Mika Pollack: Insights into Project Leadership at Parexel

Can you tell us about your role?

My name is Mika Pollack, and I am a Project Director in our project leadership team. My role is all about driving clinical studies. Making sure they happen on time, on budget, with quality and within scope, while ensuring we have great data, safe patients, and accomplish what our clients hire us to do.

What was your path to becoming a Project Director?

My path to my current role is quite the story. I started in research back in the early 2000s, and I just fell in love with it. I hold a master's degree in public health, and my first human subject research study focused on autism prevalence within a specific geographic area.

I worked at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing with a really great group of researchers. But at some point, I moved to North Carolina, and that opened the door to my first clinical trial experiences. Since then, I've worked for many different organizations over the years, as part of the project management team.

When I joined Parexel, I was thrilled to share my experiences and enthusiasm for project leadership and building strong client relationships.

Parexel's strategic focus is on being a trusted partner to sponsors. How do you embody that in your day-to-day work?

I focus on building relationships with my clients through:

• Getting to know who they are – understanding their business and goals
• Building genuine rapport – communicating openly and consistently
• Delivering on promises – I always tell my teams to be proactive, commit with action and do what we say we’ll do

But being a trusted partner also means bringing insights that help sponsors make better decisions. We put time and attention into understanding problems and where we are as a team and as a clinical trial. When we share those insights with sponsors, it shows how committed and thoughtful we are about their success.

When sponsors realize you have their back and can trust everything you're doing, there's nothing you can't accomplish together. Whether collaboratively mitigating risks, planning a study, or responding to an urgent FDA request, the stronger the relationship, the more you can get done.

How do you balance following strict procedures with finding innovative solutions?

We must deliver work based on procedures, policies, and contractual obligations, but we also look for opportunities to innovate.

No study is the same; that's the exciting part of our job. We get to approach each one with a fresh lens and think about doing something totally different. Sponsors love it when you bring an idea no one's done before that could actually work, so we challenge ourselves that way every day.

Questions we're always asking:

• How can we recruit patients differently to keep them engaged and prevent dropouts?
• How can we improve enrollment rates beyond what science says is typical for a particular disease?

We're always thinking about ways to be innovative. But it takes deliberation. You must be intentional and consider what's possible within the study to take it to the next level.

Can you share a time when a customer really felt the positive impact of your work?

One experience that comes to mind is when we were delivering a critical data cut for a sponsor. It was incredibly important for them to meet a corporate goal and showcase results to their stakeholders. It wasn't even part of our contract yet butwe were going to work together to amend the scope.

The client really wanted us to put together a detailed timeline, so the entire team knew exactly what was going to happen.

I knew from experience and insights from similar deliverables that visibility would be key to success. I'm a big advocate for timeline software and have a lot of experience with various tools to create timelines. So, I created a workable Gantt chart—detailed but not so complicated that people couldn't follow and follow along.

What made it work:

• Weekly timeline updates throughout the three-month deliverable
• Real-time visibility into delays and impacts
• Clear roadmap for both client and team
• Constant communication and transparency

That's not always customary in our space—using elaborate timeline software for deliverables like this. But we wanted to do it because we knew how much this deliverable mattered to our client. And I think it really impressed them.

It was a lot of work, constantly updating the timeline and checking off what's done. But it helped us finish on time and made them feel like we were true partners.

It ultimately led to new business. We got another contract from them. We went the extra mile instead of just sending a basic timeline table in an email. And I think that made all the difference.

Growing up as the oldest daughter with a single mom, what do you bring from your early life into your work today?

I bring a very strong work ethic and natural problem-solving ability. My mom worked very hard, but needed help sometimes. So, she often put me in charge. She had high expectations—when she came home from work, she expected the house to be completely clean, food ready. I was, as she called it, "the supervisor."

So, I always had to be ready to solve a problem, whether for my family or later in my professional endeavors. When I fell into research and management of clinical trials, it was a natural trajectory because nothing's ever the same and I play an important role. My personal life experiences have led me to really enjoy the act of exploring, investigating, and solving problems.

What I learned early:

• Accountability is non-negotiable
• Show up every day, no matter what
• Deliver for your customers (even when that customer is your mom)

That early foundation carries naturally into my job. At Parexel, we're serving each other, our clients, and our patients—and I learned early that you deliver for your customers.

How do you balance seeing the whole picture versus focusing on executing each step?

For me, it's almost instinctual. I'm a high-level thinker, but I also love digging into the details. Working in research is natural for me because I'm an investigator. I love looking under the hood and making decisions based on data and trends.

But sometimes it's just based on gut. You know something is the right move because of who you're working with, the stakeholders involved, and the unique platform you have.

My approach depends on:

• The deliverable at hand
• The challenge we're facing
• The team members involved

Sometimes we dig deep, sometimes we stay high level. It really is a balancing act, but I don't overthink it.

If you could describe the culture of Parexel in one word, what would it be and why?

If I could describe the culture at Parexel in one word, I would say "evolving." I've only been with the company since June 2022, and I've seen so many different chapters of our journey and growth.

From organizational changes to how we approach our work, modified processes, and different expectations around how we plan a study—it's ever-evolving. Everyone's expected to be nimble and flexible.

To me, the culture is always thinking about how we can be better, do better, and present better. That's Parexel.

What makes Mika's approach unique:

• Combines public health perspective with project management expertise
• Leverages insights and data to drive innovation
• Builds trust through consistent delivery and transparency
• Balances strategic thinking with tactical execution
• Embraces problem-solving as a core strength