When One Testimony Changes Everything: Mariam Soukouna on Purpose Beyond the Job Title 

Mariam Soukouna didn’t expect to be moved. She was attending an internal finance and procurement seminar the kind of event focused on strategy, performance, and operational priorities. But that day, the team welcomed a guest who had nothing to do with any of that: the mother of a child living with a rare disease. 

She spoke about her son, about the years of living with a condition for which no treatment existed, and about what Ipsen’s work represented for their family. A potential future. Something to hold on to. 

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For Mariam, it was a heavy testimony to receive. Far removed from slides and dashboards, it was a direct and unfiltered reminder that behind every decision, every contract, every negotiation, there is a patient.  
 
Working in procurement means operating at a distance from patients and healthcare professionals. That distance is structural, not intentional. But it can make it easy to lose sight of the purpose behind the process. That seminar closed the gap. 

Since then, Mariam carries that testimony into her daily work. Not as a one-off reminder, but as something that continues to fuel her commitment. Because understanding what your work ultimately serves changes how you show up to do it.