Drug discovery and clinical development have all benefited from the COVID era and the AI era, but for Sheena Dempsey, manufacturing is still stuck somewhat in the dark ages. As President and CEO of CAI, she wants to drive automation and acceleration that get medicines into the hands of patients faster.
This week on Making It In Manufacturing, Elliot Payne sat down with Sheena Dempsey, President and CEO of CAI, the global consultancy for commissioning and qualification and operational readiness, at CPHI Milan 2026, where ARTO was the official podcast partner.
In this episode, Sheena covers:
(00:57) What CAI does: commissioning and qualification, operational readiness and operational excellence for most of the top pharmaceutical companies, with about 750 people across North America, Europe and APAC.
(02:06) The new partnership with JLL Partners, and her three to five year plan to grow CAI, organically and inorganically, in footprint and in services.
(03:13) What drew her to CAI after building life sciences practices in professional services, and why she calls herself a global misfit.
(04:44) Getting experienced people and Gen Z and Gen Alpha digital natives working well together: the goals are the same, and it takes leadership, change management and training on both sides.
(06:58) Why paper in manufacturing plants is unacceptable today, and why digitisation lends itself to compliance and stops knowledge being lost.
(07:43) What CAI looks for in new people, and managing talent as a portfolio, from trade schools and internships to graduates.
(10:03) Why CAI is building its own trade school pipeline for aseptic manufacturing, where the demand for talent is enormous.
(12:06) What success in 2027 looks like: the right balance of skills, global teams built around a customer's need, and the excitement of a plant's first batch.
(13:31) The one thing she would remove from pharma manufacturing: its deeply held resistance to change.
(14:23) Why she is optimistic: pockets of real innovation at particular sites, led by site heads and change agents.
Watch the full episode to hear why Sheena believes the inflection point manufacturing needs is already in play.
Register your interest for CPHI Frankfurt 2027 here: https://www.cphi.com/europe/register-attend/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hln27cpw-cl-arto
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Sheena Dempsey
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheena-dempsey-b693575/
Elliot Payne
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-payne-2a4a917a/
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:57 What CAI does
02:06 The JLL Partners partnership
03:13 Why Sheena chose CAI
04:44 Bringing generations together
06:58 Taking paper out of manufacturing
07:43 What CAI looks for in talent
10:03 Building a trade school pipeline
12:06 What success looks like in 2027
13:31 One thing to remove from the industry
14:23 Reasons for optimism
#MakingItInManufacturing #ARTOTalent #CPHI #CPHIMilan #Commissioning #Qualification #Digitalisation #PharmaManufacturing
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