On #RaiseTheVolume – Teresia Bost In Interview With Jennifer Silverman

JENNIFER: What are your current responsibilities?

TERESIA: Currently, as general counsel, I pretty much oversee all of the legal kind of risks, liabilities, and issues that the company faces. I interact with the board quite a bit as well. I am also the chief compliance officer, without the full title, so I’m just very much involved in review and kind of overseeing updating our policies and procedures. Which also puts me in a position of having to manage audits and questionnaires from our clients, when they are seeking information around our practices and policies around security and data privacy. I also negotiate contracts as well as create processes and policies on legal department kind of work, and requests for legal support and legal advice. I provide advice to our product and our tech team on updates to our product to ensure that we are aligned with our regulatory obligations, like HIPPA and data privacy, as well as other regulations we’re governed by, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and other regulations, when we reach out to customers and clients. It’s kind of generally everything aligned under that.

JENNIFER: What are you currently working on?

TERESIA: Currently we’re working on, actually, revamping a compliance program. We actually created a charter. We created a board level committee who will now oversee audit and compliance. And will start reviewing our code of conduct and our other policies on an annual basis. Now we’re in the process of doing a full blown assessment with outside counsel on our policies and procedures, our compliance program. To kind of revamp, find the gaps, and revamp it. We’re a healthcare technology company, so we work directly with health plans, and providers.

And we get a lot of PHI from patients, so we are making sure that our compliance program is not only on par with our customer/client needs, but I want it to be excellent. It will be actually a great differentiator when we are soliciting clients for new business. That’s one of the biggest projects I’m working on. In addition to some product updates that we are excited about, on how to get patients better engaged into our programs or into the services that we offer. A lot of product updates that will allow more interaction with patients, more interaction directly with mental health providers and with providers. I’m really excited about those things.

JENNIFER: What was the path you traveled to reach your current position?

TERESIA: It was definitely not a straightforward path. I didn’t follow a traditional process after I left law school. After law school, I went to Amsterdam and I did a Masters of Law program in international business, sorry, European business law. I came back to Connecticut, which is where I’m originally from, and just started working for some small law firms, solo practitioners in Hartford, which is where I’m from. And then, I did that for about a year, and then I got tapped by Otis Elevator Company to join their contracts team. I actually was a French minor in undergrad, and I had an opportunity to do an internship in Belgium during my law school tenure. And so, I learned legal French, I actually started at Otis Elevator Company as a contract administrator. Because of my French ability, and I actually was able to negotiate, because I read and wrote French, negotiate elevator and escalator contracts for installation and maintenance from eastern Canada, from Montreal and Quebec. And so, that was kind of my start.

I started at Otis for a couple years, and then I moved over to another one of the United Technology companies, which was Pratt & Whitney, for about a year. And then I got tapped by a woman who had … We had kind of chosen each other, as she was my mentor, I was her mentee. And I worked with her at Otis. And she left Otis to go to New York City to be in-house at Bristol Myers Squibb, and she tapped me and said, “You know Teresia, you need to move. You need to come and get a job with a law firm. And you need to get that traditional law firm experience so that you can continue to grow and move forward. And, oh, by the way, I know that my company, Bristol Myers Squibb, is outsourcing a lot of their contract work to this law firm has been doing our breast implant litigation, and they don’t have anybody to negotiate contracts. And I told them I knew the best contract negotiator this side of the Mississippi. And so, you need to go … Need to submit your resume and go for an interview.” She changed my life.

I applied for the job, it was a firm that broke off from another well-known New Jersey firm, McCarter & English, to start a New Jersey office for Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold at the time, and it was a great opportunity for me. I was then outside counsel for Bristol Myers Squibb for about four years, and I supported their strategic sourcing department. They didn’t have an in-house attorney, so I was quasi in-house. I went to their offices three days a week, and I learned the pharmaceutical industry, and that’s when I started learning healthcare law and regulation, and how to draft a contract around that. And I had really great clients at the time, who were Bristol Myers Squibb business people, who really taught me the industry, and who helped me understand what the purpose of the contract was, so that I could make sure that I drafted the right clauses around that. It was really a great partnership with the business team. And kind of acclimating me to a whole new industry.

From there, after about four years, I was ready to do something different. Bristol Myers Squibb was actually thinking about creating a role, the same role that I was kind of supporting as outside counsel in-house, and asked me to apply, which I did. And in the midst of that I also found a posting for a job at Celgene, and I really was torn, but Bristol Myers Squibb wanted me to continue doing what I had been doing for four years for like another … They wanted me to commit for like three years to really build the department. And I didn’t see a lot of goals in that initially, and I felt like I was ready for something new. And Celgene at the time was expanding outside of the U.S., so I ended up going to Celgene. I was the first counsel that was hired that was not an IP attorney or not a regulatory attorney. So, I really got an opportunity to do so many different things. I was kind of a generalist, including using my European business law education and the experience in international contract work, and learn some new governance stuff.

I helped them create and open a lot of their European offices, so I learned a lot about like, what did it take to open a pharmaceutical company in Switzerland or in Spain or in Belgium or in England. And what are the requirements that you go through. It was really great experience working with, again, the general managers that we hired in those countries, doing the research, creating for them kind of the foundation that they needed for their companies to thrive. And so, that was really exciting. I stayed at Celgene for just about 14 years, and just, again, realized that although I had gotten some great opportunities at Celgene to just grow as a professional, most of the opportunities to grow were lateral, and not vertical. And I just felt like I should … I wasn’t being valued as much as I was bringing to the table. And so, that’s when I kind of got a little antsy, and open to considering and hearing about new opportunities.

Then I opened up my LinkedIn profile to be open for recruiters to contact me, and I virtually looked for a new role, new opportunity. And actually, I had never heard of Quartet Health, and one of their recruiters reached out to me and said, “Hey, can I talk to you about Quartet Health?” And I was like, sure. And they were like, “We saw your background, we think you have a great background, and we’d love to talk to you about the role of general counsel we have here.” So that’s kind of, what do you they say? The rest is history. Mine was an interesting path, I think, but I think it was a great grooming for me at so many different levels. Especially being a business-minded attorney and working with and learning from your business teams, really.

JENNIFER: What were the points in your career when you experienced the greatest growth?

TERESIA: I definitely experience the greatest growth when it was, I think, when I was tapped to do something new, right? When … But also because I was open to doing something new. I never expected that I would be doing the European work at Celgene that I was able to do. But my boss was like, “Hey, don’t you have a degree or something in European business law? I think I remember seeing that on your resume.” I was like, actually, yeah, I do. So she was like, “Yeah, okay, work with the Tax department and do this, could you do this?” It was great, but I think because I was open to new opportunities and someone was willing to give me those opportunities, and allow me to learn and stretch myself, was when I had, I think, the best and most growth in myself professionally and personally.

JENNIFER: What are your tips for working with the C-Suite?

TERESIA: One of the things I’m learning being part of the C Suite is, although everyone recognizes that you are the general counsel and the lawyer, you have to show your value beyond your legal acumen.  And so, I try to ensure that I weigh in on things that are maybe not my expertise, but areas where I feel like I have the benefit of giving a different opinion.  I think that’s one of the key things.  But I think the other thing is remembering as a general counsel, unfortunately, all of your members and your team members on the C Suite are also your clients.  And so, sometimes there’s a little bit of a tension there between what you’re doing for them and their teams and how you’re doing it, how quickly you’re doing it, how well you’re doing it.

Sometimes I think I feel a little isolated and a little … Yeah, a little isolated, a little kind of set apart, because I feel like I’m in a different position than most people on the leadership team in the C Suite with me.  But I will say, one of the great things with my C Suite and leadership team is, I have an amazing boss, and he’s a good person.  He’s a good man.  And so, I think, he cares about his team.  He cares about the company, and I think that speaks volumes to the dedication, I think, that his team members have to working together, to working towards one goal, and to working things out.  I think if he was a different type of leader and a different type of person, it could be a whole different dynamic.  I think that really has been so encouraging for me.

JENNIFER: What are your top recommendations for risk management?

TERESIA: I think, definitely understanding your business.  When I say understanding your business I mean, obviously, the business that you’re working for, like what are you guys doing?  Where are the risks inherently in your business?  But then also understanding the business appetite for risk.  And being able to balance that with educating them on the legal risks, and then kind of figuring out where you fall out. I think that’s key.  And I think for me one of the things I’m actually learning is, how to understand that as a lawyer we want to eliminate all risks, but that’s not possible, so where you figure out how to prioritize or be less risk averse so that the business can move forward without being kind of stagnated in pontificating on the legal potential risks and liabilities.

And so, kind of being a little flexible, being agile, and understanding and identifying where you can say, okay, you know what, that’s a minimal risk, so I’m okay with delegating that back to the team as long as I give them certain parameters on how they manage that.  And moving forward to the bigger higher priorities and also those things which are probably more risky.  So that’s been something I’ve been working on.

JENNIFER: What advice would you give to a first-time GC in your industry?

TERESIA: I think one of the things I try to do, which I think has been so helpful is … And I think it’s been a great opportunity that I’ve had, knowing people who were elevated to GC roles prior to me, was reaching out to them.  And creating a network of GCs I could … GC circle.  Because, as I said before, internally within your company, you really don’t feel it right away, but you eventually feel like you are kind of on an island by yourself.  Just because of the role that you play.  And so, sometimes having kind of a council of general counsels outside of your workplace to help you understand how to navigate certain things, give you tips and advice on how they build relationships, how they manage things, kind of processes they created, or just to bounce things off of them, I found was so helpful.

I reached out to about three people who had recently become general counsels in other areas.  One was with a tech company, one was a pharmaceutical company, who was a previous colleague of mine, and just asked them, hey, can I meet with you or call you periodically, just to bounce things off you?  And I think that was really, really, helpful to me, to at least had that network of people who had already kind of gone through it a little prior to me, who had some lessons that they could kind of help me with my learning, and my coming up to speed.

JENNIFER: How do you build and leverage your network?

TERESIA: I try to go to as many programs as I can.  I go to these luncheons, I go to networking opportunities.  I go to CLE programs.  I sign up for things that I ended up getting invited to more of those opportunities.  I’m on social media also, so I definitely try to open myself up for opportunities to network to meet people in different areas, and that has benefited me pretty well over my career.

Sometimes it is hard for me to network, especially if I’m going into a room where I don’t know anyone.  Sometimes it takes me a little while to get myself warmed up.  But usually I end up bumping into somebody and … Like I was invited to … Direct Women, a couple weeks ago, had their annual award luncheon, and they were honoring a couple of women, but they also … It was at the tail end of their three or four day program, so the new class of Direct Women were there, and I walked in.

I was invited by a law firm, but I walked in, I didn’t see her, and I walked into one of the women who’d just finished the program, and I had read in advance the invitation, so the name looked familiar.  And we just started chatting, and then she pulled somebody over and introduced me, and then it ended up being one of the advisors of the program. So it was like, wow!  Okay.  That was the best I think I’ve done.  I just kind of walked in and just starting chatting with someone and then it just really cascaded.  But it was great, because I met so many wonderful women there.  That was a wonderful, really great opportunity.

JENNIFER: What are the most important qualities you look for when hiring outside counsel?

TERESIA:  I really try to, obviously, look for attorneys who are experts in their field.  Who, obviously, make my job a lot easier, because I want to be able to just have somebody to go to ask a question.  And know that I can rely on the answer.  So that’s obviously key, and probably an obvious answer.

But I also, I mean for me, diversity is very important.  I actually, I have a lawyer that I’ve worked with before at Celgene, and who I actually tapped into when I came to Quartet because she’s a privacy expert.  And she knew for me, really, the importance of diversity.  And so, she created kind of a legal team that was diverse with women and men of color, and different backgrounds, and all excellent in their spaces.

And so, that’s another thing that’s really important to me is ensuring that I can work with a law firm that’s aligned with my mission, which is giving diverse counsel opportunities to learn my business and support me.  And then, obviously, I look for cost effectiveness.  And I don’t mind paying well for good counsel, but I also want to make sure I’m using my company’s resources wisely, so … You know, looking for opportunities for discounts or different … I’m actually just about to start looking into alternate billing arrangements.  But right now just try to tap into cost effective discounts for the amount of work that we give them, or past relationships, or whatever.