Raj Thapar on Being His True Self From Day One

Raj Thapar knows from experience that feeling free to be yourself at work is critical—to personal contentment and to professional success. The Mammotome strategic development and innovation manager decided to join Danaher’s General Management Development Program because his path for career growth was clear; two years later, so too is his commitment to Mammotome’s cancer diagnostics mission. As part of our series celebrating Pride, Raj shares his initial skepticism of Danaher’s industrial history, what changed his mind, and his excitement about Danaher’s LGBTQ + Friends ARG.  

What do you do at Danaher?

I’m currently on my first rotation in the General Management Development Program, or GMDP, working for our breast biopsy OpCo, Mammotome. Day to day, my role breaks down into a few separate functions. I work with our executive leadership team on the annual strategic planning process, figuring out which investments we want to make with our budget to help grow the business. We then develop a plan for those initiatives and present it to Danaher’s leadership team to get their buy-in.

I also work on our portfolio, exploring potential relationships and collaborations with new companies. I contribute to our work on mergers and acquisitions by engaging with companies of interest and developing a model for what that might look like under Danaher’s ownership. Then, I present those ideas to leadership and, if they’re approved, ultimately help execute a deal. 

Why did you decide to join the team? 

I was recruited through Reaching Out MBA, which is a conference for LGBTQ MBA students. Through some case studies in business school, I was actually pretty familiar with Danaher already. I’d always wanted to work in health care—I spent several years at a medical devices company earlier in my career—so it seemed like a good fit from that perspective. And I have a background in continuous improvement, so that resonated with me, too.

To be honest, though, I was a little worried at first. Danaher was this historically industrial company, known for being very focused on efficiency, and I thought it might not be a great culture fit. But once I went for an interview and got to meet the leaders, I realized that while this is a rigorous place to work, it’s evolved a lot in the past few years. I remember when I met with the person who eventually became my manager, he had this detailed description of expectations for the role and a full Immersion Plan. It was clear they really cared about the people they brought in and were investing a lot in setting us up for success. 

Plus, the opportunity through the GMDP, to be in a leadership role within six years, was unlike anything I’d seen elsewhere. Being able to grow my career like that and truly make a difference in people’s lives at the same time—it just seemed like the perfect fit. 
 

Tell us about your involvement in the LGBTQ + Friends Associate Resource Group.

I first got involved when they sent out buttons—rainbow buttons for people who identify as LGBTQ, and buttons that said “Friend” for allies. I signed up to pass them out at our Cincinnati office, and at first, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hadn’t been out at work for most of my career before Danaher; I just didn’t feel comfortable, even though I’d previously worked in a place with a very open culture in some ways. My husband worked there, too, and we even had benefits as domestic partners—but up until a few weeks before I left, I’d always told my colleagues he was my “roommate.” 

At Danaher, I was out from the start, and it’s been such a welcoming environment. When I handed out those buttons, for example, the response was unbelievable. They were everywhere! After that, I started working as sort of a local champion for the ARG. It’s been really powerful helping make sure people know they are welcome and will be treated with respect. When you feel like you can be yourself at work, even through something as small as having a picture of your partner on your desk or talking about what you did over the weekend, it’s just easier to do your job.

What are you looking forward to in your future at Danaher?

In the next six months, I’ll be transitioning to my second GMDP rotation, and it’s going to be a sales enablement-focused role. I’m excited about that—I have no background in sales, and it’s such an important part of the business. I know it will be a steep learning curve, but we have a lot of resources in terms of training, and I get a lot of mentorship and feedback from Michael Feld, Mammotome’s President.

From an ARG perspective, we’ve unfortunately had to shift some things around in the short term due to COVID-19, but I’m excited to see what our Virtual Pride Celebration is like. I’m involved in Danaher’s ARG for associates of Asian descent, too, and we’re facing the same thing—we usually host a big Diwali celebration with lots of food, and we’re still figuring out what that will look like.

In the longer term, I’m looking forward to seeing the LGBTQ + Friends Associate Resource Group and Danaher lead the way on supporting the transgender community, which is an area where progress has been slow everywhere. I think there are also opportunities to get our allies more involved. And I’d love to have us participate in Pride parades! That was the plan this year before the virus hit, but hopefully we can do a float or march next year.

I’m also looking forward to seeing how Danaher’s evolution continues to transform the makeup of our team. Just in my two years here, we’ve seen so many changes. Employee engagement has increased dramatically, and candidates from underrepresented groups who go to our website now can see people like them and feel like they’ll have a place here. All of that makes us stronger and helps us be a leading company, in terms of both returning value to shareholders and caring about our associates. 

Interested in joining Raj and the rest of the Danaher team? Check out open roles  or join our talent community today.