Guy Mulder’s Call to Veterinary Research

“When it’s better for the animal, it’s better for the science.”

Dr. Guy Mulder’s father warned his kids not to become doctors. He would know he was a doctor himself.

“He was becoming disillusioned with the medical field,” Dr. Mulder said. “He was spending more time interacting with forms and letters and pushing paper than he was with patients. So, he really dissuaded any of us from considering medicine as a career.”

Dutifully, young Guy attended a liberal arts college (Willamette University in Oregon), but he was still pulled to the sciences. He was torn between veterinary medicine and botany, since previous jobs had exposed him to both.

“I did a summer field study on the coast of Oregon working with rare and endangered plants,” he said. “And I had a neighbor growing up who was a veterinarian, and I’d work for him when I came home for summers – working in the clinic and cleaning kennels.” 

After using his summers to explore his options, Dr. Mulder applied to veterinary school as well as for a master’s in environmental science – and was accepted to both. But in the end, the call of medicine was too strong.

At Washington State University College of Vet Medicine, Dr. Mulder got his first taste of working with laboratory animals while working part time in the vet pathology group. While he would not return to lab animals for several years, he remembers enjoying the research.

Foregoing a PhD DVM for the time being, Dr. Mulder went into private practice in Seattle, Washington after graduating. In the middle of a city, he mostly saw cats and dogs but did find a few more unusual clients.

“I was one of the few vets at the time in downtown Seattle who would see minipigs and swine that people have as pets,” he said. “And I did that for three years and enjoyed it but also knew 30 years of that may not keep me as engaged as I want to be.”

It was time to return to the exciting world of research, and Dr. Mulder decided that lab animal work could combine his love of caring for creatures with his interest in advancing science.

“I could support research work and researchers and still do medicine,” he said. “And so I ended up doing a three-year postdoctoral program at University of Washington, and did get some research published. That launched 10 years in academia where I first was a veterinarian, clinical veterinarian and then ultimately ran a department at the University of California overseeing the live animal effort on the campus.”

It was while working at the University of California that Dr. Mulder first encountered Charles River, where he has now worked for 20 years. He was struck by Charles River’s commitment to the 3Rs of animal research – replacement, refinement, and reduction.

“I went to a regulatory meeting years ago and (Charles River CEO) Jim Foster was the one of the keynote speakers,” he said. “He talked about starting internal animal welfare groups, supporting the science while supporting the animals. (I liked) the fact that they were talking about it and they were putting time and money and energy behind it, and it’s really continued to expand and snowballed in the company, which I think is fantastic to see.”

After ten years of working in academia, fighting for grants, Dr. Mulder was ready to move into industry.

“I came into Charles River as the director of the veterinary care program for our North American production operation, and I was the something called an attending veterinarian. I then became involved with our European operation and started doing some trips to Europe to deal with care issues or to help harmonize practices, and that grew into this role of Global biosecurity.”

Dr. Mulder is now the Executive Director of Veterinary and Professional Services for Research Models and Services (RMS), where he has overseen biosecurity across RMS sites a changing landscape of regulatory compliance in both the US and Europe.

“Guy’s been our point of reference in RMS on any biosecurity topic, a font of wisdom, and his influence has been truly global as a leader and mentor, and this includes his mastery of every dimension imaginable on our health monitoring program,” said Colin Dunn, Corporate Senior Vice President, Global RMS. “Best of all, Guy’s approach has assured a depth of talent in the required skill set, one that is unique to our business.”

When reflecting on his career, Dr. Mulder seems to enjoy the winding path it has taken from private practice to research to industry. He says his wife teases him about always looking for a new adventure and never seeing a winding road without being curious where it leads.

“Veterinary schools in general don't promote highly going into supportive research,” he said. “So many people that stumble into it do so because they interacted with a lab animal veterinarian or maybe they had a prior educational experience or job working with research animals.” 

When asked what advice he has for early career veterinarians, he said: “When someone provides you with an opportunity, take it. You're going to learn something if nothing else. I think a lot of success is being open to opportunities when they present themselves, even if they're a little outside of where your comfort zone is. So stretch yourself.”