very happy to talk to this group of students. I'm not sure how many of you have seen my background if you serve the background with with your with fellow students. But I was born and raised in Greece. Um, on I did my undergraduate there in chemistry. I, um uh, What's set? My career path. It's a number of factors, actually. I I came from a family with deep roots in education. Both my mother and her father, my grandfather, were both very gifted teachers. Um, and I learned the value of education of the very young aids. Um, and when I say value of education, not as a means of attaining more material wealth, but as a way to become a better person. My dad was, ah, military officer in the Greek army on, he taught me gave me a very good, very strong sense of duty and responsibility. Um, if I look at my influences apart from my friends, a lot of my teachers and my family, of course, I think a lot of it is due to my brother is three years older than me, three years older than me. He was also a big influence in my life. He was still is actually very smart guy, and, uh, one of the top students in the country. On does years, Grace had a very selective college admission system. Only 10% of high school students, whatever end of the university and yet only two years to do it. So if you can get in in two years, you felt twice than you just wouldn't go to college. Um, and my brother was a chemical engineer, was the top school a time in in Greece, and I came to the US for his PSD. And, you know, after I finished my bachelor's behind him, I sort of followed in his footsteps. Um, instead, of course, of my my brother came to the U. S. But instead of that, I chose to go thio the u K So I do my piece, their imperial college, one of the leading universities in Europe. And I did this for three reasons, actually, Um uh, one. I spoke English. Second, my undergraduate adviser had also done his PhD at Imperial College also in chemistry. And just as importantly, I could finish it in three years, so I didn't have to wait 67 years that sometimes it takes in the U. S. On Di did. So I 24 at the age of 2024 had my Peace Day. Um, anyway, a backpack. Asai was finishing college. I had no idea what specialty to person kind of liked organic chemistry. Um, theoretical chemistry was also interesting. Eso I asked Madden undergraduate adviser. You know his advice. What should I do? His name was Dennis, you know, should I do organic chemistry? Synthetic chemistry? I do theoretical chemistry. He gave me a very wise answer. He said, listen, 2 m, if you become an organic chemist, um, if you're concerned about employment, there will be 10 times as many jobs and 10 times as many applicants. Um, but if you become a theoretical cameras, there will be 1/10 of the jobs in 1/10 of the applicants. So to what you really like and you'll find, you'll find a way. Yeah, um, so fast forward I go to Imperial College, and, um, I e had an incredible mentor, a fantastic mentor, my my PhD advisor. Um, and just to give an idea. So I was I was going to do computational chemistry, essentially with computers. And the only thing I knew about computers was a fortune course that I had taken a zone undergraduate without actually ever programming aerial program. That would be an executable that would turn itself into an executable. I did it only on paper s I had a lot of catching up to do, um, on multiple levels, my theoretical background. I saw my knowledge was good, but made a lot of practical things. And they know. And I remember one year into my PhD, um, I was I was in the old chemistry building, an imperial on the second floor. And on the third floor, there was a very famous synthetic organic chemist and one of his students, sort of friend of mine. I met him in the corridor and we struck a conversation, and and, um, in the middle of this conversation, I realized I become painfully aware that he knew a hell of a lot more about my field than I did. Okay? And he was in a completely different field. He was in terrible organic chemist, and he knew a lot more about my own discipline that I did. So I go back and I got depressed. I go back to my office and sent an email to my advisor. They said No. Henry, you know, God, I haven't learned anything here. You know, I run into Howard, and I got, you know, I realized I haven't learned anything. My advisor was in the new chemistry building, like, five minute walk away, maybe 23 minutes walk away. So five minutes later, is in my office, puts his arm around my shoulder and says the meters Don't worry, you're doing fine. You just started from a very different place. Um, in that 18 framed, you know, framed a lot off, at least to me s old me. Well, I knew that kind of, but sort of reinforced it How important it is a really great supportive mentor. Um, now, okay, let me I'll come. We have a little bit of times I'll work in another five minutes to the rest of my career. So I finished my PhD. I'm very young. I'm 24. Andi, I have an offer from one of the leading you know, pharmaceutical companies in the UK. Actually, the word time today is known as dsk. GlaxoSmithKline back at the time, it was known a SmithKline and friends and I also have, ah, postdoctoral offers from, you know, one with the cameras. The other was at UC Berkeley in the U S. And I turned down my really lucrative job offer, um, to take a postdoc at UC Berkeley for one quarter off the pain. Right? Um, not have one quarter. And in hindsight, that was one of the best decisions of my life. Ofcourse, I haven't done the control experiment, but I'm pretty convinced, looking at today, that it was a really good decision. Eso the take home message for you, young people is that greed and instant gratification is not your friend. Okay? You need to invest in your lives and your credentials and your knowledge and that, with a bit of luck, will pay off. Sometimes the road to success is not man a tonic. You can always look for more and more and more. Um, eso. Anyway, I spent eso. I did again. Theoretical chemistry is my PhD. That hardcore quantum chemistry. I went to Berkeley, continued along, spent a year and a half with another famous professor on the same theme. Hardcore quantum chemistry. And then I got an opportunity toe completely. Well, sort completely. Switch fields within within the chemistry field. And I went to Harvard to do a second postdoc a second sort post a game and a half on the application off AI to organic synthesis. Essentially, how to use artificial intelligence, tow come up with intelligence. Synthetic crowds to make those molecules. Um, he was a very famous guy. Um, won the Nobel Prize that 30 year. Um, Andi, I remember my introductory meeting with him as if it were yesterday. Um, is very distinguished gentleman. So I sit in his office. Um, I walk in, He greets me without them. It was welcome. Delighted to have you in the group. I heard great things about you from Andy. And it was my Professor Bergen. Um and then I don't remember what I told the man. You know, Professor called What? What in or it I can't. I was savoring, you know, I was facing God himself, basically on. And then the very next sentence, he says to me, points to my chair across his desk, This is Dimitris. Everybody who sat on that sir has made history. I expect you to do the same talking about low expectations. Anyway, I worked. I worked like there was no tomorrow, you know, nights and weekends and I had no life. I was the only guy in the chemistry department at Harvard when Hurricane Bob hit Boston. I don't know that you have too young for this, but that's the only nasty hurricane ever hit Boston. Everybody was in their basements. I was actually working. And I was the only guy in the chemistry department. Um, so success comes from what's the documents is comes from a lot of work. Um, but what happened in that second postdoc is that it took me into the softer side of computing ai and what I called the art of algorithms and computer programming, which I absolutely, totally fell in love with. I got hooked, and there was just one way after that. So fast forward. Um, um, it's a team. I got my first job, but a pharmaceutical company Midwest in the computer. Very drug design group. I then, um um uh, spent about three years there. Midwest wasn't really for me, if you personally. And then I moved to Philadelphia area where I've been ever since started with a biotech company from the ground up, um, had very, very supportive mentors again. Opportunity to do many different things started hard. My first people, my first, my first team started learning how toe lead the group. Uh, the biotech company had a very successful public offering, an I. P o. When public and three years later was acquired by JNJ, then Jay Johnson and Johnson, the biggest healthcare company in the world. I spent the next 10 years agenda leading research and early development, I, T and Informatics. I was always between informatics and it, um, Science data Science and 80. And, um and, um And then I was recruited at a big services company to help build a software business. Um, which I spent six years and the last year and a half. I came to know of artist, which is a major pharmaceutical company where I'm in starts off. I'm CEO. It's information officer in charge of the research idea Informatics for

Weekly Working Art. What am I waking? Sleeping argument? Okay, so it's it's my role now is really executive leadership. It's I lead a very large group. It's like 400 people in terminals, only in part. This is the third largest pharmaceutical company in the world s I'm leaving the Informatics and the organization for the research division of Nerve Artist. And my job is really setting the direction and the vision for the team creating a culture of collaboration of accountability. Um, I see is the number one responsibility of me personally setting the tone and also hiding superb talent into her team. Develop and grow our people on making sure that we invest in the right areas, that we spend our money wisely and our resources wisely. Um, what we doing that then, in the team, we do anything from high end scientific data analysis, data science, um, starting disease, biology, inventing new molecules to make economics, you know, early phase clinical trials. We build a lot of systems. My group builds a lot of the systems and databases that scientists and the applications that scientists need to do their work and also provide all the I T infrastructure and support from, you know, laptops and mobile devices toe high perform high performance computing, cloud computing, toe end user support, help desks and things of that type. We actually even have a group that develops custom robotic solutions and automation team that makes new types of harder on bond. Um, right, so that's my responsibility in my new role in this one that I have now.

um, the biggest challenge, I think is managing many diverse needs with a finite resource is not, that's, you know, small number of resources, but finite resources and really choosing what is the most important thing to do? Um, you know, Novartis. My employer is a massive company. About 10,000 employees over $200 billion market cup on. Do you know there's many diverse views here? Um, often people pull in many different directions, its's characteristic of any large organization. Um, a lot of it has to do with different technology choices, right? We're developing one piece of technology here, and some other parts somewhere else, you know, develops similar types of a capable A similar type of capability in completely different piece of technology, more or less for the same purpose. So it is not all in large corporations like this to have some duplication of effort because it's just so big. Um, another challenge. So that's all extrinsic. Another challenge is the very rapid pace of change, both in science and in technology. Okay, Um uh, it is, um, very hard to modernize your systems. Eso you end up with a lot of legacy stuff that you need to maintain themwe are managing over 900 scientific application, different applications just to give an idea, Andi, other challenges managing different personalities. Uh, you know, when you're in large groups managing people and you know, the diversity of the of the human condition right now, humanities, this can be interesting. Um, and and Nyberg, neighbor is myself. The research division of the Artist is called the Stanford of Artists. Institutes off for biomedical research attracts I'm incredibly talented people. It's like Randall a crab in our business. Well, oftentimes then, to be opinionated, Um, you know, eso managing through these strong personalities can be can be interesting. Personally, um, you know, you mitigate some of this, uh, you mitigate some of these risks by, um, creating a by setting a culture, setting the tone, and I also by hiring the right people into the group. Ah, and I personally hire for both talent and character people who are not only extremely turn it int in what they do and have domain knowledge. But we can also work very well with others who are not pre Madonnas and who, um, you know, take pride and joy in others. People on the people's successes, much is in their own and who generally stand for something bigger than themselves.Okay, um, eso approaches. You asked me what approaches I take. Um, we actually, um, Novartis is created, um, with, you know, a new CEO taking over a that cultural transformation journey that is anchored on four sort of cultural priorities. Um, the first is, uh, to stay curious, you know, listening to understand not to win an argument or to solve the problem, but really understand considering alternatives, you know, synthesizing views on but the end of the day turning ideas into action, which also means knowing when the discussion ends and when execution begins. Um, in my group, I like I like to use an analogy. I've always used it. You know, we have academic freedom in terms of ideas and military discipline in terms of implementation, you know, we discuss freely with its other What? How? Toe address a problem. How to pursue, You know how to proceed. And once we decide, we just call like one fist. Um, the second is to stay inspired. You know, in that case, meaning innovative with focus and discipline, toe accelerate science. Never losing sight off the ultimate benefit beneficiaries of our work, which have the millions of people around the world who depend on our discoveries to bring hope and joy in their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Um, the third is to stay on post, you know, taking initiative personal accountability both for your own and for your team's commitments, not just pointing out the problems or pointing fingers but offering concrete ideas and solutions. And last is to stay self aware. That means being aware of the impact we have on others, um, seeking and giving feedback, freely, admitting and correcting our mistakes and striving to bring the best out in ourselves and everybody else around us.