Martin Rexroad, Chief Culture & Community Officer, PTC
Martin Rexroad is known as the “Chief Storyteller” at PTC.
In his tenure as Chief Culture & Community Officer at PTC, Martin has made a remarkable impact on the company by encouraging employees to bring their whole selves to work and working to maintain the special culture at PTC. The creation of the “PTC Expectations”, a set of philosophies that act as our guiding principles, has resonated with employees around the globe, as they guide the core values, work principles and behaviors that define the culture and bring the idea of a “One PTC” team to life.
We recently connected with Martin to learn his perspectives on what makes the culture at PTC so unique, what it means to bring your whole self to work and his vision for the next 25 years of PTC culture. Read below as Martin shares his Remarkable Story:
As the Chief Culture & Community Officer, I am highly focused on and passionate about our global Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, employee engagement, employee experience and outreach programs. I have been with PTC for almost 10 years, the first seven years as SVP, HR. I’ve been dubbed “Chief Storyteller” by some, and it suits me, as I believe that you will remember and be inspired by a great story. There’s nothing I enjoy more than sharing PTC stories that fuel our culture and hones our focus on building a great community with our employees and the new hires I personally greet each week.
PTC is a special group of colleagues whose main purpose is serving rare disease patients and their families. This purpose is embraced by our employees, no matter what their role is in the organization.
Our culture personifies our values, purpose and philosophy, which guides our team members’ behaviors. We work according to our PTC Expectations, which are: Passionate About Purpose, Champion Inclusion, Be Bold, Think Like an Entrepreneur, Be Kind and Ever Better. I’ve spoken with many employees about the Expectations and can see they resonate with the team – each person interprets the Expectations in their own special way, and even have “favorites” that they think about each day. The creation of the Expectations and their wide usage and impact creates the environment for PTC to do the impossible for patients.
Employees are looking for a company that has and embraces a meaningful purpose, where they can feel empowered to bring their “whole self” to work, which means feeling comfortable, accepted and heard; that they can be authentically themselves. Employees want to feel inspired, cared for and part of a community.
Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” I couldn’t agree more – our culture of caring follows through to how our employees treat each other every day and creates strong emotional bonds among our employees. Creating and fostering an environment where employees feel they can bring their “whole selves” to work, feel comfortable to speak up, share novel ideas or try something unimagined, without judgement or bias, allows us to get to the best approach and to be truly innovative.
We are a strengths-based organization, in both our employees’ strengths and our diversity – my commitment is for that to continue for the next 25 years, and beyond. Perseverance and determination are some of our strengths, and the strong cross-functional collaboration across our global team creates a path for open dialogue that amplifies these strengths and the individual strengths of each employee.
In our first 25 years, PTC established a strong foundation that resulted in multiple approved drugs and a global team of individuals passionate about purpose. We look forward to continuing on this path for the next 25 years as One PTC, committed to continuously nurturing our great culture and community and developing innovative treatments for those living with rare diseases.