Voices
INSIDE TRACK
A Seat in the C-Suite
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Louise Knabe,
chief project
officer, Ariadne
Labs, Boston,
Massachusetts,
USA
Labs manages 15 to 20 projects with budgets ranging from US$200,000 to US$20 million.
You transitioned from the chief medical o;-
cer’s adviser to chief project o;cer. What led
to that?
When I started here in 2013, project managers
worked for our scienti;c leaders on each project. In
2015, we reorganized to change that relationship.
Now they’re partners: All our projects are co-led by
a scienti;c leader and a project manager. And we
mirrored that at the executive level. I used to work
for the chief medical o;cer, but now I’m his partner.
Why did Ariadne decide to elevate its project
managers?
We’re a scienti;c organization, and scientists focus
Public Health, when it was formed ;ve years ago.
;e nonpro;t develops simple healthcare solutions
for critical moments in people’s lives: childbirth,
surgery and serious illness.
But while ultimately these solutions might be
simpler than other costly medical interventions,
“they’re not that simple to develop or manage,”
says Louise Knabe. ;at’s why Ariadne has placed
a growing emphasis on project management.
Before joining Ariadne, Ms. Knabe spent two
decades as a project manager in the software and
consumer goods industries. Her team at Ariadne
