Roche Women Honored as 2011 TWIN Awardees

~ Fuentes and Szabo take top honors ~

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May 05, 2011, 09:00 ET

NUTLEY, N.J., May 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Two Roche employees are being recognized for their significant contributions to industry in New Jersey at the 37th Annual TWIN Awards Dinner held May 5, 2011. Honored were Maria Fuentes, Ph.D., Director, Respiratory Drug Discovery, and Maryann Szabo, R.N., Director, U.S. Affiliate Regional Monitoring Network.

"These individuals are exceedingly deserving of this recognition. They have made outstanding contributions to Roche, to the pharmaceutical industry as a whole and to the health and quality of life of countless people," said Ivor Macleod, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and General Manager of Roche's Nutley site.

TWIN, which stands for Tribute to Women and INdustry, is an international program, sponsored in North Jersey by the YWCA of Bergen County, that honors women who have achieved responsible managerial, executive or professional positions and have made noteworthy contributions to their industries. Fuentes and Szabo join the 85 Roche pharmaceutical employees recognized since TWIN began 37 years ago.

The Awardees

Maria Fuentes, PhD, of Woodcliff Lake, N.J., is Roche Director of Respiratory Drug Discovery, currently working with a team of researchers on several important projects in the areas of asthma and fibrotic lung diseases. Her extensive biologics experience and unwavering commitment helped bring a number of the company's Inflammation research programs successfully into clinical trials. Fuentes holds two patents and has authored or contributed to more than three dozen publications.

"Maria's knowledge of biologics is critical for the success of our group. She has incisive intelligence, a great ability to focus on her deliverables and a lot of perseverance. In addition, she commands the respect and love of both her peers and staff, and is the epitome of someone who has balanced her career goals amidst life's challenges," said Satwant Narula, Ph.D., Global Head, Roche Inflammation Discovery.

Fuentes joined Roche Biosciences in 1996 and worked in increasingly responsible research leadership positions at Roche Palo Alto before coming to the Nutley site in 2009 as part of a corporate integration. She started as leader of a transgenic group, which involves research to transfer genes from one species to another, then moved into Inflammation Discovery, where she was involved in a number of drug discovery programs before being tapped to lead Respiratory Drug Discovery. The native of Chile earned her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of Chile and her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Catholic University of Chile. Fuentes was a young single mother when she moved to the U.S. to pursue a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California – San Diego. She then completed a second fellowship at Bristol-Myers Squibb doing cutting edge work with transgenic animals. Fuentes, the recipient of a number of academic and post-doctoral awards, is a member of the American Thoracic/American Lung Association (ATS/ALA) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She said her greatest joy comes from following her passion for science while also keeping her family a priority. Her daughter, Valentina, is now a 25-year-old graduate student at New York University. Fuentes and her husband, Don Button, also have a son, Nikolas, 7.

"I am very excited and honored to receive the TWIN Award. It is not only great recognition of many years of hard work, but shows that you can combine your personal life and career; that you can enjoy what you do every day and make real contributions," said Fuentes, who also enjoys travel, recreational sports, cooking and gardening.

Maryann Szabo, RN, of Hamburg, N.J., is Director of the Regional Monitoring Network for Roche's U.S. Affiliate, responsible for overseeing more than 200 team members who monitor Roche's clinical trials in the U.S. She played a key role in the integration of regional monitoring groups following the Roche-Genentech merger in 2009, and has taken responsibility for mentoring staff in key activities such as recruiting investigators and patients for clinical studies. Under her leadership, the U.S. monitors have achieved outstanding scores in the area of customer satisfaction, making them among the best in the industry. In July 2010, Szabo was named by PharmaVOICE as one of "100 of the Most Inspiring People" in pharmaceuticals.

"Maryann is widely recognized as an expert in clinical trial monitoring. She's been instrumental in introducing and implementing innovative concepts within Roche, and her strong leadership and engaging style have made a very positive impact on countless people with whom she has worked," said Maria Smith, Vice President and Global Head, Pharmaceutical Development Operations Affiliates at Roche.

Szabo began her Roche career in 1987 as a clinical study coordinator at the Roche unit in Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, where she had been working as a study coordinator nurse. She held increasingly responsible positions within the Product Development organization until being named head of the regional monitoring group in 2002, overseeing a team of 100. In the next several years, as that number more than doubled, Szabo enhanced the efficiency of the group while increasing the number of U.S. patients in Roche clinical trials more than four-fold. Szabo earned her R.N. from Passaic County Community College in New Jersey and her B.S. in Health Care Administration from St. Joseph's College, Maine. She is a member of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP), the Drug Information Association (DIA) and the N.J. States Nurses Association.

Szabo is deeply honored to be among the TWIN awardees and join "previous honorees who set the gold standard."

"It is greatly rewarding to be in a league with so many women I have admired and respected over the years. I value my job tremendously and this is such a wonderful recognition of my work," said Szabo, who also enjoys reading, the opera, classic movies, traveling and remodeling her home, where she lives with her Maltese, Mimi.

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world's largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche's personalized healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2010, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested over 9 billion Swiss francs ($8.7B US) in R&D. The Group posted sales of 47.5 billion Swiss francs ($45.6B US). Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: www.roche-nutley.com or www.roche.com.

SOURCE Roche