Tin-Chuen Yeung

Courtesy of Tin-Chuen Yeung

 

Throughout much of his career, Tin-Chuen Yeung has straddled two worlds within the life sciences: bench science and business development.

In 1988, a year after completing a master's degree in management, Yeung got a chance to combine his business and scientific skills. Monsanto Company's NutraSweet division invited the pharmacologist to participate in "Rent-A-Genius," a program in which hand-picked scientists in the company's R&D unit spent six months in business development, and vice versa.

That cross-fertilization mingled talented individuals who think and behave very differently. It was as if they were "from two different cultures," Yeung, now 53, reflects. "R&D people talk a different language than the business people, and they don't seem to understand each other."

It's not unlike the culture clash he experienced in 1974 when he arrived in the United States from Hong Kong to attend the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook on a partial scholarship to pursue an undergraduate degree in biochemistry. While walking on campus one day, a student asked him if he knew who won the Super Bowl, to which he replied, "What's the Super Bowl?" At that moment, he decided to immerse himself in American culture and learn to speak English fluently.

Yeung's deft navigation of the science and business worlds, along with his ability to indoctrinate himself in US culture, has served him well throughout a 22-year career. He currently serves as managing director of Everest Intellectual Property Law Group in Northbrook, Ill., a company he helped to launch in April 2004.

Yeung started out with a focus on science. After earning a PhD in pharmacology in 1980 from SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, Yeung spent three years studying the action and toxicity of anticancer drugs as a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School.

In 1983, he joined Skokie, Ill-based G.D. Searle, and a year later entered the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

After Monsanto acquired Searle in 1985, Yeung was assigned to the company's NutraSweet division and, although his Rent-a- Genius stint ended, he was able to stay in business development thanks to a bit of fortuitous networking: A corporate leader whom he had approached for advice about his business school coursework (and whose advice he followed) ended up in charge of that unit.

"That is something that is against Asian culture," Yeung says. "I was brought up being polite, being shy, but the American culture is very different. You have to talk to people." Being assertive also opened the door at Deerfield, Ill.-based Baxter International, where he eventually landed a plum position for someone with his background: director of strategy and business development for the biosciences division.

Yeung attributes his success to persistence and determination. "I have friends that are PhDs who went to very good business schools, but they were never able to get out of their comfort zone of doing work in the lab, because that is what they have known for their entire life. And for me, I'm not afraid. I have confidence in myself."

And perhaps a bit of luck. Yeung joined NutraSweet on 8-8-88 at 8 a.m. The coincidence struck him as he pushed the elevator button to the eighth floor. "In the Chinese culture, that's a lucky number," he says. "Eight means prosperity."

-Karen Pallarito