Scientist Snapshot | Sam Brogan, Director of Global Research and Development

Sam joined Sterling in 2012 as a Development Chemist and has progressed her career within the organisation. Today, Sam is Director of Global Research and Development (R&D), responsible for aligning R&D activities across our network of facilities.

Can you briefly describe your education and background?

I completed my Masters in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge in 2008, and then moved to the University of Edinburgh to complete my PhD in Organic Chemistry. Recently, I also started an apprenticeship in Senior Leadership at Northumbria University, supported by Sterling.

I began my career at Sterling in 2012, and since then, the company has provided me with many opportunities to develop and progress my career within Sterling. I started as a Development Chemist, then went on to become a Senior Scientist, and in 2019, I became a Group Leader. This was my first management position, leading development chemists, as well as members of the kilo lab team who oversee smaller scale cGMP manufacturing processes.

I became Head of Research and Development (R&D) at our Cramlington, UK site in 2022. However, I actually spent the first three months in this role at our North Carolina, US facility to support the organisation in aligning processes and procedures to help us work more efficiently and maximise customer success through cross-site collaboration.

In January 2023, I returned to the Cramlington, UK site. The development chemists and hazard evaluation teams reported into me, and I took up my position on the site’s Senior Leadership Team, representing those I line managed.

In October 2024, I started my global role. We have grown so much as an organisation since I joined in 2012, and do a lot of cross-site work, particularly as a result of our Extended Bench™ model’s success. So now, my role is more focused on aligning research and development (R&D) across our global network of facilities, bringing the different site teams together; identifying and aligning best practices; monitoring, planning and allocating our resources across the globe to help maximise efficiency and achieve the best results for our customers and their projects.

What does a typical day as Director of Global Research and Development look like?

I speak regularly to the teams at each site, including technical leads, managers and chemists. I keep an eye on the projects we’re working on, and any challenges that might arise, managing and utilising our expertise across the network to support and resolve them quickly.

I also oversee policies and procedures to ensure they are aligned globally to help ensure a harmonised, seamless experience for our customers, no matter which site they work with during the course of their project.

I support proposals from a technical perspective, speaking to customers to ensure our technical offering matches their requirements from the start. I also look at things like global resource allocation, monitoring where our capacity is limited, and where we might be able to harness Extended Bench™ for optimum efficiency and to ensure we can offer our customers the flexibility they require as they move through their project’s lifecycle.

Another aspect of my role is working on how we can collaborate with other organisations and academic institutions to optimise our customers’ projects through access to new and innovative technologies, for example, partnerships in biocatalysis.

How do you and your team support our customers?

We support our customers through our technical expertise and depth of experience in process development and transferring processes from the labs to plant.

I think the flexibility we bring as a network really helps to support our customers and their project requirements. Especially in terms of the agility we offer through our Extended Bench™ model. I think this option provides customers with more flexibility than a lot of organisations could offer, as from a research and development perspective, it provides access to our full global R&D network, allowing a single contract to be used across a wide range of functions and subject matter experts, adapting resources as required to meet project demands.

Our ability to truly listen to our customers’ needs while also making sure we use our experience to support them, puts our customers at ease. Being transparent enough to give our opinion, while giving our customers the room to put forward their ideas too, is key to effective collaboration to ensure successful project outcomes.

What is your favourite part about working at Sterling?

I’ve been here quite a while, and so I can confidently say it’s the people. It’s a comfortable place to work given how friendly and collaborative everyone is.

Working in a global role has demonstrated to me that our values and culture span across the entire network, and they really are something that we live by organisation wide.

I really enjoy how easy it is to have open and honest discussions across countries and disciplines, and I really don’t think that many organisations are as transparent as we are.