Leading to Discoveries

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By John Black

Fred Lowery is a Senior Vice President of Thermo Fisher Scientific and President of Life Sciences and Laboratory Products, the world leader in serving science–enabling its customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer. Thermo Fisher is a $20 billion company with more than 65,000 employees globally.

“We make the tools that are needed to make discoveries,” said Lowery.

Let’s say, for example, your biotech company was interested in expanding to include mass spectrometry, a technique that analyzes ions to determine their identity and quantity in simple and complex mixture. Your first call should be to Lowery who can not only explain the cutting edge products to make your business a success but get them for you and show you the best way to operate them.

“I spend most of my time making sure our customers have what they need,” he said. “Part of that is checking in to make sure the equipment they received from us is working the way they need it to and part of that time is listening to them about products they will need in the future and then passing that information back to the people at Thermo Fisher that can make it happen for them.”

Lowery knows that great customer service often means traveling to the customer to meet with them face-to-face. He estimates that about half his time at work is spent traveling the world servicing customers.

When he’s not in the air or with customers, Lowery spends a big part of his day working with the staff of the laboratory products business making sure they are bringing the same level of professionalism to their individual customer base. He also enjoys helping young professionals as they join the company and start their journey in the business world. He often tells them the story of his early days in the Corporate world when he first got a job working for the Maytag Corporation.

“I always try to tell young people to treat every experience they go through, good and bad, as a learning experience,” said Lowery. “Always make yourself useful, without being overbearing. Stay focused and be ready when opportunity comes your way.”