Tia Bush, Amgen Rhode Island | Leadership & Strategy
Mention a leader being humble and relatable, and you’re talking about Tia Bush, Amgen Inc.’s vice president of site operations in West Greenwich and Woburn, Mass.
“She’s a great listener,” and completely approachable, said Tara Griggs Urban, senior manager of corporate affairs at the biotechnology company, which focuses on unmet medical needs, creating medications for those with serious illnesses.
Bush, quick to give credit to the team at Amgen, is in a unique position. The global manufacturing company is the only place she’s ever worked, starting at the ground floor just out of college and working her way up.
“Tara loves this story,” said Bush. “My first job was climbing into stainless-steel tanks to swab the sides, to make sure they were clean ... I have to be willing to do the jobs I ask others to do.”
Originally from Ohio, Bush’s ability to be adaptable to a changing environment started early. Part of a military family, they moved often, she said, which she enjoyed. She was the first in her family to graduate college, earning a biological science degree from the University of Southern California in 1992 and heading to work at the Amgen headquarters in Thousand Oaks, Calif., at a great time in the industry.
“It really was the initial growth of biotech,” she said.
Amgen, which has six main areas of therapeutics: cardiovascular disease, oncology, bone health, neuroscience, nephrology and inflammation, was a great place for women then, and still is. Bush was by no means the only female in her work environment due to Amgen’s commitment to diversity, which includes a women’s advisory council.
“Not once have I felt like I haven’t been challenged or valued,” she said. She’s stayed with the company for decades – enriching her professional development and evolving right along with the company.
In her career, Bush has served in a diverse array of roles at multiple Amgen manufacturing locations. She led the Quality team during the construction of a new facility in Longmont, Colo. She learned the drug-product side of the business while working at the company’s Juncos, Puerto Rico, site for six years. Her first stint at Amgen Rhode Island, from 2002-2010, was in an executive director role, where she was head of quality, including on the floor, quality control laboratories, compliance and training.
“I learned from leaders, learned to adapt and learned to go outside my comfort zone with mistakes along the way. I learned to take risks and it certainly has paid off,” she said.
The most important part of her job? Being visible to team members. She is always looking for what might work best for the team in Rhode Island and how it can contribute more to Amgen’s mission of serving patients. Getting their input, she said, is vital.
“I want to engage leaders in developing strategy. That helps get buy-in. It has to be consistent with where we’re going as a company. It’s important to work with the team collectively.” But strategy also has to involve her – as a leader – showing genuine concern for people and what they care about, Bush said.
Urban said Bush brought in a consultant last year to demonstrate how team members might better identify their strengths, learn about how they process information and their individual learning styles. “It was all about identifying ways to work with each other,” Urban said, which is a value for the company overall and the customers it serves.
Bush may not get many gaps in her schedule, but when she does, she goes down to the production area, she said, in search of direct updates, feedback and insights from the team.
“Tia is like that movie ‘The Doctor’ [starring William Hurt, 1991],” said Urban. “It’s a story about a doctor who didn’t have much bedside manner, who wasn’t warm with patients until he was a patient himself. Tia remembers her roots and where she came from. ... People know that she knows what they are going through personally and professionally. … It comes naturally to her.”
