SAPA 2022-23 Global Executive Council Meeting Held in December 2022

On Dec 4th, Sino-American Pharmaceutical Professionals Association (SAPA) hosted the 2022-2023 Executive Council (EC) meeting at Fairleigh Dickinson University.  Representatives from the Board of Directors (BD), Advisory Committee, and EC members from different chapters and Headquarter (HQ) joined the meeting either online or in-person and discussed the outlook of SAPA in 2023. The morning session of the meeting focused on the progress of the One SAPA global task forces by the Global EC. The afternoon session extended the discussion by SAPA-HQ EC focusing on the planning for 2023. The productive and successful EC meeting paved the way forward for the 30^th year of SAPA and opened up a bright future of SAPA community.

In the morning, Dr. Yongmei Li (SAPA President), Dr. Jian (Jack) Wu (President-Elect), and Dr. Xiaodong Chen (Immediate-Past President), co-hosted the meeting and presented a warm welcome to the participants. Following that, the Chair of Board of Directors (BD), Dr. Jian Liu, and Co-Chair of Advisory Committee (AC), Dr. Tony Tong, were invited to share their perspectives on the goals and focus of SAPA in 2022-2023.

SAPA President Office (PO) of 2022-2023: from left to right: Dr. Yongmei Li, Dr. Jack Wu, Dr. Xiaodong Chen

Dr. Jian Liu, the Chair of Board of Directors (BD) introduced the BD members and goals of 2023.

Dr. Tony Tong, the co-chair of SAPA AC shared perspectives of 2022-2023

Following that, highlighted in the reviews by the chapter presidents, all chapters, including SAPA- China, SAPA-CT, SAPA-DC, SAPA-GP, SAPA-NE, SAPA-MW, had a remarkable year with full house attendance and loads of positive feedback for the major events and plentiful member activities held in the past year. SAPA HQ and chapters are planning for a more fruitful year of 2023 with strong passion to unite and advance the Pharma & Biotech community.

SAPA Chapters and Chapter presidents

Next, Dr. Xiaodong Chen, Immediate-Past President, summarized SAPA’s activities in the past year and shared his personal experience over this unusual year. Xiaodong stated that 2021-2022 has been a year of success, transformation and growth for SAPA despite of the frustration and uncertainty caused by the continuation of the pandemic. SAPA was able to complete a lot of pioneering work for the Global SAPA task forces and SAPA communities.  SAPA brought back the in-person event mode finally after three years of pandemic, which were extremely well-received by the attendees and proved to be much more effective at connecting the communities and contributing to the Pharma & Biotech field than virtual meetings. Therefore, SAPA will devote more effort on that next year.

Dr. Xiaodong Chen, the 2021-2022 SAPA President summarized the SAPA activities in the past year

New Initiatives in 2023

When looking at the new year’s objectives, Dr. Yongmei Li, President of SAPA recognized that SAPA as an organization is stronger than before because of the 30 years of dedication and resilience of our leaders and volunteers. In the coming year, SAPA will focus on the 30^th year anniversary celebration, talent development, as well as the continuous effort of One SAPA Global Task forces and Communities.

Dr. Yongmei Li provided the latest PO updates

One SAPA Global Task Force Updates

One SAPA Global Task Forces were initiated in 2021 to unite the effort of all SAPA chapters in order to enhance our capabilities to fulfill our mission: As a global organization, promote the advancement of pharmaceutical science and biotechnology, contribute to public health education, promote entrepreneurship, healthcare investment and business cooperation, and foster the career growth of pharmaceutical professionals. In 2022, all the 6 specific task groups (Global Communication, Financial Operation, Fundraising, Membership, IT services and Legal) were able to complete their objectives set at the beginning of the year and have solid goals and plans for 2023. 2023 is also the 30^th year anniversary of SAPA. We’ll be celebrating this milestone and the past accomplishments with a series of events led by the 30 years celebration task force.

Dr. John Sun presented the 30 Years Celebration plan

Dr. Yiming Zhao, Director of Global Communication, presented the achievements and next steps of the ONE SAPA Communication Task Force

Dr. Chenchao Gao talked about the effort taken by the WeChat Public Account Group as part of the ONE SAPA Communication Task Force

Dr. Xiaojiao Xue, the head of the ONE SAPA Financial Operation Task Force presented the plan and objectives in 2023

Dr. Jack Wu, discussed the ONE SAPA Fundraising objectives

Dr. Aming Zhang, Director of Membership,  presented the goals and the tiered approach of the ONE SAPA Membership Task Force in 2023

Brian Jiang, Director of IT Service, presented the new platforms and services that ONE SAPA IT Service Task Force team has completed and will roll out soon.

Event Plan for 2023

Yongmei also shared the event schedule in the coming year. Following that, the leaders of the functional departments including Finance, IT Services, Membership, Communication, Fundraising, Scholarship and Awards presented their objectives in 2023 and proposed new strategies to support the organizational goals. In this coming year, to deliver higher quality events and more benefits to our members, SAPA also newly created a few committees including Volunteer Recruitment and Training, Event Integration P2M (planning to managing), and Marketing & Public Relation committees in addition to the existing Event Operation & Logistics, Career Center and Archive committees. The leaders of each committee also presented their plan and approaches to put the effort together and contribute to our mission.

Major Events in 2023 in SAPA

# For SAPA Chapter events, please visit sapaweb.org

** SAPA Flagship events

Committee Chairs

Lastly, the leads of SAPA communities, including Medical Device & Diagnostics, Clinical Development and Data Sciences, Drug Discovery, MINE (Meeting with investor and networking with entrepreneurs), Regulatory Affairs, also went up stage to introduce their plans for next year. Other communities such as CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls) and Marketing Access, are also in incubation. In 2023, the SAPA communities will leverage webinars, in-person gatherings, and crash courses to share learnings and build networks. Please visit SAPA website and SAPA public account for more information if interested.

The EC meeting was ended by the SAPA President Office by expressing thankfulness for the dedication and hard work of all the volunteers and EC members in 2022. After the full day event, the leaders and volunteers built a stronger connection with each other and established a robust, comprehensive and exciting plan for 2023. We are looking forward to uniting with all the SAPA members and friends in the virtual and in person events in 2023!

Please stay tuned by subscribing on the SAPA social media platforms: WeChat, LinkedIn, Official Website!

More photos of the presenters and attendees of 2023 SAPA Global EC meeting: