students with programs and activities. She is studying for her Doctorate in Business Administration with a core focus on Organizational Development and Leadership. She is avid in the practice of yoga and spends any spare time at the beach soaking in the sea air.
Rakhi Agarwal
Global Head of Supplier Diversity and Risk
Rakhi Agarwal is the VP, Global Head of Supplier Diversity and Risk at SANOFI. She is also the founding member and Chair of the Board & President of a nonprofit organization- ‘DISCOVER’. Rakhi has also been recently elected as the executive Board Member of NAVOBA- a nonprofit organization that advocates for Veteran Owned businesses. She is a visionary sourcing and Supply Chain Leader with proven track record of two decades of rich industry experiences with diversified roles in her career with companies like JNJ, Merck and BMS among others.
Rakhi has an MBA in Operations Management from University of Southern Indiana and an undergraduate degree in Supply Chain management from Eli Broad business School at Michigan State University.
Rakhi is a Negotiation and Risk management expert with numerous articles published in ‘Inside Supply Management’ (ISM) magazine and most recently she received Women’s Leadership award in supply chain by USC Marshall School of Business recognizing her work, passion and commitment in championing Diversity and inclusion in Supply chain.
Rakhi has also been recognized and included in the prestigious Marquees Who’s Who in the 125th anniversary edition in 2023. She has also being featured on the cover as the Top10 most inspiring leader to follow in DEI by CIO VIEWS magazine. Rakhi is passionate about driving inclusion both in workplace and beyond thru intentional and responsible sourcing strategies for Small and Diverse businesses and thru mentorship and coaching for young professionals in workplace.
Robert Shustack
North America Head of Procurement for Professional Services
Bob Shustack is the North America Head of Procurement for Professional Services at Sanofi. His team partners with Global Business Units and Functions to build strong relationships with suppliers, negotiate cost savings and bring innovation to the Company. The son of high school teachers, Bob sees the office as his classroom, with the mission of guiding team members to reach their career potential. In his leadership role, Bob emphasizes people development and challenges staff to improve their communication/presentation skills, initiative, and self-confidence. An avid reader, Bob started a Finance Book Club in 2014, which tasked new hires with reading a business book addressing a personal development area and delivering a creative presentation to the team. Since its inception, 30 educational presentations have been given. Favorite books include Be Our Guest, The Effective Executive and Talk Like TED.
Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) in 2016, Bob is actively involved with supporting the local community and empowering others to live well with diabetes. Bob serves on the leadership team of the DiabetesConnect Employee Resource Group at Sanofi and started a “Let’s Talk Diabetes” campaign to bring members together each month for support. Bob is also on the Board of Trustees for the Camp Nejeda Foundation, which operates a summer camp in Stillwater, NJ for kids with T1D, and he attends diabetes support group meetings at his local Shop Rite in Clinton, NJ.
In his personal life, Bob is passionate about fitness and nutrition. He enjoys reading books and listening to podcasts that inspire him to become a better human being. During the summer, his family can be found vacationing on the beaches of Ocean City, NJ, Hilton Head, or Anna Maria Island in Florida.
Bob graduated from Rutgers University and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
Peg Bollella
Head of US General Medicines Scientific Communications & Medical Operations
Peg Bollella is the Head of US General Medicines Scientific Communications & Medical Operations at Sanofi. Her team is responsible for working cross functionally to develop and implement medical strategy for the product portfolio within US General Medicines Medical. This is a critical area of business for the Company involving scientific engagement with Health Care Providers (HCPs). Peg views her team as the engine within this Business Unit responsible for critical business activities including the translation of data into communication tools/assets, medical education, HCP engagement, Externally Sponsored Research, Publications and a new area of business, Omnichannel that includes the use of Artificial Intelligence. A key to the success of Peg’s highly engaged team is strongly linked to empowerment. Team members are highly encouraged to manage their individual areas of business lending opportunities to accelerate many aspects of individual growth including decision making, confidence, and most importantly motivation.
In her personal life, Peg is an avid ballroom dancer, loves swimming, reading and you will find her in the theater most weekends. Summer is a favorite time for an annual family reunion in Ocean City, NJ with frequent visits home to Annapolis, Maryland.
Peg obtained her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Florida.
Maria Brynildsen
Head of Clinical Quality Performance within Clinical Quality and Continuous Improvement (CQ&CI).
Maria Brynildsen has been with Sanofi for over 19 years and is currently the Head of Clinical Quality Performance within Clinical Quality and Continuous Improvement (CQ&CI). Her team leads transversal clinical quality risk management with a focus on proactive risk management using quality data analytics. Over her 30+ year career in the pharmaceutical industry, Maria has grown within clinical development from travelling as a clinical research associate (CRA) to managing global clinical trials to leading clinical operations and quality management teams. She loves to share these growth experiences with others and encourages them to explore career avenues they might not know are out there.
A graduate from Cook College, Rutgers University, Maria leads with humility and is family focused. In her personal life, Maria has been married for over 25 years and has three daughters. She prides herself in having a successful career and never missing time or an important milestone event with her daughters or family. She has found true work-life balance and propagates the importance of this to her team and colleagues.
She knows that it is important to be open, honest and to always communicate. She encourages her to team to understand ‘the why’ behind all that you do, and to ensure others understand it as well. She is often found saying ‘let’s be sure to think with the end in mind’, only then can you ensure to take actions that contribute to what truly matters. Maria says that this is the key to building effective relationships, aligning on outcomes and having a successful team.
Starting September 3rd, Maria will be the new North American Regulatory Excellence Head. This is the first time, during her 30+ years within the industry, that she will be working outside of clinical development and quality, and she is very excited about the growth opportunities that will come with this change. This is also Maria’s first time participating in the mentorship program with RVCC. She looks forward to this opportunity to meet and work with students and future leaders from RVCC.
Venkata Rao Mamidi
Distinguished Scientist in Global Preclinical Safety
Rao Mamidi is the Distinguished Scientist in Global Preclinical Safety at Sanofi and the major responsibilities include lead safety/toxicology efforts for Sanofi discovery and development projects. Rao received his PhD at Kakatiya University in Warangal, India followed by extensive experience in preclinical development in industry in India (Dr Reddy;s), Europe (Johnson & Johnson) and USA (Johnson & Johnson), before joining Sanofi, US Bridgewater. Rao is passionate about discovery and development of new drugs. His extensive contributions led to discovery, development and global approval/launch of new drugs in the treatment of cancer (Doxil, Balversa, Akeega), diabetes (Invokana) and pulmonary hypertension (Opsynv). Additionally, Rao passionately conducts scientific due diligence of business development opportunities and work with external partners on collaborations to develop drugs. He served as mentor for other project leaders and scientists across the organization.
In his free time, Rao enjoys travelling, hiking, volunteering among many other activities. Rao is also passionate about organizing public awareness events in rural parts of India on curable blindness and has led eye camps in underserved served areas of Southern India for cataract screening. This effort resulted in over 150 cataract surgeries being performed in collaboration with Sankara Eye Foundation.
Paul Cox
Health Value Translation Lead
Paul Cox is a Health Value Translation Lead at Sanofi. He is part of a function called Patient Informed Development and Health Value Translation (PID&HVT) who’s mission it is to include the patient voice into Sanofi’s clinical development programs. This includes helping to design clinical trials that are less burdensome for patients and ultimately develop new medicines that better address their unmet needs. Paul has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and his career journey includes time in all phases of research and development. He’s proud to have contributed to the development of multiple drugs currently available on the pharmacy shelf.
Paul was a first-generation college student who’s grateful to have grown up in a country where his college education was funded (tuition and living expenses) by the government. If that wasn’t the case, he most likely wouldn’t have gone to university. As a result, he’s passionate about sharing his experience and helping other first-generation students.
In his personal life Paul enjoys watching soccer and is a die-hard supporter of his hometown team Liverpool FC. He enjoys travelling and his favorite place to visit, apart from Liverpool, is Egypt.
Paul graduated from the University of Bath in the UK and has a BS in chemistry and a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry.
Tara Munn
Senior Manager, Executive Search & Scouting for Specialty Care Commercial
Tara Munn is a Senior Manager, Executive Search & Scouting for Specialty Care Commercial at Sanofi. She partners with hiring managers and leaders throughout the Specialty Care team to develop both an internal and external pipeline for Leadership talent for Sanofi. Tara is also on the leadership team for the Pride Connect Employee Resource Group and a member of the WISE and Parent Connect ERG. Although Tara started here at Sanofi in June 2022, and prior to this role she worked in Leadership positions in Talent Acquisition for numerous life science organizations with a focus on Sales, Marketing and Market Access as well as led project-based recruiting for Field Medical roles.
Tara lives in Denville, NJ and is the mother three teenagers (high school, trade school and college aged) and spends much of her time exploring local sites and hiking with family, friends and most importantly – her rescue dog, Lulu. She is a big fan of live music, podcasts and planning her dream cross country RV adventure.
Tara holds a Master of Arts in Psychology from John Jay College and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Hofstra University.
John Curran
Consumer Insights Lead for the Pain & Sleep Portfolio in the Consumer Health Division
John Curran is the Consumer Insights Lead for the Pain & Sleep Portfolio in the Consumer Health Division in the US at Sanofi. He provides strategic consultation and works collaboratively with various functions to inform brand strategy, develop communications and new products. He is seen as both a subject matter expert in market research and a strategic partner on the business. John is passionate about keeping the people we serve at the center of these activities, solving business challenges and utilizing new methods/approaches. He has experience leading and developing high performing teams of 1 to 5 people.
John is passionate about health and wellness, which is a big reason he enjoys working in healthcare at Sanofi. Outside of work, he believes in the power of exercise for mental and physical benefits. He has combined his love of travel with kiteboarding, vacationing at some of the windiest destinations on the planet. John has been learning Spanish for over 4 years, taking private online lessons with his teacher from Spain twice a week.
John is married and has a son away at college. He lives in Denville, NJ in a small lake community. While his son was growing up, John volunteered as a coach for over 6 years for both wrestling and football. Now that his son is in college, he is making a concerted effort to volunteer and give back. He is excited to be part of the RVCC mentoring program and has also joined Sanofi ERGs including the Transplant Affinity Group, HOLA and DELTAs.
John graduated from Hofstra University.
Gary Barber
North America Procure to Pay (P2P) department at Sanofi
Gary Barber works in the North America Procure to Pay (P2P) department at Sanofi. He manages a team that supports the different Sanofi businesses in North America for any topics related to P2P. He oversees all projects that impact P2P, ensures they are delivered successfully and on time, and raises any challenges to the project teams and senior leaders in P2P.
Gary has had several mentors at Sanofi and recently became a mentor to an employee in South Korea. He understands the importance and benefit of actively engaging with his mentor and hopes to be a positive influence on his mentee while giving them advice and direction on how to achieve their career goals.
In his personal life, Gary is passionate about sports and spending time with family and friends. He enjoys cookouts and watching his son grow. Throughout the year, his family can be found vacationing on a beach in the Caribbean, mainly Turks and Caicos.
Gary went to Rutgers University and is currently completing his bachelor’s degree in business administration online at Southern New Hampshire University.