Be intentional and lean into your superpower, says Amgen’s GM

Gabi Mittas, General Manager, Amgen ANZ joined Health Industry Hub‘s IWD interview series to discuss how this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) theme, Cracking the Code: Innovation for a gender equal future, is reflective of her leadership style and her personal passion in being a gender equity advocate.

In talking about her personal inspiration in driving gender equity, Ms Mittas recalled the stories of the amazing women in her life who have motivated her journey. She said “I feel lucky and privileged that I come from a succession of women in my family that are fairly strong, independent and dare I say fierce. [They] have pulled through in how I’ve come into my leadership journey and how I’ve shown up both personally and professionally.”

The pandemic has been a catalyst for transformational leadership. Ms Mittas considered why focussing on diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is more important than ever and how “leaning into your superpower” as a leader offers a lot for everyone to learn from.

“If we have been intentional on where our natural strengths and abilities lie, coupled with the things that we’ve been intentional in developing throughout our career…and we bring that to the teams that we work with, nothing gets in our way,” she said.

While data shows that only 12.8% of female board members are non-Anglo Celtic and of this 3% are Indigenous, Amgen’s mentoring program Women Empowered to be Exceptional (WE2) addresses not only gender equity but also cultural diversity across the JPAC region.

“There are universal truths whether I’m a woman sitting in Taiwan, Japan China, or Thailand. We all have some similarities in the challenges we face and the things we want to achieve at work or even at home. I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done at Amgen to make sure that we’re supporting each other cross culturally, but also within our own group of female employees, leaders and allies,” she said.

In thinking about what she would you say to her younger self about leadership and her advice to the next generation of female leaders, Ms Mittas said “If I reflect back on my first role in managing people, the feeling I had was Wow, this is quite daunting. This is a little overwhelming. And, definitely one where I felt the responsibility. Every time I’ve changed roles or taken on a bigger team, I’ve felt those same feelings.

“What I would tell my younger self and definitely the next generation of leaders is translate [those feelings] into excitement…about what you’ll ultimately be able to achieve not only for those that you work with, but the patients that we serve.”

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