Katie Dahler / KPMG
Excellence in Healthcare
This year, KPMG's Katie Dahler was tapped to take on the role of KPMG's National Life Sciences Advisory Leader. She works with life sciences organizations to improve their operations and help them innovate to enable their mission of improving health outcomes and providing life-saving therapies.
"It's an exciting opportunity to lead our team in such a fast-paced and quickly transforming industry," Dahler says. "It is an amazing time to be in the industry. The pace of change and disruption is unprecedented with technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, and blockchain that will cause the world of tomorrow to look very different than it does today. That's an exciting challenge, and I am proud to be able to lead our team during this time of significant change."
In addition, Dahler says she loves her job because she gets to help the companies who help save lives. "The more that I can help a client innovate, develop their talent, enter a new market, or reduce their cost of operations, the more quickly they will be able to bring innovative products to market," she says. "I also like the fast pace of consulting. The world is constantly changing, especially right now, and it's an exciting challenge to stay ahead of these changes and continue to innovate to remain relevant."
Dahler says she is motivated by a strong sense of pride in her work and in delivering the best quality of work for clients and the firm. "I've been driven by the challenges that our clients face and the dynamic thinking and innovation that we need to bring to help our clients transform their business," she says.
However, she says she's also motivated by the talented people she has had the opportunity to work with over the years. "I have found that the more talented people I surround myself with, the more I am driven to challenge myself towards innovation and new thinking," she says.
In fact, she credits discovering that talent as one of the biggest keys to her success. "I have had good success over the years in finding very talented people, convincing them to work with me, and then developing them and ultimately promoting them to lead parts of the business themselves," she says. "I judge my success in how many people are getting promoted and being allowed to achieve their own goals because we have collectively continued to grow the business as a team."
Finally, Dahler says she had another proud moment when she was invited to speak to the 7th and 8th grade girls about leadership at her 14-year-old daughter's school.
"I had a chance to share with them some advice about having confidence, supporting each other, and thinking about themselves as role models for the younger girls coming up behind them," she says. "I was able to impart on them that it's OK to be a mom and a senior business leader, and that they should have confidence to take on leadership opportunities inside and outside of school."
Q&A: What does winning the Top 25 award mean to you, your firm and your clients?
Dahler: "Winning this award affirms that my firm and my clients appreciate my work and service, and value me as a leader. On a personal level, it's affirmation of the passion that I try to bring to my teams and my clients on a daily basis."
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