Dr. Darshil Jhaveri, PhD in Pharmacology | Director, Portfolio Strategy at Gilead

In this episode, we discuss how Darshil combined the skills he gained during his doctoral training with those he developed in the Hopkins Consulting Group to land a job in consulting, his advice for evaluating your strengths and weaknesses and identifying ways to develop the skills needed to pursue your intended career path, and the ways he combines his consulting experience with his expertise in oncology in his current role as the Director of Portfolio Strategy at Gilead.

Hosted by Michael Wilkinson

To connect with Darshil and to learn more about his story, visit his page on the PHutures #100AlumniVoices Project website.

Transcript

Michael Wilkinson

Hello! Everyone! I'm co-host Michael Wilkinson, and this is the 100 alumni voices podcast, stories that inspire, here we explore the personal and professional journeys of a diverse group of 100 doctoral alumni from Johns Hopkins University. Today, we're joined by Darshil Jhaveri. He received his PhD in Pharmacology from Johns Hopkins in 2014, and is currently the director of Portfolio strategy at Gilead. Darshil, welcome to the podcast. Great to have you here.

Darshil Jhaveri 

Yeah, thanks Michael, looking forward to our chat.

Michael Wilkinson

So, I think first thing off I went to your LinkedIn, and I saw that you actually did quite a bit of consulting work both kind of during the time of your PhD and a few years after your PhD at Hopkins before transitioning into your work at Gilead. So, I'd be interested to know why you chose that line of work? And then what eventually you led you to transition out of that to the work you do now at Gilead?

Darshil Jhaveri 

Yeah, sounds good. So, you know, I think it was my second or third year in grad school when I realized that maybe bedside research wasn't really for me. I like like a lot of my colleagues, we started to explore one of the options we had, and so, knowing myself, I I thought it would be best for me to kind of get my feet wet through some kind of you know, high level experience at grad school and through like some courses that are offered at grad school. And that's when I kind of first first got exposed to consulting as a career option and I became part of the consulting group at the School of Medicine, which I think was also at Homewood as well. But yeah, through that you know, kind of just got to learn a lot more about a future or a career path for PhDs like myself that we want to take a, you know, trip down the consulting road.

Michael Wilkinson

So, what did that consulting, like while you were a PhD, what did that consulting work look like for the most part? Like, what do they have, are the PhD students do as consultants?

Darshil Jhaveri 

Yes, there's actually a lot of learning and kind of case studies. So, people that had done consulting or were already in consulting were exploring consulting, but with more experience. They would kind of, you know, help us, teach us, think through how, how do you kind of approach a career in consulting? How do you prepare for an interview, consulting interviews? And I think that was really like the first part of it. They just kind of, you know, learning as a student trying to see if this is really for me. If this is something I want to pursue. And then, once you know, I knew that this is definitely the path that I'd be interested in and excited for as in the future, I started to take some business courses at Hopkins, and then also become more involved with the consulting club, so through that you know, kind of get my exposure to case studies to other consulting companies. Yeah.

Michael Wilkinson

So, the work you do now at Gilead, at least on the face of it, seems a bit different from consulting, and maybe it's not. So, what? What led you from your consulting career to now the kind of research and the work that you're doing at Gilead?

Darshil Jhaveri 

Yeah, so it's actually, yeah, you're right on the surface it does seem very distinct, but if you look under the hood, it's actually pretty similar. So, you know, as part of consulting our our job was to help different clients answer complex questions. So, what that meant is, you know, you'd kind of you'd be working on a project in different disease areas. And the plan would have a question around, for example, how do you kind of best commercialize this product once it launches? Or how do you best kind of develop a brand for this product? And you know you can you use tools that are in your toolkit, which which are many, to help answer some of those questions through the to the course of the project. So that is kind of my consulting job. Taking, you know, few steps forward, my current role within the team is to help teams think through some of the challenges that they're having, obstacles that they're having. And think through kind of what are, help first of all you think what frame the question or frame the challenge, that kind of help facilitate, you know, okay, this is what we are trying to solve for. What are the different options that we have, and then come up with different options, ways to assess the options, whether you know how how can you best maximize revenue, reduce cost, reduce risk or you know accelerate timeline. So, it's kind of the same thing. It's like an internal consultant now versus an external consultant, and I think one of the benefits of being an internal consultant is you're really tied into the ecosystem at Gilead, which is, you know, you get to work very closely with a lot of different groups across the organization, get to work with them so closely that you can't know what’s top of mind for them and then you can bring that to the table and leverage that for your ongoing discussions and conversations.

Michael Wilkinson 

So, you mentioned that you started this consulting work in your PhD. So how do you feel that the Hopkins kind of consulting program helped prepare you and give you the tools you needed for the role you're in now, and like, what were some of the things that it helped you kind of pick up along the way?

Darshil Jhaveri 

Do you? Do you mean my graduate degree?

Michael Wilkinson 

Both. I suppose, both your graduate degree, but also this consulting group that you joined, because I imagine both contributed in a way to the work you do now, and the skill set you have now for the work you do.

Darshil Jhaveri 

Yes, I I guess from a consulting club perspective it, they give us a lot of different, they give us exposure to a lot of different tools and learning canisters and experience that you would not get otherwise, but from a graduate degree perspective, I think you know, being able to kind of tackle complex problems, dissecting them into smaller, more manageable parts, and finding solutions to help address them, was kind of like the key skill that I'm able to leverage today. 

Michael Wilkinson 

That makes a lot of sense. So, I think, as you know, as someone who transitioned away from your typical research role, I think a lot of people at wonder this, how much of your current work actually reflects some of the research you were doing in your graduate degree? Or was, is, is your current role reflect any of the research that you were doing in your graduate degree?

Darshil Jhaveri 

I would say not at the microscopic level, no pun intended, but but at a macroscopic level it does. You know, a lot of my my PhD degree was in oncology and today are working mainly in oncology and that's been an area of interest for me. So, I think, having that scientific background and yeah, ability to kind of dive deep into the question from a scientific standpoint does help me today. Yeah. And then just you know being a PhD, as you know very well, as part of your PhD, which is, you know, you come into the program, but not really knowing what you're going to be working on. And then you kind of try to see, you know what are the different questions out there? What questions interest you? Okay, if I were to answer this question, how? What are the different ways I can address it? What's the most feasible and viable option that I want to work with? And then go down that thought process and that path, you know, of structured thinking. I think that's really what's helpful as I think about what I bring to my job today.

Michael Wilkinson 

So you went, you went in with oncology. You're sticking with oncology. Why, why oncology? What was like interesting about that through you that made you want to pursue that route?

Darshil Jhaveri 

I think oncology is just one of those, every disease has its own complexities, and challenges, but I feel like oncology is bucketed as one disease. But it's a million diseases within one. So, each time you work on a different indication of an oncology, a different kind of a market, different product it it has so many nuances and it kind of covers the whole spectrum of of complexities that I find very exciting and interesting.

Michael Wilkinson 

So, what are some, I guess, along that route, what are some interesting developments that you see in the field right now? Both like just from a cutting-edge research perspective, or just things that people are working on like, is there any exciting things you see, as far as like breakthroughs and developments in this area of research?

Darshil Jhaveri 

I think, in general, like the field, as a whole has made so much progress. You know, maybe in the early 2000s oncology for most patients with that sentence for less than 6 months to live and given all the advances in oncology, in gene therapy, cell therapy that has been extended. Unfortunately, not for all, but for a lot of the main major ones, and then our patients have to live beyond 5 years, which was really a dream just 2 decades ago.

Michael Wilkinson 

That makes a lot of sense. So, what is I'm not as familiar with what Gilead does as a whole. So, if you can kind of deepen me through like, what are the kind of things that Gilead is working on and like their main objectives, that'd be really interesting.

Darshil Jhaveri 

Yeah, so you know, actually, one of the questions you asked me is like, why an oncology? Gilead’s history and legacy has has been and was virology. So, HIV, you know some of the hepatitis diseases, and they recently actually one of the reasons why I joined Gildead was to join the oncology group, and it was a fairly new group at that point, and just the prospect of working for a company that is trying to kind of dabble into this really complex growing field of oncology where I have background and experience and excitement for was one of the main reasons why I decided to join Gilead to begin with, but since, having joined Gilead, you know there was, there was an opportunity for me to work on cell therapy, and then move back to working in oncology, and as Gilead expands within oncology as well, I'm hoping to kind of expand my career, my professional growth and development in oncology at Gilead as well. 

Michael Wilkinson 

That makes a lot of sense. So, you kind of talked through a little bit, but I’d love to hear more about kind of the the specifics of your job, as far as like, what are you doing on a day-to-day basis? What are some of like the projects or interesting projects within, you know what you can tell me, because I'm sure some things are a little bit, you know, industry secret. But just what, what are some of the interesting aspects of your job, and like what are kind of the fun day to day things that you're up to?

Darshil Jhaveri 

Yeah. So, I'll keep out of our my role currently is to help support cross functional teams. So, we have these program strategy teams which are which sources people from different parts of the organization. So commercial, clinical, regularity, research, manufacturing, and then this team is kind of tasked with the job to have address, any, any problem challenges that the program is facing to kind of come up with a long time, long, long-term plan for the program, how to best maximize the value for the program, and someone like me in my role would come into this kind of team and play the role of helping the team frame out what the question they’re trying to answer and then play the role of a facilitator or moderator to kind of help the team brainstorm, think through different options that are that the, you know, for the thoroughness of it that we need to think through. And then, as a final step, have the team think, you know, okay, so these are a list of 100, I mean 20 different options. How do we want to prioritize this? And what is the best framework or metrics you want to use to prioritize this? Is it revenue? Is it cost? Is it risk? Or is it time? I think that's one piece of it. So, the other piece of my role is to have the lifecycle and scenario planning to kind of help Gilead with prioritization and setting, you know, strategic context different programs. But, you know, taking a step back a bit part of my role is to really work cross functionally, as I mentioned, because everyone’s coming up, coming with a different hat on at different priorities. So, my one of my roles is to make sure that I'm able to provide an objective assessment and an objective view of by operating all the data that's out there.

Michael Wilkinson 

So that's really interesting, this idea of a lot of what your role is kind of having to merge a bunch of different, you know, ideas and perspectives, and kind of like being a mediator to a degree. Is that is, that skill something that you picked up throughout your PhD? Is that something you more picked up along the way? So, I know a lot of Hopkins PhDs are pretty cross collaborative, and we do that quite a bit. But I'm just curious like along kind of when along the way did you really pick up this ability to manage not just different research topics, but also just this idea of a bunch of different perspectives and backgrounds coming together and kind of optimizing as you can?

Darshil Jhaveri 

I I like to think of it as being kind of building blocks in developing this skill because you know to your point at Hopkins we are very fortunate. It's a big collaborative environment, you know, we work very cross functionally. And I kind of did that as part of my thesis as well. I just, I was welcome into some labs, and different PIs as part of their research. So that's where it got started with them. When I was in consulting, that's really when I had to kind of make sure that I was working with my clients and their key stakeholders and incorporating that. So that was the second building block, and then the third building block was really when I joined Gilead and and became part of that, and as I mentioned the ecosystem in the network, and then it's really kind of you have been immersed into the whole system. So, you get to know what everyone's doing, what the key priorities are, what different hats are they wearing, what are the competing priorities? And how do you kind of mitigate that? And help facilitate some of, you know, consensus.

Michael Wilkinson 

Makes a lot of sense. So, I'm gonna step us back here a little bit, because I think a lot of people are interested kind of in, how did people end up where they are at? So, I think if you can kind of talk through, you know you just graduated with your PhD, right. What were? How did you kind of progress to where you are now at Gilead, and what were importantly, what were some of the kind of useful skills and tricks you had for like applying for different places and networking yourself and like marketing yourself to get into these different positions?

Darshil Jhaveri 

Yeah, so I I guess you know, as I mentioned, just like my, my, having having great mentors and having the right mentors at the right time was was very key, and you know, not not just like my thesis advisor but also kind of having the right mentors as part of the consulting group, having the right mentor when I joined the consulting company, having the right mentor when I joined Gilead really have kind of navigate, helped me navigate the right way to think about this. I think the other pieces are on, I I think I invested rightly understanding, what do I bring to the table versus what I need to learn, and having a good understanding of that, really helped me kind of navigate this better. So, you know, for example, when I was trying to transition from PhD to consulting, I knew that you know a career consulting is really looking for someone with structured thinking, being able to work with different kinds of people, and those are things I already had and I also had been bringing to the table, but what I did not have was really that business kind of background that they're looking for. So, then I I kind of dissected the “problem”, and then try to address that by taking the business classes and and Hopkins let me kind of get some of the business acumen and business background. Of course, it does not substitute a business degree, but at least helps you kind of get started somewhere.

Michael Wilkinson 

So that makes a lot of sense. And then how did you get then, from the consulting world to Gilead and like, what was that process like in that transition?

Darshil Jhaveri 

Yes, I think that's again kind of a similar approach. For instance, you know, I I knew I wanted to go consulting was never a long-term career option for me. I knew I wanted to transition to industry, and you know I started to look in a similar process, like what do I went to the table, and what do I kind of need to develop and grow. And you know, fortunately, the consulting, consulting years had provided me with a lot of the tools that I needed to excel, and then the one thing that was kind of lacking from my experience kit was being able to kind of work cross function because when you're a consultant, you'll always have one client, or, you know, just a small set of people that you are interfacing with. You don't really usually kind of get in most with all the behind the scenes, cross functional, you know world that goes on. So, you don't really get to see behind the scenes what happens. So not having that experience, or something, you kind of just have to you know make sure that you are able to highlight, you know, past experiences that will help you kind of navigate those challenges when you’re taking on a new role within the industry.

Michael Wilkinson 

So, you mentioned that you knew consulting was not a long-term goal. So, take it back even as step further when you were going into your PhD, what career plans did you have? Did you think that you might go into academia? Did you know kind of from the start you were going to go into industry? What was, you know, 2011, or 2010, whenever you entered they're still thinking as they entered their PhDs

Darshil Jhaveri 

2008

Michael Wilkinson 

2008. Okay, what was your career plans as you entered? And how did those plans kind of evolve as you continued through?

Darshil Jhaveri 

Yes, I think when I want to, when I entered I there are 2 things I really thought I would do in the future, which is one is, you know, be kind of a teacher or professor or mentor of sorts and then the second piece is around I I think I knew from right when I was joining my PhD program that at some point I wanted to transition into the industry. So, I I don't think I ever saw kind of you know myself running a lab, per se, at a university. I always saw myself more in that industry than a university setting. So, given that I I think that is always there. So fast forward to when I was coming close to graduating. I I was still thinking about like, you know, how can I get to the business side of life sciences? And that's kind of, I know, consulting seemed the natural fit. And then the mentoring piece, I feel like that's something that I've been continuously done and continue to do today. So then as a consultant and the more junior people on our in our company and less experienced people either through formal direct reports or informally through a mentorship model, I've always tried to kind of do the mentoring piece and share my knowledge with folks, just how I'm able to learn from more experienced people than me. 

Michael Wilkinson 

So, you mentioned you mentioned mentorship a couple of times now, so I I wanna ask a couple of questions related to that. I think the first one is you mentioned kind of, you know you had the right mentors at the right time. Was there any kind of critical pieces of like mentorship advice that your mentors gave you that kind of stuck with you and shaped your trajectory in any way?

Darshil Jhaveri 

I think the the best, the best and the most consistent advice I've received from all my mentors is know what do you bring to the table and then for the things that you don't bring to the table to get to the next step, be willing to kind of, you know, invest time and effort to learn or kind of develop those skills. And I think that has really been helpful throughout the process.

Michael Wilkinson 

And then in your own mentorship, right, what are what are important kind of lessons that you've learned in that you impart on the folks that you mentor? Besides, just what you know, your mentors have imparted on you?

Darshil Jhaveri 

I think one of the things that I try to balance is balance the right amount of, I guess, oversight and mentorship, because, you know, it's one on one end of the spectrum, it's too high level and it it might be too nebulous in terms of guidance. And then the other end of the spectrum, it’s too micromanagy. Okay. So how do you kind of balance? And that's been, you know, as part of my own growth and development, that's something I've tried to kind of find out what is the right balance, and I think, what I've come to learn and come to conclude so far is that you know, whenever someone's starting new, you try to assess what what areas you know will maybe they excel from day one versus what areas will they need some more time, and for the areas that they can excel, you know, let them go free, and then things that they kind of need more hand-holding, you know, get that right amount of handholding and kind of have those regular honest, frank check-ins with them to make sure that they are getting that same amount of support. But then once they feel comfortable doing that, letting them kind of run free, and with the understanding and expectation that you know everyone makes mistakes. And it's okay. As long as we kind of make sure, we have weekly check in and debrief frequently to kind of course correct those.

Michael Wilkinson 

So, I I think those are wonderful pieces of advice for folks kind of in your network, and I think I'll ask, maybe to expand a little beyond that, what are some pieces of advice you’d maybe give to current or like about to be graduating PhDs and postdocs that are in the same kind of space of looking for the next thing to do, and kind of wondering how best to approach it?

Darshil Jhaveri 

I think to not be afraid to kind of talk to people, network, because I didn't really answer that question, which is, you know, how did you kind of go about making this career steps and progression? I think one of the key pieces was networking and networking with people not being afraid to kind of, you know talk to people, ask them what they're doing. And and, you know, be having honest frank conversations with them about like, hey, you know right now I bring XYZ to the table for this, based on what you said I don't have, you know, ABC. What? What's your advice on helping me develop those ABC skills that I need, and just kind of doing that throughout your career will help set you up for success.

Michael Wilkinson 

Wonderful, so I know this isn't a job interview. But I'm gonna ask a slightly job interviewee question, which is, where do you see yourself in the next, you know, couple of years, and the things you're gonna be progressing on and working on?

Darshil Jhaveri 

Yeah, I think I will continue I I want to continue learning, continue growing, and continue developing, whether that's learning about other groups at Gilead, or other functions at Gilead, I think that will be one possibility. But in the end, taking a step back, finding something where at least 50% of the things I'm doing are things I bring to the table and and the remaining 50% of something I haven't done before that I'm willing to learn and kind of develop those skills.

Michael Wilkinson 

That sounds like a very wonderful plan. Well, we're getting close on time, so I'll I'll wrap it up with the final question. But it's been wonderful talking to you. So last question is, what inspires you right now whether it's in the things you do, whether it's in the people around you, or just kind of in your day-to-day life? What is of inspiration to you?

Darshil Jhaveri 

I think a better tomorrow.

Michael Wilkinson 

And what what do you? How do you? I guess, what does that mean to you a better tomorrow?

Darshil Jhaveri 

I think it's at the individual level, at a family level, at a macro level. I think you know all of us can work at today in different ways to help set up a better tomorrow.

Michael Wilkinson 

Well, I think it's a very wonderful sentiment to end this off on. Darshil, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me, and I look forward to future interactions.

Darshil Jhaveri 

Yeah, same here Michael. It’s been great. Thanks.