Outi Wilén

I am heading the Nordic organisation for Dechra. Dechra is an international specialist veterinary pharmaceuticals and related products business. Our expertise is in the development, manufacture, sales and marketing of high quality products exclusively for veterinarians worldwide. We offer an increasing portfolio of licensed and unlicensed pharmaceuticals plus our comprehensive range of high quality cat and dog diets. We also have a range of veterinary products that are dedicated to improving and maintaining the health and welfare of food producing animals.

I was heading the Finnish subsidiary of Straumann, a Swiss company which provides total solutions for esthetic dentistry. The company offered a broad range of products and solutions for preventive, conventional and surgical treatments, restorative and regenerative solutions, integrated digital workflows, orthodontics and CADCAM restorations for natural esthetic outcomes with enhanced patient comfort. I was responsible for all of our activities in Finland, including sales, marketing, training and customer service.

Besides leading the Finnish subsidiary, Zoetis Finland Oy, I was also managing our distributor business in Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland). My total responsibility area amounted to around 30 MIO €.

Zoetis is the world's biggest animal health company, based in the USA. My role was to lead all operations of our Finnish subsidiary, Zoetis Finland Oy with a gross turnover of around 9 MIO €. I was leading a team of ca. 20 people. One of my main tasks was to enable the successful separation of Zoetis from Pfizer. I re-organised and developed a highly committed, sales-focused team that was continuously outperforming our competitors. I was also acting as the President of the Finnish Veterinary Pharma Association (Eläinlääketeollisuus ry).

My main task was to establish the operations of Shire Human Genetic Therapies in Finland and create a solid business base that would enable our future success. Shire HGT was part of Shire Pharmaceuticals, an orphan drug company. Our therapy areas were Fabry disease, Gaucher disease, Hunter's Syndrome and Hereditary Angioedema. I increased our Finnish turnover from 1 MIO € to around 5 MIO € during my time at Shire. Besides leading Finland, I was also responsible for establishing and managing our operations in the Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Biogen Idec is a USA-based biopharmaceutical company that focuses mainly on MS disease therapies (multiple sclerosis). I was responsible for all of our operations in Finland. My main achievement was to bring our negatively performing company into positive growth, by consistently gaining market shares from our competitors. Our turnover doubled from around 4 MIO € to 9 MIO € under my leadership.

I was responsible for the sales and marketing of all products and all therapy areas of Schering in Finland, a German-based pharmaceutical company. These areas included gynecology, andrology, contrast media, hematology, oncology, CNS and dermatology. I gained a lot of experience in not only the traditional marketing of pharmaceuticals, but also in the hospital business and relating tendering processes. One of my biggest achievements was to reorganize our Business Units to better meet the needs of the market place. I had more than 30 persons reporting to me. I also acted as the merger coordinator, representing the whole Schering Oy in our merger with Leiras Oy.

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a USA-based pharmaceutical company. I acted as the Business Unit Manager being responsible for the marketing of our cardiovascular medicines, anti-infectives and HIV medicines in Finland. The main product in my Business Unit, Pravachol (a cholesterol-lowering statin) showed record-high sales under my leadership.