By Kevin McKeown

After years of dedication and hard work, it is a pleasure to introduce you to our new President: Rebecca Smith!

Rebecca has been with Pickering for over 15 years and has served in many different departments, roles and capacities during her time here.  Originally hired on as a Research Chemist assisting our company’s founder, Dr. Michael Pickering, she has been the Vice-President for the past 6 years.  Rebecca is replacing Jim Murphy, our previous President who is now fully embracing his role as retiree (I kid, Jim is now officially “Chairman and President Emeritus”)!  Jim has been grooming Rebecca for this role for years and the whole staff is super excited to have her lead us through the next era of Pickering Labs!

Most of you reading this probably know Rebecca already, but just a dime-store version of her personal story: born and raised in Fresno, undergrad degree at MIT, MBA from Northwestern, husband and 4 dogs in an RV (read in “12 days of Christmas” metre!).

When reached for comment, Jim put down his Pina Colada and said:

“Rebecca and I have spent many years together planning to make this company stronger.  She has built-up our Board of Directors, brought in outside consultants, added more structure to our organization and gave more responsibility to staff.  All of this made this the PERFECT time for me to hand over the reins to her……..plus I want to retire now!”

I have personally known Rebecca for over a decade now, first as a professional contact, then as a friend and lastly as one of her direct reports.  Over our years of doing business together, I have seen the heartfelt care that she has not only for Pickering Labs, but also the legacy of Michael Pickering.  Probably the biggest compliment I can give Rebecca is that even though she’s more than likely the smartest person in each room she enters, she never acts like it.  No matter the situation, or person, she’s always looking for something that she can learn from it.  This is the attitude that has led us to the successful company that we are today, with an ever-expanding portfolio in the PTS (Artificial Body Fluids) line of products, as well as the protection and expansion of our Post-Column business.

I encourage you to reach out to Rebecca and give her your well wishes.

Congratulations!