Business & Licensing Strategies is headed by Bette Schultz, a pharmaceutical executive with extensive operational and deal making experience.  Bette founded Business & Licensing Strategies, LLC in February, 2008.   Since 2009 Bette has been a Business Advisory Board Member for VAPOGENIX, an early stage drug development company in Houston, Texas, focused on pain management.                                                  

Previously Bette served as Vice President at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, East Hanover, NJ heading Business Development & Licensing and a primary care Business Unit.  Her BD&L responsibilities included in-licensing, out-licensing, co-promotion and divestitures for the US pharmaceutical organization, as well as supporting and representing US views for global licensing initiatives.  During her tenure, she and her team completed numerous deals that contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to current income, added close to a $1 billion in value and strengthened the pipeline.

In her role as Business Unit head, she had P&L responsibility for a group of products whose sales exceeded $900 million in 2007.  Her business unit included the Novogyne Joint Venture for HRT products, for which she was Novartis’s ranking member of the JV Management Committee.  Additional responsibilities included Life Cycle Management for all primary care products.  Ms. Schultz was a founding member of Empowering Women to Impact Novartis, an employee resource group which she co-chaired for three years.  Bette joined Novartis as Vice President, Business Development & Licensing.

Prior to Novartis, Ms. Schultz worked at Schering-Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, NJ, where she held increasingly responsible positions from Manager to Director to Senior Director.  She gained expertise and leadership experience in a variety of functional areas including Product Management, Marketing Research, Pricing, Trademarks and Marketing Operations as well as Business Development. She served in the US, International and Global divisions.

Bette’s pharmaceutical career began at Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, IN with positions in Sales and Marketing.

Ms. Schultz is a member of the Licensing Executive Society, the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and alumni organizations and is an associate of the Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation .  She has been a speaker at numerous professional events.  Bette is Vice President of the  Board of Dress For Success Morris County.  She is a past member of the Board of Trustees of the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey where she held positions of Treasurer and Chair of the Personnel Committee.  She also served on the Finance Committee for the  Great Swamp Watershed Association.

Ms. Schultz received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a Sc.B. degree in Biology from Brown University.