Kevin Springer is a Finance Director at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a leading biopharmaceutical company and the pioneer in RNAi therapeutics.

Kevin details Alnylam’s groundbreaking technology and medical breakthroughs, his relocation from the USA to the Netherlands, and his opinion of AI’s impact on Finance teams.

Alnylam is known for its groundbreaking treatments in the biopharmaceutical space. Could you tell us about some of Alnylam’s unique products and how they’ve impacted the lives of patients who rely on them?

As part of the Finance team, my medical background is limited, but I am proud to work for a company responsible for transformational treatments.

The RNA interference platform pioneered by Alnylam works by ‘silencing’ disease at the source, by stopping the production of proteins that cause or contribute to disease at the genetic level. Using this approach, we have developed five commercial treatments, treating four separate diseases. We also have many promising new therapies in the development stage and I am personally excited about the possibilities for our technology to be successful in more common disease areas in the future.

At Alnylam, patients living with rare or complex conditions are at the centre of what we do, regardless of the function that we work in; recently, I was moved to hear from an individual whose child is living with an extremely rare condition that can impact infants from birth. At the time of hearing this story, my daughter was about the same age as the child whose mother was sharing her family’s experience. It is stories like these, understanding the child’s journey to diagnosis and day-to-day experience that inspire me every day, in the hope that Alnylam can bring hope for debilitating diseases like these.

What excites you the most about working for Alnylam? And how does the company’s mission align with your personal values and career goals?

To summarize in two words: hope and possibilities. We all have personal experiences with family and friends who have suffered from a condition for which treatment options were limited.

Alnylam’s RNAi platform has already been proven, which provides hope for future medicine. While hope drives us to dedicate our efforts to the company, our demonstrated success in making new medicines available to patients supports the actual possibilities of future treatments. Both the hope and possibilities of new medications drive me to do my best at Alnylam.

As part of the Finance team, one of our company’s strategic goals is to achieve profitability, the progress towards which is shared during quarterly investor calls as well as internally. We have a responsibility to spend smart and prioritise the funding that is available so we can continue to develop our pipeline. This aligns with my personal values and supports my career goals.

For me, it’s important to feel trust in our senior leadership team, to share the same overall goals and beliefs. Within Alnylam, there truly is a belief that if we invest in new medications and get them to eligible patients, this in turn will drive the success of our business.  This belief is clearly held by the Executive Leadership Team and reinforced to everyone working in our business. We are all working on the same team, with the same goal, which is to transform more patients’ lives.

You relocated from the USA to the Netherlands in 2016. What was that transition like for you? What advice would you offer to someone considering a similar move?

I moved to the Netherlands for what was supposed to be a two-year rotation assignment with a Big 4 accounting firm. I never imagined staying longer and, eventually, deciding to make the Netherlands my home.

My experience has been positive, but it wasn’t always easy. The best advice I can provide someone considering a similar move is firstly, to pay attention to new professional and societal / cultural differences. Secondly, understand that, while there are differences, everyone has positive intentions and will work hard towards a common goal (although, holidays and out-of-work commitments also need to be considered and appropriately planned).

Over the past 15 years, I’ve had the privilege to work with teams and companies in many countries within Europe, Asia, and North/South America. I think the US might be one of the most demanding work environments; a lot is expected from employees and there is often less security if a job does not work out compared to other markets.

My work ethic and motivations are still US-orientated, as I was raised and began my career in that environment. However, when working with non-US teams, I’ve learned to adapt to local norms. For example, before moving to the Netherlands, a three-week holiday seemed like something that you would only be able to do once you retired. In the Netherlands, employees take multiple-week holidays each year.  Additionally, my team members do not check emails when on leave. Initially, this was a big shock for me, and I had to learn to adapt; now I’ve learnt that, if we plan appropriately, a multiple-week holiday benefits the overall team, as this helps increase happiness and, in turn, team productivity.

Adapting to a different culture did take me a bit of time, and I think it’s the biggest challenge for most US expats moving to Europe. I was fortunate that my (now) wife significantly contributed to my personal cultural development. She is Dutch and is very direct when she needs to remind me that I’m being too American. I think my professional career has also benefited from her, as she has really helped me integrate into Dutch culture.

Throughout your career, what has been the most unexpected lesson you’ve learned, and how has it shaped the way you approach your work today?

I’ve been in a professional job (post-master’s degree) for approximately 15 years now. Thinking back to when I first started my career, I planned to be a partner with the Big 4 firm that I started with in the same city. I never expected that I would be living and working outside the US.

The biggest unexpected career lesson I’ve learned is you can never perfectly predict where you will end up, but as long as you work hard, continue to learn and are able to identify new professional opportunities, you will ultimately end up in a great position - although the actual job might be different from what you had initially envisioned.

One of the hardest career decisions I’ve had to make was whether I would move back to the US or stay in the Netherlands. As mentioned, my wife is Dutch, and this decision was very personal, as our life and our daughter’s life would be very different depending on the outcome.

Ultimately, we decided that life in the Netherlands, for now, is better for our family.  This decision has had a direct impact on my career, as my career development varied depending on the outcome, and as I’ve always been very career driven (hence my US mentality). This was a bit scary.

After working hard and ultimately finding the right opportunity with a great company, I realised that I could both benefit from our personal decision and continue to achieve my long-term career goals. I am very grateful and truly feel lucky to be working for Alnylam.

With the growing advancements in AI and automation, how do you see the role of Finance teams evolving, particularly in a fast-paced industry like pharmaceuticals?

AI is a current buzz word in business, but, in reality, AI is nothing new. As technology improves, the speed of processing large data quantity also improves.

When I first started my professional career, we prepared manual paper audit files. We printed out workpapers and filed these in large boxes at a physical location. Once we moved to electronic workpapers, the process improved, but the system itself took ages to load. Over the years, this improved, especially as fibreoptic internet was rolled out globally and processing speeds increased.

With the combination of high-speed internet and continuously increasing computing speeds, we can process large data quantities much faster. This is really what AI is all about - setting certain algorithms that can process data and, in turn, enable us to make certain decisions based on this data.

As the data and speed increases, the decisions become smarter and smarter and more applicable and usable. For years, we have been able to type in a few sentences in Google search and find exactly what we are looking for. This is AI, which didn’t exist 20-plus years ago. As we advance, there will be more benefits from AI.

How does this impact Finance? We need to be thinking about the type of data that we are capturing in our systems. For example, when a transaction is processed, do we capture all the right data elements that are needed to use this data for other purposes?

Let’s say that we want our system to identify when inventory levels are low, and when restocking needs to take place. We would need to make sure that all relevant data elements are included, including the vendor detail that would need to be notified and the stock requirements for a restocking to automatically be triggered and executed.

While we might not implement such automated processes, we need to start thinking about the necessary data required now to have the possibility to implement these future state solutions.

Reflecting on your own career, what was the best or worst interview experience you've had, and what did you take away from it?

My worst interview experience is easy. When I was a sophomore at university, I was interviewing for a summer leadership program at a Big 4 firm. Academically, I was quite successful and was actively involved in our College of Business and other university programmes. My professors identified me as a great candidate for this leadership programme.

Going into the interview, I was totally unprepared and gave terrible responses to many questions. I thought my academic achievements were enough; I was quickly proven wrong. This helped me identify certain areas that I needed to work on and improve. While I was not offered the summer leadership programme, I learned the importance of preparation and identifying my individual strengths and weaknesses.

About six months after this experience, I had an internship interview at another Big 4. They scheduled me to fly to their office for the two day interview. I spent quite some time preparing for this interview and utilized all the career development services that our university offered. We practiced a couple of mock interviews and watched the playbacks to identify areas for improvement, while also working on responses to various questions. This helped and the next interview went much better, and I was offered the job. This jump-started my career and gave me an invaluable experience that has helped me throughout my professional life.

My biggest takeaway and advice is to be prepared. If you want the job, understand the position, learn about the company, know yourself, and be prepared to sell yourself, while being open and honest about your personal achievements and capabilities.

If you could go back and give your younger self some career or life advice, what would it be?

If I could go back in time, I would tell my 20 or 30-year-old self that your career is a journey - be patient and continue to learn and gain more knowledge and experiences.

I was very eager in my 20s and wanted to grow my career as quickly as possible. I know this has helped me get to where I am today, but, at the same time, I was not always patient for the next opportunity. I think this advice would help me appreciate my current role more, rather than always focusing on the next step.

As a new father, my priorities have changed as I have real responsibility at home as well. Now, I’m trying to learn to appreciate my current successes, while still thinking about the future, and enjoying my responsibilities outside of work.

Thank you to Kevin for speaking to Tom Hodgett, Associate Director in our Finance & Accountancy recruitment team in the Netherlands. 

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.