Greater Toronto's Top Employers (2025) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 134
134
( 2025 )
SPONSOR CONTENT
At Sanofi, there are diverse pathways to success
W
hen Jennifer
Kim was a
microbiology
student at the
University of
Toronto, a professor impressed
upon her the virtual certainty that
humanity would face another
infectious disease pandemic.
From then on, she took care to
get her flu shot every year. In
fact, the prof’s warning inspired
her to work in vaccines, and she
decided the best place in Canada
to do that was with Sanofi, heir to
Connaught Laboratories, a public
health player in Toronto that’s
been operating for 110 years.
In 2015, she got her chance.
She was hired into Sanofi’s polio
vaccine manufacturing department, bringing a quality assurance
mindset from her previous experience. But she soon learned her
new employer would expect her
to broaden her skillset. She was
promoted to lead the polio vaccine
manufacturing team.
Then, as the company made
a number of big new capital
investments in vaccine development and manufacturing facilities,
funded in part by the federal
and provincial governments,
she took on progressive roles in
project management, operations,
strategy, and her current position
as end-to-end program leader –
flu vaccine manufacturing and
pandemic readiness.
“I come from a science background, and I previously had a
quality assurance and operations
background,” Kim says. “The
projects were heavy on finances. It
was completely out of my wheelhouse.” But with Sanofi’s training
and development support, she’s
been able to grow into the role.
“I’ve been quite fortunate
through Sanofi to have these
opportunities to enhance my own
skills and experience, to be able
to do multiple types of roles at the
company. I’m able to challenge
myself and really grow,” she says.
As the French pharmaceutical
firm does at its facilities around
the world, Sanofi aims to create
lateral as well as vertical pathways
for employees to develop their
careers says Stephanie VeyrunManetti, country chair for Canada,
who herself has had more than
10 different roles in the company
over 24 years.
“This is how you retain people,”
she says. “When you leave or
decide to stay with a company,
your choices come down to
people and opportunities to grow.”
She’s happy to report that Sanofi
Canada has reduced its turnover
10 per cent in the past two years.
“I’ve been quite fortunate
through Sanofi to have
these opportunities to
enhance my own skills and
experience, to be able to do
multiple types of roles at
the company.”
— Jennifer Kim
End-to-End Program Leader
Photo goes here
Sanofi recently launched A Million Conversations, an initiative to rebuild trust in the health-care system
among underrepresented communities in Canada.
Backing up that promise of
employee care is All Well, a
program that takes in everything,
from supplemental health benefits
to an on-site gym and yoga classes
and access to the Headspace app
for managing stress. Sanofi also
prides itself on its diversity and
inclusion.
Following up on a study it
conducted to gauge the trust in the
health-care system among various
communities in Canada, Sanofi
last year launched A Million
Conversations, an initiative to
rebuild trust among under-represented populations, including
Indigenous Canadians, LGBTQ+
communities and people living
