Chris McDonald

With technical expertise dating back to his higher education years, Chris McDonald has lived a life of technical innovation with a passion for computer science and automation. 

He considers himself lucky to land in the biotechnology industry, but his achievements to date speak wonders about his commitment to developing new efficiencies with the use of technology. 

Starting at community college, McDonald found his love for computer science at an early age before earning a Bachelor of Science in the subject in 1988. Following this, he pursued more business-focused education, undergoing an executive MBA at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. 

Humbled by his achievements along his education and career journey, McDonald worked with a number of large organisations following his time at university, including Amgen as the Director of Operations, Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics as the Global Head of Manufacturing and Strategy, AstraZeneca as the VP and General Manager and now Kite.

Here he is responsible for all technical operations aspects of the business, which has proven crucial in delivering a world-class treatment to critically ill cancer patients, but also drives down the impact of those operations. As the current SVP and Global Head of Technical Operations, McDonald’s role enables Kite to deliver its much-needed treatments in a timely, much leaner fashion. 

McDonald’s leadership approach is inspired by that of his wife, with whom he has worked shoulder-to-shoulder for many years. She is said to provoke new thoughts and ideas for McDonald that he later applied to his own work, namely addressing diversity within the team and encouraging safety and confidentiality in his working relationships.

Armed with this motivation, McDonald carries this across the team as he strives—alongside his peers—for operational excellence with the end goal in sight. 

“We’re doing great things, but I think maybe bringing it back to being humble, I often say we’re the best in the world at what we do, but we’re still not good enough,” says McDonald. 

Following such an approach to the day-to-day running of his department, he spreads a feeling of growth and continuous improvement across Kite’s manufacturing and logistics functions.

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