FREDERICK KEMPE: Talk about [your collaboration with BioNTech] and why this one has worked. Why is it you’ve been able to produce something of quite historic nature when many corporate collaborations among CEOs and founders of companies don’t work in quite the same way?
ALBERT BOURLA: I think it was because both companies had developed very similar cultures. They were both really very purpose-driven… One was very big, the other was very small compared to the big one. The leaders [behind the vaccine]: One was a Turkish Muslim that immigrated to Germany. The other one was a Greek Jew that immigrated to the United States. From a first glance, we could be the exact opposite.
But I felt the thing that connected us was that we had a common purpose. The first thing that we discussed with Uğur was… the principles under which we are going to operate, and we said, it doesn’t matter who does what. [Nothing else] matters [other] than bringing the vaccine, as our number-one priority…
The leaders [behind the vaccine]: One was a Turkish Muslim that immigrated to Germany. The other one was a Greek Jew that immigrated to the United States. From a first glance, we could be the exact opposite. But I felt the thing that connected us was that we had a common purpose.
ALBERT BOURLA, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, PFIZER
And, if anything, I think the fact that we have both a little bit of Mediterranean heritage created [an] even stronger bond and trust… The fact that we had such a big trust in one another cascaded down and our teams trusted each other too, and that was why this thing happened so well.
