Cátia Vicente Vieira

"The International Healthcare MBA at Frankfurt School has been a tremendously remarkable experience for my career and personal life."

"A key factor of this MBA programme is developing advanced and flexible management skills, which are nowadays fundamental in this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world we are currently living in. During this programme, I have not only developed and improved my understanding of the healthcare market but also met and networked with a cohort of different viewpoints, cultures, values, and ways of working. This intercultural experience has made me more effective when addressing problems and challenges in my working environment.

The internationality does not end in class: the different modules allowed me to gain much-needed insights into the healthcare systems of various regions, each with their own opportunities and challenges, such as Europe, the USA, the Middle East and Asia. One can read about these vastly different markets on paper, but nothing compared to being able to experience the various global macro-healthcare models at the epicenters along with a brilliant faculty, which have inspired me and my work like no other. The opportunity to experience the various global healthcare systems at the epicenters along with a brilliant faculty is incomparable.

Considering the many challenges and changes in the pharmaceutical industry, the MBA programme has prepared me to keep further developing in this field. Healthcare is changing, and so are the demands on healthcare leaders. With this MBA programme, you will gain the insights and the connections needed in your future career as a healthcare leader."

Providing equal access to healthcare for all patients

Cátia has always been passionate about improving patient lives and Global Health, following one long-term goal of providing equal access to healthcare for all patients. This motto has always been shaping and defining her career in this exciting field. Born and raised in Portugal, Cátia followed her fascination and studied a master's degree in Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Lisbon, Portugal.

Cátia began her career as a researcher in Lisbon and then moved in 2013 to Basel, working for Novartis as a Chemist Trainee, focusing on analysis, analytical data recording and classifying. She then took over many different research positions as a Scientific Associate, developing experimental protocols analytic methods used in drug studies, focusing on Mass Spectrometry and Radioactivity. In 2016, she moved on to her first managerial position as a Global Trial Manager in Oncology and was promoted to Senior Global Trial Manager in 2019.

Over her seven and a half years at Novartis, Cátia was able to advance herself to many different roles, to change career path from science to clinical trial management and to adapt to different teams with diverse work tasks and advanced technologies. It should be noted that during her career, she has been continuously studying and she completed Advance studies in Clinical Trial Practice Management for 2 years programme at the University of Basel while working in parallel.

After starting the MBA programme, Cátia has applied for some select positions and immediately got the opportunity to join a competitor pharmaceutical company, Roche, where she is still working since November 2020 as a Clinical Operations Lead. Cátia truly believes that being an MBA candidate was an asset for obtaining this position, as during the interview process, she could show her motivated character of learning more within the healthcare environment which can strongly contribute for the current position moving forward.

As a part of her current role, Cátia is proud to say that besides the tasks related to clinical trial management, she has also been focusing on creating patient-centric solutions for clinical trials, contributing to patient’s benefits by ensuring clinical trials are suited for patients in need, while also identifying and addressing critical in-trial support for patients, generating high-quality evidence data and ultimately improving patient trial experience.

Another remarkable goal achieved during the MBA programme was her thesis, focusing on the research of identifying and tackling barriers for the conduction of clinical trials in the low and middle developing countries, namely African countries. This has had a strong impact on her current role, enabling Cátia to develop her career further.