Performance through People

Linda E. Amper, Ph.D. Bio

Linda Amper is an accomplished senior-level business executive with over 40 years of human resources and operations experience across multiple industries, including biotechnology and other life sciences, health care delivery, and the tech space. In 2014, she founded Linda E. Amper L.L.C. and became an independent organizational consultant and executive coach.

Linda has a strong track record of driving and executing human capital philosophy strategies and has leveraged her cross-functional business experience to provide both strategic and tactical solutions. She attributes her successes to being a strong collaborator who develops and sustains excellent relationships at multiple levels and understanding the business levers that drive global growth and increase organizational capacity through effective management. Businesses benefit from her diverse background in for-profit, not-for-profit, and private sectors.

“One needs to know how to act on a dime.”

— Linda E. Amper, Ph.D.

With her favorite saying in mind, Linda enjoys challenges and hits the ground running. She has an uncanny ability to acclimate to diverse and complex situations by using her balanced and diplomatic style of taking complex issues and distilling them into workable, win-win solutions. Linda prides herself on driving change, managing talent effectively, and creating solutions that drive businesses to healthy outcomes.

Professional Background

“In order to build a rewarding employee experience, you need to understand what matters most to your people.”

— Julie Bevacqua

Linda began her career at the New York Blood Center, the nation's largest blood collection organization, which continues to run clinical programs and world-renowned research. Linda joined the New York Blood Center as a laboratory technologist. Throughout her career, she assumed multiple positions and increased responsibilities in various areas of the organization. During her successful tenure in human resources, Linda turned a process-driven "personnel" department into an authentic, partnering human resources function responsible for nine different unions. Linda was named Executive Director and Vice President of the New York Blood Center's largest region in 1999. Linda's key accomplishments during her time as Executive Director were starting the first blood donor program in the nation that partnered with the jury system for regular blood collections and implementing the first mobile donor bus in the region.

In 2001, Linda became a Senior Vice President at O.S.I. Pharmaceuticals, a leading biotech organization with sites in the United States and the United Kingdom. O.S.I. Pharmaceuticals discovered, developed, and marketed new medicines and therapies designed to improve the quality of life for individuals with cancer, diabetes, and obesity. As Senior Vice President, Linda was responsible for a $35M operating budget and made significant contributions in corporate strategy, government compliance, and business compliance. As head of human resources, she developed and launched a human capital strategy aligned to and in support of O.S.I. Pharmaceuticals' business goals and direction. She worked in conjunction with O.S.I. Pharmaceutical leadership, served as a company officer and reported to the board's compensation committee. Linda remained in her position until Japan-based pharmaceutical company, Astellas Pharmaceuticals, acquired the business. Linda finished her tenure at O.S.I. at the end of 2010, after playing a significant role leading the O.S.I. integration team and driving the transition process through the acquisition.

Before forming Linda E. Amper LLC, Linda served as Senior Vice President of Global Human Resources at Optimer Pharmaceuticals from 2011 to 2013. Until being acquired by Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Optimer was a biopharmaceutical company that engaged in the development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products in the United States and Canada. The company had more than 275 employees and total revenues for 2012 and 2011 of approximately $145M and $100M, respectively. When Linda joined Optimer, the organization had fewer than 50 employees and had just obtained approval for their lead drug candidate. With a six month runway to launch, Linda hit the ground running, creating a human capital philosophy and integrating all of the traditional HR deliverables. She established HR policies and programs, developed a corporate communication program, and hired more than 230 employees – approximately 135 of whom were field-based. Also, Linda helped to ready other areas of the organization for the expansion. As a corporate officer with responsibility to the board’s compensation committee, Linda influenced the design of many of the organization’s corporate programs, including compliance and learning and development.

Linda acquired experience in M&A activity while at O.S.I. and Optimer due to involvement in both the buy and sell sides of more than a half-dozen significant transactions. These transactions included: the acquisition of two publicly-traded biotech companies, the acquisition of a significant division of publicly-traded biotech, the purchase of two facilities, and the purchase of related assets of a U.K. company, as well as a facility in the U.S. that she had full responsibility to build out as the organization's corporate headquarters. Lastly, she was involved in the purchase of a commercially-marketed pharmaceutical product. This last transaction required her to build out a commercial organization in less than three months.

 Linda launched her private consulting practice in 2014, but soon after, she received an in-house opportunity at Clever Devices, a software development company focused in Transit, where she was asked to create and execute on a human capital philosophy strategy aligned to the company's goals. It was a position she could not refuse and reveled in the excitement of a whiteboard opportunity and chance to build something from the ground up. In this role, she implemented a fresh approach to talent and transitioned a “personnel department" into a collaborative human resources partnership model. Her successes include:

  • Building a new, diverse team and building out all of the traditional human resources buckets

  • Launching employee engagement platforms, such as an intranet, surveys, and an employee value proposition (E.V.P.)

  • Introducing a learning and development arm where people could safely go for coaching, counseling, and learning.

  • Introducing a focus on women’s leadership, diversity & inclusion.

  • Introducing a world-class orientation program with 30-60-90 day check-ins and more.

 After five years of pure fun, Linda has decided to return to her consulting practice and focus 100% of her attention on adding value to her client’s businesses.  She enjoys the diversity and is happiest when she can help others move the needle. 

Accolades

“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands: one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”

— Audrey Hepburn

  • Twice named to Long Island Business News' "Most Influential Women in Business" (2007 and 2009)

  • B.S. in Medical Biology from Long Island University, Post Campus

  • M.P.A. in Health Administration from Long Island University, Post Campus

  • Ph.D. in Health Care Administration from Columbia Southern

  • ASCP licensed (American Society of Clinical Pathologists)

  • Certified facilitator, coach and a Biotech Mentor with MIT's successful Venture Mentor Service

  • Completed the Energeia Regional Partnership program with Molloy College

For more than four decades, Linda has brought considerable business acumen to organizations focused on improving health outcomes for all and those committed to making Long Island a community to live and prosper. She served as a trustee of O.S.I.'s Pharmaceuticals' Foundation, which promoted employee volunteerism, provided support for cancer and diabetes patients and their families, and funded science education initiatives. She continues to be an active member on several boards.

 Linda periodically taught as an adjunct professor in the business department at Farmingdale State College, following in her father, the late Dr. Hamilton S. Blum's footsteps. Blum was a professor of mathematics at Long Island University, Post Campus for 34 years, and the inaugural winner of Long Island University's David Newton Award for Excellence in Teaching. To honor her father's memory, Linda established the Hamilton S. Blum Endowed Scholarship in 2010 to benefit mathematics majors at Long Island University, Post Campus.

Linda resides on Long Island, N.Y. with her husband, Joseph, and is the proud mother to two daughters, Jamie and Jennifer, and five grandchildren.