What’s the Buzz?! The Future of Facilities

Chris Frew, CEO, BioBuzz Networks, sat down with Ben Skowronski, Associate, Maryland Office Leader at CRB to buzz about the future of facilities in 2024 and beyond.

BioBuzz has been building life science communities for 14 years because we believe in the power of personal networks to unlock your career potential. For our next chapter, we’re building upon the success of our community to help solve today’s greatest challenges in hiring and career development. There is a better, more equitable way to connect talent with opportunity… and we’re building it.

The conversation between Chris Frew and Ben Skowronski offers a glimpse into the world of biopharma facilities and industry trends. With a focus on community building and collaboration, they discuss the evolution of the industry, from the growth of companies like CRB to the emergence of new technologies and markets.

Their discussion of industry trends highlights the ongoing shift towards onshoring and the increasing importance of talent in the biopharma space. With a focus on niche markets and emerging technologies like cell and gene therapies.

In addition, Ben will attend the 2024 Mid-Atlantic Science & Technology (MAST) In-Person Showcase! Register for MAST [for free] here https://lnkd.in/e_8Winid

Get more insights in the recording and transcript below:

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Chris Frew [00:00:00]:
Good afternoon, everybody. It’s Chris Frew with BioBuzz. Hope you’re all having a great day. Excited to come to you today. For another, “What’s the Buzz?!” We’ve been doing these every week or so where we highlight regional leaders in the industry who are really making an impact, have been part of the community, and doing some great things for the industry today. I’m very excited to welcome someone who I’ve known for a long time, Ben Skowronski, who is the Maryland office leader for CRB. So, Ben, welcome.

Chris Frew [00:00:32]:
Thanks for joining me today.

Ben Skowronski [00:00:33]:
Yeah, thanks. Good to see you again, Chris.

Chris Frew [00:00:35]:
Yeah, likewise. Ben and I have known each other for a long time, and I think BioBuzz, as you know, it’s all about community, and it’s a good example. Like in this industry, you see a lot of the same faces throughout your career. So I’m excited to talk to you today, Ben, about some of our history together and all the stuff that you’re doing and the CRB is up to. Before we jump into that, let me just say a couple quick words just for everybody joining us today. So again, this program today will be about 40 minutes or so. Depends how long Ben and I talk. I’m a long talker, as Ben knows, so hopefully we’ll keep it to that.

Chris Frew [00:01:14]:
But BioBuzz, as you know, we’ve been around for 15 years. We’ve been a workforce oriented community platform, as many of you have seen. We have since started to transition. In addition to the media and events and community building that you know and love us for, we’re also adding our new talent marketplace, which is a fractional hiring platform, kind of an upwork, but for life sciences, where you can get contract or staffing positions or interim executive positions, interim roles like that. So we’re really excited to bring that to the market. And, and I encourage, if you haven’t signed up for it, if you are on the market or you are up into some moonlighting or consulting, check it out. We’re getting a lot of really good feedback from it. So wanted to make a little selfish, selfish plug, I guess you could say, about some of what we’re doing to help impact the industry during the market we’re in.

Chris Frew [00:02:06]:
So enough about us. Let’s jump into you. Ben, could you take a couple minutes just to give a personal intro and a little bit of your background in the market?

Ben Skowronski [00:02:16]:
Sure. Yeah. And appreciate it, Chris, and appreciate, you know, the relationship that CRB and BioBuzz has had over the years. But about me, I’ve been in the architecture, engineering, construction industry for about 20 years now. And of those, 13 to 14 of those been directly related to the biopharma industry. I really started my career within this field, actually in the high purity water world. So a lot of biopharma facilities and really the number one ingredient in their products is high purity water. So I spent several years in that industry and market, was lucky enough to have a great boss and mentor, Wes Robbins, shout out, recently retired, but through that, really had the right engagement and guidance to get involved, not just, you know, within the company, but the general network as well.

Ben Skowronski [00:03:15]:
I think many people know that the life sciences industry is a very small world. So across, really across the world, within the country, and then both of us being located here in the Biohealth Capital region, one third, one thing that you learn quickly is that everybody knows everybody, and everybody’s connected in one way, shape or form. But it’s been a great market to be in, and I’ve really enjoyed the high pace. Just the new technology. Every day is different, but have spent really, as I mentioned, the last 13 years and transitioned into CRB just over eight years ago. Started out in a business development role within CRB, and then about three years in, transitioned over to being the office leader here at CRB for those that don’t know, crvs and architecture, engineering. So mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and process and construction company. We have offices all over the world, and we specialize within the life sciences and food and beverage markets.

Ben Skowronski [00:04:18]:
That’s great.

Chris Frew [00:04:19]:
Yeah. I like to say that, as you know, BioBuzz likes to position ourselves as an ecosystem builder. But I would say, like, CRB is literally building our ecosystem one building at a time. And you’ve had a lot of projects locally and in the region. I mean, I remember how many years ago, eight years ago, when you transitioned, it was you and five other people in the market. Yeah.

Ben Skowronski [00:04:47]:
No, yeah, it’s been a crazy ride. I mean, I think when we first planted our flag down here, actually, BioBuzz, and this even predates myself, I know that we had known each other, you know, through my previous experience with Hydro, but BioBuzz was one of the first organizations that CRB latched onto down here. But the office started out really as an office, as one. You know, we’re up over 70 employees here in the Maryland office now today. But through that time period here locally, we’ve been a part of, you know, really probably six or seven major capital improvements here in the area. You know, notable companies like emergent Macrogenix, AstraZeneca, GSK, Novavax. So a lot of different companies here in the area, but it’s been really cool to be a part of seeing not only the industry grow, but literally the infrastructure in the area, because this region, the biohealth capital region, has seen significant growth over the last 20 years.

Chris Frew [00:05:52]:
Tremendous growth. And a lot of the buildings you talked about, there are companies that have expanded and doubled or even more their footprint.

Ben Skowronski [00:06:00]:
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it’s been interesting to see as well, that just with that growth, you see other folks that would be competitors to a CRB or other vendors, other. Just a lot of people don’t realize how much goes into the biopharma industry and all the background of the various teams and capabilities and service providers that make what we do happen. I mean, everything from some of the things that you get involved with, with the staffing and the marketing, all the way through to just all the different equipment vendors, the service providers, and then, of course, the end users themselves. But just seeing that ecosystem grow here, which was really, you know, at one time, it was the metamunes and the hgs to what it is today, has really been, you know, remarkable and awesome to be a part of.

Chris Frew [00:06:50]:
Yeah, that’s great. I think back, you know, you and I reflecting a little while earlier, the market is so much bigger now than it was a decade ago, and it’s so much more, I think, collaborative, and it’s so much more interconnected. I remember Biobus first became a media company almost. I remember we sat down with Metamune in 2017 and they were actually like, hey, would you consider doing more media? Because there just wasn’t enough kind of buzz about the market. And that was when there was a big push around, like the Biohealth Capital region and bringing, bringing all that together. And around that same time, you know, you were really involved with ISPE, and we started collaborating together on the vendor event, the ISP, what’s now called the mass showcase. But I think that, you know, ISP and that kind of mass showcase, that kind of reflects what you just talked about. I mean, there’s the importance of all the vendors that help to make our facilities and build our facilities and drive innovation forward.

Chris Frew [00:08:01]:
A lot of it starts with that kind of collaboration and community building that when people get together.

Ben Skowronski [00:08:06]:
Exactly. Yeah. And that was my first, when I was told to, hey, really check out ISPE. And not only check it out, I think we all know how those organizations work. You walk in day one, you don’t know anybody, and you go through those awkward phases, but you start to build your network and really start to learn how to utilize that network. And the first real role that I had with ISPE was I was, I guess, assistant to the vendor committee chairperson. And that goes back to probably about twelve years ago. And you know, at the time, actually it’s a name that a lot of people know that also since retired, Don Crawford, who was with Schickel and Don was great to work with, really embraced me, really helped introduce me to other folks within IsPE.

Ben Skowronski [00:08:54]:
And looking at where that back then it was just called, I think, the vendor show. And the first couple ones I know we did one in the cafeteria of Metamune, we did one in the upstairs dining room of Dutch’s daughter. But now they’re selling out Martin’s West. So it’s been really cool to see the progression of all of that. And I know that when we first joined BioBuzz and ISPE together, and we went with the whole rebranding of masked, the Mid-Atlantic Science Technology Showcase, it’s come a long ways. And the cool thing is, is that nowadays, you know, I might walk in to the mass showcase or one of the ISP meetings and there’s so many new faces there that I don’t know anymore. But it’s great because it’s that new energy, it’s that next wave that’s coming in and putting in those efforts. And I checked out the agenda.

Ben Skowronski [00:09:45]:
I will be there personally on May 7. We look forward to being there with everybody. But just how far the programs, the launch in the career development that they’re doing now. It seems like each year something new gets added there. And again, it’s this one opportunity. And I would say it’s got to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest events here in the area when it comes to really pulling that whole ecosystem together.

Chris Frew [00:10:09]:
What I love about it, and I think you hit the nail on the head, is it is one of the biggest in the region. And one of the reasons why is you have the largest grouping of people who are all experts at different parts of getting your product to the patient, manufactured into the patient, from designing a facility to operating the facility in one place. And that’s what everybody’s there to do, is help each other out. And competitors collaborate. And it’s like this. You know how this market is, like you’re a competitor on one job and you collaborate on the next job. But that’s the one day in our region where you do have six or 800 people coming together that all have expertise in GMP engineering and product development.

Ben Skowronski [00:10:59]:
It is.

Chris Frew [00:10:59]:
It’s a really great event, and it’s different than a lot of some of the other events that are out there that are also good, that are more like, hey, let’s all come together to build the ecosystem. But ISPE and the Mid Atlantic Science and Technology Showcase, to me, it’s like. It’s like those people who are coming together to solve problems and solve the challenges of getting all these unique and advanced technologies to market.

Ben Skowronski [00:11:21]:
Yes, very true. And it’s a little bit of the state of the state as well. As we mentioned earlier, just how small of a world this industry is, it’s that chance to figure out where everybody’s at this year. People change roles, careers, new titles, and being able to just sort of catch up across the board there. It’s always a very enjoyable time. Time, yeah.

Chris Frew [00:11:41]:
Well, I think that’s a great plug. I hope everybody will come out for that. You get to see Ben there live and in person, which I’m looking forward to. Well, let’s. We wanted to talk today about facilities and industry trends before we jump deeper into that topic. So we were talking a little bit about your journey with CRB you started and a big part of building this office and this operation in Maryland. You know, I’ve seen a lot of new offices that CRB has been redesigning and moving into. So it sounds like there’s a lot of buzz happening at CRB these days.

Chris Frew [00:12:17]:
Could you take a couple minutes just to kind of dive in a little bit about CRB, your culture, kind of maybe, you know, key projects or some things that you want to share?

Ben Skowronski [00:12:25]:
Sure. Yeah. So, definitely an exciting year at CRB. We’re actually celebrating 40 years, so, you know, a major deal there across the board. And, you know, each week it seems like we’re doing various employee spotlights on that 40 years. But then, also, selfishly, for myself and the Maryland team, we’re actually gonna be celebrating ten years. So, you know, time flies by, but it will have been ten years since we planted the flag here and opened an office. But, yeah, it is, you know, when the company was founded.

Ben Skowronski [00:12:59]:
And the bee of CRB, Jeff Biscop, is still around. But we have five core values, and that’s collaboration, responsibility, technical excellence, entrepreneurial spirit, and fun. And, you know, the one that always really jumps out at myself is that technical excellence piece we really do. When you talk about the patients, and you were referring to the impact that we have on the patients. When you walk into CRB offices, you know, the projects that I mentioned, you know, across the company, we have various pictures. And then not only that, we like to express and look at the family members or friends that have been impacted by the actual medicines and products that are being produced out of those facilities, but a strong part of our company that started long ago, 40 years ago, is that process arm. We’ve been very purposeful about going out and hiring best in class process engineers that are all very niche specific to the various markets. And as we know, the technologies, medicines modalities have changed over the years, but we’ve actually recently developed what we call our fellowship, senior fellowship program.

Ben Skowronski [00:14:09]:
And essentially that’s a track where it allows people, a lot of firms, when you join an architecture, engineering, construction firm, a lot of the times you might be pushed more to a business development or operational role as you move up the chain, as you move up the ladder. One thing that CRB has been great about doing is this fellowship program because it allows technical people to really move up the ranks to the most senior levels of the company. But while maintaining that technical background and staying technical, and that’s really the forefront of a lot of these projects, is everything that we’re designing and building is taking what that process is and then designing and building around that process.

Chris Frew [00:14:54]:
That’s good. I mean, I think, you know, as a recruiter, I hear that a lot, and especially now, we’re working with a ton of consultants in the BioBuzz marketplace. You get a lot of people that they love their expertise, what they’re expert at. Right. And I think it’s interesting. You hit the nail on the head a lot of times in careers, you’re pushed into different management or different roles. And I think some people feel like takes them away from what they, what they love about their work. So that’s pretty awesome.

Chris Frew [00:15:24]:
You’ve created a pathway for the people that just love the engineering to stay in that track and make bigger impact.

Ben Skowronski [00:15:31]:
Yeah, exactly. I mean, there’s a prime example of an amazing employee that we just recruited just over a year ago that his background is really automation and clean utilities. And it’s exactly what drew him here was, you know, didn’t want to be out there, you know, beating the streets or doing some of the client events. And there’s certain people that, you know, that’s what gets them out in the bed in the morning and what they enjoy. But for him, it was really, no, I want to be on the project work. I want to utilize, you know, the technical side of my brain here. And this is, you know, I really see CRB as that platform that allows me to grow, be recognized, but really being able to do what I want to do every day because you’re dead on there. I think there’s too many times where people, you know, trying to climb up the corporate ladder or whatever they’re trying to do, they find themselves in positions where, you know, they’re doing things that they don’t thrive off of.

Chris Frew [00:16:22]:
Yeah, well, I know firsthand from working with you for knowing you for a long time. It’s a great culture there and it sounds like it continues to be intention of CRB to continue to build a great place. It’s a top place to work where you have good teammates. And I know firsthand from the projects you mentioned that you’re working on some pretty interesting, innovative projects. A lot of facility of the years. They kind of inaudible mentions that are under the CRB belt. So for those technical experts that want to stay tied to it, you’re going to work on some really interesting stuff. What about, where do you see things going? I mean, I’d love for you to chat a little bit about insight, like what are some of the kind of key drivers that you’re seeing in the industry that is taking your attention? I mean, you have, you do a great job and CRB does a great job of staying on top of trends.

Chris Frew [00:17:14]:
Your Horizon report is something I take a deep dive into every time you release it. But maybe you could share some of that, share some of the key drivers or some of the kind of currents that you all are seeing in the industry right now.

Ben Skowronski [00:17:26]:
Sure. So I think that call it pre-COVID, we definitely were seeing a lot of action around the ATMP world. So as it relates to cell and gene therapies and I don’t think that that has necessarily slowed down, but I think that during COVID you know, a lot of focus went to vaccines and to COVID. But then coming out of that, it’s been interesting just to see, you know, how things are, you know, leveling out in regards to where people are investing and what it looks like from a facility’s improvement and new facility, new capex spend. But I think, you know, overall revenues are increasing, especially in the diabetes management. I’m sure that you know the buzzword lately with glp ones, but I think that one of the market trends that we’ve noticed is that a lot of, there’s been a lot of investment with, call it the larger bio, larger biopharma, whereas not that the mid-market firms are not getting investments. I think that they’ve been getting plenty in regards to their R and D investments. But I would say that for the most part we’ve seen that a lot of the deals that have taken place over the last couple of years have been very much more larger deals.

Ben Skowronski [00:18:49]:
And so with that I think that some of the focus that we’ve seen for some of these companies is not necessarily newer facilities. I think that we’ve also seen a large focus on these companies investing into their existing facilities. So for things like, you know, whether they’re providing upgrades and doing all out site wide shutdowns or just different maintenance facility upgrades, I think that just based on some of the decline in the capital spend and raising interest rates, they’re just, they’ve been leaning towards doing a lot more of, you know, those call it risk assessments, fit facility assessments, upgrading those existing facilities. But we’ve also seen an emergence of some older technologies that have advanced over the last 20 years that are actually coming back to the forefront in which I would call more niche markets than your typical biomarkets. And that would be the antibody drug conjugate facilities. We’re seeing those across the board, both with big pharma and what I would call up and coming pharma companies. We’re seeing radio pharma come back as well. And then obviously you know, the steady pace of the ATMp world too.

Ben Skowronski [00:20:15]:
Yeah.

Chris Frew [00:20:18]:
Yeah that’s interesting. You know, the industry always changes, right. And capital markets do drive a lot and I know we’ve all seen the kind of the lower spend and the tighter budgets the past 1824 months. So it sounds like big pharma, bigger projects still moving forward as they’re building their pipelines. Some niche opportunities that you’re seeing in the facility space, niche technologies that are coming up. What about, what are you seeing with cdmos? Like are you seeing any, is that market growing in this market? Is it kind of scaling back, staying steady?

Ben Skowronski [00:21:04]:
Yeah, so I would say it’s interesting. I mean there’s some big news out there right now in regards to one of the things. And the drivers of COVID was obviously bringing back manufacturing stateside. And you know, there’s big talk out there right now in the news. You know, there’s, there’s some hot items that relate to not only the, you know, call it, you know, local threats of biopharma companies in regards to, you know, things. And we’ll talk in a minute about it. But you know, cyber threats are a big deal. But in the news right now there’s also more of a I guess call it, you know, threat in regards to some of the cdmos that are out there that may be owned foreignly, that what we’re doing now and recognizing as a country is that there could be trade secrets and other things out there.

Ben Skowronski [00:21:58]:
That, for example, China being a major player in that market, that it’ll be interesting to see how some of this political turmoil takes place in regards to the influence that has on some of these bar known cdmos and the impact that has here on the states. Because I think that is a big deal is there’s companies that are looking at who they’re using from a CDMO standpoint. And obviously biopharma is very risk adverse and they want to ensure that anybody that they are using is stable. So I think that in regards to overall CDMO activity, I would say it has been slower as far as capital spend goes on facilities, but I think that we’re seeing an uptick. I also think that some of these niche markets that we’re discussing as it relates to radio pharma, in a way, they almost act as a cdmo as well, because you’ll see that facilities, although not as large as your typical biopharma facilities, they’re smaller in scale. But what they’re doing is they’re actually locating them near airports, transportation locations, as well as near hospitals. And so in some ways acting as their own cdmos.

Chris Frew [00:23:12]:
Oh, that’s interesting. That’s interesting. So instead of one larger site, they’re having multiple locations.

Ben Skowronski [00:23:18]:
Exactly, yeah. So not as much overall capex per facility, but a lot more facilities being spread out. And I would say that there’s a similar trend there as well when it comes to cell therapy products, too. And it’s all about how the shelf life of the product and how quick they can get it back to the patient.

Chris Frew [00:23:37]:
Yeah, that’s really interesting. Diversifying and spreading out the supply chain.

Ben Skowronski [00:23:44]:
Exactly.

Chris Frew [00:23:45]:
Yeah. And you brought up a really interesting point around facilities and trends. And I don’t know, do you think we’ve seen really the full influx of this onshoring or do you think that’s still to come?

Ben Skowronski [00:23:57]:
I think it’s still a work in progress. There’s definitely been companies and folks that have made major moves there. But I think that, I would say it doesn’t happen overnight. And I see that it’s a trend that we’ll still continue to see a lot of, especially when it comes to more of the raw substances. More of that still coming back here.

Chris Frew [00:24:19]:
Yeah. Well, that’s good. I’m curious, Ben, what do you see when it comes to talent in your space, what’s that look like in this market, our biggest big pharma pulling in some of the facilities. Talent and the talent, or what are some of those trends you’re seeing on the market?

Ben Skowronski [00:24:37]:
So talent is always difficult, right? But it is, I would say here, if we’re talking selfishly here in the Biocapital region, it’s always ranked as a top place for talent. And I think a lot of the drivers there is that we have NIH and FDA right here in our backyard. We also have a lot of great universities. But that aside, even here for the local players, it’s always a battle. And whenever a new facility pops up, you know, there. There becomes this talent war between the folks that had a steady talent force to the new guys in town trying to, you know, throw money around and bringing folks over to their team. But I think there’s been a lot of good, what I would call collaboration as well, where I think a lot of people have recognized the fact that there’s just not quite enough talent to go around. And so you see a lot of different, whether it’s community college colleges or four year colleges stepping up, a lot more biopharma related programs exist today than they ever have before.

Ben Skowronski [00:25:45]:
A lot of workforce development. I know that you’re heavily involved in a lot of those, but I would say that, you know, there is definitely also a growing talent gap between the top line strategic leaders of a lot of organizations and then what I would call the frontline workers. I think that’s something that we have to keep an eye on. But in general, you know, even through, call it the ups and downs during, you know, COVID, it was absolutely, you know, a peak for our industry just with how busy things were. But even, you know, at times where things might slow down or level out a little bit more, talent’s always a battle, and it’s a battle across, you know, all disciplines and all positions within organizations. I know that people have been trying to get creative again with developing these workforce solutions as well as trying to utilize cross functional roles. If maybe somebody, facilities managers, maintenance technicians, you name it, there might be a similar industry, whether it’s food and beverage or some type of high tech manufacturing facility where you’re able to leverage past experience and bring folks in. But talent’s absolutely still a, you know, at the forefront of, you know, I would call it sort of a constant battle.

Ben Skowronski [00:27:05]:
Constant struggle.

Chris Frew [00:27:08]:
Yeah, we hear. We hear that, obviously, that’s our business, and we hear that all the time. And even in down markets, you know, so much of our industry operates on very niche positions and niche expertise and roles. So even when things are down sometimes for companies, it’s still hard to find the right player they need for that project or for the gap on their team. What has you most excited right now? I mean, what, you know, we’ve gone through COVID was like you said, you know, our industry was one of those industries that really responded because we were delivering the medicines for COVID. So facilities were up, hiring was up. You know, it was just a crazy time. The markets hit us pretty hard last year with the higher interest rates in the market.

Chris Frew [00:27:54]:
So it’s been a tough year that we’re coming out of. We had a good first quarter of investment, but I don’t know if we’re really seeing that yet. But so again, the markets are always going to change. That sounds like there’s a lot of new technologies that are emerging out there. But when it comes to facilities, when it comes to kind of what’s on your radar CRP, what has you excited about what’s coming down the pipe?

Ben Skowronski [00:28:16]:
Wow, that’s a loaded question. But I mean, I think that in general, I think that just sort of seeing more of an uptick in spend and people doing more. I think these, you know, some of these niche submarkets that I mentioned I think are really exciting, especially for the patients seeing more and more success from, you know, whether it’s the cell therapies or the antibody drug conjugates. You know, there’s true success stories out there. And so seeing that and the impact that it’s actually having on lives out there, there’s been, you know, none of this is new. A lot of this has been around for years, but we’re seeing more and more stories and hearing more and more where some of these products are no longer a last resort for patients, but they’re, you know, they’re coming to fruition in a way that they’re moving up the line there where it’s no longer a last resort. So I think part of that is, especially when you’re involved like we are, where we’re not the scientists behind the benchtop, but knowing and seeing that the facilities that we’re designing and that we’re building are actually having an impact at the end of the day and seeing those positive results, very exciting. But there’s also the other side to it, that between AI and just automation out there right now, in general, it’s really cool to see the impacts that they’re having, and clearly it’s having an impact for the biopharma companies.

Ben Skowronski [00:29:50]:
I know that especially on the R and D side, they’re seeing immediate impacts with optimizing their processes, but we’re also seeing impacts from AI. We’re actually working on a project right now where we’re going to be utilizing a company that is really a software developed tool that will allow us that as we continue to design and build the facility, we’ll actually have superintendents wearing virtual reality headsets walking the building. And as they do that, it’ll actually take that information, send it back to the program, and we’ll be able to track work in progress in regards to where we’re at, within the build and within the construction compared to where our schedule is at. And so tools like that, I mean, it’s just come a long way. You know, I would say that seeing some of the BDC tools, it’s almost normal now to see clients, you know, putting on a headset and being able to walk through their facilities before it’s built and things that a lot of people don’t even think about. But, you know, you can walk into a room and if it’s, you know, high purity water system, you’re looking at it and you can tell whether a filter is in the right place for you to be able to properly change that filter or not, where in the past that might get designed, built. And then you find out later from an angry maintenance person that how am I supposed to reach that filter? So seeing that and just some of the tracking and what they’re able to do there is awesome. I think that there’s still a lot of work to be done just in regards to all, you know, clearly AI is data driven and we have to collect that right data.

Ben Skowronski [00:31:29]:
So, you know, how do we pull real world operational data into designing facilities? So as it relates to maintenance and facilities and how do we close that gap between what we’re designing and what the real life function of that’s going to be? But as I mentioned, these tools are coming out and they’re getting better every day. So that part, the automation, a lot of, as we were talking about at and peace, a lot of that is very manual and human driven. But it seems like every time that we’re designing a facility, there’s also a level of flexibility that we’re putting in there because there’s always this. It’s more than a hope these days. It’s like a known fact that there will be new robotics and automation put into place that’s actually going to allow those facilities to become more efficient and more effective each passing day, each passing year. Just seeing how those develop and how it has an impact on the overall facility footprint and just optimization of that facility.

Chris Frew [00:32:36]:
Yeah. Yeah. You know, the. You bring up an interesting point. I mean, there’s a lot of new technologies out there and there’s a lot of excitement, but there’s still a lot of, like, groundwork to be done on operationally. How do we, how do we get them into the best practice?

Ben Skowronski [00:32:54]:
Yeah, I would, you know, one last thing that I would mention that is very hot in the industry right now, and at the forefront is sustainability biopharma. You know, these facilities in general have a substantial environmental impact just due to the amount of energy and resources they use. And there’s, you know, it’s starting with, call it big pharma, but there’s a trickle down effect where in order for us, you know, service providers, vendors to be working on and designing these facilities, you’re seeing more and more of them raise the bar in regards to the way the facility is going to be designed and built. We’re currently working on a lead platinum project that’s fully electrified, but it’s real. It’s beyond just the design of the facility. It’s also how we conduct ourselves. So we’ve signed up and signed a commitment as a company in regards to sustainability to ensure that, you know, the way that we act. Everything from, you know, things that go into place on the scorecards on these is how often are your employees flying for meetings? Do you have recycling? And, you know, everything from, you know, how much, you know, you’re turning the lights on and off in the office.

Ben Skowronski [00:34:15]:
It’s pretty wild. And then obviously, when we’re signing up for that, then we have to take that and then we pass it on to our vendors. And so it’s this trickle down effect, but the industry in general, as it relates to designing and building these facilities are taking it very seriously. And then the flip side of it is also just, you know, all of us in this industry and how we’re conducting our day to day lives as well.

Chris Frew [00:34:41]:
Yeah, yeah, that’s interesting. I’ve seen a lot of buzz around that as well. I know. I believe that’s one of the topics at the mass showcase next month as well, so. But, yeah, you know, and you mentioned how it, like, been, you know, it all trickles down. So, you know, when these trends start to happen. And that’s part of why we want to talk with you today, because you’re at the forefront a lot of these trends as the designer and the builder, but they trickle down at everything and they trickle down into the vendors that you use and they trickle down into how the facility operates and then sops for running the facility. So again, sustainability, I’m sure that’s impacting everybody.

Chris Frew [00:35:21]:
AI and how people are adopting it, that’s trickling down and impacting everybody right now.

Ben Skowronski [00:35:26]:
Exactly.

Chris Frew [00:35:28]:
Well, awesome. Ben. Well, it sounds like you got a lot of things going. I don’t want to take you away from the work you have to do because I know your plate is super full. But a couple things. One, congratulations on 40 years at CRB. Not you, but 40 years for CRB. It’s an exciting milestone.

Chris Frew [00:35:46]:
So I’m sure that there’ll be a lot of celebration happening for that. Congratulations on ten years for the Maryland team. That’s pretty amazing. It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years already. I hope some of your old colleagues who aren’t here anymore will fly back for the Oktoberfest this year. For those of you who don’t know that, CRB and BioBuzz have done an annual October fest together for probably most of those ten years. So, Matt Kerr, I’m talking about you out there in California, so hopefully you’ll come back this year to share a beer with us. So that’s a lot of exciting things that you have going on.

Chris Frew [00:36:24]:
And then it sounds like we’re going to be able to celebrate with you in person on the 7th at the ISP event. So that’s another upcoming event. We’ll be able to celebrate a lot of these big milestones.

Ben Skowronski [00:36:34]:
Yeah, no, absolutely. Really appreciate you having me on here, Chris. Really appreciate everything that the current ISP mass committee is doing. Lynn Cooper, president of the local chapter. You know, it’s so cool to see how much effort and drive they’ve been putting into this. So I look forward to seeing a lot of old faces, meeting a lot of new ones. And yeah, I’m sure we will be thrown down and having some type of party for our tenure here, and you’re all invited. So all right, deals to come.

Ben Skowronski [00:37:03]:
But once we get that worked out, and I know we covered a lot of different topics and very fast here, but if any of this intrigued anyone would be happy to get you in touch with the right folks here at CRB. And obviously the reports that we send out is a great place to start as well.

Chris Frew [00:37:23]:
Absolutely. Good way to wrap things up. And we’ll do our best at BioBuzz to we’ve been a good, CRB has been a great partner for us. We’ll do our best to share those reports. And again, I’ve known Ben for a long time. He, expert in this industry, knows what he’s done. He’s worked on a lot of different facilities. So if you’ve got questions or ideas about your facility or questions about what to do as you’re getting closer to manufacturing or production, and Ben’s the right guy to talk to, so come out and see him in a couple of weeks.

Chris Frew [00:37:51]:
All right, Ben, let’s wrap it up, man. Let’s get back to our day jobs.

Ben Skowronski [00:37:54]:
All right, sounds good. Have a great day, everybody.

Chris Frew [00:37:57]:
All right. Thanks so much.

Ben Skowronski [00:37:58]:
All right, thanks.

Chris Frew [00:37:59]:
Thank you, everybody.