
GLG Institute Events
About GLG Institute Events
GLG Institute events are designed to create a candid environment for executives to share challenges and insights in a trusted and confidential space. These are off-the-record and invite-only events.
Ascend: The Essential Leadership Experience
Roundtables
Annual In-Person Summit
Ascend: The Essential Leadership Experience
Past Event
Leadership Strategy & Motivating High Performing Teams with Patrick McCauley & Debra Barker
Occurred February 26, 2025
Read Speaker Bios
Past Event
Building Your Professional Brand & Positioning Yourself for C Suite Roles with Marie-Anne Aymerich & Patrick Jephson
Occurred April 23, 2025
Read Speaker Bios
Speaker Biographies

Patrick McCauley
Patrick McCauley is an influential Global C-Suite executive and commercial strategist in the Biotech and Pharmaceutical industries. He has over 25 years of experience in building early-stage Commercial companies and rapidly scaling them into sustainable high-growth organizations. He has also served as both a Chief Commercial Officer and Compliance Officer of the Americas and understands the balance and trade-offs between driving financial results and mitigating organizational risk.
Patrick was most recently the Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer at MannKind Corporation. He led the creation and execution of the Global Commercial strategy and helped advance the company vision and capital markets development with the external community. In addition, he reorganized and scaled the Commercial team and helped unlock sustainable growth by and leveraging the technology platform through Business Development partnerships.
As Vice President, Compliance Officer of the Americas at Astellas Pharma US, he collaborated with Europe and Asia partners to create strategy and alignment on global healthcare policies and guidelines. Patrick also created the strategic vision and launch of the North and South America Compliance programs and ensured the successful execution and annual certification of the plan per the Office of Inspector Guidelines, Pharma Code, and U.S. Sunshine Act. As Vice President of Sales at Astellas Pharma US, he assembled and developed high-performing teams that consistently exceeded forecasts and ranked at the highest levels within the company in overall employee engagement. He was a key member of the strategic team for restructuring the organization for growth that resulted in a $1B franchise with two different market leadership products in the same therapeutic area.
Patrick has a passion for building and leading people-centric organizations that create rapid growth and are founded in a culture of high trust and strong engagement. He also has a history of mentoring, coaching, and developing senior-level executives to advance in their careers to the highest levels including the C-Suite.

Debra Barker
Debra Barker is a Non-Executive Director, Former Chief Medical Officer, and Consultant in Life Sciences based in Switzerland.
Debra is currently a Managing Director at Barker BioMedical GmbH where she provides consulting and interim management solutions to the life sciences industry. Specific key areas are clinical development, medical affairs and project management in Oncology, Anti-Infectives and Immunology. Debra is also a Senior Independent Director at Arix Bioscience plc. In addition, Debra is a Non Executive Director on multiple boards: CureVac, Destiny Pharma plc, and BerGenBio ASA.
Prior to consulting, Debra was the Chief Medical Officer for Polyneuron Pharmaceuticals AG where she developed therapies for Autoimmune Diseases. Debra was also the Chief Medical and Development Officer at Polyphor Ltd and was responsible for all drug development (clinical, pre-clinical, CMC, regulatory). Debra spent 11 years at Novartis where she served in many roles: VP Medical Affairs Head Novartis Ophthalmology & ad Interim Neurosciences, Global Program Head of Novartis Oncology, Global Head of Clinical and Medical Services, Development Business Unit Head of Immunology & Infectious Diseases, and Regional Medical Director Asia Pacific. Before Novartis, Debra worked for Roche, a global pioneer in pharmaceuticals, for over 6 years.
Debra is passionate about mentorship aside from interface of business and science. She has mentored and grown teams all over the world including APAC for Novartis. Additionally, she has mentored leaders across business units including tech development, regulatory, helping to understand organizational politics, international and cultural awareness, women’s leadership, and developing high powered teams.
Debra’s education history includes a HMX Pro Certificate in Clinical Immunology from Harvard Medical School, an Executive Education from Harvard Business School, a Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine from the Royal College of Physicians, a MSc in Immunology from King’s College London, the University of Cambridge, and a MA. Hons from Queens’ College. Debra also has a certification as a Member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine from the Royal College of Physicians.
Speaker Biographies

Marie-Anne Aymerich
Marie-Anne has built a portfolio of senior advisory and non-executive roles, following a successful international career in the FMCG and Luxury sectors. She is a non-executive director of Haleon, a FTSE100 company listed in 2022 after the demerger from GSK. She is also chairwoman of Haleon Environment and Societal Sustainability committee. She is the executive director of the Pierre Fabre Group where she also sits on the Strategic Committee, and she is a Board Member of The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, one of the world’s most prestigious chamber orchestras. She is also an angel investor and focuses her time and investments on start-ups with the strongest purpose and impact.
Marie-Anne is also a regular lecturer at HEC Paris on purposeful leadership, and she has created a serious game called “Planet Purpose” to upskill people on sustainability and purpose. Throughout her 35year executive career she delivered a strong track-record of business performance and growth in brands and portfolio in both developed and emerging economies.
As a senior leader with Unilever, she led a number of different personal care categories across France, Spain and the USA – including managing the Dove brand worldwide and culminating in leading Unilever’s global Oral Care division. She also worked for LVMH as Brand General Manager of Dior Perfumes and Cosmetics worldwide. Marie-Anne was also Vice-President of Imagine for Margo – Children with Cancer for ten years, a charity she helped found in 2011 with the goal of eradicating children’s cancer. The charity is the #1 charity focused on child cancer in France and has fundraised more than €14m since its creation. Marie-Anne is a graduate from HEC Paris. She is married and has two children aged 29 and 26.

Patrick Jephson
Patrick Jephson is a consultant, journalist, broadcaster and New York Times bestselling author, based in Washington D.C. He is a published authority on corporate and personal branding and crisis communications, addressing conferences worldwide as well as events at the U.S. State Department, the American University and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
With more than twenty-five years’ experience in the government, luxury and family office sectors, Patrick’s portfolio has included globally admired brands as well as national agencies and NGOs. He has also worked on reputation and legacy briefs with European, Middle Eastern and Asian families, including royalty. He now writes, presents, and advises on factual and drama TV programs, appearing on every major American and many international networks. He was recently an expert consultant to the award-winning Netflix series The Crown and provided live commentary on the Coronation of King Charles.
Patrick owes much of his practical communications and protocol experience to Princess Diana, who chose him to be her equerry and only private secretary/chief of staff. He served the Princess for eight years, responsible for all aspects of her public life, global humanitarian initiatives, and private organization. Having worked for an internationally high-profile woman (and as the father of two professionally successful daughters) he feels a special affinity for cross-cultural, gender and perception issues.
Patrick was born and raised in Ireland and holds a master’s degree in political science from Cambridge University. As an officer in the British Royal Navy, he served all over the world before being selected for royal duty. He is a citizen of the U.K., U.S.A., Ireland, and Canada.
Roundtables and Dinners
Past Event
Spring Dinner with Annalisa Jenkins
Zurich, Switzerland
Occured May 14, 2025
More Details
Spring Dinner with Annalisa Jenkins Zurich

Dr. Annalisa Jenkins, M.B.B.S., F.R.C.P. is a life sciences thought leader with over 25 years of experience building and financing companies pursuing cures for the most challenging diseases globally. She has consistently mentored leadership teams advancing programs from basic research through clinical development, regulatory approval, and into healthcare systems globally. Dr Jenkins graduated in Medicine at the University of London and received her Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians London. She trained in Cardiovascular medicine and was a research fellow at Imperial College. Earlier in her career, Dr. Jenkins was a medical officer in the British Royal Navy during the Gulf Conflict, achieving the rank of Surgeon Lieutenant Commander. She also held senior leadership roles at Merck Serono, and Bristol Myers-Squibb over 15 years. Dr. Jenkins served as President and CEO of Dimension Therapeutics, a leading gene therapy company she took public on the NASDAQ and subsequently sold to Ultragenyx. Following her relocation back to the UK, she developed a portfolio of roles spanning the public, private and charitable sectors including Genomics England, The King’s Fund, British Heart Foundation and Chair of YouBelong, a leading mental health care charity. Dr. Jenkins serves as a Science Board Committee Member to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, which advises FDA leadership on complex issues and is Chair of The Court for The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is also a Board member of several growing public and private companies including Oncimmune, AVROBIO, COMPASS Pathways and Affimed. Dr. Jenkins serves on a number of advisory boards and contributes publicly on leadership with purpose, social entrepreneurship, diversity and innovation
Annual In-Person Summit
Leadership Summit
New York City
Occurred April 2025
More Details