Inept Leadership at Executive Level - Director Ultragenyx Employee Review

2.0
Jul 15, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Generous salaries, benefits. Good mission by CEO to help rare disease patients that big pharma wont pursue.

Cons

Massively overpaid XLT for what they bring to the table to help Emil succeed. They have utterly failed him and spent colossal amounts of money hiring employees in manufacturing, building facilities, hiring ridiculous roles in quality/compliance to manage minimal risk at external CMOs. The one internal site they built, they failed the pre-approval inspection with a CRL from the FDA resulting in a 31 percent decline in stock price on Monday. The stock was deeply diluted since 2021 from approx. 60 million shares outstanding to 100 million shares while price tanked from 75/100 per share to 27/share resulting in destruction of market cap from 5/6 billion to 2.5 billion in 4 short years while losing money every year and accumulating billions of losses and paying the executives massive amounts of salaries, bonuses and options. Since it went public in 2014 and closed at 44/share, with four approved products, 11 years later it is at 27. The board has to investigate this gross negligence and mismanagement of the company and using the company like a piggy bank with accountability.

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Ultragenyx Response
1y
We thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. As a values-driven company, we very much appreciate the feedback of our employees. If you would like to discuss any details about your time at Ultragenyx, including your concerns related to our executive management team, feel free to reach out to our Employee Relations team at EmployeeRelations@ultragenyx.com. We wish you well in your future endeavors.

Explore other reviews about Ultragenyx

5.0
May 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great place with great people who are all pulling toward a common goal of bringing therapies to market that will change people's lives

Cons

For a small company, decisions can take a while to make because everyone wants to be involved, and most people in centralized roles work across all of the different brands within the company.

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Ultragenyx Response
1mo
Thank you for your review and thoughtful feedback. We’re proud of the passion our teams bring to advancing therapies for patients, and we appreciate you sharing your perspective on how we work together. We’re glad to have you with us!
3.0
Jul 18, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good benefits and generally reasonable work-life balance.

Cons

In my experience, the organization had many layers of leadership (many VPs, Sr Directors and Directors), unclear decision-making authority, and frequently changing priorities, which sometimes slowed progress and weakened accountability. Considerable time was devoted to meetings, presentations, and strategy, but these activities did not always translate into measurable scientific outcomes. Hands-on scientists often appeared to have limited influence over technical decisions. Leadership also seemed to favor established hypotheses, outsourcing, and new biology-focused pilot studies over investing in innovative platform technologies that could address multiple diseases. Alternative perspectives and technical concerns did not always receive sufficient consideration. Career advancement appeared more accessible to highly visible employees with strong networking and presentation skills than to those contributing primarily through laboratory and technical work. While the benefits and work-life balance were positive, I would have valued clearer priorities, greater scientific openness, and stronger support for hands-on contributors.

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