Episode #1 – Julia Stephanus

A Legacy of Innovation and Leadership
During her career, Julia Stephanus has blazed a trail at the executive level, spearheading innovation and facilitating the evolution of the Animal Health industry.

Speaker 1:
Welcome to The People of Animal Health podcast. The host of our podcast is Stacy Pursell. Stacy is the leading executive recruiter for the Animal Health and Veterinary Industries. She’s the founder of Therio Partners and The VET Recruiter. Stacy has placed more professionals in key positions within the animal health and veterinary industries than any executive search professional, and along the way Stacy has built relationships with some outstanding people who are doing incredible things to make a difference.

Speaker 1:
The People of Animal Health podcast features industry leaders and trailblazers who have made a significant impact, or are making an impact, in the animal health and veterinary industries. Stacy chats with them to learn more about their lives, their careers, and the unique and interesting things that they have done to contribute to the Animal Health or Veterinary industries. She is here to share their stories with you. Now here’s the host of our podcast, Stacy Pursell.

Stacy Pursell:
Hello everyone, good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where you are in the world. Welcome to The People of Animal Health podcast. I have chosen an incredibly special person in the industry for the inaugural podcast. On today’s show we are talking with Julia Stephanus, who is kind of a big deal. Julia is a partner at Borealis Ventures, and Julia has been a visionary entrepreneur and strategic brand builder in the veterinary industry for 30 plus years. Her achievements include building and scaling two successful startup veterinary pharmaceutical businesses, and launching 28 veterinary products. She was founder and CEO of Summit Vetpharm, which exited to Ceva Animal Health in 2010. As commercial officer of Aratana Therapeutics she was instrumental in the IPO and the build-out of a fully integrated commercial organization. Julia led the co-promotion and the licensing of Aratana’s lead osteoarthritis product Galliprant to Elanco. Aratana exited to Elanco in 2019.

Stacy Pursell:
Julia is founder and president of Avviare, providing consulting services to startups and established players in veterinary biopharmaceuticals. In addition to the startup experience, Julia’s career includes senior level positions at Ceva, Forest Laboratories, and Pfizer Animal Health, now Zoetis, and their legacy companies. Julia currently serves on the boards of ELIAS Animal Health, Exubrion Therapeutics, and Okava Pharmaceuticals. She’s founding director and board member of Feather in her Cap, recognizing outstanding women in animal health. She received her bachelor of arts from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, with additional education at The Wharton School of Business, Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and Harvard University. Julia, welcome to The People of Animal Health Podcast. How are you today, Julia?

Julia Stephanus:
Thank you, doing great, Stacy. Thank you for having me.

Stacy Pursell:
Well Julia, we are so excited to have you on our show today. And I know, Julia, that you have had a ton of success at this point in your career, but I would love to start off with, what was your life like growing up, and where did you grow up?

Julia Stephanus:
Okay, I was raised on a farm in Southern Indiana, in a small town called Madison, was the nearest one, population about 12,000. On our farm we raised black Angus cattle, corn, tobacco, alfalfa hay. And along the way I had the chance to raise a few puppies, kittens, a lamb that came my way, a raccoon, and always geese on the ponds. I loved school, studied hard, worked hard on the farm with my parents, two older brothers, and started work, earning a paycheck, at 16, and basically saved my money and borrowed the rest to go to, as you indicated in the intro, Indiana University in Bloomington, which was, for those of you who aren’t from Indiana, the non-agricultural school, and one that was a state school, which was all I could afford at the time.

Stacy Pursell:
Well Julia, when did you first figure out what you wanted to do professionally?

Julia Stephanus:
When I was in college I did an internship at Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan, and I decided from that internship that I wanted to be a product manager. That was my first foray into corporate America, and it was my goal to basically start my career in sales, because in order to be a good product manager, you really needed to understand the customer.

Julia Stephanus:
So I figured out I could leverage what I knew about agriculture, and I started as a sales rep in crop protection, and moved to Springfield, Illinois. There I had the chance to work with some of the largest corn and soybean growers in the country, and their ag dealers. And it was the 1980s, pretty much male dominated environment. My peers were far more experienced than I, they had all come out of agricultural schools, and most of them had degrees in agronomy, which by the way I didn’t even really understand what that was at the time. So I really had to hustle to compete with them. I ended up becoming the top rep in the Midwest region, and was given the additional responsibility of training new sales reps, so I was able to make it happen.

Stacy Pursell:
Wow. Well, how did you go from crop protection to the animal health industry?

Julia Stephanus:
Well, it turned out that in that first job, my boss was a veterinarian, and he had mentored me in the sales role, and when he left the company, I followed him. He went to a startup company in Minnetonka, Minnesota called Molecular Genetics, and he offered me what I had been yearning for, a product managers job, and that was my first job in animal health. We were building a monoclonal antibody for E coli scours in calves, and it was a very exciting time to be in a company that was doing this kind of work, because it was early eighties, and Genentech had just gone public, and it was the first real biotech, really, in animal health, and we were working on monoclonal antibodies and recombinant DNA vaccines. And since then the company has gotten out of animal health, but that was my start.

Stacy Pursell:
So that was your first position in animal health, Julia, tell us the rest of your animal health career story, if you will.

Julia Stephanus:
Well basically first half of my career was filled with a lot of company consolidations, a lot of learning, and most of the companies ended up at Pfizer Animal Health, which of course became Zoetis when they spun out in 2013. I worked for several of the players that are no longer in animal health, names like, of course Molecular Genetics, Solvay, Hoffmann-La Roche, SmithKline Beecham, Pharmacia. Most of those companies ended up consolidating into Pfizer at the time.

Julia Stephanus:
The second half of my career was building two companies. You mentioned in the intro Summit Vetpharm, which we successfully exited to Ceva, and then of course Aratana Therapeutics, which was really the next wave of biotech in animal health. And we took that company public, and it of course exited to Elanco in 2019. But since leaving Aratana, I’ve spent the majority of my time working with startups in animal health, and just recently, as in the last two months, started to work for a company called Borealis Ventures, which is designed really bring more capital and more investors into animal health, because I felt like that was something that was sorely needed in the startup world, to manage all of the innovation that we are seeing in the industry.

Stacy Pursell:
Yes, and we’re definitely seeing quite a bit of innovation in the industry. And Julia. I know that you have experienced massive success, and possibly even some low points. Walk us through the highest high and the lowest low of your career.

Julia Stephanus:
Wow. Well, I’ve never really thought about it as a pinpoint in time, but I could say that probably the highest was when I was starting Summit Vetpharm against all odds. It was a single product company in the parasiticide category, it was capitalized by Sumitomo, which did not do startups, and so I had a lot to prove internally, and of course I had a lot to prove externally, because I was going up against the giants in the industry with a single product in parasiticides for companion animals.

Julia Stephanus:
The second high was definitely, and I don’t know first or second, but a close would be taking Aratana Therapeutics public, and building a company into what ended up being a fully integrated commercial entity. Because remember when it started it was really development only, and it was my tenure there where we were able to build out the commercial organization, get our first registrations, and launch our first products.

Julia Stephanus:
In terms of lows, I would say, again hard for me to pinpoint a specific date, but going back probably into 2003, I was in my forties and it was the first time in my career, after all of those companies, that I had ever been severed from a position due to an acquisition. Subsequently I was offered a CEO opportunity in animal health, but it required another physical move, and my family and I had moved a number of times in my career for my career, and I felt like this was a time that I needed to stay where I was at the time, Basking Ridge, New Jersey, so that my two daughters could stay in their respective schools. And my oldest daughter graduated from high school there. So instead of moving again, I took a position in human health for Forest Laboratories in Manhattan, and that was the first time I had managed products that were going into human health, but I figured, I’d done every other species, I might as well complete my career with humans.

Julia Stephanus:
And while it was exciting and intellectually challenging, and my skills were transferable, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was an outsider in human health. And work from home was not an option back then, and I had a two hour one way commute from New Jersey to Manhattan each day, and actually I found it pretty difficult to manage the work-life balance and be there for my family when they needed me. So it was a tough decision to take, and one that lasted about two and a half years, and then I honestly could not wait to get back to animal health.

Stacy Pursell:
Wow. When you were at the low point, what did you learn most from this experience?

Julia Stephanus:
Well, I learned that animal health was where I wanted to be, and I never wanted to leave it again. And the other thing I think you learn is how important family is during your career, and the sacrifices that they make for you, and you make for them, end up being very important in terms of shaping where you are in your career path. And for me it was the right decision to stay in New Jersey, and the entree into human health was super exciting for me, but really happy to be back where the veterinarians live.

Stacy Pursell:
Yes. And sometimes people think you can’t have both, a successful family and a successful career, but you’ve shown that you can have both a successful career and a successful family. Julia, I know that you have seen changes in the industry over the years. How have you seen the industry change during the time that you’ve been in animal health?

Julia Stephanus:
Well certainly technology has brought us forward in terms of the number of opportunities in new product approvals, and things that really extend the quality of life for our animals. I’ve also seen more women come into the field on the manufacturer’s side, obviously as well on the customer side. When I first started, all veterinary hospitals, were, it seemed like at least, owned by men. Today that’s more 50/50, and most of the graduates coming out of veterinary school were men, and today certainly 80 plus percent are women, so you’ve seen that change.

Julia Stephanus:
More specialists in the field. Everything was done by the general practitioner when I first came in, and there really wasn’t the board certifications. Now we have so many of those, and still a need for more veterinarians to follow that path. But just that specialty medicine piece is brand new, in the scheme of things, at least, and certainly we’ve seen consolidation, more pets, more protein produced, more growth, more accountability on the supply chains of our food supply. Just a ton of things driven by a multitude of factors, but certainly all advancing what I think is in the right direction.

Stacy Pursell:
And then what does your crystal ball say about the future of the animal health industry?

Julia Stephanus:
Well, all positive. I mean, first of all compare this industry to others that you’re exposed to, and very few industries have the year on year growth that animal health has. And I believe that that will continue. We worried about, would millennials, who’s the largest demographic now, adopt and care for pets the way their parents and grandparents did, and we’ve certainly seen that that is indeed the case. And because they’re at the earlier stages of their life cycle, it’s once a pet owner, you’re always a pet owner, so I think the future is bright in that sense.

Julia Stephanus:
And then from a technology standpoint, just this explosion of innovation that we’re seeing right now that is only going to continue in my mind, and really evolve over time. And I think, as we look at the amount of spending that is going on in animal health, that is increasing, and as countries become more developed, the most important thing that they want to see is more milk and more chicken in their lives, and so I really do see the value of what we do as being critical to the planet, and when you have growing population with those needs, I see nothing but bright in terms of future.

Stacy Pursell:
Julia, I would love for you to share with the listeners about the kinds of projects you are up to today.

Julia Stephanus:
Well right now I am really looking at the startup companies, and trying to identify the best and the brightest for investment and funding. And of course I sit on the board of three startups, so I’m helping them with their journey, and trying to pass on some of the scar tissue that I have to startups. And I believe the other one that I should name, the other project, of course, is A Feather in Her Cap, which is a nonprofit that was started by Linda Rhodes, and I joined her along with five other ladies as the first board, to really recognize outstanding women in animal health, and make sure that we were helping women mentor women.

Julia Stephanus:
Part of the issue that we saw was while our customer base was gaining more women, we weren’t seeing women in the senior levels of management in some of the organizations that are on the manufacturer side. And so this was an opportunity to bring awareness and recognition to women that are doing great things, and help other women find other women to be mentors, and to recognize the women who are mentoring women today to try and improve the situation, to build a more diverse workforce and management teams.

Stacy Pursell:
And that is so important. What mentor has made the biggest impact on your career so far?

Julia Stephanus:
Well, early on in my career, mentoring was not even an activity that was formalized. But while I was at Pfizer, they started the first mentoring program, and I had a gentleman from the executive leadership team as my mentor. And he was very instrumental in me picking my head up and looking outside the organization to gain some perspective on what I was doing with my career, and making sure that I networked outside my organization, as well as inside. And the second mentor that probably wouldn’t have defined himself as that, but was a boss that I had in my thirties, and he basically told me, “Julia, you keep looking for more mentoring from me, but honestly, you’ve got this and it’s now time for you to really turn your sights toward mentoring others in their roles, and leveraging the organization.”

Julia Stephanus:
One of the things that I had difficulty, I think, doing was making sure that my teams were aligned and helping to grow the organization, and he really helped me in that role. And I think from there and on, there was an obligation on my part to continue the mentoring, and also to get teams built and aligned to a purpose as quickly as possible. Because at the end of the day, you do great things when teams are involved. So these, I think, were two really helpful people in my career. I still look back on them fondly, I still keep their pictures on my wall, and on my desk here, so yeah, good memories from those folks. And they probably don’t even know what impact they had on me, but it was real.

Stacy Pursell:
Wow, wow. Well, we all have to deal with some adversities throughout our lives and throughout our careers. Julia, I’m curious, what has been the biggest adversity that you’ve had to fight throughout your career so far?

Julia Stephanus:
Probably when I finally got to the startup stage of my first company, first of all I was fairly old, I was 47 when I started my first company, and I’m four months into it and my husband was diagnosed with cancer. And it was a really tough time for me, my husband, my family, and very difficult thing or for us to go through. And he was ill for about a year, and it came at a pivotal time in my career. Thankfully he came through it well, and he’s now 15 years post cancer and doing very well cancer free. But those were really tough days for me, and it was hard for me to put the effort that I needed in both places.

Stacy Pursell:
Wow, thanks for sharing that very personal story with us. Julia, what advice would you give a version of yourself?

Julia Stephanus:
When I was in school, between the work at home on the farm and the work on my studies, which was always super important to me, I think I didn’t prioritize sports and teams and all of that enough. And I tried very much to help my daughters, I have two daughters, and tried to help both of them to experience teams, and the value of teams, and building something bigger than yourself, and dreaming big, really. And I tried to instill that in them, because I felt like it was missing in my career, or my upbringing, and basically what I’ve realized, and tried to share with them, is you can do so much more goodness and great things when other people are involved. So really the value in working in good teams and surrounding yourself with great talent.

Stacy Pursell:
I know you’ve raised two wonderful and very successful daughters. Julia, we find that most successful people tend to have idiosyncrasies that are their super powers. What idiosyncrasy do you have?

Julia Stephanus:
That’s a funny question. I don’t know if I have any idiosyncrasies, but I’ll tell you something that I depended on, which might qualify. When I have a problem, I think about it before I go to bed, and I really try very hard to solve it in my sleep. A lot of things that are complicated, and sometimes when I’m hesitant to make a decision, I’ll say, “Let me sleep on it.” It’s a common expression, but for me, I seem to get clarity, maybe through my subconscious, and I usually rise the next day, or the next week, with a different perspective on things that helps me to solve the problem.

Stacy Pursell:
That’s great. Some successful people say that they’ve had a key book that they’ve read that really helped them to change their mindset and their approach to success. Do you have a key book in your life that has impacted you the most? I’d love to hear that story.

Julia Stephanus:
I think it’s probably one of these self-help books. First of all, I’m a real nerd when it comes to business books, I like to read all of them, and it’s about all I read, and my husband makes fun of me because he says, “Why don’t you try some fiction? It’s educational too.” But I’m hung up on the book stuff that are business-related. But one that really impacted me, I think probably early on, was a book called FYI: For Your Improvement, and it was a book about like 38 competencies in leadership and how to use them in exactly the right way, not overusing them, not underusing them.

Julia Stephanus:
And I actually had two copies of this book. People thought I was crazy. I had one at home, I had one at the office, and I used it all the time when I was coaching people on my teams. I had the first edition, and I looked the other day, because I was recommending it to somebody, and they’re already on the sixth edition. So it’s obviously been super successful, and been a help to a lot of other people, but if you haven’t read it, and Stacy, you probably have, but probably for folks in your audience, if they haven’t, it’s really helpful.

Stacy Pursell:
I haven’t read it, but I definitely want to read that because it’s interesting, not overusing or are underusing, but getting it just right. Kind of like Goldilocks. Julia, what are a couple of other books that you would recommend that our listeners read?

Julia Stephanus:
If they haven’t read it already, I loved and was impacted by a book called Zoobiquity. It was written by a cardiologist on the human side, Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, who I had the privilege of meeting, and I asked her if she would actually speak to a group at North American Veterinary Conference one year. And I think people really enjoyed it because veterinarians are often considered, somehow they play second fiddle sometimes to human doctors in universities and medical schools, and things. Well, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s actually harder to become a veterinarian that it is a medical doctor, and there’s fewer slots available in schools, and they just have such knowledge and empathy, that I absolutely love veterinarians, but the human doctors really, and in this case, Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, really can learn a tremendous amount from veterinarians. And she had this awakening, course those of us in the industry knew it all along, but she had this awakening and wrote a book about it, and I think that would be really interesting, if you haven’t read it already.

Julia Stephanus:
And the second one that I love, if you have any entrepreneur spirit in you, and you have this desire to start a company, the one I like is Zero to One, which was written by Peter Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and Palantir, And he really challenged us all not to just copy a successful business model, but to create something new every time, and go from zero to one. And instead of just creating something different, create something that’s better. And for me, that book was at a time where I was starting companies, and so it was impacting me at a time when I really needed it. And I think that’s always the case when you have favorite books, it’s like, what are you going through in your life when they hit you?

Stacy Pursell:
Yes, and I had the opportunity to hear Barbara speak on her book, Zoobiquity, at one of the NAVC conferences, I know you had invited her there and she told her story, and it was fascinating. Julia, you’ve got the mic, what is one thing that you want to share with our listeners of The People of Animal Health podcast before you drop the mic today?

Julia Stephanus:
Well first of all let me thank you for inviting me to participate in this program. I think it’s really fun, and I can’t wait to hear your next set of guests. And in terms of animal health, I think we are privileged to work in one of the most important industries on the planet, and I say that because it’s better health for people, for animals, and the environment. The whole one health concept is so real and comes from great work that is being done in all of those areas.

Julia Stephanus:
Our future is so bright. I tell people, if they ever enter animal health, they’ll probably never leave it, or if they do they’ll regret it, like I did, and come back, because it’s such a wonderful industry. I think the industry is small enough that you can really have deep relationships with your network. I think it’s great that we are one or two separations away from most everyone in the industry, and I think it’s still filled with a lot of unmet needs, underserved markets, and big opportunities to make a difference. So I would just say, figure out how you can make a difference, plot your course based on making things better, leave a legacy, and as my mother always said to me growing up, “You see what needs to be done, go do it.”

Stacy Pursell:
Well, it sounds like you had amazing parents and an incredible upbringing, and I know you have certainly left a legacy on the animal health industry, and you’re not done yet, you’re still continuing to work hard and make an impact and make that legacy. So Julia, thank you so much for joining us today on our first episode of The People of Animal Health podcast.

Julia Stephanus:
Thank you for having me.