Maria Ebro Andreasen is a Danish organizational psychologist and Chief Strategy Officer at FUJIFILM Biotechnologies, where she leads global strategy with a focus on sustainability and culture transformation. Grounded in psychology, she champions psychologically safe, high-performing teams that drive innovation and growth. Maria has been pivotal in advancing the kojoX™ ecosystem, strengthening global biomanufacturing resilience and accelerating access to life-saving medicines. A passionate advocate for women in leadership, she embodies the balance between ambition, empathy, and purpose—mentoring future leaders to create a more inclusive and sustainable future for biotechnology and beyond.
The Social Digest: Maria, your journey from organizational psychology to Chief Strategy Officer at FUJIFILM Biotechnologies is inspiring. What sparked your passion for sustainability and leadership, and how has your background shaped your approach as a woman in this field?
My passion for sustainability and leadership is deeply rooted in the exploration of what makes us tick—how people make decisions and collaborate.
This journey began with my background in psychology, which informs not only how I think but how I lead. Psychology provides unique insights into the motivations and behaviors that drive individuals, teams and organizations. It equips me with the tools to ask the right questions and foster a culture where teams can think beyond the obvious and stay curious about each other and their own motivations.
This perspective has helped me to create environments that encourage open communication, empathy, and innovation.
The Social Digest: The kojoX™ ecosystem is a cornerstone of FUJIFILM Biotechnologies’ strategy. Can you explain its role in advancing sustainability, and share a key initiative you’ve led to drive its impact?
Our kojoX network uses a pioneering modular setup with standardized equipment and processes. This ensures supply chain resilience for biopharmaceutical customers with the opportunity for dual sourcing across the regions. The approach offers benefits like faster timelines, smoother tech transfers, and trust from consistent collaboration with the same partner throughout a drug’s lifecycle and across sites and scales. Our new site in Holly Springs, NC, opening in Q3 2025, is a near-identical blueprint of the Denmark site expansion that went live in late 2024, which has allowed us to build quickly, learn from our first expansion and implement learnings as we go. The next expansions in Denmark and Holly Springs are already in construction.
Based on my expertise in leading complex strategic transformational programs, I was brought in as a close advisor to leadership in first half of 2021 to help get the new greenfield facility off the ground in North Carolina. What started as project consulting, quickly turned into more as I fell in love with the FUJIFILM Biotechnologies culture. Since joining as an employee in January of 2023, I’ve held various roles in the organization – Head of People & Culture in Holly Springs, advising C-suite on strategy and execution, leading transformational projects – to now being part of the C-suite and driving our overall global strategy.
The Social Digest: You emphasize fostering psychologically safe cultures. Can you share an example of how you’ve created this environment and the outcomes it has produced for your teams?
Inclusion begins with safety. If people don’t feel safe, they don’t contribute with their full passion. My background in psychology helps me build trust and psychological safety. People thrive when they feel respected, and when they find their work challenging and meaningful – creating the conditions we need for sustainable growth.
This belief is held closely also by our CEO, Lars Petersen. Together with our C-suite leadership team, he has created our “9 People Fundamentals,” which guides our behavior and how we show up to work. The first fundamental is “We foster psychological safety.” As part of this fundamental, we speak up, challenge and support each other, and people feel safe communicating. We respect all individuals and have a no blame culture.
However, psychological safety is not about feeling good all the time. On the contrary – I strongly believe that people thrive when they are challenged and motivated in just the right balance with being supported. I continuously meet with employees and mentees to challenge how they think and develop. If you have trust between you, then the relationship can carry the weight of challenging each other in a positive and developing manner. I likewise hope and expect people around me to challenge me in my beliefs and help me grow too. Once you build epistemic trust between you, the growth you can achieve together is quite amazing – and that feeling drives me every day – the feeling of growing and helping others to grow to new heights too. This requires the bravery and ability to step into what might feel uncomfortable and uncertain for a moment rather than taking the easy way out in a conversation. Being in that uncomfortable space and diving into the crucial conversations, is a capability I constantly try to practice and get even better at – both privately and professionally.
The Social Digest: As a woman leader in biotechnology, what challenges have you faced, and how have you overcome them to thrive? What advice would you offer women aspiring to lead in similar fields?
When I started, I didn’t see many people who looked like me in senior leadership. I am pleased to see that it is changing – but it’s not changing fast enough. If young women don’t see it, they won’t believe it’s possible. So, I show up to show them what is possible. I make sure they see someone who’s both strategic and deeply human. I feel blessed with the culture at FUJIFILM Biotechnologies, because the women I get to work with are extremely smart and I experience an overwhelming level of encouragement and support from my female colleagues. We lift each other up. Similarly, I truly feel that my male peers and my leader, our CEO, also focus on eliminating any bias and obstacles to help everyone thrive and create the flexibility for this to be possible. Another priority for me is to exemplify the reward and success of being a working mother. I want to be the example to mothers of younger children that you can not only continue working, but drive your career forward, while being a good mother. It is all about showing up with the best version of yourself.
The Social Digest: The rebranding to FUJIFILM Biotechnologies reflects a commitment to innovation. How has this shift influenced your strategic priorities, and what opportunities does it present for sustainability?
Driving the rebranding of FUJIFILM Biotechnologies under the “Partners for Life” initiative within Fujifilm Life Sciences is an example of what I do best: bringing diverse teams together and unleashing their strengths to collaborate towards a united outcome.
Our new name, FUJIFILM Biotechnologies, is simpler, reflecting on our true focus of being a biopharmaceutical manufacturing partner to our customers. FUJIFILM Biotechnologies along with our sister life science companies, is positioned as a single-source partner supporting therapeutics from discovery to commercialization to tackle devastating diseases and improve patient lives. Under this new framework, my focus will be on creating sustained momentum and growth for not only FUJIFILM Biotechnologies, but our collection of Fujifilm Life Sciences businesses.
Our new strategic position supports sustainability as we can offer simplified engagement for an integrated suite of products, services and solutions backed with deep domain expertise and a history of innovation to get our partners’ products to market faster. We’re consistently encouraging and leveraging cross-company and cross-product synergies.
Regarding sustainability, FUJIFILM Biotechnologies has a fairly ambitious sustainability target and plan to continuously aim for lower emissions and consumptions. Our sustainability goals include a 50% CO2 reduction by 2030 (compared to 2019) and 100% electricity from renewable sources. This continues to be a cornerstone of our strategy going forward.
The Social Digest: FUJIFILM Biotechnologies aims to improve access to life-changing medicines. Can you share a project that has advanced this goal and its impact on communities or sustainability?
Our kojoX network demonstrated by our expansion in Holly Springs is one great example. By building modular facilities across the globe, we ensure critical medicines reach patients quicker and more reliably, with our manufacturing sites located close to where they are. As we are organically building our network, the harmonization and similarities are unique in the market.
The Social Digest: Balancing a high-pressure leadership role with personal well-being is challenging. How do you maintain your well-being, and what lessons can others learn from your approach?
I prioritize presence. With two young daughters and a global role, I carve out dedicated family time every day which is clearly blocked in my calendar when I’m with them, I’m fully there. It’s challenging but essential for both my effectiveness and happiness – not to mention relieving me of the mom-guilt, which I am sure all working mothers recognize. Once they are asleep, I am then happy to jump back online to meet with my teammates across the time zones.
For my mental health, I run 3 times / week and recently completed my first marathon. Running for me is less about the fitness and more about the mental space it creates for me. On a long run, my mind starts wandering, opening new thoughts and ideas about the problems at hand. It is not uncommon that it is after a long run, that I phone our CEO, Lars, to talk about new ideas or strategies forward.
In addition to this, I have a large group of female friends around me, whom I cherish and adore. Many of them leaders and mothers too, all deeply dedicated to prioritizing our travels and time together. They fuel me with energy.
Lastly, I have been lucky in choosing my husband. Not only is he smart and dedicated to his career, he is also a great dad and strong support of me and my dreams as well.
For any working mother, I recommend finding whatever gives you head-space. For some it is meditation or yoga, for others it is rock-climbing – for me it is having close friends and running.
The Social Digest: What legacy do you hope to leave in biotechnology and sustainability, particularly in empowering women and fostering inclusive workplaces?
I hope to leave a legacy of empowered women leaders, demonstrating that professional ambition and personal fulfillment aren’t mutually exclusive. As professionals we invest a significant amount of time in our careers, and those working hours should be meaningful and fulfilling.
I want young women to see leaders who are authentic, human, and successful. As part of this, I believe deeply in visibility and mentorship. I actively mentor women, making sure they’re not only supported but also seen, heard, and encouraged to step forward.
This interview was conducted by Ansh C Vachhani, The Social Digest on 06/10/2025. If you have any interview recommendations or have a story that you want to share with our readers, get in touch with our editor Vedant Bhrambhatt, at editor@thesocialdigest.com
