A BIT ABOUT ME

Hi, I’m Jeong Suk!

I’m a business consultant living in Silicon Fen, Cambridge, UK. I’ve been helping Start-ups and Scaling-up Life Science Entrepreneurs for over 30 years and have specialised skills in marketing, sales and developing business strategies.

When it comes to building, growing and globally expanding a business, there’s always more to do.   Having an expansion plan, a marketing plan, identifying the target countries, getting the right channel strategy, maintaining a global view while staying locally relevant… it’s overwhelming, right? And, my friend, you’re not alone.  Many biotech companies truly struggle with all of the above.  They make the wrong moves.  They lose their focus.  They stagnate.

I’ve witnessed this countless times.  The stress.  The procrastination.  The inner doubt.  Over the years I’ve learnt a few things about how to get entrepreneurs out of that rut and growing again.

So how did I get here?

Grew Up and Studied in South Korea

After working in hospitals as a Medical Laboratory Technologist in Clinical Pathology Lab, I switched to marketing and technical support for a life sciences startup company, eventually becoming Associate Director. 

Introducing many ground-breaking products and technologies from overseas, I achieved market shares of 60% for cell imaging (DAKO), 80% for Viral real-time PCR and 90% for both FISH and Cell Sorting in Korea during that time.

Co-creating Dreamcell, a biotech Start-up with an ex-colleague, was thrilling; coaching the co-founder on building a domestic distribution network and creating marketing and business plans, I knew I’d found my sweet spot.

My New Adventures in The UK 

I came to live in Cambridge, UK, in 2005, and in 2006 landed a Marketing role at Abcam, later becoming the Head of Regional Marketing EMEA, working there for 11 years.

Developing Abcam’s Asian Market

It was so exciting to work for an online antibody company employing digital marketing in life sciences. Straightaway, I noticed the company’s low visibility in Asia, so I decided to increase brand awareness and generate new leads for digital marketing urgently to increase sales.

To do this, I travelled around Asia, appointed and trained new distributors in China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand, and met Key Opinion Leaders.  I created the first set of Abcam symposia in Korea and Taiwan and technical roadshows in China, attracting over two thousand people and delivering over 450% sales increase over the period.  I organised the first Abcam Distributors Days, and with our Asian market growing exponentially, I set up Abcam’s Asian office in Hong Kong.

Developing Australia, India, Eastern Europe, Russia, Turkey, Middle East

As EMEA Distributors Manager, I immediately noticed Abcam’s non-visibility in several countries.  Sales were eroding.  So, I travelled to over 20 countries, set up 15 new distributors, and negotiated with them to agree on joint strategies and targets. 

Focusing first on developing markets in Australia and India, I next developed markets in Eastern Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, achieving an increase in year-on-year growth by 25% across all territories.

Creating an appropriate direct customer service experience to improve profit margins, create a pricing structure, and develop operational and customer service plans, all of these has to be culture-specific.  And that’s my superpower.

In every country I worked in, there were different cultures, languages, and market situations.  Our own strategy needed to reflect that as accurately as possible.

Working as EMEA Sales Manager and Head of Regional Marketing EMEA

Rapidly promoted to EMEA Sales Manager and then to Head of Regional Marketing EMEA a year later, I was accountable for 30% of Abcam’s total sales, responsible for developing EMEA, LATAM and South Korea and managing financial budgets.  We were on fire! 

And then, in 2016, the slump happened.  My adopted home, the UK, held a referendum on leaving the EU.  This created uncertainty reflected in markets that were suddenly much less buoyant.  In response, my team and I developed many creative and innovative marketing strategies and campaigns, leading multiple teams successfully to get sales back on track. 

My New Journeys

EMBA at Judge Business School, the University of Cambridge

My years at Abcam were deeply fulfilling and fruitful, yet I knew something more was waiting for me.  I decided to study for an Executive MBA at Judge Business School, nurturing my dream to set up my own consultancy company or work for a start-up company.

The programme included a team consulting project with Prowler.io (now known as Secondmind®.ai). It was a true bootcamp, requiring me to develop innovative approaches and processes to analyse a situation and come up with a solution in a time-pressured, unfamiliar environment, with a healthy dose of AI skills thrown in for good measure. 

I was really pleased to win the Primavera Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Operations Management on the course.

Non-Executive Director of Business Development for Green Bee Bio

While studying, I was also the Non-Executive Director of Business Development for Green Bee Bio, working closely with the CEO to revise the company’s goals and vision and develop its long-term strategies. 

No one should feel stuck trying to figure out how to grow your business on your own! 

I’m passionate about growing life sciences businesses and discovering cures faster. If I can inspire and help even one person feel the same way, then I’ll call that a triumph.

I want to share the knowledge and experience I have gained over the years.  I know you can be successful; you just need someone to help you find out how to make it happen.

If you want to grow your business globally but are stuck on where to start… that’s where I come in!

Better Together, so Let’s Get Started!

Let’s talk about your goals and how we can achieve them. Connect with me today! Get started on building a strategy and roadmap to achieving your business goals faster!