A genuine compassion for people and a unique ability to inspire others are just two of the reasons that Susanne Cookson is considered such a valuable industry asset. And these characteristics have served her well in her 18-year journey to the position she has today, Senior Product Manager for Boehringer Ingelheim’s blockbuster CV drug, Micardis.

Cookson’s journey has indeed been an interesting one, starting with her first job in 1987 as a Cardiology Technologist for McKellar General Hospital in Thunder Bay, Ont. A number of progressive positions followed, including Manager of the Cardio-Respiratory Department at Milton (Ont.) District Hospital and Manager, ECG Department at Etobicoke (Ont.) General Hospital, a series of jobs that provided her with the invaluable opportunity to work “one on one with patients… and to be able to help them in some small way.”
Having spent nine years on the hospital side, however, Cookson felt she was ready for a change which would soon present itself as a job in health promotion at the Heart & Stroke Foundation. The role would prove to be an excellent “grooming ground” for the aspiring marketer who got a taste of government lobbying and designing healthcare strategies that helped change how stroke was managed in Canada.
Always looking for a challenge, Cookson felt she was “missing something.” As she recalls: “It was either go into government health promotion or the private sector and see if I could make a difference there.” Deciding on the latter, she determined that the company she would work for would be “a company that was ethical, and I had to work on a product I felt passionate about.”

The ideal opportunity arose at Ortho Biotech where Cookson’s expertise was put to good use creating education programs and advocacy workshops to help patients gain equitable access to Eprex, a biologic for cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. She took another role to gain further experience with the sister company of Ortho Biotech, Janssen Ortho, as Specialty Sales Representative for the CNS products Risperdal and Concerta, and this would be her last at the company when an earlier resolution to achieve a “better work/life balance” became a reality. “I wanted to be closer to home,” says Cookson, who was spending up to three hours a day commuting from her home in Burlington, Ont. to Don Mills.

A move to Boehringer Ingelheim over a year and a half ago has been an absolutely positive move both personally and professionally, she says. Cookson set her sights on “a good, ethical company to work for; together with the desire to work on a product that is both going to significantly help patients and with enough of a lifecycle to be a challenging marketing experience”, and says her goals have been achieved working on the Micardis brand.

These days, Cookson is committed to leading her team in preparation for the launch of “the largest cardiovascular trial ever.” The ONTARGET trial, conducted in conjunction with McMaster University in Hamilton, has over 30,000 patients worldwide and will compare the efficacy of the ACE inhibitor ramipril vs. Micardis, as well as looking at the efficacy of a combination of the two drugs.
“I’ve never treated a job as if it’s a job—it’s part of me,” she adds. “I tend to seek out things that are challenging and of a high level of importance to me. I think it started with being afforded opportunities, starting with the not-for-profit area, and seeing what was possible and how you can really affect change with what you do. I guess that’s always followed me.”

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