“You have to advocate and speak up for your goals and wishes”

Daniela Katarzynski, Head of Operations Cell Culture Media at Sartorius in Göttingen
 

Daniela has pursued a career in STEM and has held various leadership positions. In addition to talent and supportive managers, two things have proven to be particularly important: Speaking up for her professional ambitions and taking risks. In this interview, she reveals why it was good for her to ignore her father's advice, which clichés she has already fought against and what she recommends to women who want to advance their careers.

_{^{This article is posted on Sartorius Blog.}}
 

Daniela, you’ve been in diverse roles so far, please tell us about your career path.

After finishing my PhD in chemistry, I worked at a big healthcare company in different roles for twelve years. Starting in R&D, I quickly moved to operation roles like Lean Leader, Process Engineering Manager, which was my first leadership role, took additionally quality control and became the Operations Manager. Then I moved to another manufacturing site of the company in Austria, where I was first Business Team Leader and then Plant Manager and Managing Director of the site. 

After those twelve years, I decided I needed to see something else and became Managing Director of a business unit of a company in the field of genomics. But the company was not the right fit for me, so I was very happy when I was asked to lead and develop cell culture media operations at Sartorius.

What are you doing in that role?

Cell culture media play a crucial role in the development and production of advanced therapies. When I joined the company in May 2021, Sartorius wanted to strengthen its position in this field. Since then, my team and I have been building up the operation network for cell culture media further, for example, by supporting the integration of acquired operations, and the launch of a new media production at our site in Yauco, Puerto Rico, and by further developing processes regarding quality, supply chain management, continuous improvement, and procurement. And we're not done yet – there are many projects underway to further advance our capabilities and capacities.

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Is there a person or event that inspired you and helped you grow in your career?

There are several people and events that have had a huge impact on me and my career. One important person was my second manager. He saw potential in me and offered me lots of opportunities. It started with giving me additional responsibility for certain initiatives, giving me my first leadership role and offering me to take additional responsibility for quality control when someone became long-term sick. When my manager moved to the company's site in Austria, he asked me to join him and take over as a business team manager there, and a few years later become his successor for the plant manager role. 

For me personally, this involved taking some risks, because the production processes and quality level at that site were totally new to me and I moved my whole family from the Göttingen area to the very south of Bavaria in order to be close to my workplace across the border in Austria. I took the risk because my manager trusted me that I could do the jobs he offered, and I trusted him to know what I was capable of. He really inspired me to grow my career and supported me a lot on the way. I am still in contact with him today. 

Another influential person is my husband. We have been moving several times for my career, and not only was he always ready to relocate with me, but he has also been a stay-at-home dad for nearly ten years now, so that I could focus on my career. For sure, without his support and commitment I would not be where I am today.

This year's International Women’s Day motto is “Inspire inclusion”.  How do you inspire and encourage others, especially women, at Sartorius?

As I have benefited from the support of other people, I've made it my personal goal to have the same impact on someone else that my supporters have had on me. I strive to develop people and especially women. I love to give feedback and I share my experience. I participated in the Sartorius Business Women Association mentoring program in the last two rounds and recently gave a talk about my experiences as a female leader, the challenges I have encountered and the advice I have for other women. I'm a big promoter of continuous learning and I am reading every day. So naturally I try not to miss the Sartorius Business Woman Association's book club. I recommend books to my team all the time.

I've made it my personal goal to have the same impact on someone else that my supporters have had on me. 

Daniela Katarzynski, Head of Operations Cell Culture Media

Talking of advice: What tips do you have for someone who wants to grow their career?

Throughout my career I have always been taught that you are responsible for your own career. I believe this cannot be repeated often enough and this is what I tell people who would like to develop and grow. You can have a manager, like I did, who supports you a lot, but nobody, not a manager, not a HR professional or anyone else can know what's best for you. Only you know what's the right next step for you. And you have to advocate and speak up for your goals and wishes. You cannot trust that your manager reads your mind. Speaking up is maybe easier said than done, but once you've done it, it gets easier – I would encourage everybody to do so. I can ensure you nothing bad but only good things will happen.

Can you give us a situation where you spoke up?

I remember a weekend when my parents were visiting. The role of the operations manager at my current company was vacant, and I told my father, that I would go talk to my manager the next day to tell him that I wanted this position. My father was shocked by my plan and worried about what would happen if he didn't agree. But I thought, well, if he tells me I'm not ready for this role, I will just ask him, what I have  to do to be ready for the next time an opportunity comes up. So, I talked to my manager the next day, and in the end, I got that role.  Maybe he would have approached me anyway, but maybe not. I didn’t want to leave this to fate but take action myself. 

So if you feel like something is the right move for you, go and try. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. This is my second advice. I once promoted someone into a leadership role and it turned out that this wasn't the right move for this person. It was a tough time telling him, but in the end we both agreed, and he took a different position, feeling much happier and later becoming one of the best team members. A good learning for both of us. So never be afraid of making mistakes, they can be corrected.

Never be afraid of making mistakes, they can be corrected.

Daniela Katarzynski, Head of Operations Cell Culture Media

Final question, Daniela. Where do you think are we on the path to inclusion of women in the working world?

Not far enough… I have a personal example. As I said, we moved a lot and my husband was totally on board with it. But in our broader environment people were struggling with it, saying things to him like “You can't move all the time because of your wife's career, what about you?”. I think that even today it is still more accepted and 'normal' for women to move with their husbands than it would be otherwise. While we are on the right track with more women in leadership positions, and men taking more paternity leave, etc., we still have a very long way to go. We should not make the mistake to stop the efforts because we see some improvements. I recently read it will take another 130 years to reach equality if we keep the current pace. Let's accelerate!