I got here by delivering growth, profitability and returns to the shareholders in every job that I had. That was the first lesson they taught me at the Wharton School in my MBA program, and I never lost sight of it. And every time I delivered, the company gave me bigger and more challenging exciting roles. I completed the one of the largest and most significant divestitures in JJ's history, and I'm really proud of what I accomplished not only on that deal, but on the other 60 or so that I completed.

The biggest challenge is in starting a new project with new people every time. So my work is project based, and even though I worked for the company for many, many years, I usually didn't know the people who I was working with when a new project started. So the biggest challenge is to establish yourself as a leader and to gain trust from the team and the people who you're working with. They need to believe in you, and they need to. I believe that you're the expert and you're going to leave them to goodness. So what do I do? I listen, I listen to the people. I asked them lots of questions. Who is the customer? What does the product to rewarding influences? The more questions I asked, the more I understand about the opportunity. I was agnostic to the product or the business segment. I worked in every part of the company. I worked in pharmaceuticals, consumer, medical device and animal health. I was loyal to the company and my goal was to deliver results for the shareholders

work with presidents, CEOs, investment bankers, heads up private equity firms. I worked with the highest level of management because I'm negotiating very sophisticated and important business deals. And the most important thing is to make sure that you're dealing with the decision maker, because one thing you don't want to do is negotiate a very complicated deal and then have the other side say, Okay, now we have to check it out with the boss because then you lose your leverage. You may have played your cards too early, so I always like to know that the person that I'm dealing with across the table has the authority to make the decision.