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Alex Sabad’s resume looks like few others. How does an EMT with a sociology degree ultimately become a managing director at a premier global professional services company and the largest independent technology service provider in the world?
“If you come to me and say it can’t be done, you’d be crazy to do it, it’s all white space, so what do I think? I will tell you that it sounds like my kind of job,” Sabad says.
That is how the managing director has built three decades of supply chain and manufacturing expertise in life sciences, but occasionally accepting stretch opportunities like running operations for an Australian wine company for a year. And that is how he came to Accenture in 2021, though those around him weren’t entirely sure the move would make sense.
After five-and-a-half years as managing director of life sciences strategy and operations at Deloitte, Sabad was ready for a new challenge. But his colleagues weren’t sure that a technology services company made sense for a man who, by his own admission, was not primarily a technologist.
“I understood and appreciated what they were saying, but my view was that I had become a very good consultant, and I think a lot of experts in the area could see that the future of that industry was going to be very technology-driven. I wanted to learn, and I wanted to be able to continue to contribute in a meaningful way. I was already comfortable consulting, meeting with clients, and transforming operations. Learning the technology component was the exciting part. That’s why I took the job.”
Reimagining a perceived weakness as a selling point for taking a new role requires some kind of reinforced steel backbone, but it’s the hallmark of Sabad’s approach to virtually any role he’s ever taken on.
Sabad says his real skill, at least how it’s been described to him, is to act as a hub who can connect every spoke of the wheel. He can translate difficult concepts to open communication between scientists, engineers, financiers, and investors. His superpower is translation, taking the language of a deep technical expert and rendering it in terms a CFO, board member, or regulator can both understand and act on, leading to major transformation opportunities.
“I work really hard to keep that data flow going, and to ensure it’s as smooth as possible. That’s always been me,” the managing director explains. “And because of that, I’ve gotten opportunities to do things that, frankly, I wasn’t necessarily 100% ready for.”
As he’s grown in his career, he’s come to place a higher and higher premium on people leadership. Today, it’s his main focus. His biggest successes aren’t projects, but an analyst he once managed who is now a CSO.
“My measuring stick has always been the people who have worked for me and what they are doing today,” Sabad says. “If working for me has been a part of your journey to something bigger, then I count that among my successes. I just want to be able to say I left a mark, hopefully a positive mark, not only with the clients I deal with, but the people I’ve had a chance to work with.”
Sabad’s leadership style emphasizes round-table dialogue where everyone has a voice and ensuring that every project provides learning opportunities for junior members to find their passion. He doesn’t just want junior consultants to walk away from an eight-week project knowing that they executed it. He hopes they can figure out where their interests and strengths lie, and what they learned about themselves in the process.
The leader stresses that, whatever one may call it, “serendipity” has been a significant factor in his life. After realizing that medical school wasn’t his calling, he took a clinical opportunity at what would become Edwards Life Sciences. That led to business school and a fortuitous (and prestigious) rotation program at Glaxo Wellcome, for which he was one of two people selected. Two-and-a-half months in, the company became GSK; his sponsor and the program were gone overnight, and he was a full-fledged member of the global manufacturing and supply chain.
“My experience in the space kind of started with a bang, and that’s how it’s been ever since,” Sabad says. “I just choose to look at it like an opportunity and not things not working out the way I wanted them to. That approach has served me well.”
That applies to Sabad’s life outside of work, too. He and his wife are new empty nesters, and he’s taken the opportunity to be open to new horizons. More specifically, as long as it involves spending time with his wife, he’s up for it. As of late, pickleball—an odd pairing of words to the managing director just a short time ago—has become an activity they both look forward to.
And when it comes to the future of Sabad’s work, he says he’ll continue to grow while also approaching things the same way he has for thirty years.
“The passion remains understanding someone’s pain point, what’s keeping them up at night, and being able to say, ‘Don’t worry, we can help you, and here’s how,’” Sabad says. “That’s what so much of this role comes back to, and it’s what excites me about it still today.”
