For 20 years, former Green Beret Mike Berke, a director of Engineering and member of Amgen's Veteran Employee Network (AVEN), has led the charge for Amgen's Research & Automation Technologies. This team develops novel lab automation software and hardware to tackle challenges that currently have no commercially available solutions, working directly alongside scientists to support breakthrough drug discovery and development.
Here, Mike discusses how his distinguished military career continues to shape his hands-on approach to problem-solving, innovation and collaboration.
Tell us about your military experience.
Ten days after graduating from Thousand Oaks High School, I reported to the United States Military Academy at West Point as a member of the class of 1990. From there, I commissioned into the Infantry and went to Air Assault School, Airborne School, the Infantry Officer Basic Course and Ranger School, before heading to the 7th Infantry Division at Fort Ord, California to be a rifle, and then mortar, platoon leader.
I then served with the 1/509 Parachute Infantry Regiment, the opposing forces at the Joint Readiness Training Center. While there, I attended the Special Forces Assessment and Selection course, then completed the Infantry Officer Advanced Course, the Special Forces Qualification Course, followed by six months of Russian language school and the Military Free Fall school. I had the privilege of deploying twice to Bosnia as a Joint Commission Observer, and after my time with the Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA), I served as the company Executive Officer before separating from the Army in 2000.
Are there any similarities between Amgen and the military?
I've found that at Amgen, as well as in military service, we are driven by a mission to help those we serve. In the military, it was our goal to defend and maintain readiness at all times. At Amgen, our mission isn't much different. We strive to serve patients by applying science and biotechnology to develop therapies that can improve people's lives, and we are guided by that mission every step of the way.
In what ways has your Army career impacted your career at Amgen?
I think military experience is invaluable regardless of what you do later in life. You discover that you can perform in extreme conditions well beyond your comfort zone and what you would have thought possible. You understand how to pull order out of chaos, to be able to make decisions and execute in difficult, ambiguous situations. In the military, you learn to work with and depend on people from wildly different backgrounds and life experiences. You're taught the importance of empathy and humility, paying attention to details because they matter, having unrelenting standards, and understanding that how you get something done is as important as getting it done. These are all true at Amgen as well. Above all, you learn to work as a team, and that teams can accomplish far more than individuals. I also became aware of how different types of people thrive with different styles of leadership.
Tell us about how your team contributes to Amgen's mission to serve patients.
The job of Research & Automation Technologies is to build lab automation that helps our world-class scientists create their ideal environment, so they can be as efficient, creative and safe as possible. It's about identifying and solving problems. This includes creating unique instrumentation, integrating novel hardware into existing systems and developing software to automate informatic processes.
What is the most satisfying part of your work?
We walk the same hallways as our scientists and can observe the problems they are tackling and help identify opportunities. We often ask them, "Why are you doing that by hand? That's tedious. We can build you something that will automate that." We get to see first-hand the impact that the solutions we put in place have on the science being executed in research. For me, working here is nerd heaven. The only limiting factor is your own creativity.
Can you share an example of how your team supports innovation?
One of my team members was in a lab for something totally unrelated and noticed a scientist manually flicking Eppendorf tubes with a pellet in them, trying to dissolve the pellet. He had a whole rack of these, and it was straining his finger. Our colleague said, "Hey, we'll build you something to do that." The team quickly built a small pneumatic actuator to automate the process. It not only alleviated the scientist's physical strain but also increased the yield of the product, making a tangible scientific difference. Delivering results like this is truly gratifying.
Do you have a personal connection to Amgen's Mission?
My dad was on an Amgen product and it made a meaningful difference for him. I have a son who has a rare genetic disorder, and right now, there are no treatments for it. Even if our research isn't for his exact condition, it's important because these diseases are so rare that there's not a ton of research going on for them. The fact that Amgen drives this innovation forward is important to me and my family.
