Oksana Mulyarchuk: I have been the CEO of Biopharma Plasma for 5 years. I have 15 years of experience in the blood system. I started as a doctor in the blood collection and cell department at the National Children's Hospital "Okhmatdyt" and moved up to the position of head of a municipal blood center. I have experience working in the Ministry of Health and was involved in creating the national strategy for the development of Ukraine's blood system, participating in drafting several regulatory acts and the Law on "Blood Donation," which led to significant changes in the sector.

When I joined Biopharma Plasma, there was only one center; now there are 16. We are not scaling as we were before the war, as we depend on electricity: plasma must be frozen at -30°C, and rapid freezing must be done at -70°C. When a person is donating plasma, which takes 40 minutes, and shelling starts, we cannot interrupt the process and then return the client to the procedure. Completing the procedure means losing the resource because the client needs to be refunded since this happened not due to their fault. Therefore, the war has introduced a lot of adjustments. Currently, our strategy is completely different from what it was 5 years ago.
My main achievement over the past 5 years is the significant expansion of our network, increasing our client base fivefold, increasing plasma collection volume sixfold, and receiving GMP certification for all plasma centers.
The blood system in any country consists of clinical and commercial parts and state blood centers. I now have a complete understanding of how this system operates. Therefore, we are changing it. The Ukrainian business must take responsibility in many processes, create and offer services because the state has different tasks today.
In Ukraine, there’s a problem due to the lack of a national donor register. In one city, people could go for donation and test positive for infections and then move to another city and come again for donation—no one would know about their illnesses. That’s why we developed our cloud-based data storage software and now want to implement it on a national level.

At what point did you think you needed to study? Because an MBA is a program that people don’t just decide to enter today or tomorrow.

Oksana Mulyarchuk: The idea of studying came to me even before the full-scale invasion. I always monitored when the next MBA program would start, but there were always reasons not to do it: new centers, the war, congresses, etc.
But development is ongoing, and the people around you cannot advise you to change approaches because they are in your bubble. For me, studying was a way out of that bubble to find different approaches against the backdrop of other people, cases, and theories. I realized that if Oksana Mulyarchuk did not change, then the project in Romania and 30 centers in Ukraine would be carried out by someone else.
When the network had already reached 12 centers, the individual approach was no longer effective. Scaling requires a level of standardization and systematic processes. You cannot make personal efforts at each of the thirty points. That’s why my thesis for studying at kmbs was to find new approaches to network development.

You are currently developing a project in Romania as well. Can you replicate the same system you are building in Ukraine there, or is it a completely new market?

Oksana Mulyarchuk: We are moving forward with the same model. The blood system in Romania is a flashback to 15 years ago in Ukraine. I am currently refining what I did not manage to refine in Ukraine. Stakeholders in Romania are fortunate because we came with the same experience, limited by the government budget and regulations. We brought what perfectly fits into their system.
But national peculiarities greatly affect the situation. In particular, the language, because the pharmaceutical business is a regulatory business. The biggest risk is actually in the regulatory system, as it’s hard to change. Regulatory norms with the lobbying of processes push you back. You plan your project for two years, but the system pushes you back four to five years.

Why did you choose a long-term MBA program rather than a short one?

Oksana Mulyarchuk: An MBA is not only about systematic thinking; it’s about a comprehensive understanding of marketing and finance. I need the entire system. Now, while studying at kmbs, I understand that there are many topics I want to explore more broadly. Therefore, my story at kmbs will not end after 15 modules.
We have a niche business, a unique product, and there are only about 10 companies in the world that do this, so we strongly need neuromarketing. The secret to success is hidden in marketing, so I want to dive deeper into that. Uncovering this secret will allow us to realize the same in Romania and sell the idea in other markets. In Europe, only four countries have the opportunity to open private plasma centers: Hungary, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Currently, there are 1870 private plasma centers operating in the United States. Last year, their numbers increased by 12%. The plan for 2025 is to increase the number of centers by 20%. Their business is currently built solely on client payouts, but Generation Z is entirely different, and approaches need to change. I can already see how their market is declining due to unchanged standards.

Last year, I was at plasma centers in Pennsylvania. I brought my merchandise and showed a presentation of targeted advertising and what we do for our clients. They were impressed because it would take them two years to implement such a project.

What new thoughts and ideas have emerged for you recently during your studies at kmbs? What else do you want to use for the development of the company?

Oksana Mulyarchuk: kmbs has given me the opportunity to look differently at the client. In the last module, we were told that American business is like a bottle of whiskey: you have to climb out of it to see what's on the label. I climbed out and was shocked to discover an external world with people, customers, and needs.
kmbs teaches through the cases of colleagues sitting around you. Now I enjoy coming to “Avrora” and observing visitors, their actions, and purchases because we have the same client segment and we can understand what my client wants.
People in the group who are not connected to this topic, who are not in this business, think differently. I often read a sensitive attitude towards donation, medicine, and pharmacy.
Every year, on International Donor Day, we conduct various events in all regions, where I communicate with our ambassadors. We do not engage paid blogging. Our work relies on people who, every day, once or twice a month, bring their friends along with them.
I participate in events to communicate and understand what people want, what value we need to bring them beyond payment for donation. I still have many tasks about changing the perception of who we are.

What happened to the company in the first two years of the full-scale invasion? How did you navigate through this period?

Oksana Mulyarchuk: We closed all centers except for Cherkassy and Sumy, as we provide platelets and erythrocytes to these regions. The largest oncology center in Ukraine is located in Cherkassy, where they conduct bone marrow transplants, which is impossible without sufficient cellular supply.

This operational activity differed from previous ones, but on May 9, we began gradually reopening all centers. A pivotal moment for me was my speech on June 14, 2022, at an international forum in Berlin, where I was invited by the Plasma Protein Therapeutic Association. I didn’t know what to say because at that time we had no strategy. So I shared what hurt: my presentation began with a photo of a burned tank in Irpen. When 400 people listen to you talk about challenges and technical support during the war in Ukraine, and then approach you to offer their support, it makes a huge impact.

The realization that things would be different and we needed to keep moving forward instead of pausing came after a conference in Boston in 2023, where I showed a video of how we work during the war: staff running with flashlights to turn on generators, clients walking in darkness as the bottling lines are powered by generators. The whole audience cried at the video, and then I understood that there would never be another slowdown. Because these people have no idea how to work under such conditions: when you’re not just working in the dark, but when clients come in for the sake of saving their loved ones. Everyone asked for the link to the video to show their teams that they don’t have real problems. Simultaneously, we had a meeting with Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States. A very busy person found time to watch the presentation and hear about your business. And when she cried at what she heard, I felt immense pride for the team.

Ukrainians can absolutely teach leadership—that's a hundred percent.