What is your favorite word?

Courage

How has this word influenced your career?

This word has inspired me to embrace and speak up for what I stand for: equality, respect, empathy, and diversity—and to encourage the same behavior in others.

What do you consider to be your most important career achievement?

One of the achievements I am the most proud of was the transformation of a late stage start up, Creoptix, a life science tools company in Switzerland. Creoptix had a great product but sales were flat and funding was tight. I put together a strong leadership team, which happens to be 66% female, and changed the gender diversity from 25% women to 54% women over 2 years. We re-focused the strategy of the company and created a culture of high performance, diversity and teamwork, quadrupled sales over 2 years, and sold the company to Malvern Panalytical, a market leader in the analytical tools space.

What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned the hard way?

The most important leadership lesson I have learned is that you cannot change who you are. Instead of always trying to fit in, try to find an environment that fits you, where your values, mindset, and skills are congruent with the company, team, or mission.

What are you currently reading or listening to?

I am listening to the book A Promised Land by Barack Obama. I find President Obama’s story extremely inspiring as he overcame all odds and showed that the impossible is possible, and he did this by being true to himself and his story.

What do you consider the best advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I have received, and continue to receive when I meet challenges, is to “just keep going.” Whatever obstacles are thrown your way, there is always a way forward and the most important thing is to have the courage to go on.

Line Stigen Raquet is a business executive in the life science and medical devices industries with a passion for innovation, transformations and growth. In addition to Creoptix, Line has worked for major global corporations such as ThermoFisher, QIAGEN, and Mettler Toledo across three continents. Line holds an honors degree in Biochemistry with Biotechnology from the University of Manchester and a Master of BioScience degree from the Keck Graduate School of Applied Life Sciences.