Over the course of her career, Mary Chi Michael has taken a creative approach to work that embraces a simple but powerful idea: we must listen to, understand, and truly engage the communities we serve. As the VP of Patient Advocacy and Stakeholder Management at Otsuka, she leads a team that engages communities in mental health, Alzheimer’s disease, kidney disease, and digital medicine. In her work, Mary engages with people with lived experience, care partners, key opinion leaders, healthcare providers, advocates, technologists, and more. Her fundamental priority is to connect, collaborate, and create with the communities being served in order to drive new collaboration, spark innovation, and generate new solutions for people who need them.
Mary’s vision is to change how healthcare companies and the pharmaceutical industry both understand and meet the needs of the people they serve. Her dedication has been recognized across the industry, receiving MM+M’s Pinnacle Award and being named an MM+M Woman of Distinction. Mary was also the recipient of the 2022 Pioneer Award from Dementia Action Alliance.
Prior to joining Otsuka, Mary served as Executive Director at Pfizer, Inc. where she developed and executed Global Opinion Leader business strategies and plans which resulted in expanded accountability and visibility for leadership. During the first 13 years of her career, Mary held various roles in sales and marketing at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she led innovative Advocacy and Opinion Leader related engagements.
