Stepping into the role of CEO: A conversation with Dr. Melanie Rolli, an experienced CEO and board member
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: Hello, I'm Marion Fengler-Veith, partner in charge of Heidrick & Struggles’ Zurich office and a member of the Healthcare and Life Science Practice. Today, I'm delighted to be joined by Dr. Melanie Rolli, an experienced biopharma executive whose career has spanned scientific, medical, and commercial leadership, CEO roles, and board responsibilities. Most recently, Melanie served as CEO of Helsinn, a global family-owned pharmaceutical group headquartered here in Switzerland, where she led the company through a significant period of transformation and turnaround. Having started her career from a deeply scientific and medical perspective, her journey offers a fascinating view of what it takes to move from functional expertise into enterprise leadership, and how leadership changes again when you step into the boardroom. Melanie, welcome, and thank you for taking the time to speak with us today.
Dr. Melanie Rolli: Thank you very much for the invitation, Marion. It's a true pleasure to be here.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: You began your career with a strong scientific and medical foundation before taking on increasingly broad leadership responsibilities. What prompted you to move beyond your area of expertise and pursue enterprise leadership?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: Yes, so I trained as a physician, and as a physician, of course, you meet and see individual patients. You get to know them, you understand their journey and their history, you diagnose, and you treat. The interesting observation was that sometimes you cannot diagnose; you cannot find out what's really wrong with the patient, or also that you don't have enough in your armamentarium to treat the patient. So, very early on, I stepped into basic research, first in parallel, then as a main focus for a while in my career—to answer those deeply scientific questions and to find new ways for patients forward. But what was really very interesting was that very quickly one could see that there are good ideas that finally make it to the patients, but that there are also very good scientific ideas that never make it there. So the question for me was: how does the system work and how do you get more options for patients, and make it possible for them to have more treatments? And so, with this, I stepped out of originally scientific curiosity into a broader role in pharmaceutical development, but really with the idea to create the impact that originally was the impact on an individual patient through that new work, then on a broader group of patients, and then not only individually but really worldwide.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: And what triggered then your move from a senior leadership role, but still with a kind of medical foundation into CEO leadership?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: I think it was a very similar driver. It was that. to understand the system and be able to influence the system, to get with, you know, speed new options to patients. I think if you remain in your scientific corner, of course you have a huge impact there, but it takes a lot more than science to get a product to the market or to get a device to the market. It requires a multidisciplinary approach, and I was lucky that, very early in my career, I was exposed to these different functions. And when I then decided that it was time to sort of step by step forward, it was clear that I had some understanding of all those—even though, of course, you can't be an expert in all of those—to step into a leadership role where you then create the environment where all these individual functions have a chance to be their best, and then execute against the plan, and hopefully with speed get new options to patients.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: You'd mentioned to me also in one of our conversations that it was important to adapt your communication and language as your role changed. What else did you have to change when moving from technical expert to enterprise leader and ultimately CEO?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: You know, I think what really changes the most is your understanding of your own identity. When you are a technical expert, you're very comfortable with your own expertise. You know what you're doing, you know what is required. You very often have the answers to most of the questions that you ask yourself. But as soon as you step into a broader role, that sort of vanishes, and you have to be very comfortable with the idea that you don't have all the answers. And so it is that identity shift from being the expert to asking the right questions, getting people together in a room who you know can solve the problem together, and then guiding them and asking them the questions, but knowing that most of the people are a lot better at what they're doing than you are. And so that was the identity shift, I think, that was the biggest change for me.
The second change really was the way we communicate. As a scientific expert, you have a very clear language. It's very driven by science and evidence, and now you have to speak differently. I mean, you speak to your finance group very, very differently than you speak to your R&D team, and to learn those different languages and to be able to bridge also between the groups, that was a major change also that I had to learn and practice, and that wasn't always easy.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: What surprised you most when you first stepped into a CEO role?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: The visibility, the loneliness, and the breadth of the accountability. It was astonishing to feel that difference, how your environment reacts to you with that new title. You personally think nothing has changed, but in reality everything has changed in your circle of family, friends, and then professionally, for sure. You get invited to different places you had never access to before, and so you have to find your way around in a very new environment. The loneliness that comes with it, I think, comes with the dramatic and breadth and depth of accountability you have. Again, as a scientific expert, you are responsible and accountable for one function. In the role as the CEO, really, the buck stops with you. Everything comes your way. Every open question that no one else can or wants to solve ends up on your desk, and one has to live with that accountability and want that accountability. And it was stronger than one can imagine.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: Moving into a CEO role also requires the confidence to make decisions beyond your original area of expertise. Where did you have to develop the most courage as a leader, and how did you build confidence in making decisions?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: I think there's two pieces to this. First of all, you have to be very clear where you want to go with the organization, and you have to communicate this very clearly to everyone. People will embrace it not immediately, especially when change is involved, but I think you have to be very, very clear in communicating and be clear why you're going there and why you want the organization to go there. And then the actual decision making, I think, becomes even more challenging because you will have to make decisions when things are not ready. So you will have to make decisions first of all when you don't have the full set of information, and you will have to make decisions because not making the decision is worse for the organization than making it. So, with the incomplete set of information, as an evidence-based trained scientist is very, very complicated and very challenging, but people will understand that you need to move.
And so that was the biggest adjustment that I had to adjust to over time. And the courage really came from knowing that I cannot be paralyzed. I needed to make those decisions in order to allow for the organization to move forward. So what I followed in order to get there was sort of a basic science approach that I've done always, is I ask the question is what do we know? What do we not know? What do we assume? Which I think is a very, very difficult and a very important question. What would happen if we were waiting and what's the downside, and can we change the course later? I also learnt that decisions are not final and that you can course-correct then as you go along, and that it's better to act earlier than later and course-correct as you go. But that brings a whole other aspect of leadership with it, which is clear that you're not always right, and people could interpret course-correction as weakness. I never felt it was one, but it was also possible because I had been so clear with the organization what we wanted to achieve, and so course-correction became obvious and not a downfall.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: You stepped into the CEO role at Helsinn at an extraordinarily challenging moment for the business. Your executive chairman described the moment as a perfect storm for Helsinn, one that included product setbacks, leadership issues, and the war in Ukraine. When you realized incremental change wasn't going to be enough, how did you establish what needed to change?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: I think in any difficult situation or in any crisis, it's very important to start with the reality, not with the idea you have about the situation, not the narrative that you're being told by people in or from outside the situation, but you take the time to understand and diagnose. It's very similar than looking at a patient and trying to figure out what's wrong with them. It's not always the obvious path, and also I think it's very important not to go into the situation with a preconceived way to fix it.
So for me, the most important piece in all this was to pause, take time, listen, really listen, and listen to the things also that are not being said. I think that's very important too. And then to diagnose what the situation is, and then to develop a plan around it. When there is a deep crisis, again to what we said earlier, you will have to make decisions and course-correct as you go. But you will really be served well by pausing, listening, looking at a strategy—in this case, at the portfolio, financial performance, organizational structure, and previous decision making and accountability—and ask the simple question, you know, what can we change and who do we want to be three years from now, and then work backwards to figure out how to get there.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: Transformation often requires leaders to make decisions that are necessary for the organization but difficult for its people. How do you balance organizational needs with workforce needs?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: I think, again, before transforming an organization, you have to be willing to see everything very clearly and very honestly—not wishful thinking. but clearly what you think needs to happen. And I think one can be quite tough on the organization, but one always has to be very kind and caring to the people. Very often, when you're in a crisis situation, I think people who are working in it, they already know that not everything is perfect; they know that change is required, but we know how difficult it is for people to embrace that change. And so I think, again, you develop that North Star for the organization. You also invite them to join you on that journey, and not everyone might want to join you, and that's OK too. And then, of course, the ones who will and who want to join you, they will be very clear, and there will still be roadblocks. We have to really be very clear about the human behavior, how difficult it is to change the way we work and what we do. And as long as we keep this in mind, I think we can move forward. Will there have to be tough decisions on the organization? Yes, that was the case too. But as the CEO, in the end, you know, the goal is the overall health of the organization for the future. And so with that in mind I think, and the kindness and the respect for the individual in mind, I think you can move through any transformation.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: You mentioned earlier the focus on patient and general, the focus on purpose, is that something that also helped you during these times?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: I would absolutely say yes, because in all situations where there was a turnaround or other difficult situations, we were always working on projects which I knew would have a positive impact on the individual, but also on the population in general for the patient. So it was very clear that the purpose was there, and you need people to pursue that purpose. But sometimes you need other skill sets, so you need other types of ideas to move things forward. So, as long as you keep the purpose of the organization in sight and people want to pursue that purpose, I think you will be successful.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: There are moments in a transformation when a leader has to step forward, speak up, and push for a decision, even when there's resistance. How do you recognize those moments, and what gives you the conviction to act?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: I think we recognize them sometimes faster than we want to act. When you are in situations where you have to drive change, it is very often very clear to you as a leader, very often you also hold a lot more information than the rest of the organization. You also have, as the leader, the enterprise view, hopefully, at heart but certainly in your mind all the time. So, you will have to move sometimes for other people much faster and earlier than they're comfortable with. But I think as a leader, you have to hold all those strings together and make sure that you get to that outcome, even though if there is resistance in the organization.
But I think the conviction that I have to get there is that I'm listening carefully, I'm analyzing, and I'm testing different assumptions. And I think the most important view is to listen to dissenting views. There will always be people who will not agree with you, and I think it's utterly important to listen to them because, of course, yourself, you get tunnel vision. You have a goal, and you want to go. I think it's your duty as a leader, in general, to find the way that people feel safe enough to dissent with you, to course-correct if you need to, but you know in the end the decision is up to you, and you will have to move.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: Looking back at the transformation you led at Helsinn, what did that experience teach you about yourself as a leader that you couldn't have learnt in less challenging circumstances?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: I learned a lot about resilience, about my own resilience, but really about the resilience of an organization. I know, on my own journey, the things I can push through and the things that I can endure by myself, but as a leader, you're putting that endurance on a team, on a group, on an organization. And it's fascinating to see how resilient organizations are, but I think the key driver is that they all agree on the purpose. If you're clear on the purpose—why you're doing this and where you're going—I think people will eventually embrace it, but that doesn't mean that they're struggling with the change and that they're hurting, that they're hurting if they lose colleagues because you had to make difficult decisions and people were exited from an organization. So I think you have to be, again, kind and caring to the organization that remains with you and acknowledge that the resilience that they need to get out on the other side is quite strong.
And for me, it was always, again, talking about being very clear and reiterating the purpose, so people understood why they were doing this. We were not doing things to hurt anyone; we were not doing things to be mean, but we were doing it because we believed the overall health of the organization would prevail and, therefore, the impact in the end on patients would prevail. I spoke a lot about patient numbers that we can reach and not just at Helsinn, but in all my other roles also. I think you have to make it less abstract. People have to know why they're getting out of bed in the morning. But really, for me, the eye-opener was how much more resilience the organization needs as a group than what you think you're putting up yourselves.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: Is there also a learning that you've taken away that helps you today in your role in the boardroom in those conversations?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: Yes, very much so. I think, as a CEO, you know that you own the execution and the operations and, as we said earlier, you have the breadth of accountability. Things go right or wrong, whatever it is, in the end, people will look at you and say, you know, why did you do that and was this the right decision, yes or no? And so I think I know today how lonely these days are as a CEO when you battle with those decisions and struggle with them. So, now as a board, I think it's clear that you move from an ownership perspective on the execution much more to a stewardship for the team.
I think the role that I learned now as a board member is that you can really add dramatic value to the management team by being that sounding board and by offering challenging questions, but in a safe place where the people feel comfortable to discuss the problems that they have on a daily basis—the CEO and the CFO and whoever might be in the front lines in an R&D organization, for example. But I think the real benefit of having walked the CEO walk is that you really know the ins and outs of the machine that you're trying to guide from a board's perspective. And here the role is, as I said, it's different, but the advantage also is that you're not drowning in the day-to-day activities. You can step aside. You can offer very different views on similar challenges for the CEO to contemplate and to think about, but I really believe that support and that safe space as the board is incredibly important.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: Does being a former CEO make it harder to resist stepping into execution when you're sitting on a board?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: Yes, absolutely. Very often you see situations that you've either encountered in one way or another, and you have to, you have to suppress the urge to step in and offer solutions and say, you know, what I would do or if I was you, and that's really not the point. I think the point is to be very respectful to the CEO and help contemplate different ideas, but is it sometimes challenging? Yes, especially when you think it should be speedier.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: And how do you find the right balance between offering your experience and giving them, the management, the space to lead?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: I think you have to agree very openly with management how you want to work together. I think you put the boundaries up before you sort of step in the ring. I think it's very important, at the beginning, either you join a new board or a new CEO is joining your organization, that you sit down and discuss how you want to work together and acknowledge. I do this all the time when new CEOs or when I join new groups, I say, I said I know you probably think, Dear god, there she is and she wants to own it, and discuss all this. And I make it very clear and I also say, you know, if you have the feeling that I'm crossing that boundary, you have to let me know. It's never done out of trying to do your work; it’s mostly done out of caring and out of hoping that you can move things around and faster. But I think it's about putting the boundaries up and clarifying how you want to work together.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: What do you think first-time CEOs often misunderstand about working effectively with their board and, conversely, what should boards understand about supporting a CEO through periods of significant change?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: I think first-time CEOs worry a lot about the board. They feel this is more of a performance judgement organ. You go, and you have to perform appropriately, and if you don't, it reflects poorly on you. I think, unfortunately, that's how many executives grow up in their organizations. They go to committees, they perform, and there could be or couldn't be consequences, and no one wants to look stupid. I mean, that really is the other driver. And if you're new in the role, you're really worried about the judgment about yourself. And I think that's also part of the conversation when you meet a new CEO, you meet a new board, because I think the most important thing is transparency.
The board's role is to think about talent, risk, and strategy. And so I believe that the CEO needs to join and say, you know, use the board as that strategic resource and discuss things. I think also discuss difficult things early enough, not wait and not only bring good news, but really bring the difficult things that the CEO wrestles with early to the board, so that there could be an exchange on how things could work out. I think the board, as any other committee, never wants to be surprised. I think everyone can deal with challenges if they know about them early, but you just don't want to surprise anyone. And I think the fear of not looking good enough for the role can lead to difficult situations.
But I think it's on the board and especially on the chairperson to set up these boundaries and ensure that the CEO is comfortable enough to bring the CFO or whoever is needed from a content perspective to discuss the difficult topics that keep them up at night. I also sit on different committees or lead different subcommittees of the board, and I let them send the slides, and then I put the slides away, and I say, “So what keeps you up at night? What is it that you're really struggling with? Because I don't need an update; I don't need to see that things are on track. We assume that they're on track. Let's talk about the difficult stuff.” And I think once the first-time CEO has had the experience that it can work that way, it can unlock a huge sense of togetherness also, because in the end it's the management and the board that is responsible for the organization.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: When you look across your journey from medical and functional expertise to CEO and board leadership, which capabilities have proved transferable at every stage, and which have you had to consciously leave behind?
Dr. Melanie Rolli: The way I see my career evolution is really that I didn't leave the science behind, but that expanded my responsibilities with the idea to have a chance to have the science unfold in the system and in the environment that I could be creating as a leader. So really what stayed was the capabilities around curiosity, listening skills, purpose, and bringing people together. The curiosity sort of moved from scientific curiosity to business to organizational, and then in the boardroom it's really why and why not and what if. So the question around the curiosity hasn't changed.
Listening, as I said earlier, you listen to the patient as a physician; as a scientist, you listen to the data; as the CEO, you listen to your people. You hopefully get the descending view, so you can expand. So it's a honing of the skills, but it really goes all the way through. For the purpose also, I think to create purpose as a capability that was and still is very important to me. I think I want to be in an organization where we know why we're doing things and what we're doing it for. And last but not least, really the capability of bringing people together. You do this in the clinic; you speak to the patient and to families, but really, as you go along on your career trajectory, also for myself, it was very important for me always to bring different functions together to get that exchange that we're looking for.
And what I then usually use is the metaphor of the orchestra, where the CEO really is the conductor. You might have your individual expertise that brought you into the system to begin with, but as the conductor, it is your job to bring the best musicians together. In our case, the best experts together to exchange, to listen to each other, and to create an answer that the individual couldn't achieve. The same is true for the orchestra when they play well together, I think it's magic what can happen. So, and what did I had to leave behind in all this? Again, my basic expertise and the desire and the need to be right and to have all the answers. This is sort of what evolved into the other capabilities that came along.
But really, under stress, I have to say this is what I have to fight the most: that you don't go back to your basic expertise and sort of hold onto the things that you think that you were really, really good at, which now also is a little while ago, so things have evolved there too. But I think to work on yourself to make sure that you're not withdrawing into your area, but that you remain open, you let the others do their job and be there to support them.
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith: Melanie, thank you for making the time to speak with us today.
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About the interviewer
Dr. Marion Fengler-Veith (mfenglerveith@heidrick.com) is the partner in charge of Heidrick & Struggles’ Zurich office and a member of the Healthcare & Life Sciences and Supply Chain & Operations Officers practices.