Want to make an Impact, help Your Boss: what Employers Look for Beyond Scientific Expertise

26 November 2026 - Ghent

Technical expertise can qualify you for a role. It does not necessarily make you the person an organisation chooses, listens to or trusts with broader responsibility.

In an organisation, scientific or technical expertise creates value when it helps someone understand a problem, make a decision or take action. That requires seeing beyond your own discipline, recognising competing priorities and understanding what your manager and other stakeholders need from you. It means making risks and trade-offs clear, raising issues before they become surprises and challenging a preferred decision when the evidence points elsewhere.

Some of the habits that build technical credibility, like (hyper)specialization, avoiding ambiguity, detail-focus and solving all problems yourself, can become less useful as your role expands. The work increasingly calls for judgement, collaboration and decisions made before every piece of evidence is available.

Drawing on research and her experience across academia, R&D, knowledge services and laboratories, Kim Heylen examines why experts can struggle in industry. She will discuss how to broaden your perspective, look at the wider organizational challenges and identify how you can make an impact.

Kim Heylen | Interim Executive and Consultant for Lab and R&B Operations | Shift Happens
Kim Heylen is an independent consultant and interim executive specializing in the life sciences and healthcare sectors. She helps expert organizations work better, improving their laboratory and R&D operations, governance, leadership, and performance management.
Kim previously served as Managing Director of Labo Nuytinck, part of Anacura, where she was responsible for a 150-person clinical laboratory. Earlier, as Global Innovation Director at INVE Technologies, she led international product development teams across Europe and Asia. Her industry experience also includes operational leadership roles at Eurofins Belgium and Biocartis.
Before entering industry, Kim spent 10 years in academia specializing in microbiology. She authored more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers and supervised six PhD students.
Her own move to industry, together with her experience in leading expert teams, shaped her commitment to closing the promotion -, skills - and “translation” gap between expert professionals and executive teams. She mentors and trains first-time supervisors and academics transitioning into leadership roles in industry, helping them have an impact in an industry setting. She pursues the same aim in her role as moderator and program manager at the BioBusiness Winter School.

FULL PROGRAMME HERE