When I was 10 years old, my uncle, a medical student at the time, took a blood sample from my fingertip and showed me what my cells looked like under a microscope. He told me, “These red things help you breathe, and these larger, whitish granulated things keep you healthy.” That was the day I became fascinated with science.

I grew up playing ice hockey in Sweden, surrounded by an “all for one, and one for all” mindset. As I became a young man, I decided to channel that competitive spirit and my inquisitive nature into finding medical treatments that could help make people’s lives better. I believe my involvement in sports has helped me become the leader I am today. Generating a positive team spirit among a talented group of individuals and implementing a competitive strategy are equally important for a successful biopharmaceutical company.

I joined Eli Lilly and Company in 2010 to lead Lilly Research Laboratories, which encompasses both research and development (R&D), intrigued with its pioneering work in diabetes and neuroscience, as well as its approach to innovation. I discovered a company founded on teamwork and strong science that advanced new therapies across several areas. With an R&D staff of nearly 7,000 across our sites in the United States, Europe and Asia, and with a total of nearly 1,500 Ph.D.’s and M.D.’s, it was easy to spot the individual passions and unique skill sets woven into every one of our R&D pipeline molecules.

Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working in both academia and the biopharmaceutical industry and have seen the value that each sector brings to innovation. In fact, biopharmaceutical companies invest $70 billion in R&D in the U.S., which is more than any other U.S. industry. But our scientists recognize they are not alone in the quest to find innovative treatments. We are continuously looking for opportunities to complement our pipeline and skill sets through external collaborations and public-private partnerships.

After studying medicine at the University of Gothenburg and receiving a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the Karolinska Institute, I went on to do highly cited research and serve as a professor in Stockholm, Sweden. But after 17 years of working alongside the best and brightest in academia at the Karolinska, I was ready to take part in a larger mission and see the efforts of my basic research come to fruition for the benefit of patients. It was time to make a career change.

In 1996, I joined Astra to not only head up its research department, but also to later co-lead the company’s R&D merger with Zeneca. In industry, I saw firsthand the extraordinary multi-disciplined effort it takes to guide a molecule from conception to regulatory approval through extensive clinical testing.

At Lilly, we’ve focused our research in five areas where we believe we can have the largest impact: diabetes, immunology, oncology, neurodegeneration and pain. Our pipeline is robust, with molecules being studied in clinical trials for conditions such as diabetes and its complications, Alzheimer’s disease, breast cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and migraine. We invest a great amount of time, care and resources in both preclinical and clinical research, pushing R&D boundaries and making clinical activities more connected, engaging and accessible for patients and health care providers. In fact, over a five-year period from 2014 to 2018, Lilly has the potential to offer 10 new medicines to patients, a rare achievement for a company our size. Unfortunately, Alzheimer’s disease remains an ultimate challenge for medical research, but we remain committed to finding treatments for this devastating disease. I’m confident we can push forward in this area, just as we did for diabetes when Lilly introduced the world’s first commercially-available insulin.

We’re proud to be partnering with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the Accelerating Medicines Partnership initiative, and our leaders serve on advisory boards at the NIH to exchange scientific knowledge and learnings from around the world. We are also always on the lookout for long-term growth opportunities and are initiating venture capital investments in startup companies. Our strong internal capabilities are essential in fostering successful external partnerships and to driving innovation.

I’m happy to say that joining Lilly turned out to be more than just a career move for me. Almost a year and a half ago, I became a U.S. citizen, something I’m quite proud of, as my time here has been incredibly rewarding both professionally and personally.

My wife and I are avid skiers and often find ourselves traveling to a spot where the snow is fresh, including Big Sky, Montana. The great outdoors serves as an outlet of exploration and creativity for me, but also challenges me both mentally and physically. After a weekend of fresh air and cross-country skiing, I return to work recharged and ready to get back to discovering and developing innovative treatments.

Science is a learned practice based on experiments and observation. It is also a part of who I am, ever since that curious young boy first saw the world through the lens of a microscope. At Lilly, I pride myself in working with brilliant, hardworking people who see science as I see it – as a path to making life better for people around the world.