Joan Sheehan

Background

About Joan Sheehan

As a trained medical technologist with a background in blood banking and hematology, I immigrated from Ireland to North America in 1989. I held positions at the New England Deaconess Hospital, the American Red Cross, and the Markham Stouffville Hospital before settling in Vancouver, Canada in 1993. In November of 1993, I accepted a position at STEMCELL Technologies, then a small biotechnology startup producing a single product line of cell culture media for growing hematopoietic cells out of a dedicated clean room at the Terry Fox Laboratories. Recently new to Vancouver and unemployed at the time, I was just excited to have a job! Driven by CEO Dr. Allen Eaves’ unrelenting pursuit of scientific knowledge and dedication to quality, STEMCELL has seen a CAGR of 20% since its inception. Over these past 30+ years, I have built STEMCELL’s Sales & Marketing organization from two employees to 500 and set up twelve international offices. My primary role has always been Sales, but I led other functions at various times such as Technical Support, Education, Customer Service, and Distribution & Logistics. Working from STEMCELL’s Vancouver head office, my current focus is further developing the synergy of Sales & Marketing and further global expansion. Managing a team of highly trained, scientifically qualified staff, I always claim that one of my best qualities is my ability to detect talent and empower people.*All views here are my own.