Sebastian’s interest in social impact was shaped by his childhood growing up and witnessing the consequences of social inequality in Peru. As a young adult, he was involved in social projects focused on the economic and social empowerment of marginalised communities displaced by terrorism, specifically children and their mothers. He first attended the One Young World Summit in Bogotá, 2017, an experience that opened his eyes to the magnitude of impact he can generate as an employee of a global multinational company.
“It's having not only this experience at the Summit, but also the tangible projects that came out from the experience. So it's always an asset to have, and to share this. And the fact that I'm still working as a core team member for One Young World at Bristol Myers Squibb just speaks to it.”
A physician by training, Sebastian is currently the Renal Cell Carcinoma Lead in the World Wide Medical Oncology organisation at Bristol Myers Squibb. Outside of his daily responsibilities, he has been involved in various company inclusion and diversity initiatives since becoming a One Young World Ambassador.
Following the Summit, Sebastian collaborated with other ambassadors on the design and execution of the company-wide network of inclusion ambassadors. He played a key role in developing a grassroots initiative of 2,000 employees across 31 markets in support of the science-based inclusion approach branded as “Possibility Lives.” This network has become an integral part of Bristol Myers Squibb with representation from each of the company’s functional areas ensuring operational alignment with the inclusion and diversity strategy.
Sebastian is also part of the core team working on the One Young World – Bristol Myers Squibb partnership. He has led the company’s workshop presence at the Munich (2021), Manchester (2022) and Belfast (2023) Summits. The workshops he led provided practical roadmaps for delegates to apply their inclusion and diversity ideas at their companies, such as the Hip Hop Public Health initiative to share learnings on harnessing the power of music and culture to improve health outcomes in underserved communities and a sustainability initiative that partners with internal talent to share successful project implementations at a multinational company.
As an introvert, Sebastian also played an integral role on another key project on inclusivity called Valuably Quiet. This initiative highlights the necessity and value of including introversion and personality diversity in conversations around inclusion and diversity within Bristol Myers Squibb.
In the future, Sebastian aims to become more involved in helping sustainability efforts at Bristol Myers Squibb. He is currently active in discussions on how best to reduce the carbon footprint of medical conferences.
