Dr. Thomas Cruchter, PMP

Global Project, Program, People Leader in Pharma | Scientist, Strategist, Execution Leader | Portfolio, Program, Project Mgmt. | APIs, Drug Products, Medical Devices | Process R&D, Scale-Up, OpEx | EMBA Candidate @HSG

Basel Metropolitan Area

About

๐— ๐˜† ๐—ฃ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ฒ: Scientist and global people, project, and program leader with a proven track record in Pharma. Expert in translating strategic priorities into measurable business outcomes via high-stakes initiatives, projects, programs. Former R&D Head of Laboratory. Executive MBA candidate at the University of St. Gallen. My cross-shaped skillset allow me to thrive in environments where cross-disciplinary communication, collaboration, leadership, and navigation through complex human and organizational systems are keys to success. And it enables me to shift seamlessly between strategy shaping, strategy execution, and day-to-day operations โ€“ connecting the dots across these domains, bridging the strategy-to-execution gap, and navigating the double S-curve. ๐— ๐˜† ๐—ฃ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฃ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป: I build high-performing global, cross-functional, cross-divisional teams from scratch and lead them in strategic multi-year drug substance, drug product, and medical device technology & development projects & programs to success. I shape the governance frameworks, in which strategic projects & programs operate to ensure business value realization in full alignment with corporate strategic goals. ๐— ๐˜† ๐—œ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐˜€: Strategic project, program, portfolio management, research & development, shaping strategy & translating strategy into business outcomes & value, bridging the strategy-to-execution gap, building high-performing teams, coaching & mentoring, leadership, science & technology, medicine, pharma, chemistry, manufacturing, process design and optimization, digitalization, operational excellence, engineering, investing, artificial intelligence... โ€ฆand hitting the ski slopes in winter and extended gravel bike tours and mountain hiking trips in summer.

Experience

  • Acino ()
    • Global Transfer Project Manager & Exchange Platform Lead
      Sep 2023 - Present ยท 2 yrs 11 mos

      โ€ข Fully responsible & accountable for planning, execution, governance of global drug product (DP) and medical device technology transfer projects; full lifecycle: from project initiation till operational launch. โ€ข Project leader for global teams with up to 50 members across several continents, cultures, time zones โ€ข Fully responsible & accountable for simultaneous planning, management, leadership, governance of 9โ€“12 global multi-year projects that are associated with a forecasted annual revenue of 50โ€“80 Mio. USD โ€ข Project manager & leader of DP projects with 1) Acino as CMO and 2) Acino as customer to CMOs; and of DP projects with 1) Acino as market authorization holder (MAH) and with 2) customers as MAHs โ€ข Project manager & leader of Drug Substance (DS) supply change projects: From supplier evaluation, DS/DP analytics & manufacturing process verification/validation, till closing with variation package submission โ€ข Global, cross-functional collaboration with ext. and int. SMEs from SC, BD, CM, MS&T, AS&T, QA, QC, Production, Packaging, Engineering, Planning, F&A, EHS/CSR, Legal, Regulatory Affairs, Site & Top Mgmt. โ€ข Management of interrelated projects as programs for efficiency, opportunity realization, risk reduction โ€ข Consultant for product portfolio reviews & business case creations, refinements, and reviews โ€ข Initiation & organization of international business trips to business partners (3-6 per year) โ€ข Liaison with regulatory authorities during inspections, audits, submissions, findings, inquiries โ€ข Full responsibility for the resolution of any project-related deviations and issues, pursuit of scientific root cause investigations, CAPA implementations and CAPA effectiveness verifications โ€ข Project status reporting to Acinoโ€™s / Arceraโ€™s senior management and C-Level (CEO, COO, CQO) โ€ข Customerโ€™s advocate on-site in Contract Manufacturing projects

    • Senior Project Manager Science & Technology
      Nov 2022 - Sep 2023 ยท 11 mos

      โ€ข Fully responsible & accountable for planning, execution, governance of global B2B & B2C drug product technology transfer projects as project lead with global internal & external stakeholders โ€ข Cross-functional interface between external partners, technical teams, and the sales organization โ€ข Support of S&T teams as PM and scientific SME in solving technical issues of any kind in Acino projects โ€ข SME for a major update of Acinoโ€™s CH siteโ€™s Cleaning Validation (CV) Master Plan & CV Framework

  • Bachem ()
    • Group Leader / Head of Laboratory Research & Development
      Mar 2019 - Nov 2022 ยท 3 yrs 9 mos

      โ€ข Team Leader, Scientist, Project Manager, Lab Head, Process Engineer โ€ข Management of a team of 3โ€“4 direct reports; responsibility for >5 direct reports when covering for peers โ€ข Fully responsible & accountable for planning & execution of feasibility studies, process designs & developments, -optimizations, -characterizations, tech transfers, production campaigns of peptide based drug substances (DS, API) with tight timelines & budgets; DS use: from preclinical use up to phase III studies supply โ€ข Simultaneous management of several research projects, usually 5โ€“10, with different complexity, worth per project ranging from CHF >10 k up to CHF >1 Mio.; often in an interdivisional and international setup โ€ข Project manager & leader for 4 CAPEX projects with a total worth approx. CHF 1 Mio. and approx. 30 Drug substance process development projects & feasibility studies led from '19-'22; total worth: CHF >10 Mio. โ€ข Planning & execution of innovation projects with industry partners to strengthen Bachemโ€™s tech leadership โ€ข Communication with customers and authoring of reports and PPT presentations for customers (weekly) โ€ข FTE, cost, time, material estimations, risk assessments for process development RFQs, RFPs as R&D SME โ€ข Implementation of technological and organizational improvements: Lean Tools (such as Kanban), PAT, etc. โ€ข GMP infrastructure responsible and (co-)author of GMP documents, such as SOPs and MBRs

    • Project Chemist Research & Development
      Oct 2018 - Feb 2019 ยท 5 mos

      โ€ข Quality-, budget-, due-date-adherent planning and execution of tech transfers, feasibility studies, process optimizations as scientist working in the laboratory

  • Certified Professional Training "GMP Specialist" und "Quality Management Representative (QMB)" at alfatraining Bildungszentrum GmbH
    Jun 2018 - Aug 2018 ยท 3 mos

  • Scientific Research Associate and PhD Student at Philipps University of Marburg | Faculty of Chemistry
    Nov 2013 - Mar 2018 ยท 4 yrs 5 mos

    โ€ข Doctoral studies, teaching and coaching as research associate in the group of Prof. Dr. Eric Meggers โ€ข Design, optimization, application of Rhodium- and Iridium-based "chiral-at-metal" catalysts โ€ข Coaching and training of bachelor's and master's students โ€ข Conception and delivery of live lectures to >100 students โ€ข Responsibility for practical classes โ€ข Exam conception and performance appraisal of master's and bachelor's students โ€ข Conception and supervision of bachelor's theses and grad student projects

  • Visiting Research Student | RIKEN-DAAD scholarship at RIKEN (็†ๅŒ–ๅญฆ็ ”็ฉถๆ‰€) | SOC Laboratory | Advanced Science Institute
    Aug 2011 - Jan 2012 ยท 6 mos

    โ€ข Planning and execution of experiments aiming at the introduction of the first stereocenter within the envisioned synthetic route to ยซSpectomycin B1ยป