Chris Shilling is an independent consultant, specialising in managing innovation projects in the pharmaceutical industry.

From 1997 to 2007 Chris worked in Pfizer’s R&D division – initially in the pharmaceutical Project Management group and then in the Business Innovation Unit. During that time he built up a wealth of experience in designing and implementing new processes and tools to support the business of developing drugs, and latterly in new models to challenge the conventional pharmaceutical R&D process. The expertise he developed during this time covers four main areas:

·         Business process innovation

·         Process development, implementation, change management & communication

·         Knowledge management

·         Pharmaceutical development project management

During this time Chris was responsible for creating and embedding new processes and information resources for the Development organisation, often involving collaboration with Research & Marketing colleagues. Successful projects include:

·         Research project designing new pharmaceutical development business models

·         Implementation of military organisational effectiveness, planning and decision-making processes concepts in R&D

·         Web 2.0 project information environment for strategic planning

·         3 intranet division-wide development process knowledge resources – Pfizer Achievement Award Winner for ‘The Guide’

·         Project information knowledge transfer for two mergers

·         2 corporate-wide information resources

·         2 tacit knowledge capture tools

·         5 internal education programmes covering pharmaceutical industry challenges, R&D process and Pfizer achievements

·         Integrated knowledge-enabled project management system

·         Project management methodology education programme

·         Chair of global innovation process leadership team site lead for ideas management tool

Chris has been a regular industry speaker at knowledge management and information strategy events since 1999, including events for Gartner, IDC, Institute of Information Scientists, Ark Group, IIR, and Business Intelligence. He was a subject matter expert for two UK Government-funded foresighting projects in 2007, has been an industry sponsor for 5 PhD projects and is a member of the European Industrial Research Management Association.

Prior to his work in the pharmaceutical industry, Chris worked in both manufacturing and the service sectors, with experience across law, pulp & paper, events management, and hotels & entertainment. Chris is a Law graduate from Brunel University, lives in Southeast England with his wife and two children, and speaks fluent German.