Defining passions and priorities with Loïse Perruchoud - Operations Manager
Loïse Perruchoud completed her PhD in chemistry at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC). Through her time at UTSC, she gained not just research experience, but also teaching and administrative experience, eventually becoming a lab coordinator and sessional lecturer at U of T. With her broad skill set, she is now an integral part of Liven Proteins, a food technology start-up, as their Operations Manager.
Outside of science, Loïse has many passions. While completing her PhD, she discovered the importance of maintaining mental and physical health and is now bringing her knowledge of health and fitness to others as a personal trainer and fitness coach for older adults. She is also a dancer, DJ, and a dance festival organizer.
I came across Loïse’s LinkedIn profile and was immediately intrigued by the various jobs she held and her impressive range of knowledge and skills. We met for a virtual chat, and I just had to invite her for our blog. Take a read at her story below!
**This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
So Liven Proteins is a start-up. We started 2 to 3 years ago, working on producing animal-free proteins, specifically animal-free collagen. We are using a method that is called Precision Fermentation, where we brew genetically-engineered yeast to produce those proteins, and the cool thing about it is that we don't use any sources of animal. So, the proteins are the exact same – same amino acid sequence as the collagen that you find in animals, just not made from animals. This is obviously better in terms of sustainability, and we are trying to make the food industry more sustainable and hopefully get people excited and want to eat better, but also be more mindful about the environment as well.
And as the operations manager, I do pretty much everything except the science. I take care of any day-to-day tasks that don't have anything to do with R&D: any ordering, any marketing, grant management, budgeting, hiring and all of that. And then, I support the CEO, and I support the tech team as well if they need any chemicals. Right now, we're building a new lab, so I’m quite heavily involved with that.
I think my favorite thing is the fact that I get to do all these things, and I see the results right away.
For example, if the company is not on top of the budget or if, you know, we're not paying our invoices as we go, the company doesn't run. I like having to jump from one task to the next so I don't get bored – because I tend to get bored easily – and I see that what I'm doing is useful. And hopefully it's moving the company forward.
Oh, the most challenging thing was during my PhD actually. I did not have a good relationship with my PhD supervisor. He was harassing me most of the time, like some supervisors do in academia. I was relatively young. I didn't know that that was not okay or that is not what was supposed to be happening. I stayed because I wanted to get a PhD, so having to go through that and getting to the end of it and trying to navigate how to work with him – we had huge cultural differences and different values. I work really hard during my week, but I need my free time, and that was not how he was seeing things. So having to work with somebody that wasn't a good fit for me was not fun. I did learn a lot from it, and now
I make sure that I find environments where I'm much happier in and where I'm a way better fit, so I learned about what I like and what I don't like.
It sounds like that experience has helped you shape the idea of what you would like in your career moving forward.
Absolutely.
As I was doing my PhD, I realized relatively early on that even though I can do the science, I would rather be involved in the organization and the management of the lab. As a TA, I was able to take on more responsibility as I went on. I ended up being a lab coordinator during my PhD as well, and that's something that I really love to do. Not necessarily doing the teaching, but coordinating and making sure that all of the TAs, all of the technicians, all the students had what they needed to be able to do their job, to get through the lab, to get to the end of the day. This has basically shown me that I don't necessarily want to be a scientist per se. I want to be involved in science, but more on the operations side. It really gave me an idea of where I wanted to go and where I wanted to take my career.
And do you feel like a lot of the skills you learned are also useful for your current role?
I did my PhD in organic chemistry. As much as I love it – and I taught organic chemistry for a long time – I knew I didn't want to continue in that field specifically. So as I was doing my PhD, I was trying to figure out how many transferable skills I could gain, which is why I did a lot of teaching. When I got the opportunity to become a lab coordinator, I wanted to do that so I could learn different skills, not just research. All of the operations and coordination skills that I learned along the way, I'm really glad I did that, and it was always in the back of my mind to learn more.
Do your research. Keep an open mind, start early, and talk to people. A lot of undergrads, when they finish their degree, are thinking about whether to go to grad school. To me, both my parents have post-grad degrees so it was like, okay, you're going to get there too. So I never really asked myself that question, which looking back I think I should have. Have more opportunities to think differently and ask, do I really want to go to grad school? Is it really worth it? If I know what I want to do or if I have an idea of what I want to do with my life, do I need to go to grad school? Should I work for a year or two? Take a gap year and then go back? Really be thinking about it, talking to people, and forming relationships outside of academia. That can be hard, and that's where networking can come in and help with the transition, or at least help you get ready for the transition.
I like to keep busy. I'm a spreadsheet kind of person, so I plan a lot and I just make sure that I have time for myself. If I don't have anything planned on the weekend, I start getting anxiety, so I start planning things to add to my life, but I always have the option to add or remove things. I've always liked to work hard. I just don't like to put all of my energy in one thing, which is why I work hard at my job during the week, but then on weeknights and on weekends, I have different options. If I want to go dancing, if I want to go play music, if I want to go to the gym, if I want to go see a friend – I always have those options. I just make sure that I plan the whole thing so that I do stay balanced even with everything I do. And yeah, those spreadsheets have been helping me quite a bit.
I'm a curious person, particularly when it comes to science. I really like to understand how things work, and science explains how the world works, which I find fascinating particularly when it comes to the human body and understanding human interactions, and I like to try and understand that. So even in my free time, the only thing I do that is really “free” is watch dumb TV shows. That's where I completely disconnect. Other than that, in my free time, I watch documentaries or I look for podcasts to listen to. I'm always learning. And if I'm not doing that, I'm focusing on music, trying to find songs that I don't know that I can learn in my free time.
Anywhere I go, I always want to go and learn something. I think that's just how my brain works.
I get bored easily, so I need a lot of input, but it needs to make sense to me. And if it's too simple, I get bored.
I thought about that and thought I need to find something fancy. And then I thought about who I am as a person, and I'm not that fancy. I like to think that I'm different from a lot of people, but I am also dependable, reliable. If you need somebody to help you with something, I'll be there. And I think that my favourite element is actually carbon because, well, it's part of all of us and the world and anything living and, you know, the building block of all of those molecules. If it wasn't there, we wouldn't be here. So carbon, because it's the basis of life.
