Healthcare Businesswomen's Association Aligns with Booz Allen Hamilton and Leading Pharmaceutical Corporations to Launch the Ground-Breaking HBA E.D.G.E. in Leadership Study.

FAIRFIELD, N.J. -- The Healthcare Businesswomen's Association has launched a ground-breaking study, the HBA E.D.G.E. in Leadership Study (Empowerment, Diversity, Growth & Excellence), to identify for the first time key insights and benchmarks that will allow companies to accelerate the progress of women into the most senior positions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Committed to fund this study are more than a dozen companies including 7 of the top 11 as measured by sales revenue. Study sponsors have recognized the critical link between measuring and tracking best practices, and the corporate advancement of women into senior leadership roles.

"For thirty years (1977-2007) the HBA has been a resource to help women achieve their leadership agenda," says Cathy Kerzner, HBA President. "The HBA E.D.G.E. in Leadership Study is a natural extension of these efforts, to which industry response has been extremely positive. More than 20 of the top 50 pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the US and Europe have joined as participants and will be providing their data and experience in effective ways to advance women's careers."

Novartis Pharmaceuticals' Alex Gorsky, CEO and Head of Pharma North America, explains the reasons behind becoming a study sponsor, "At Novartis, we have decided to become a major sponsor of the study because there is a pressing need to attract, develop and retain diverse leaders for the future in the healthcare sector, particularly women since they make the majority of healthcare decisions. We think this study will help to create awareness of the progress that has been made, the gaps that still exist, and help to forge a path forward to ensure women can achieve their professional goals."

Tim Rothwell, Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Operations USA and Canada for sanofi-aventis, agrees, "Our support for women at sanofi-aventis and in healthcare in general is based upon two core beliefs: a deep sense of the justice underlying equal opportunity and a powerful conviction that our collective economic welfare requires the genuine advancement of women. Women's success is our success. That is why our commitment to helping women achieve their potential is multi-faceted, including mentoring, training and networking opportunities. Our Corporate Partnership with the HBA solidifies our dedication to this cause and our Gold Sponsorship of the HBA EDGE in Leadership Study gives us the opportunity to support it through empirical data - data which we ourselves will use to perfect our own programs dedicated to women's advancement."

The HBA has partnered with Booz Allen Hamilton, a leading strategy and technology consulting firm, in this comprehensive examination of current life science companies' attitudes, motivations, initiatives and efforts that support or inhibit women's progress.

As Melanie Karbe, Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton explains, "We decided to partner with the HBA on this important study to advance the learning and understanding of how to successfully further the careers of women in the healthcare industry, and how individual companies can make a difference in advancing their women employees and retain key talent, thereby furthering their business agenda.

"We recognized early on that our success as a strategy consulting firm is wholly dependent on the quality and diversity of our ideas and, by extension, our people. We invest heavily in the development of our staff and continuously seek new and unique opportunities to advance our thinking on this critical topic."

One-on-one interviews with top tier senior management, a web-based survey for mid-level executive staff, and summary human resource data will all be a part of the HBA E.D.G.E. in Leadership Study. The study will report in June, 2007, providing actionable recommendations from industry best practices and policies regarding the recruitment, retention and advancement of women. There will be recommendations both for corporations and individuals.

Joseph M. Mahady, President, Global Business, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Senior VP, Wyeth, recognizes the importance of improving current corporate practices, "Wyeth brings to the world pharmaceutical and healthcare products that improve lives and deliver outstanding value to our customers and shareholders. Part of our success strategy is through the people we attract and retain at Wyeth. For more than 60 years, Wyeth has been a leader in women's healthcare, and is committed to developing new therapies with the potential to significantly improve the health of women worldwide. A critical component to this success is to ensure that we have the best and the brightest women participating in our most strategic business decisions. Wyeth is anxious to participate in the new leadership benchmarking study being conducted by the HBA which we anticipate will reveal to us best practices and new ways that we can continually improve our practices and policies for developing the careers of women in our workforce."

The HBA's vision for the E.D.G.E. in Leadership Study is for it to be a first-time benchmark reading that will be repeated every few years and evolve into an industry-wide investigation to eventually cover the rest of the life sciences industry, the rest of the world and also the business services sector that supports life science companies.

For sponsorship information and study-related questions, please contact HBA Chief Executive Officer Laurie Cooke at [e-mail].

The Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA; www.hbanet.org) celebrates its 30th year (1977-2007) as a global not-for-profit organization dedicated to furthering the advancement of women in healthcare worldwide. With 12 chapters and affiliates throughout the U.S. and in Europe, the HBA is headquartered in New Jersey with offices in Philadelphia and Research Triangle Park. The HBA provides educational opportunities for women and men to develop cutting-edge healthcare industry knowledge and leadership skills; recognizes outstanding women and men in the industry; provides opportunities for networking; creates greater visibility for women in the industry; fosters mentoring relationships, and serves as a conduit and sponsor for research on career advancement issues. HBA has more than 3,500 individual members and 100 Corporate Partners and it is widely recognized as the catalyst for the professional development and leadership of women in healthcare worldwide.

Booz Allen Hamilton (www.boozallen.com), a global strategy and technology consulting firm with over 90 offices on 6 continents, works with clients to deliver results that endure. They provide services to the world's leading corporations, government and other public agencies, emerging growth companies, and institutions. Booz Allen's major areas of expertise include: Strategy & Leadership, Organization & Change Management, Operations, Innovation, Sales & Marketing, and Information Technology.