Fresenius Kabi’s Newest EIG Expands Career Development Opportunities

LEADnow, Fresenius Kabi’s newest Employee Impact Group (EIG), was founded to support early-career professionals—and it's growing quickly thanks to the leadership of its three co-chairs and support from its executive sponsors. Launched in August 2024, LEADnow (Leadership, Enhancement And Development) has grown to 75 members across the U.S. who participate in committees, events and networking opportunities.

LEADnow is one of the six groups that form the Fresenius Kabi EIG community under the umbrella of the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiative.

“LEADnow is open to any employee who identifies as an early-career professional and is seeking career development opportunities through networking and collaboration,” said co-chair Molly Mevis, Senior Regulatory Affairs Specialist, MedTech Division. “The group also includes employees in more tenured positions who can share experiences, insight and resources.”

LEADnow has grown with the support of executive sponsors Deb Browne, Vice President of HR and Pete Allen, Senior Vice President, IV Therapy and Nutrition.

co-chairs of LEADnow Erica Ferraro, Sohan Barot and Molly Mevis
“LEADnow reflects our commitment to supporting employees at every stage of their career,” Deb Browne said. “By creating space for learning, leadership and connection, groups like this help ensure that our culture remains inclusive, engaging and full of opportunity.”

The co-chairs draw on their own early career experiences to shape the EIG. Erica Ferraro, Senior Marketing Manager, Biosimilars, brought lessons from her experience with a previous EIG at another pharmaceutical company. Sohan Barot, Sales Development Associate, applies insights from his internships at Fresenius Kabi. Molly Mevis leveraged her participation in the Women’s VOICE EIG to emphasize the value of networking and peer connection.

Based on those experiences, the founding members designed the LEADnow EIG from the ground up to provide valuable resources for continuous learning, leadership skills development, and strategies to launch and sustain successful careers.

LEADnow’s programs are based on four pillars:

  • Connection, with a focus on collaboration, inclusion and community engagement.
  • Continuous learning and development by providing resources for skill-building, personal growth and leadership.
  • Empowerment by giving members opportunities to take ownership of their development and through promoting creativity, innovation and critical thinking.
  • Accountability, which helps members learn to embrace challenges, learn from failures and uphold ethical standards.
Image of LEADnow meeting

Committees Offer Development Opportunities

To bring these pillars to life, eight LEADnow committees are facilitating hands-on leadership opportunities to EIG members.

“We want to make sure that all of our committee leads can be self-sufficient and run the entire function by themselves,” Sohan Barot said. “As they gain experience and success, they feel more and more confident to take ownership of more projects, which can help them build skills and potentially advance in their careers.”

Committee leadership offers a variety of benefits, noted Erica Ferraro. “Serving as a committee chair is a great opportunity to work on skills you may not get to use in your day-to-day work,” she said. “It also puts you in the line of sight of executive leadership, so it’s a great opportunity for visibility.”

By offering eight focused committees, the leadership duties are more manageable, Molly Mevis said. “We know that people have full-time jobs, so we don't want them to feel overwhelmed or intimidated by leading a committee,” she said. “We try to make sure each committee has a few key responsibilities so it’s a volunteer assignment people can handle, with the opportunity to take on more.” The door is always open for committee leaders to take on more responsibility.

LEADnow committees are focused on key initiatives and events, such as support for the 2025 intern program for college students that is currently underway. LEADnow’s Professional Development committee, led by Sydney Correa and Zach Toussaint, hosted a series of meetings and paired interns with early career professionals allowing interns to share backgrounds and goals, identify strengths, discuss challenges and more. LEADnow is supporting about 80 interns across the country over this 10- to 12-week period.

“We want to make sure we’re providing great experiences so we create a pipeline of interns who understand that we invest in our people,” Sohan said. 

Events Encourage Cross-Generational Dialogue

LEADnow also offers events that help members broaden their perspectives and share viewpoints. In late April, LEADnow hosted a “Cross-Generational Experience Exchange.” The event was facilitated by committee leads Kevin Karl and Manthan Gokalgandhi, and was designed to foster understanding and connection between employees across generations through discussions and networking activities.

About 40 of employees—from Gen Z to Baby Boomers—gathered to discuss topics such as the challenges and benefits of working with different generations, personal experiences with cross-generational communication, and strategies for improving collaboration. The event built on a successful “Gen Z Decoded” webinar held in December 2024 in collaboration with Monica Frias, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. 

Image from the LEADnos Summit

LEADnow meetings have also featured “Ask Me Anything” sessions with the group’s executive sponsors. LEADnow was also one of Fresenius Kabi’s EIGs to support STEM Career Awareness Day, an event that brought more than 50 high school students to the U.S. headquarters in Lake Zurich to explore the diverse array of careers available in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

LEADnow Members working a table at STEM Career Awareness Day

Looking Ahead

Building on its early momentum, LEADnow is planning several new initiatives. A mentoring committee is developing a LEADnow member mentoring program that will launch later this year. LEADnow is also partnering with Human Resources to organize a case competition in which teams analyze a real-world business problem, develop solutions, and present their findings to senior leadership.

Fresenius Kabi employees interested in getting involved with LEADnow can reach out to any of the co-founders or sign up via Workday.

The potential for LEADnow “stretches in a lot of directions,” Ferraro said. “It’s important for employee retention and engagement—and helps attract college students and new hires. There are always opportunities to take on leadership roles and grow.”