Scientist Snapshot | Alex Bissegger, Senior Project Manager

Alex joined the Sterling team in January 2021 as a Project Manager at our Wisconsin, US facility. Alex is responsible for cross-site API development and manufacturing projects.

Can you tell us about your education and background?

I studied chemistry at Marquette University in Wisconsin. I began an internship at a small molecule contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) before graduating and continued as a full-time employee after receiving my degree. I spent some time after this at a technology chemical company developing chemicals for semiconductors.

In 2014 I then joined Cambridge Major Laboratories, which is now Sterling’s Wisconsin facility, as a Research Scientist, before moving to another CDMO in Texas. This organisation gave me experience working across a network of sites, on similar projects to those that I work on now at Sterling.

I joined the Sterling team in Wisconsin in 2021 as a Project Manager, where I am now responsible for cross-site API development and manufacturing projects from preclinical supply through commercialisation. My previous experience working as a scientist helps me to see the bigger picture, which can bring value to the Sterling team and our customers.

What does your role as Senior Project Manager involve?

I am our customers’ primary contact and the core responsibility of my role is to represent their interests within Sterling. I must also balance this by representing the Sterling team and our interests as a business. I am responsible for overseeing the entire project, from organising development activities, to interfacing with other departments such as safety, quality, supply chain, and finance. It’s critical that I fully understand the client’s project goals and effectively organise activities at Sterling to ensure we can make our customers’ projects a success.

As a project manager, I spend a lot of time utilising our Extended Bench™ model on our customers’ behalf. This model affords flexibility, providing our customers the technical expertise and resources they need, when and where they need them without limiting them to just one expert in one location. Through our Extended Bench™ model, our customers not only have access to our global bench of subject matter experts (SMEs), but also the ability to accelerate their project timelines by resourcing different parts of their projects in parallel across our network of sites.

How do you ensure consistent and clear communication with our customers?

Relationship management is a big part of project management, so it’s vital to ensure that our customers know they can come to us at any time, whether that’s by email, a regular project meeting or in a one to one catch up with just me. The project management team works to develop a strong understanding of our customer’s programs, so that we can act as the voice of the customer within Sterling and ensure our project activities are aligned with the overall program objectives.

We encourage direct conversations between SMEs and our customers. This helps to better support our customers’ projects, providing the technical guidance and access to specialty expertise when they need it.

What do you enjoy most about working at Sterling?

I love having the opportunity to work on many different types of projects and collaborating with our customers to support their goals. I take great pride in knowing that we are partnering with our customers to produce medicines that may improve people’s quality of life. This is a sentiment shared across everyone within the Sterling network, and the Sterling team always strives to live our company values and add value to our customers and their patients.