Interview with Björn Felber – Project Director, Kayentis US
In June 2018, Kayentis was strengthening its presence in the US and opening new offices in Boston. “After spending time ensuring effective links between the US and European operations, everything was in place to ensure a consistent and harmonized expansion in the US.” said Guillaume Juge, Kayentis’ CEO. Learn more about Kayentis US presence
Björn, you just moved from France to the new Kayentis office in Boston. How was the relocation?
It is true that moving together with my family was a long process and not always easy. But I appreciate the opportunity to do something completely new. When we decided to do it, I knew I was going to leave that comfortable feeling of being embedded in a great team.
But this was also my incentive. Transporting the Kayentis spirit from Europe to the US is not straightforward – you can’t just put in your luggage.
The Kayentis spirit? What do you mean?
When I joined Kayentis in 2015, I was lucky to join a team with a level of trust that I’d never seen in a company before. Trust of the employees by the management and the other way around as well as trust between colleagues. But not only is there trust, problems of any kind can be addressed, people are incredibly engaged, team members assume their responsibilities and their managers support them. And the results we achieved in the past few years show that we are doing it right.
When I accepted the opportunity to move to Boston to be part of the opening of the new office in the US, I also accepted the mission to create that spirit in the team that is growing up here!
And how do you do that?
I cannot do that alone. Everybody is doing it. The team here in Boston is highly motivated. Everybody is doing whatever needs to be done and we don’t stay within the confines of our job description.
It’s a little bit like a startup where you get hands-on experience of things you usually wouldn’t come into contact with, and everybody contributes to getting things done. But a startup in the security of a well-established and dynamic parent company. And our colleagues in Europe are all helping us too. They are doing all that they can to compensate for the distance between Europe and the US. It’s not quite the same working with a team on another continent and in another time zone. Therefore, the communication with Europe was one of my main concerns and I am extremely satisfied to see that there was no need to worry.
What are your perspectives for the coming months?
As in Europe, the team in Boston is growing. We recently hired a new Project Manager, and we are continuing to search for other positions as well. The growth is going to change the dynamic at Boston site over the next few months.
At the same time, we are actively integrating into the Boston Biotech environment. We participate in Networking events in greater Boston as well as conferences like the OCT (Outsourcing Clinical Trials). This is an opportunity for our employees to experience new situations, outside the usual project-related work, and will help us as a company to become a part of the local ecosystem.
Kayentis in Europe and the USA are working together in the same direction, and with the same spirit and values, to provide the same quality of services anywhere in the world, whatever the continent. Learn more about Kayentis’ commitments
LET’S SHARE KAYENTIS’ SPIRIT WORLDWIDE!
Björn Felber, Project Director – Kayentis US
