Yolande Hervé

About Yolande Hervé

Born in Brittany where she completed her Baccalaureate and two years in preparatory classes before entering the engineering school of Chemistry in Strasbourg, from which she graduated as the top of her class in 1983.

She then pursued a PhD in Organic Chemistry at CNRS in Gif sur Yvette. Her thesis was supervised by Sir Dereck Barton, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and Professor Pierre Potier, a member of the Academy of Sciences. Her work was presented on her 26th birthday after publishing 6 papers and a patent.

In January 1987, she joined a major French pharmaceutical group as a medicinal chemistry researcher. For 5 years, she developed series of molecules in collaboration with pharmacologists in the following therapeutic areas: diabetes, hypertension, central nervous system, cancer, osteoporosis, venous diseases. 8 patents were filed.

In 1990, she went to conduct research at the University of Montreal as part of a sabbatical year. This work resulted in 3 publications.

In 1993, she then moved to the production site of the active ingredients of this pharmaceutical group. She specialized, within R&D, in extrapolating operating procedures from the Research Center. The objective was to manufacture the first batches of active ingredients for toxicological and clinical studies safely and on time.

Sharing her enthusiasm, training young doctors, meeting researchers and academics, managing a team, solving daily challenges, and managing budgets are her areas of expertise and main motivations.

She took responsibility for this R&D laboratory in 2000, and the staff quickly doubled to reach 15 researchers and technicians, not counting the operators and technicians of the associated pilot plant to ensure deliveries.

In 2005, she became head of the Environmental department. The team consists of 12 people with very distinct missions, as well as about ten people from subcontracting companies.

By the end of 2011, she became Process Support Manager to assess the knowledge of each finished product manufactured by this factory and especially to guide new research with a focus on performance and productivity.

To reconnect with a Research team and the laboratory-workshop-project manager relationships, she returned to R&D at the end of 2012, to the pilot workshop, to manufacture clinical batches up to production. This environment of strong collaborations, high-level scientific discussions, and responsiveness allows her to thrive fully.