Talent Talkbox
Talent Talkbox
Podcast Description
Talent Talkbox is the podcast dedicated to exploring the evolving world of talent acquisition in the life sciences industry. In each episode, we connect with talent leaders, hiring experts, and industry innovators who are shaping future-ready workforces in biotech, pharma, CDMO, and CRO sectors.
We uncover transformative approaches, and innovative hiring practices that are redefining how life sciences organizations attract, retain, and develop top talent. Through insightful conversations and inspiring stories, you'll gain actionable takeaways to enhance your own hiring practices.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on topics related to talent acquisition, such as innovative hiring practices, talent intelligence, recruitment technology, and the impact of AI on hiring. Episodes include themes like the role of learning and development as an enabler of talent acquisition, and strategies for attracting Generation Z talent. Specific examples include discussions on how to use talent intelligence to enhance recruitment strategies and integrate AI in the hiring process.
Elevate is the podcast from Vector Talent bringing you honest conversations with women leading the way in pharma services.
Each episode goes beyond the CV. We talk to senior figures across CDMOs, CROs, Biotech and the wider pharma services sector about how they’ve built their careers, the challenges they’ve navigated, and what it really takes to lead in this industry.
No generic career advice. Just candid, experience-led conversations from women who are shaping one of the most complex sectors in the world.
In this episode of Elevate: Women Leading the Way in Pharma Outsourcing, host Marianne Gissane speaks with Elizabeth Hickman, CEO at AustinPx, about growing up around risk-takers, learning what confidence actually looks like, and why she keeps a note on her whiteboard that says ”be a dragon.”
Elizabeth's path into the CDMO world started long before she had a job title, shaped by a mountaineering father and an entrepreneurial mother who each taught her, in different ways, to get comfortable with risk. She built her career on the business side of science rather than at the bench, moving through business development roles that taught her to listen to clients before anything else. She joined AustinPx as chief business officer in 2022 and became CEO in January 2025, bringing close to twenty years of CDMO experience from roles at West Pharmaceutical Services, Catalent, Pharmatek and PharmaForm. She talks candidly about the kind of feedback women get that men rarely hear, and the mentors who pushed her towards opportunities before she felt ready for them.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Why growing up around risk-takers shaped how she leads people through an industry that can't control most of its own outcomes
- What years in business development taught her about listening to clients before anything else
- How she's learned to handle feedback about her voice and presence without letting it reshape who she is
- Why ”be a dragon” ended up written on her whiteboard, and what it means to her day to day
- What being part of the Biotech CEO Sisterhood has given her as a CEO based outside the usual biotech hubs
- The advice she'd give her younger self about speaking up before she felt fully ready
Guest bio
Elizabeth Hickman is the CEO at AustinPx, a CDMO based in Georgetown, Texas, specialising in bioavailability enhancement for oral small molecule drugs through its KinetiSol platform. She joined AustinPx as chief business officer in 2022 and stepped into the CEO role in January 2025, having previously held business development and marketing leadership positions at West Pharmaceutical Services, Catalent, Pharmatek and PharmaForm. She holds a BA in microbiology from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from San Diego State University.
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