Terri O'Donovan, Janssen Sciences Ireland UC
Nominated Award: Women in AI Person of the Year
Linkedin profile of Person: www.linkedin.com/in/terri-o-donovan-475179195
Terri O’Donovan is a passionate people leader who motivates the organisation to work together to make a difference in patient’s lives. She is a WiSTEM2D Ambassador, a member of the Janssen Sciences Ireland (JSI) Senior Leadership Team and an advocate of the growth mindset.
Terri holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and a Master’s degree in Applied Biotechnology from University College Cork. She has over 14 years- experience in Janssen, during this time she has had roles of increasing responsibilities across Research & Development, Operations, Make Asset Management and Digital & Technology.
While in R&D, she was the Upstream Lead for the first technology transfers into the Lab, Clinical Suite and finally to 15K scale in an external CMO. From 2016 to 2021, she had a critical role within the JSI Expansion Project as System User supporting the design, start up phases and the introduction of new technologies.
JSI is part of the Johnson & Johnson family of companies, which has been operating in Ringaskiddy, Cork since 2005. The site manufactures cutting-edge medicines for immunology and oncology patients. Terri was appointed as the first Digital & Technology Lead at our site as a pilot for the Global Janssen Supply Chain. She is accountable for shaping our digital strategy to transform our business and enable our 2030 vision of becoming a more predictive and adaptive plant. To assist this, she did a talent gap assessment and identified that we had a gap in some critical fields to ensure this digital transformation was going to be a success. She hired a diverse team of 12 (Data Scientists, Data Engineers and Business Analysts) dedicated to this area. 66% of the hires were female. She and her team then worked with all functions in the business to develop a roadmap with customer-centric solutions (see supporting documentation attached). She is a female leader who’s leading by example, narrowing the gender gap in AI and raising awareness about gender diversity in AI.
Previous to Terri becoming the Digital & Technology Site Lead, she actively supported the introduction of new technologies into the plant as Operations Manager. Some examples are but not limited to:
1. Buffer In Line Conditioning technology which enabled real time manufacture and release of buffers in the process. This led to significant cost savings (€1.25M/Year), 44% reduction in Buffer Preparations and >50% reduction in plastic waste as there is no longer a requirement to store large quantities of buffers in several plastic bags. Janssen were the first Johnson & Johnson site (and one of the first in industry) to gain regulatory approval for
the use of this technology.
2. Gamma Distributed Transitional Analysis (GDTA) which uses an algorithm to perform an in line column evaluation without the requirement to perform additional process steps. This significantly reduced the labour, the time and cost associated with evaluations during the process. This innovation was regulatory approved for use and has been scaled across our organization, leading to over €250K savings per year.
Reason for Nomination
As the first Digital & Technology Lead in our organisation, Terri created the first Janssen Digital & Technology department. She worked with key stakeholders in the business to gain approval from global Janssen Leads to add a Digital & Technology Lead at each site and for them to be part of the Senior Leadership Team. This ensures we have opportunities in the business to develop key talent and a professional career ladder in place to continue their digital journey.
To build digital capability, change management and problem solving skills, Terri worked with the global team to develop a “Workforce of the Future” Program. To recognise the great team work, she certified them with yellow belts when a project was completed and gave them digital badges as they progressed. These initiatives supported the continued professional development and training of our most important asset on site: OUR PEOPLE.
As it was the first site-dedicated Digital & Technology team to be formed, Terri used this opportunity to influence the development of the global processes and team structures. There is now a two-way flow of knowledge, procedures and onboarding experience, with several being developed and piloted in Janssen Cork prior to adoption by the global team. This focus has allowed the site to lean into a whole-hearted digital transformation. The number of projects brought to Digital & Technology team by the site (155+ intakes/year) demonstrates how the site is growing to embrace a digital transformation (see supporting documentation). The team, through Terri’s leadership, has created visibility through outreach, trust through delivery, and transformation through technology.
She and her team developed 7 digitalization programs at JSI. Each of these programs have data at their core:
1. the Integrated Data Management Program focuses on the quality/contextualisation of our data. A common data layer interfaces with our source systems to ensure a robust data pipeline, streamlining our solutions.
2. The SCAN Program is an analytics program to accelerate value delivery by providing analytics as a service. The team operates under an Agile methodology, including Scrum meetings/Sprints. The team is supported by the Atlassian suite of tools (Confluence, Trello, Jira, Bitbucket, and Databricks).
The team focuses on a MVP (Minimum Viable Product) model of solution delivery. This allows them to efficiently deliver solutions benefiting the end user. Some key projects include multiple SIMCA Multi Variate Analysis (MVA) process models, Tableau dashboards, automated data extraction from an electronic batch record system and automated resin lifetime reports.
Reduction in manual effort releases staff to focus on more critical tasks. By removing the need for transcription of data, the increased data accuracy enhances quality and compliance with regulatory requirements. Generating substantial cost savings by increasing the efficiency of processes: >€1M in 2021.
3. The Digital Worker Program has enabled the introduction of key AI & technologies to augment the workforce. These include but are not limited to, the use of AR/VR using smart glasses in the labs, the implementation of TWIST QR codes for fast retrieval of documentation at the point of use and the virtual agent/chatbot for supporting training.
4. The Digital Performance Management Program has enabled visualization of the key performance indicators across the site and encouraged root cause problem solving through trending etc.
5. The Smart Tech Transfer Program has enabled the testing and release of analytical methods and the introduction of new technologies at a smaller scale mimicking the large scale manufacturing process. This will continuously support the pace we get our products to market.
6. The Integrated Quality-Real Time Release Program has been used to introduce fundamental technologies like the Raman for advanced process control, the SoloVPE for at line protein concentrations and Buffer ILC for real time preparation and release of buffer in the manufacturing process.
7. The Smart Asset Maintenance Program has enabled the site to evaluate the data from our critical assets through the use of sensor technology and has already had a significant positive impact on our calibration and maintenance plans.
Terri also set up a Digital & Technology site core team ensuring all departments onsite were represented. By having this structure, she ensures the Digital & Technology department understands the business needs and have accountability to use data to drive our decisions. We see the significant impact the solutions developed are having which drives the culture.
In recognition for the work Terri led across Janssen Sciences Ireland, the global Janssen leadership team appointed her as the representative for the Manufacturing and Technical Operations section of the organization in the design of the Global Digital Operating Model.
To raise awareness of AI & Technology, Terri held our inaugural Digital & Technology month in September 2021 across the organisation. She ensured all site representatives were involved and that there was females representing some of the AI & technology use cases.
She worked with the female Graduate on her team to launch a Digital & Technology newsletter, yammer page and sharepoint site for continuous knowledge sharing on AI & Technology. She ensures her team get the opportunity to share a bio on themselves in each edition so that other females in the organisation see the progress the females are making in her team and in this field.
As a female leader, Terri has participated in several conferences promoting AI & Technology across the world encouraging other females to get involved in this field. She also submitted applications for external recognition for the site teams digital capabilities and used LinkedIn to encourage females to make a career move into this field (see supporting documentation attached).
Terri was appointed by Minister Robert Troy to be part of the Enterprise Digital Advisory Forum in May 2022. She contributes to and shapes the National Digital Strategy by providing information from the pharmaceutical industry.
In summary, Terri’s leadership in the first Digital & Technology role in our organization has led to a significant digital transformation and has paved the way for other females to take career opportunities in AI & Technology. Thank you for considering this application.