Mei-Wei ‘72 and Amy Cheng Distinguished Lecture Series: Charles “Chaz” Calitri ’81
Engineering Leadership in BioPharma: From Covid-19 Vaccine Launch to Building the Future of Biologics
Charles “Chaz” Calitri ’81 will share insights on engineering and leadership in the biopharma industry from his remarkable career journey. In 2020 during the global pandemic, Chaz led Pfizer’s Kalamazoo, MI, manufacturing site which enabled, scaled-up and launched Pfizer’s Covid-19 Vaccine- the first authorized treatment for Covid-19 in the world. During his nearly two decades at Pfizer, he held the roles of VP of Operations for the U.S. and EU sterile injectables network and VP of Global Engineering, with prior leadership positions in areas including production operations, capital projects management, facilities management, and site engineering. He will delve into the challenges and innovative solutions that were crucial during this unprecedented time.
In his current role as Vice President of Operations for Kyowa Kirin NA, a Japanese global specialty biopharmaceuticals company, he is leading a team to design, construct, and startup a drug substance biologics manufacturing plant in Sanford, NC. This facility will be critical in accelerating new therapies for patients who suffer from rare diseases. Chaz will discuss complexities of this project, and how lessons in engineering and leadership learned both here at Cornell and across his previous roles are helping him drive success in his current assignment.
Event registration not required. Please join us March 27.
