Thomas Carganico, who has been promoted to Vice President, Strategy & BD Regional Director for North America at PQE Group, reflects on his rapid career rise and shares his exciting plans for the company’s US Subsidiary.
PQE Group is a leading provider of quality solutions for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, with a global presence and expertise in various regulatory and compliance areas. The company is a women-owned Contract Quality Organization and Complete Quality Solution provider for GCP, GLP, GMP & GDP areas in the Life Sciences. With 2000+ employees located in 40 offices around the world, PQE Group has a long history of supporting companies of all sizes and exceeding compliance standards. The company is dedicated to creating value for its customers by putting its multidisciplinary teams and knowledge at their service, allowing clients to achieve and maintain compliance with the latest regulations, and contributing to creating a safer medical device and pharmaceutical environment. With over 35,000 successful projects completed and 2000+ medical device and pharmaceutical clients served worldwide, PQE Group delivers turnkey quality solutions while focusing on exceptional cost-effectiveness and the highest quality of delivery. PQE Group specializes in areas including Data Integrity Assurance, Digital Governance, Qualification and Engineering, Regulatory Affairs and Strategy, Quality Compliance, Third Party Audits and Laboratory Excellence. PQE’s global imprint allows for a “Glocal” approach which is focused on utilizing local support to achieve global success.
The last time we spoke with Thomas Carganico was in March 2023. At the time, he was the Global Director of Marketing and Communications for PQE Group, and had recently been named a Local Equity Partner for the organization. All that has changed, and recently, Thomas was promoted to Vice President of Strategy & BD Regional Director for North America. Congratulations are in order!
BioBuzz caught up with Thomas to learn more about how he landed this new role and what he’s most excited about.
You have, in 2-1/2 short years, risen to a very senior level role as Vice President, Strategy and Business Development & Regional Director for North America! Can you reflect a bit on your career path up to this new position – how have your previous experiences at PQE Group as well as other organizations prior to PQE prepared you for this role?
My early career leading up to PQE was ideal, really, because it provided outstanding training. I gained a tremendous amount of experience in marketing, public relations and communications in my previous roles in the US and the UK, where I had opportunities to work in the field, which is of course fully hands-on. I also learned a lot about project management – how to manage people, do business, and ensure projects and programs were completed successfully by a collaborative team. These were some of the most important lessons I learned prior to joining PQE. And my lessons learned at PQE have been very helpful in developing a partner mindset – caring for the company and the staff, acting like an owner – and have led to a natural evolution. I believe that the road to building a career never follows a clear path – there is little you can absolutely plan for and there are so many detours that can happen. I didn’t look for or design this new role – it was a natural step for me to take. It was not something I proactively looked for but it came my way in a very organic, natural way.
When I first joined PQE I worked in HR and recruiting. I was then transferred into PQE’s marketing and communications departments and now, I’m moving into the sales and commercial area. Being put in charge of all the commercial efforts of PQE, to me, is a natural development because in consulting firms, people are the most important thing. I’ve been involved in every step of our talents’ and stakeholders’ life cycle within PQE Group – and I can say I have seen every angle of the same entity. I’ve worked with people, with brand building, have been given leadership roles, and now, I’ve joined the commercial side of things. I’ve also been on the colleague side, have identified and grown talent, and now I am very delighted to support our clients in this new role. With my well-rounded background and experience, I can really ensure that our clients are assigned to our best consultants.
I’m excited because, in a sense, this really completes my career development and offers me the full perspective of the people and the projects of PQE.
What are you most looking forward to as you embark on these new responsibilities?
I love working and speaking with people, and I am truly looking forward to the connections I know I will develop and grow. I will say the thing I’m mostly looking forward to is developing relationships with our clients. This is something I have already, naturally, done in the past thanks to my volunteering and work with ISPE, which is something that has always been part of my job, although as a significantly smaller percentage. Now that the percentage of my relationships with people will increase, I’m very happy – this is something that I consider “my thing.” I like to solve problems and provide support and help and create added-value solutions to our clients.
I’m also looking forward to being focused on North America and establishing myself as a presence in the US even more then I have in the past. I’ve always been back and forth to this country, which is another reason I was asked to step into this role. I’ve lived and worked in NYC in the past and during the past eight years, I’ve spent a lot of time travelling to various locations in the US and Canada – at least six or seven times each year – so this will not be a big change. I am fully accustomed to the wonderful people and the fast-moving culture. This is another reason PQE thought I was the best candidate to represent PQE in the US.
What are the goals you have for yourself in this position in the long term?
My time is very much saturated at the moment – I’m incredibly busy immersing myself in this new role (and still, of course, winding things up that I have been involved in up to this point). My goal, from a personal perspective, is to keep growing but also give myself group targets. I want my team to grow with me. Stepping into a new role, I’m feeling fortunate that the marketing and communications team that has worked for and with me for many years can now take on more responsibilities. My team in Headquarters can become more engaged with US initiatives. And my teams in the US will undoubtedly grow, taking on more initiatives, becoming more collaborative and involving themselves in exciting new activities.
PQE recently celebrated the 27th anniversary of its establishment, and we have now been in the US for over 10 years. I’ve been solidly working on establishing the PQE brand locally, and the commercial role I’m now in will enable me to go into the field to work with our sales and business development team, and our existing and prospective clients. After all the groundwork that has been laid, I can consolidate what we’ve done, and we will do now and in the future, into a comprehensive US business. The US people who work with me have done a great job – we are now enjoying being well recognized across organizations in the US – we are a strong supporter of associations like ISPE and PDA, and work closely with companies like BioBuzz, Maryland Tech Council, LifeSciNY, NCLifeSci, and others; and we have been named “Best Life Sciences Company” in Maryland and have been certified as a “Great Place to Work” for the past four consecutive years. We are a woman-owned business, we are experiencing rapid growth, and I know we have a great future ahead. Today, we now have local US leadership and we are ready to go full-speed ahead. My long term goal is to truly thrive moving forward, helping us to make sure that PQE’s US Subsidiary becomes the number one within our company.
