As sectors critical to global health and innovation, pharmaceutical and health technology industries require a robust pipeline of talent equipped not only with specialized knowledge but also with practical skills that can drive advancements and meet emerging challenges. Amid this backdrop, a leading business school has emerged, dedicated to shaping the next generation of leaders and innovators. With a commitment to excellence, quality, and social responsibility, Talento-EPHOS under the leadership of Fernando Abadía stands at the forefront, offering comprehensive educational programs designed to prepare students for impactful careers in healthcare and pharmaceuticals.
Fernando Abadía has amassed two decades of experience within the pharmaceutical industry, during which he identified a notable gap in formalized training opportunities tailored specifically for professionals in this sector. In 2013, recognizing a strategic business opportunity, he founded Talento Farmacéutico.
The initial venture began with the creation of a program focused on institutional relations within the pharmaceutical sector. This program was launched across seven key cities in Spain, namely Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Málaga, Bilbao, and A Coruña. Building upon this success, additional master’s degrees and specialized programs were introduced over the following years, catering to the professional development needs of industry practitioners.
Broadening the Educational Offering
As the organization expanded its scope, Fernando Abadía and his team decided to broaden their educational offerings to include comprehensive master’s degrees aimed at nurturing young graduates from health sciences and related fields. This strategic move aimed to equip the pharmaceutical sector with skilled and capable young professionals.
In a subsequent phase of growth, Talento Farmacéutico forged a collaborative partnership with FENIN, the prominent employers’ association representing the medical devices and health technologies sector. Together, they launched a specialized master’s degree program tailored for young graduates aspiring to excel in this dynamic industry segment.
Fostering Industry-ready Talent
Reflecting its evolving focus and expanded scope of offerings, the business school underwent a rebranding to Pharmaceutical and Health Talent, underscoring its commitment to developing industry-ready talent across various facets of the healthcare and pharmaceutical domains.
Under Fernando Abadía’s leadership, Pharmaceutical and Health Talent continues to pioneer tailored educational initiatives that bridge the gap between academia and industry, ensuring a steady supply of skilled professionals poised to drive innovation and excellence within the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors.
In 2020, Talento Farmacéutico y Sanitario decided to merge with EPHOS, another business school specialized in higher training in the pharmaceutical sector, with 35 years of history (founded in 1989), characterized by the rigor and quality of its training, as well as its ethics and good practices. This is how Talento-EPHOS was born, the reference business school in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and health technology sectors.
Commitment to Ethics
Fernando attributes the success and recognition of Talento-EPHOS in the industry to its commitment to core values of quality, excellence, commitment, employability, leadership, and social responsibility. These values serve as the bedrock of the business school’s operations, guiding every decision and action taken.
Quality is paramount at Talento-EPHOS, where a strict standard dictates that any endeavor undertaken must meet the highest standards of excellence. This commitment to quality hghlights the school’s reputation for delivering top-tier training and educational programs, distinguishing it as a leader in the field.
While excellence is ingrained in every aspect of their offerings, Fernando acknowledges the importance of continuous improvement. The school’s teams are dedicated to ongoing evaluation and enhancement of all processes and areas to ensure they remain at the forefront of educational innovation.
Training Excellence, Building Leaders
Central to Talento-EPHOS’s mission is an unshakable commitment to its clients—both students and corporate partners. This commitment manifests in guaranteeing students receive exceptional training and securing twelve months of paid internships within the industry. Equally, the school is dedicated to providing companies with highly skilled and well-prepared young professionals, thereby fostering strong, mutually beneficial relationships.
Employability stands as a cornerstone of Talento-EPHOS’s success, with an outstanding record of ensuring all graduates secure positions within the sector within six months of completing their master’s degrees. This achievement is a source of pride for the school and a testament to its effectiveness in preparing students for successful careers.
Leadership is another inherent value at Talento-EPHOS, stemming from the guidance of founders who have held significant leadership roles at esteemed companies like Pfizer and Lilly. Moreover, the school’s faculty comprises influential leaders within their respective fields, further instilling leadership qualities in students and preparing them to assume leadership roles in the future.
Lastly, Talento-EPHOS upholds a strong commitment to social responsibility, recognizing its role in contributing positively to society. A portion of the school’s proceeds are allocated to support various NGOs, reflecting its dedication to making a meaningful impact beyond its educational initiatives.
Expert-led Excellence for Future Leaders
At Talento-EPHOS, the teaching staff comprises distinguished professionals hailing from the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and healthcare sectors, including presidents, general directors of multinational companies, functional directors, former ministers, and experts in transversal skills. This exceptional level of expertise sets Talento-EPHOS apart from other business schools, providing students with a comprehensive 360-degree vision that equips them to excel in their careers.
The caliber of the teaching staff not only ensures that students receive knowledge of the highest caliber but also cultivates essential management skills and a deep understanding of company dynamics and sectoral nuances by the end of their master’s programs. Feedback from companies hosting curricular internships reinforces Talento-EPHOS’s reputation, highlighting the exceptional competence and preparedness of its students compared to peers from other institutions.
Empowering Futures
A hallmark of the master’s curriculum at Talento-EPHOS is the extensive and paid 12-month curricular internships within sector-specific companies. These internships are integral to the students’ comprehensive training, providing a crucial opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge in real-world settings while acquiring new skills. This practical experience serves as a pivotal first step into the professional world for students, significantly shaping their career trajectories.
The impact of these internships is profound, with a significant majority of students securing employment either directly with the internship host company or elsewhere within six months of completing their master’s degrees. This success underscores the effectiveness of Talento-EPHOS in preparing students not only academically but also practically for the challenges and opportunities within the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors.
The study plan for each master’s degree is prepared by the Talento-EPHOS academic area in collaboration with the director of the master’s degree and with the participation of other professors. On the other hand, Talento-EPHOS has an advisory board that is made up of relevant leaders in the sector, and one of its functions is to advise the school on teaching matters, from its contents to its methodology. All of this makes it possible for the programs to be fully updated and with an optimal methodology to provide the best possible training to its students and with eminently practical content taught by true protagonists, who are professional leaders in companies in the sector.
Talento-EPHOS students are the future leaders of the pharmaceutical and health technology sectors, and one of its main objectives and mission as a business school is to prepare them so that they can exercise that leadership reliably. To achieve this, it is essential to offer them tools that help them develop the necessary social and managerial skills and also provide them with personalized mentoring aimed at that end. Furthermore, when students finish the master’s degree, they become part of the Talento-EPHOS Alumni community and the school continues in contact with them to offer them support and personalized advice during the following years.
Overcoming the Educational Barriers
According to Fernando, founding Talento Farmacéutico was remarkably straightforward, attributed to three key factors: conceiving an idea, presenting it attractively initially, and assembling the right team. Despite early challenges with some programs, the company’s consistent creativity and productivity have led to the annual launch of new initiatives. Managing a business school with 400 students annually demands dedication, yet Fernando credits the exceptional team at Talento-EPHOS for making operations seamless.
Fernando highlights that Quality networking is one of the benefits Talento-EPHOS students obtain, since the first moment they are surrounded by high-level professionals in the sector. The face-to-face nature of the classes makes it possible for this networking to be effective, and at the end of the master’s degree the students have a few dozen highly relevant contacts in their diaries. These contacts with his teachers and with his colleagues, who will soon be working in various companies, result in a very powerful and useful network of contacts for traveling through this sector of the health industry.
The future of training in the pharmaceutical and health sectors involves delving into two areas: the area of new technologies and the area of professional and personal development. The area of new technologies ranges from new systems for teaching and learning to the different applications of digital transformation. Although today’s students are qualified to move in a digital environment, science in this area advances at a speed that is difficult to digest, therefore, training in digital transformation and big data is very important and totally necessary to develop. in professional scenarios very close in time. And on the other hand, the training of the leaders of the future involves developing very intensely in the area of professional and personal skills, with a marked humanistic character.
Medals of Merit
According to Fernando, one notable success story among Talento-EPHOS’s more than 4,000 students involves a former student who ascended to become CEO of a top 20 pharmaceutical company in a European country within a decade. Today, this individual holds the position of VP Global Business Excellence & Innovation and Head of CEO Office Healthcare. Fernando emphasizes that such achievements underscore the school’s ethos of continual improvement and a commitment to enhancing teams, companies, and environments. He highlights the profound impact of nurturing professionals who not only excel in their careers but also contribute positively to their surroundings, particularly in the critical realm of healthcare.
As a business school, Talento-EPHOS aligns its plans with its vision of becoming the premier institution in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical, and health technology industries for training young talent. Renowned for its values of excellence, quality, leadership, employability, social responsibility, and commitment to students and corporate partners, Talento-EPHOS aims for sustained and sustainable growth. As the primary source of young talent in these sectors today, the school is dedicated to maintaining and reinforcing this position in the future, ensuring continued delivery of top-tier education and fostering valuable partnerships with industry leaders.
