Pharma Media’s Collaboration Queen

Despite a career that has taken her from the pharma world’s top media agencies to leading the HCP media and planning team at Bristol Myers Squibb, Nadia Khatri says she still experiences imposter syndrome. It reared its head as recently as a few years ago, during her tenure at Havas Media.

“When they threw these big brands at me and said, ‘Okay, they’re yours,’ I kind of looked around and thought, ‘Wait, are they talking to me?’” she recalls with a laugh. “It keeps you humble. You know that you have autonomy and voice and that your opinion is valued, but you remember where you came from.”

That humility has endeared Khatri to her colleagues—and that experience has placed her on the shortlist of young pharma media executives set to lead the business into the next decade and beyond. “She brings authenticity, smarts and caring to everything she does and every person she meets,” says CMI Media Group president and CEO Susan Dorfman.

A first-generation American born and raised in Philadelphia, Khatri grew up with some interest in medicine but more in forging connections among groups of people with different backgrounds and enthusiasms.

Right around the time she headed off to Temple University, however, her father was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He stopped working while receiving treatment, so Khatri’s mother moved overseas to help support the family by working as a translator. Khatri thus spent a sizable percentage of her college years juggling her studies with caring for her...