“I was the only person in the room who was not taking no for an answer. I said to myself, He absolutely will get better and he did.” – Dr Ekaterina Malievskaia
Dr Ekaterina Malievskaia leads innovation at COMPASS.
Ekaterina received her medical degree from St Petersburg Medical Academy in St Petersburg, Russia, and then moved to the US where she completed her Internal Medicine residency training. She worked in private practice, academic medicine and public health for more than 15 years in the greater New York area. She was a Clinical Instructor of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, as well as a Research Professor at the City University of New York.
After moving to London in 2011, Ekaterina worked in global health and medical philanthropy, focusing on improving outcomes in maternal and child health. She founded COMPASS Pathways with her husband George Goldsmith in 2016, having experienced first-hand the challenges of accessing evidence-based and effective mental health care for a family member.
In this episode of the leadership podcast, Griselda engaged Ekatarina Malievskaia, Co-Founder of Compass Pathways, on starting a mental health care company that is taking the world of mental health care by storm.
The Journey To Starting A Mental Health Care Company
Ekatarina started her journey as an immigrant, navigating through challenges as a mom of one whilst working as a practising physician.
She shared how her son’s severe depression and OCD in college were the catalysts to her entrepreneurial journey. This experience sent her on a search for a solution as her son was unresponsive to current mental health interventions.
Ekatarina’s response about how she felt when she realised her son was going through this challenging time; she couldn’t help because the science hadn’t caught up with a solution to treat his type of depression.
“I think it’s so scary. When it happens to you, you know that you have resources, but you don’t really know how many resources your child has. Every day I would think, if I could swap it with him, if I could take it on, I would do it in a blink. But unfortunately, I couldn’t. I was afraid, but I was also really determined. I remember one meeting we had at one of the most reputable, prestigious universities in the US/ The psychiatrists were sitting there rocking their heads, and they were telling me he might not get better. I think I was the only person in the room who was not taking no for an answer. I said to myself, he absolutely will get better, and he did.”
Finding Solutions To Help Tackle Mental Health
According to Ekatarina, although some anti-depressants and medications work for some proportion of the population, unfortunately, they don’t work for everyone. This insight inspired her and her team to seek other solutions to help patients with mental health challenges. Her team approached psychedelics therapy and other innovative treatments using the highest quality science.
Securing Funding To Support Compass Pathways
“We were just fortunate, I think, in the beginning, and continuously. We had seed investors” this was Ekaterina’s response to how she secured funding to support her business. She went on to add that most of their investors are mission-driven investors who share in the struggles of mental health amongst a proportion of the population.
Listen to the full episode to learn the lessons Ekaterina learned on her journey to starting and leading an innovative company.
Here’s a glance at this inspiring episode…
[0:56] Ekaterina shares her journey on how she founded her company, Compass Pathways
[06:06] She talks about her experience in dealing with her son being unresponsive to current mental health interventions.
[08:34] Ekaterina shares her approach to finding alternative solutions to dealing with mental health care
[11:31] The point where Ekaterina decided to start a company to provide a solution to the masses.
[12:34] Ekaterina’s transition from being a private hospitalist for a large multi-speciality group to becoming an entrepreneur and co-founding a mental health care company.
[14:55] Ekaterina shares more insight about what her company does.
[18:10] Ekaterina talks about psychedelics and how one can start their journey.
[21:20] Ekaterina shares more insights on data and sample sizes used by her company and how the treatment is made available to the diverse population.
[24:23] Ekaterina talks about how she secured funding for founding her company.
[26:22] Ekaterina shares more on the process in the journey since she started her company
[27:44] Ekaterina talks about the lessons learnt throughput starting her business.
[32:40] How she gets her nourishments and support to keep her going
[35:52] Some struggling points she faced in her career.
[38:22] Ekaterina shares her daily routine for her mental health care.
[40:41] Book recommendation by Ekaterina
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About Griselda Togobo:
The We Are Novi CEO, Griselda Togobo MPhil, ACA, is an international corporate consultant and trainer. She is also a multi-faceted entrepreneur, engineer and chartered accountant. Also, she is a commercially focused business consultant but her experience as a black woman in the corporate world drives her. She now uses her international experience to help progressive global companies create inclusive workplaces. Griselda gives keynotes, talks and workshops to businesses interested in improving the gender and racial diversity of their teams.
Griselda is passionate about supporting female leaders through the professional women’s network wearenovi.com.
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