A Career Journey: 20 Years in IT Leadership

As he prepares for his retirement next spring, Tom Harvey, Alkermes’ Chief Information Officer, shared some reflections on his more than 20 years at Alkermes. 

Q: Tell us about your career journey at Alkermes? What made you want to join us in 2005?

I joined Alkermes as a Director of Information Technology in 2005. After working for another leading biotechnology company for more than 15 years, and moving across the country three different times, I was ready for some stability in both my professional and personal life. Also, like so many of my colleagues here, I have a personal connection to the patients we serve – Alkermes’ focus on mental health and complex neurological conditions really drew me to this organization.

My initial responsibility focused on managing all of our enterprise IT applications and service delivery. I took over as the VP of IT in 2007 soon after our head of IT left the organization.

In 2016 and 2018, respectively, I was appointed Alkermes’ Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of IT, the role I hold now, where I am responsible for more than 80 employees working to support Alkermes’ global operations.

Q: What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in the IT function and across Alkermes generally over your time here?

From an IT perspective, the ability to quickly scale and deploy various solutions has immensely helped us drive value and support key business priorities. In the early 2000s, organizations of many sizes deployed location-based storage and software solutions, and were just beginning to move to cloud-based applications, something which is thought of as the standard in 2025. We were on the leading edge of this trend, and were one of the first life sciences companies to implement a cloud-based Customer Relationship Management tool which has become widely adopted in our industry.

During this time, Alkermes grew rapidly, gaining FDA approval of our second product in 2015 and our third product in 2021. These approvals, along with our evolution into a fully-integrated, global biopharmaceutical company, occurred alongside advancements in data science and artificial intelligence, two technologies which continue to define our IT work today.

Beyond the growth into a global biopharmaceutical company with multiple approved products, the throughline of my time leading the IT organization at Alkermes has been our ability to implement enterprise solutions and leverage emerging technologies including “big data” and artificial intelligence to support the business. Recently, we’ve focused on leveraging AI to help maximize our commercial effectiveness and accelerate the development of our pipeline of investigational compounds.

Q: Can you talk about the culture that kept you at Alkermes?

What’s special about Alkermes is the relationship-oriented culture that each of my colleagues works so hard to create. While we are all united in our purpose to make progress on behalf of the patients we seek to serve, Alkermes is also a place where you’ll find employees who are willing to go above and beyond for one another to drive success.

Beyond our mission, the people here are immensely dedicated to making an impact in the communities where we work. From Alkermes in Action, our employee-led day of service, to our five employee resource groups (ERGs), everyone on team Alkermes makes a unique contribution to this being a great place to work.

On a personal level, being an executive sponsor of Pride@Work, our ERG created to support LGBTQ+ employees and allies, has been incredibly rewarding. From the first day I joined in 2005, as an openly gay man, I’ve felt able to bring my whole self to work each day, and I’ve seen that commitment to inclusivity and belonging continue to grow over the years across every level of our organization.

Q: What will you miss most about working at Alkermes?

I’ve been very fortunate that many of my best friendships have been made with my current and former coworkers at Alkermes. While I’ll of course miss seeing them each day and working closely with them, I think I’ll also miss being part of a mission-driven organization that is committed to not only patients but our community.

Q: What’re your plans for retirement?

While I’m going to miss the people and culture at Alkermes, I’m really looking forward to my next step. My husband and I have long split our time between the Boston area and Provincetown, and I plan to open an art gallery in Provincetown next year. Beyond our new adventure into the art world, I’m looking forward to spending time with my family and friends and closely watching Alkermes’ continued pursuit of progress for patients.