Episode 27: Leadership Lessons from the Front Lines — Simon Higginbotham, CEO at Higginbotham Group LLC

Simon Higginbotham spent decades rising through the commercial ranks of the pharmaceutical and CRO industries before a family emergency prompted an unexpected change of direction: at 50, he trained as a paramedic alongside classmates less than half his age. In this thoughtful, wide-ranging conversation, Simon joins Patty to compare two worlds that appear to have little in common, and to ask what each can learn from the other about leading people when the stakes are high and time is short. 

You will hear Simon and Patty explore how emergency teams build trust and competence, how much information a leader needs before making a call, and which familiar business habits might be slowing your organization down. They also reflect on purpose, culture and the emotional resilience required to do demanding work day after day. The episode offers clinical research leaders a fresh, practical perspective on decision-making, teamwork and leadership, drawn from a setting where every minute counts. 

What you'll hear about 

• What can clinical research leaders learn from an ambulance crew? 

• How much data do you need before making a high-stakes decision? 

• Are your metrics showing you what is really happening in your business? 

• Why do business decisions stall, and how can your team move faster? 

• How should senior leaders keep their skills sharp as markets change? 

• What role does purpose play in your organization’s performance? 

Who this is for 

This episode is for CRO and Sponsor executives, commercial leaders and heads of Clinical Operations, and gives you practical ideas for making faster decisions, choosing more meaningful metrics and building teams that perform under pressure. 

Timestamps 

00:00 – Welcome to Leaders & Legends 

01:05 – From lab coat to the C-suite in five career leaps 

05:50 – What it takes to break out of a career rut 

08:40 – Starting over at 50: leadership without a title 

10:45 – Emergency teams versus business teams 

12:20 – Should executives prove their competency every year? 

13:45 – Cross-training and the cost of silos 

15:20 – Making life-or-death calls with limited data 

16:00 – Protocols: bureaucracy or freedom? 

18:00 – What a labor and delivery ward can teach you about metrics 

19:30 – Green dashboards, red flags 

22:20 – Judgment under pressure 

24:15 – Crisis leadership in a blackout 

26:55 – Who makes the call in a crisis? 

28:55 – The trouble with committees 

30:45 – Purpose, culture and alignment 

35:25 – Building emotional resilience on the front line 

40:15 – Rethinking the straight-line career 

41:15 – What business can borrow from EMS training 

About the guest 

Simon Higginbotham spent more than two decades leading commercial teams in the pharmaceutical and CRO industries, rising to senior roles at Kendle International and Parexel. At 50, he retrained as a paramedic, and today he combines frontline EMS work with consulting, speaking and writing on leadership, resilience and performance under pressure. His memoir, Bottom Line to Lifeline: The Moving Memoir of a New Paramedic, encourages readers to pursue bold change at any stage of life.