Mahek Sharan, Institute of Applied Medicines and Research, Ghaziabad
BIOXONE BIOSCIENCES SERIES – “Extraordinary Women in Biosciences”- Day 6
In the field of biosciences, Angela Hwang is a well-known name. She is the group president of leading America-based multinational biopharmaceutical company, Pfizer with a net worth of 1.6 million dollars. Going through her life, clearly shows why she is truly an inspiration for the women in science who have passion for it. The 54-year-old leader is now married and a mother of a teenage daughter and son but has not let anything affect her passion and dedication towards the goal. She wants to make basic health services available to all around the Globe with equality in the field of biosciences.
Hwang’s Early life
Angela Hwang was a high-spirited Asian girl who spent her childhood facing discrimination due to her race in the country of South Africa. This regular apartheid defined the way she looked towards the world and made her a firm believer in equality in every domain in life. This belief she carried forward when she grew older till today after reaching such a higher position. She is a strong advocate for sustainable global health and women’s leadership equity.
Hwang’s Educational background
Angela Hwang always gave prime importance to education and completed her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Cape Town in Microbiology and Biochemistry. Later, she successfully completed her MBA from Cornell University.
Hwang’s awe-inspiring accomplishments
Angela Hwang started her journey in biosciences as a research microbiologist in the South Africa Breweries situated in Johannesburg. She later joined a consulting firm for health care called Wilkerson Group in New York. In 1997, she joined Pfizer and since then she has been to 10 different positions in the company in different areas of marketing, product development, sales, strategy, and general management.
Currently, Angela Hwang is the Global President and an Executive Team member of Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals. Pfizer biopharmaceuticals are the world’s premier American-based multinational biopharmaceutical company with an annual net income of 9.615 billion dollars. Pfizer has its branches across 125 countries and at present employs 26,000 colleagues. Apart from this, the company is responsible for manufacturing 600 innovative medicines and products and making them available to patients across the world. It develops and launches medicines for gastroenterology, rheumatology, and dermatology.
Angela Hwang has been working for Pfizer for over 24 years in all the areas of therapeutics and in every part of the world. She currently leads 7 commercial business units.
Hwang motivates and inspires her colleagues to be united by the single purpose of bringing evolution in the world of medicines, more like an innovative breakthrough. She wants to deliver medicines that can transform the medical health of the population with a focus on the treatment of rare diseases, cancer, infectious diseases, primary care, and inflammation & immunology.
The motive behind all the hard work that Angela puts into this company came from her early life experiences of discrimination, which led to her company benefitting more than 420 million people across the world by the vaccines and medicines in the year 2020. Pfizer was able to manufacture the only single-dose vaccine for COVID-19 and with an efficiency of 95%.
The Vaccine Policy Committee was co-chaired by Angela Hwang for 2 whole years as she was an active participant in the industry groups like BIO.
Angela is also a member of the Board of Directors of UPS which is the global leader of package delivery and supply chain logistics, EEPIA along with Pfizer. Along with all these roles she plays in her professional life, in 2019, Angela decided to launch and host Diverse Perspectives, a podcast where she talks about the global thought leaders or pioneers that can or had changed the industries in different ways. The podcast hosted by her popularly streamed on Apple and Spotify.
Net Worth
The estimated net worth of Angela Hwang till Feb 2021 is approximately 1.6 million dollars. Angela owns 9,886 units of the stock of Pfizer which is worth $220,952 in 2021. The largest trade ever made by her was exercising 22,686 units of Pfizer’s stock which were worth $519,283. Since 2018, she trades about 4,204 units every 52 days. Currently, she owns 34,211 units of the stock of Pfizer.
Awards Received
Angela has been working day and night for years to take medical heath to heights and has been felicitated by many honors and awards:
- In 2017, among Top 50 Asian American Business Personalities
- In 2019, honoured as Crain’s Notable Women in Healthcare list
- In 2020, ranked 16th in Fortune’s Top 50 Most Powerful Women
- In 2020, among 100 Most Impactful Asian American and Pacific Islander Leader
- In 2021, among Top 25 in Modern Healthcare Women Leaders
- In 2021, received President’s Award from 2021 National Diversity and Leadership Conference to champion equity, diversity and inclusion in her organisation.
A true Inspiration
Angela Hwang is one of her kind with utter dedication to work in the area of healthcare and spread the world the importance of equity, diversity, and acceptance. She burnt the midnight oil to reach this position after facing discrimination and racism in her early because she realized the importance of education, sustainability, and equality in every domain of life. She didn’t stop even after reaching the top position. In order to inspire more girls and women to take science as their field of work, she runs Women Inspiring Women Programme.
Hwang mentors, personally coaches, and gives women in science her insights. All through her life she has been encouraging and supporting women in science and considers this as her responsibility to leave an impact on girls and women. She firmly believed that one woman is the inspiration for the next one. Her goal is to make 47% of the leaders in Pfizer to be women by 2025, increasing it from 33% of the present. So many challenges and hardships that she faced in her life never stopped her, she jumped over those hurdles to win the race for the betterment of society and spread the thought of equality in the bioscience field as well.
Also read: Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern
References
- https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/person/20415694
- https://outstanding50award.com/wpcontent/uploads/2020/11/2017_Out50_Booklet_LowRes_final1.pdf
- https://aabusinessroundtable.org/speaker/angela-hwang/
- https://wallmine.com/people/53698/angela-hwang
- Thumbnail image credits: https://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/2020/angela-hwang/
Author info:
Mahek Sharan is an MTech Biotech Student who aspire to become a researcher with the enthusiasm to learn and explore more in molecular research.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahek-sharan-601474152
Publications:
1. https://sciensage.info/current_issue_publish.php?p=948
2. https://bioingene.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/D28MLY20R16.pdf
- The Corrosion Prediction from the Corrosion Product Performance
- Nitrogen Resilience in Waterlogged Soybean plants
- Cell Senescence in Type II Diabetes: Therapeutic Potential
- Transgene-Free Canker-Resistant Citrus sinensis with Cas12/RNP
- AI Literacy in Early Childhood Education: Challenges and Opportunities
Sponges provide insights into nervous system evolution!
Debarati Basu, Makaut WB The brain is the most unique and vital organ of the human body. It is composed of nearly 86 billion neurons that help in communication through synapses. These neurons help in performing various body functions that include vision, movement, understanding, consciousness, and so on. Thus it helps in performing the most […]