Day One

• How can mid‑sized life sciences organizations sustain engagement and operational stability during a prolonged acquisition and six‑month talent‑at‑risk period?
• Learn how Blueprint Medicines implemented a practical talent cross‑pollination and contingency planning approach, redeploying internal capability, redistributing work, and partnering closely with HRBPs to reduce reliance on external hiring
• Discover how this strategy protected critical roles, supported meaningful stay conversations, and enabled employees to remain engaged and productive through uncertainty, offering a repeatable model for organizations navigating M&A or commercial scale‑up

• HireLifeScience.com New Platform Launch
• HireLifeScience.com Career Fairs 2026

• This session explores how talent acquisition teams can measure not just hiring activity but hiring impact
• Through a feedback loop approach that connects candidate and hiring manager experience, onboarding outcomes, quality of hire, and retention trends, we’ll examine how data can be linked to create a more complete view of hiring effectiveness
• By linking process feedback to measurable outcomes, we mapped out a more data-informed approach to attracting, integrating, and retaining talent

This interactive Q&A examines the full arc of talent risk during acquisition, from the moment a deal is announced to the point of genuine integration stability. Drawing on both the crosspollination approach to talent-at-risk management and the pre-and post-close intervention framework, participants will examine what HR must do, and when, to prevent the quiet erosion of innovation capability that so often follows a deal.

• At what point in the M&A process does HR intervention have the greatest impact on talent retention?
• How do you identify which individuals and capabilities are truly critical, versus simply perceived as critical?
• What does a genuinely effective retention strategy look like for a population that has every reason to leave?
• How do you sustain innovation culture and engagement when the people driving it are uncertain about their future?

Building on the Q&A, this roundtable creates a practical space to develop and stress-test the talent protection approaches participants are, or should be, using in their own organizations.

Whether you are navigating an active deal, preparing for future M&A activity, or managing a period of organizational restructuring, this session offers peer-tested tools and honest perspective.

• What are the three most important things your organization should be doing right now to protect its critical talent, that it probably isn’t?
• How do you build an M&A talent playbook that can be activated quickly and adapted to different deal types?
• What does a cross-pollination or contingency planning model look like in your organization, and where would it break down?
• How do you know when integration is genuinely complete from a talent and culture perspective?

Leave with a clearer M&A talent framework and practical ideas for protecting the people and capabilities that determine whether a deal creates or destroys value

• How can a global life sciences organization transform its TA function to become more agile, efficient, and skills‑focused in an increasingly complex hiring landscape?
• Explore how Bayer is redesigning its TA operating model using Dynamic Shared Ownership, running 90‑day agile cycles, integrating retros for continuous iteration, mapping the full candidate communication journey, and activating a company‑wide skills marketplace to accelerate upskilling and cross‑functional capability building
• See how this new approach is streamlining processes, improving prioritization, increasing operational clarity, strengthening identification of skills gaps, and enabling more targeted investment in development, laying the foundation for stronger efficiency, higher-quality hiring, and long‑term organizational impact

• How does Biogen effectively adapt their talent strategy to support and manage a product development lifecycle? It’s critical to categorize the workforce based on how the work is directed and the outcome expected
• Learn how to access and get the best value out of both your employee and non-employee workforce to ensure future-ready strategies are in place to bring new products to market
• Explore how different talent modalities and technology enabled processes can deliver dynamic access to top talent in a competitive market while providing for stronger governance and compliance – providing for better value and risk mitigation while meeting your organization's talent needs

This interactive Q&A explores what it takes to move TA from a reactive, transactional function to a proactive, skills-led strategic partner, examining both the operating model redesign, the competency, and roadmap approaches covered in the Discover sessions. Participants will examine the practical choices that determine whether TA transformation delivers lasting business impact.

• What operating model principles most reliably deliver greater TA agility and quality, and what are the trade-offs?
• How do you build a TA competency model that business stakeholders actually trust and use?
• What does a credible five-year TA strategic roadmap look like, and how do you maintain momentum?
• Which metrics most accurately capture whether TA is genuinely operating as a strategic business partner?

Building on the Q&A, this roundtable asks participants to think beyond current transformation projects and consider the TA function their organization will need to have built by the time growth, AI, and workforce complexity make today’s model obsolete. The goal is to surface the design choices, capability investments, and stakeholder moves that matter most.

• What does your TA function need to look like in three years, and how far is it from that today?
• What operating model change would have the most immediate impact on TA quality and agility in your organization?
• How do you build the internal credibility needed to invest in TA transformation in a cost-constrained environment?
• What is the one competency your TA team most needs to develop, and what would it take to build it?

Leave with a sharper view of the TA transformation priorities that will deliver the greatest strategic return in your context

• How can large, complex life sciences organizations move from fragmented, decentralized learning models to a single, enterprise‑wide L&D function without losing relevance for diverse roles and therapy areas?
• Discover Merck’s journey to fully centralize learning and development, standardize methodologies, and re‑engineer delivery through technology enablement, including AI‑powered learning intake, rapid content recommendation tools, and emerging AI coaching capabilities
• See the tangible ROI of Merck’s L&D transformation, delivering tens of millions of dollars in cost savings, enabling faster, more consistent learning at scale, and establishing one enterprise-wide set of leadership standards, strengthening capability, alignment, and readiness for future AI enablement across the business

Drawing on 251 coaching engagements with senior leaders across pharma and biotech, this session offers a view no single case study can: what leaders are working on across the industry, how those priorities differ from every other sector, and what that says about what it takes to succeed here.

Learn why influence has overtaken communication as the top development priority for pharma leaders – the only sector in our data where that ranking is reversed – and what leading without authority actually requires. Understand why five of pharma's ten most-needed development priorities are inner-game skills like executive presence, confidence, and self-awareness, what that reveals about the leaders in your organization, and why these capabilities don't respond to traditional training.

This interactive Q&A examines the tension at the heart of enterprise L&D design: how to achieve scale and consistency without losing the local relevance that makes learning land. Drawing on both the centralization journey and the global-local operating model approaches explored in the Discover sessions, participants will examine how AI, governance, and platform decisions interact to determine whether L&D becomes a genuine enterprise growth engine or a well-intended but underutilized function.

Where does the balance between central standardization and local autonomy typically break down, and how do you reset it?

• How do you build AI-enabled learning capabilities in a large organization without creating new silos?
• What governance structures enable both enterprise consistency and affiliate responsiveness?
• How do you calculate and communicate the ROI of L&D investment in language that CFOs and business leaders find credible?

Building on the Q&A, this roundtable focuses on the practical choices that determine whether L&D becomes a scalable, business-integrated capability or remains a fragmented, reactive function. Whether you are centralizing, rethinking the global-local balance, or introducing AI-enabled learning tools, this session offers peer-tested perspectives on what the highest-leverage moves look like.

• What is the single biggest structural or governance change that would most improve L&D’s impact in your organization?
• How do you build the business case for L&D investment when cost pressure is high and outcomes are hard to measure?
• Where has AI genuinely changed what is possible in your L&D function, and where has it fallen short of expectation?
• What does “good” look like for a global L&D operating model in a life sciences organization of your size?

Leave with a clearer view of the L&D design choices that will have the greatest business impact in your context, and peer-tested approaches to making the case for them

• The leadership shift: Moving from scientific expert to business leader means shifting from solving technical problems and being “right” to shaping priorities, influencing stakeholders, and moving an organization across functions
• HR must focus on selection as well as development: Not every strong scientist will thrive as an organizational leader – key predictors include social astuteness/political skill, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and adaptable communication
• Four capabilities are critical: Emerging leaders need to build influence without authority, executive-level communication, the ability to “get on the balcony” and see the broader organizational system, and the ability to deploy people and resources against changing priorities
• The HR implication: Succession planning should assess who has the underlying potential before promotion, then deliberately develop these four capabilities during the leader’s first 12 months in a broader role

• How can a fast‑growing biotech strengthen leadership capability from first‑time managers to emerging functional leaders?
• Explore how Revolution Medicines created a tiered development pathway, including foundational leadership training, situational leadership, pod coaching, and a new four‑month senior leader program combining insights discovery, 360 feedback, and real‑world application
• Learn how the organization measures ROI through before/after self‑assessments, manager‑observed behavioural changes, and application of new skills, supported by strong engagement and tangible examples of leaders applying program tools to their functions

• How can a 20,000‑employee decentralized organization build a clearer, more consistent and modern employee experience to address career‑development‑driven attrition?
• Learn how Charles River Laboratories is piloting an AI based talent intelligence platform with 3,000 employees to bring transparency and clarity to career paths, surface internal opportunities that are personalized, and align skills across the business using them initially in ways to drive better connection, development and upskilling
• With the pilot explicitly aiming to boost employee engagement, retention, belonging and internal mobility discover how this early phase is designed to also lay the groundwork for modernizing the employee experience and building an enterprise‑wide skills ecosystem.

This interactive Q&A examines the challenge of building leadership capability that genuinely changes how people lead, rather than producing well-attended programs with limited behavioral transfer.

Drawing on both the tiered development pathway and the enterprise transformation approach explored in the Discover sessions, participants will examine how to design development investments that deliver durable, measurable change.

• What design principles most reliably translate leadership development investment into genuine behavior change?
• How do you build a succession bench through development rather than just identification?
• What role does external methodology and partnership play versus internal capability in large-scale transformation?
• How do you sustain leadership development momentum through a CEO transition or major strategic shift?

Building on the Q&A, this roundtable creates a practical space to examine the leadership development investments participants are making, and whether they are delivering the behavioral change and succession readiness the organization actually needs. This is a candid, peer-driven session designed to challenge assumptions and surface what genuinely works.

• What is the most common reason leadership development programs fail to change behavior in your experience?
• How do you build tiered development pathways that work for managers at every level without becoming too complicated to sustain?
• What is the role of measurement in your leadership development approach, and what would “good” measurement look like?

Leave with practical ideas for designing leadership development that delivers durable behavioral change and measurable business impact