Internship Spotlight: Drew Richard ’26, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Drew Richard ’26 spent his summer exploring career options at a leading biotechnology company.
Internship: Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, Massachusetts
Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Pronouns: he/him/his
The SOM class you’re using on the job: Competitor
Go-to work lunch: Whatever the daily cafeteria special is
After-work routine: Marathon training
Favorite thing about internship city: Catching a game at Fenway
This summer, I had the opportunity to work as a General Management Summer Associate at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Thermo Fisher is a global leader in scientific research services, instruments, reagents, and consumables for life sciences, healthcare, and more. As part of the strategy team within one of the company’s business segments, my focus was on inorganic growth, diving into a particular industry of interest and potential acquisition targets.
Thermo Fisher is a company that is built on acquisitions. Acquisitions have allowed them to become the industry leader in the spaces where they operate, and the strategy is integral to their continued success in the future. The team to which I was assigned had identified several potential industries to expand into as a way to achieve their inorganic growth targets. As a member of this team, my responsibility was to dive into one of those industries and understand the dynamics. This meant learning about the process, understanding the different technologies and why they are important, highlighting who the major players are, and identifying where the industry is trending.
This work involved extensive research in parallel with conversations with industry experts across the company. Throughout the process, I utilized the knowledge and skills I gathered from our core classes during my first year. In particular, Competitor helped me analyze the competitive landscape and what is likely to happen in the future, while Customer allowed me to think about how we would best appeal to our customers if we expanded into this industry. My efforts concluded with a presentation of findings and recommendations on future actions to the business leadership to take with them moving forward.
Before starting at Yale SOM, I spent five years with DuPont in their early-career engineering rotational program. That job gave me incredible experience in several different roles. As a result, when recruiting this past year, I knew I was interested in joining a leadership development program (LDP) at a different company. The summer associate internship at Thermo Fisher is a feeder for the company’s full-time General Management LDP, where program members spend their first three years after business school in three different roles focusing on product management, sales, and operations. Not only does the program provide the chance to apply all the skills I am learning at SOM but also gives exposure and experience across many parts of the company, with the goal of preparing for a long-term management career in the organization.
My time with Thermo Fisher this summer has been incredible for many reasons. The internship has given me the ability to challenge myself in a role that is different from my previous experience and has opened my eyes to the opportunities that are available after business school. Additionally, I’ve been able to experience Boston by running and biking through different neighborhoods, meeting learning team friends for dinner, and even catching a Red Sox game. I look forward to bringing this experience back to the classroom during my second year and hopefully getting the chance to return here upon graduation.
