A Day In The Life Of...
We interview a member of the team about what they do at Mendelian. This month, we’d like to introduce you to our Head of Commercial Partnerships, Hadley Mahon! 
Q: When did you start working at Mendelian?
H: March 2020
Q: What does your role at Mendelian involve?
H: Building our partnerships with industry and working towards a sustainable business model.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your role?
H: I love that we are working in a completely new space - there is no road map. All you can do is learn from every conversation you have, stay open minded, use your best judgement and go.
Q: What is the most challenging part of your job?
H: The challenge is finding enough time while balancing parenting during a pandemic. I could work all day and night (I'm a New Yoker after all!) because what we are doing is so interesting and hard, but ensuring that my kids are happy and secure and continuing to thrive is my highest priority.
Q: What does a typical day look like for you?
H: A typical day starts with our daily team stand up and will include 2-3 conversations with partners and time with our clinical team working on our product and evidence generation strategy. I spend time every day on proposals and messaging refining how we can best work with partners. Interspersed, I'm working on my Year 3 Maths and Reception Phonics :) !
Q: What is your background before joining Mendelian? What made you pursue a career in this field?
H: After a stint in strategy consulting, I completed an MBA at NYU. I joined Pfizer because i) I was awed by the tremendous power of science to change lives (the successful development of COVID vaccines is surely confirmation of this) and ii) pharma is so hard - regulated, complicated, technical - and I love a challenge. At Pfizer, I led the development and commercialisation of products in Oncology and Rare Disease before making the move to the Digital Health space.
Q: What advice would you give to others that are looking to move into this field?
H: Get into healthcare - any part of it and keep your eyes open. Learn as much you can about how it functions as a complex industry with multiple stakeholders. There are problems everywhere and every problem is an opportunity. People who can tease apart a problem and build back a fit-to-purpose solution will always be needed in this space.
If you want to learn more about Hadley, then connect via LinkedIn here
If you liked this article maybe you will also find interesting the following in-depth articles about other rare diseases, like A Day In The Life Of...Sneha Shankar