Name: Lone Munch Ringgaard
Title: Director, Material processing
Company: Coloplast
Degree: Cand. Pharm
- Introduce yourself, and share a fun fact that makes you unique!
My name is Lone Munch Ringgaard, 48 years old and live in a house in a middle size city called Roskilde. I hold a Master in Pharmacy with organic chemistry as focus.
I spend a lot of time with music (sing and go to concerts and festivals), have three teenagers, love nature and camping, run to take care of myself and as a room for reflection. I am quite informal and need a good laugh every day
- What does a day in your life look like as a Director, Pilot Plant at Coloplast?
I spend most days at the site, where I am leader for an area with three different teams. During the day I meet with my leadership team, talk with specialists, skilled workers and operators. Every day is a mix of meeting (longer term strategic topics/daily challenges), one-to-one dialogs, own tasks, project discussions and time to think.
- What motivates and excites you the most about your career path and the leadership position you hold?
I started as a specialist and didn’t have a desire to become a leader and did not really consider STEM/NO STEM future. Slowly I realized that, working in a medical company/job has a greater purpose + I was actually good at coordination and involving people. One of my leaders challenged me to make use of this and take the step into leadership.
Today I am very excited leader in Medical R&D, where I make use of the solid understanding of what it takes to be a specialist, a project manager and to work together with people with different background but all highly skilled scientific people.
I love to be part of a team where passion for science is the backbone
- Share with us the biggest lessons you learned on your journey to where you are today.
My first job after university: As a young female Pharmacist in a job as development chemist was hard, as most colleagues were male and with a master or PhD in chemistry. They didn’t trust capabilities and I really had to prove my worth
Biggest lesson; My own fear of being vulnerable as a new leader made me make some bad choices and not the best decision on behalf of my employees.
- Tell us about a (female) role model who inspired you to become the leader you are today, and how (s)he impacted you personally or professionally.
Not just one single person, but all (or most) the leaders during my career has inspired me to become a leader and how I what to act as leader (and how I do not what to act as leader 😉).
I have collected a sort of “pick and choose” list from my first day at work, after university
My second leader, after becoming a leader, motivated me to remember to allocate and spend time to reflect long term and to see leadership as a skill, which was essential for me to go from Manager to People Leader.
- If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, or to other young female students today, what would it be?
– Select the education that you have passion for and see that you can make a difference.
– Apply for jobs that trigger your interest and motivate you, regardless of whether it is a “trendy” field/company or not
– Remember that the best collaboration is within a diverse team and not in a team of identical persons/types.
- How do you see STEM education shaping the future?
STEM education is fundamental for our future and request for People with a STEM education is assessed to grow more than other areas. With this in mind, I find it rather attractive to seek this direction.
- Why is it important for you to promote diversity and inclusion within STEM?
For the STEM area to develop and modify for the future, we need to ensure diversity.
I want other young female student to know that the environment in STEM is changing and moving away from the stereotype perception being a “male dominated” and “dry” area. Job offers within STEM are far more diverse and exiting, than perceived.
I also want to tell my story and how my prejudices were put to shame by experiencing the real live in the STEM world
- What steps do you see that your company has taken to promote a more diverse and inclusive workplace?
Coloplast has taken three different steps to promote diverse and inclusion:
– Comprehensive Information to leaders and employees about the topic and the importance
– Education about what it means to be a diverse and inclusive workplace.
– Dashboards to visualize the classical diversity parameters