# Problem Solving, Partnerships, and Putting Yourself Out of Your Comfort Zone, with Valerie Brown

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/let-s-talk-quality-6567110/problem-solving-partnerships-and-putting-yourself-out-of-your-comfort-zone-with-valerie-brown
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/let-s-talk-quality-6567110/problem-solving-partnerships-and-putting-yourself-out-of-your-comfort-zone-with-valerie-brown.md
Podcast: [Let's Talk Quality](https://stenobird.com/podcast/let-s-talk-quality-6567110)
Published: 2026-03-03T12:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://rx-group.io/captivate-podcast/problem-solving-partnerships-and-putting-yourself-out-of-your-comfort-zone-with-valerie-brown
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/64874142-3e2b-4762-9d76-2537359d01a9.mp3
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Duration seconds: 1910

## Resource

From accidental quality professional to global quality leader - Valerie Brown's story is one of courage, curiosity, and conviction. In today's episode I was joined by Valerie Brown, Head of Global Quality Assurance and Compliance at Thermo Fisher Scientific's Clinical Research Group. I really wanted to speak to Valerie because she brings something different to the quality leadership conversation. Yes, she has held senior quality roles across innovator companies, CDMOs, and now one of the largest CROs in the world. But what makes her story compelling is how she got there - and what she learned along the way. Valerie didn't plan to work in quality. At 22, she was asked to be a scribe for an FDA inspection. The host fell ill on the day. She stepped in - no preparation, no safety net - and handled it. Someone told her she had a knack for it. She wasn't sure she agreed. She still wanted to be in the lab, in manufacturing, doing what she knew. But that moment planted a seed. What followed was a career that took her across CDMOs, innovator companies including Gilead Sciences, and now Thermo Fisher - where she leads global quality assurance and compliance for the clinical research group. She has sat on both sides of the table, as sponsor and as service provider, and that experience shapes everything about how she leads. We talk about the following: How Valerie accidentally became a quality professional, and why that unplanned start shaped everything that followed What it felt like to host an FDA inspection at 22, with no preparation and no safety net Her philosophy of servant leadership and what it really means to lead with empathy in a regulated environment The challenge of transforming a fragmented quality organisation into a connected, strategic function at Thermo Fisher Th…

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## Transcript

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