Kim Wix serves as Executive Director of Corporate Communications for Daiichi Sankyo, a Tokyo-based biopharma, where she leads internal and external communications from the company’s U.S. base in New Jersey. Originally focused on cardiology, Daiichi Sankyo has transformed into a global leader in oncology during Wix’s 18-year tenure.

Transformation is where Wix often thrives. “I didn’t start my career thinking I wanted to be head of communications at a pharma company,” she says. In fact, she initially planned to be either a social worker or a therapist. In undergrad at the University of Maryland, she chose to study journalism to learn how to ask tough questions and write well – skills she knew she could translate to almost any professional setting.

After graduation, Wix landed a job at the eponymous Burns McClellan agency, led by the late Lisa Burns, a pioneer in life sciences communications. While working under the so-called “CEO-whisperer,” Wix saw firsthand how business acumen, and not just press release writing, drove the PR success of the woman who “had all the biotech CEOs on speed dial.”

“Lisa Burns was a force to be reckoned with,” Wix says. “She was one of the most creative people I’ve ever met.”

Wix also credits her agency background with instilling the customer service orientation and deadline-driven work ethic that have subsequently served her in diverse roles, both as an independent consultant and an in-house practitioner.

“I typically advise new graduates to try to start at an agency because they cover so many different industries,” she says.

Learning the life sciences ropes from Burns solidified into a career-long passion for human health. She later took roles at Berlex Laboratories and Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals before landing at Daiichi Sankyo in 2008. Leading Wix through each of these stages, she says, has been a clear set of core values: transparency, honesty, and respect for patients and employees.

Together, those values have served as a north star when navigating stringent pharmaceutical industry regulations, which serve an important function in protecting public health. That and maintaining strong relationships with legal and compliance teams to help her stay within necessary communication guardrails when deciding what specific communications mix to implement.

Most notably, her values have also guided her through several organizational transformations. The key to successfully managing any change, she says, is trust. And the

kind of skills she learned in journalism school – listening well and asking tough questions that leave no stone unturned – form the core tenets of trust-building.

“That’s a time when communications people can really shine,” she says. “We’re able to take a transformation objective and use our communications skills to tell the story in a compelling way, whether it’s crisis or issues management or corporate strategy.”

Wix personifies the combination of strong journalistic skills, core values, and business acumen that distinguish strategic communicators in a competitive and rapidly evolving labor landscape. And in the end, it is that strategic distinction that sets the course.

“When you have the right strategy, you never have to wonder if you’re going in the right direction,” she says.