Starting an Operations Role in Egypt | The Importance of Teamwork | Moving into Biologics & Overseeing GMP Operations | Buying a Business & Founding Xcelience
Part 3 of 4.
My guest for this week’s episode is Derek Hennecke, a veteran biotech entrepreneur and board member with over 30 years of experience in the CDMO industry, whose mission is to support the biotech revolution and create value for patients, customers, and investors.
In addition to his Board work, Derek previously held leadership positions at DSM and was the Founder and CEO of Xcelience, which he eventually sold to Capsugel Lonza in 2016. Xcelience was a Florida-based CDMO specializing in preformulation, micronization, analytical services, formulation development, cGMP manufacturing, and more. His extensive pharma and cell therapy expertise makes for an insightful conversation that founders can learn from.
Join us this week and hear about:
-Derek’s transition from commercial roles to Operations, managing a challenging site in Egypt, and the teamwork that turned it around
-His move to a Biologics site in Montreal and the hurdles he faced there overseeing GMP Operations
-The start of his entrepreneurial journey: buying a portion of a business and founding Xcelience.
Please enjoy my conversation with Derek Hennecke.
Find Our Guest, Derek Hennecke, at these links:
www.linkedin.com/in/hennecke/
kincellbio.com/
Find Our Host, Jon Chee, at these links:
www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee
www.excedr.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/
TH-cam: www.youtube.com/@excedr
Instagram: excedr_inc
Twitter: ExcedrInc
Facebook: excedr
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@excedr
Podcast Website: www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/
Topics Mentioned:
MDS Pharma Services: www.mdsps.com/
Xcelience: www.linkedin.com/company/xcelience-llc/
GMP Operations Roles: www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-do-you-identify-common-gmp-roles-responsibilities-skills-gmp
GMP Practices: safetyculture.com/topics/gmp/
GMP vs. GLP: www.excedr.com/resources/gmp-vs-glp-whats-the-difference
Matrix Organizations: www.pmi.org/learning/library/matrix-organization-structure-reason-evolution-1837
Sales-Leasebacks (SLB): www.excedr.com/blog/what-is-a-sale-leaseback
Equipment Leasing: www.excedr.com/leasing
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:20 Starting a role in Operations
03:43 Derek’s move to Egypt; Improving safety, performance, and cost structure
07:53 Scaling the Egypt site and expanding into other markets; Improving product quality and employee safety
10:00 Moving back to Montreal, Canada; Dealing with a site failure, deciding to leave the company
13:59 Lessons learned from leaving, the importance of saying “no,” and communicating clearly
20:52 Becoming VP of GMP Operations of MDS Pharma; Overseeing multiple locations
25:41 Navigating the hurdles of a closing business; Buying one of the unit’s in Tampa, Florida
28:25 Derek’s jump into entrepreneurship: Founding Xcelience
31:02 Early days of running the company, leveraging a sales-leaseback, and securing capital
39:35 Outro