Meet the Team

Name: Graham Johnson

Job title: Managing Director (UK), Head of Global Sales

Time at BIOHIT HealthCare Ltd: 15 years (22 with the BIOHIT Group)

Education and Experience: BSc Hons Biomedical Science, University of Portsmouth. During my degree I opted for a year on placement which took me into the fascinating world of clinical virology at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, which back then was home to one of the Public Health Laboratory Service hubs. I worked in a busy routine virus culture and serology lab as well as helping with research projects in environmental water virology. After graduating I returned to Reading to continue my work there before moving back North to continue as a locum in Leeds. When the PHLS was reformed and many services were distributed between NHS pathology services and the new Health Protection Agency, I decided to move into industry. That’s when I joined BIOHIT - as a Technical Sales Representative. So in 2002 I began to build my career in business off the back of what I’d learned in the labs. I progressed quickly from a junior sales position to Key Account Manager, then Sales Manager, to Sales and Marketing Director, at which point BIOHIT was starting to roll out it’s early diagnostic tests kits. We founded BIOHIT HealthCare Ltd in 2008 – a separate and exciting new venture to focus on gastrointestinal health and in vitro diagnostics. I was appointed Managing Director of the new company in 2011. I suppose with all that history you could say I’ve actually worked at BIOHIT for 21 years!

What does a day in the life of Graham entail? With 5 children it starts with military precision to make sure they’re all dispatched to the right school at the right time with the right shoes on the right feet. Then it’s quickly to work with a day that’s usually as busy as it began. With the overall responsibility for BIOHIT HealthCare Ltd my role covers everything from operations, sales, and marketing activities, to everything in between and anything beyond. We’re a small company which means each of our amazing staff wears many hats. My days usually consists of meetings – with our Operations team, suppliers, and colleagues in our parent company in Finland, where we find ourselves discussing a broad range of subjects including logistics, supply chain matters, current and future projects, markets, product ideas, research, budgeting and finance; basically anything that applies to our business and the customers we serve. I’m permanently connected to our marketing and sales teams too, planning and deploying our company strategies and campaigns, attending events, helping secure new business, supporting and maintaining existing business, and planning for any eventualities that may occur in any of these functions. This means I work closely with our customers too, and this is the bit I truly love. It’s so important to be in-touch with the markets we serve in order to understand our role, purpose and direction as a company supplying novel in vitro diagnostic tests.

Now that we are back to more face to face business, it’s so nice to have that personal element restored too because collaboration is at the heart of what we do. We work in a fascinating field and are lucky enough to work closely with many clinicians, scientists, procurement teams, policy makers, business partners, and lots of other people in the world of digestive health. So whether it’s advising on the best biopsy test to use in a busy endoscopy setting, or helping to plan and deliver clinical trials to explore new ways to make patient flows more efficient and effective, every day is different, and we have a terrific team in the UK which really helps.

Although the days are busy, I make sure I set aside time to learn too – it’s a big part of my routine as we can’t do what we do without the knowledge and know-how to do it. In our field, we’re surrounded with opportunities to learn and fortunately have access to a wide range of resources – whether that be customers, patients, colleagues, advisors, publications, fora, conferences etc, learning keeps us at the forefront of our specialism and provides the opportunity to improve.

If you could come up with a more accurate job title for your role, what would it be? Managing Director…with Extended Remit!

What do you enjoy most about the work you do? I’ve worked in this field for a long time and have met some incredibly inspiring people along the way, and it’s the people that I work with, both within and outside of the BIOHIT organisation, that make working for BIOHIT so enjoyable. The largest market we serve directly is the NHS, and if you ever need some inspiration or motivation, spend some time with the people that work there. Despite the unremitting challenges they face day in day out, they still make time to collaborate with companies like ours to explore and adopt new technologies for the benefit of their patients and service users. At BIOHIT we’re incredibly fortunate - a lot of what we do is unique, and because our innovations are patient and process centric, they’re always met with a positive response. I love the fact we always have something interesting to talk about.

In the world of diagnostics, what future developments are you most excited about? That’s a really tough question to answer, particularly today because there is so much happening out there in so many areas with the potential to bring about big change in different healthcare settings. I think any technology, practice or process, that is able to improve patient outcomes, deliver convenience and efficiency, reduce cost, reduce waste and reduce environmental impact, whilst improving accessibility and equality, has an immediate role to play in our healthcare system, and this is where in vitro diagnostics can really deliver. Around 70% of clinical decisions are based on IVD tests already and I believe that by aggregating IVDs into panels of tests, and combining these with other clinical indices - such as disease risk assessments, and digital technologies, will play a bigger role in addressing a lot of today’s challenges in healthcare. With a focus on earlier detection of disease and disease activity monitoring, there’s a big spotlight right now on disruptive technologies that have the potential to change the way in which we employ diagnostics outside of the hospital setting, and there’s certainly a lot to be excited about - some of which is emerging from our own portfolio - and for me personally, it’s the clinical impact that these IVDs will have in the future that really excites me!

What values drive you? When I was six years old I started Tae Kwon-Do, and although that was a long time ago I still remember the tenets we used to recite at the start of each class – courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, indomitable spirit. Although I probably didn’t quite understand the true meanings back then, I have grown to believe those are really solid core values. At BIOHIT, everything we do is anchored to core values. This instils a quality and customer orientated mind-set that makes everything we do meaningful with the potential to do good in a fair and equitable way. When we align our processes to the values we believe in, it makes for a smoother course and clearer direction for business, and those values become visible to the markets we serve. Equality and fairness, integrity and transparency, motivation and hard work, passion to help others and succeed, with an appetite to learn and improve, are a great recipe for success.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not in work? Away from work, when I’m not behind the wheel of the kids-club-taxi, you will find me walking with my family around the beautiful Wirral countryside trying to keep up with our cocker spaniel, Woody, coaching the U15s Wirral RFU team, playing football, occasionally running, snowboarding and attending classic motor racing events (though I don’t get chance to do those last two very often)! I’m quite partial to a bit of DIY too.

Finally just for fun, if you could be any animal, what would you be and why? Animal from The Muppet Show...only for the drumming talent of course!