Speaker Biographies

J. Todd Abrams, PhD, Senior Director, New Ventures and Business Development, Technology Commercialization, Temple University

Dr. Abrams is presently the Senior Director, New Ventures and Business Development in Temple University’s Office of the Vice President for Research.  His principal responsibilities are to create new industry collaborations to place emerging technologies on the critical path for commercial development as well as to shape teams to establish new ventures to implement a commercial plan. Prior to joining Temple, Todd was Manager of JT ABRAMS CONSULTING where he supported institutions in the Philadelphia region to develop new models and programs to support emerging technologies, as well as advise early stage companies on how to access those resources. Prior to consulting, Dr. Abrams served as Director, Philanthropy and Business Development at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR) in Wynnewood PA, where he oversaw LIMR’s technology development initiative, including its biotechnology incubator, technology transfer office, and philanthropy efforts. Before joining LIMR, Dr. Abrams was Executive Director, New Product Development at Meniscus Limited, a medical education and publishing company. He received a BA in biology from Lafayette College in Easton, PA, and a Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Pennsylvania and had faculty positions at The Wistar institute, University of Miami, and Drexel University.

Dianna Ambach, Senior Project Manager, Biologics PMO, Sanofi

I have worked in the biotech industry for over 15 years and have experience in gene therapy process science as an individual contributor as well as protein therapeutics manufacturing operations as a manager. Additionally, I have an affiliation with WPI biotech manufacturing certificate course as an instructor in their biotech education and training center. Most recently, I have transitioned into the role as Project Manager supporting both operations based projects for process improvements as well as infrastructure focused projects.

Greg Bayer, Head of Strategy & Operations, Business Insights & Analytics, Research & Development, Bristol-Myers Squibb

Greg Bayer leads the R&D Scheduling and Resource Management function in R&D Operations, which is responsible for drug project scheduling, resource & capacity planning and enabling pipeline planning and operations in various settings, including the R&D budget process, the study start approval process, GDOC operations, and others. Prior to his current role, Greg was Director of Global Business Operations in Global Medical, in which he led the annual medical planning process. He joined BMS from the Health & Life Sciences strategy practice at Accenture, where he worked with pharmaceutical industry clients in the areas of R&D governance, resource management, brand strategy, sales acceleration and shareholder value creation. Prior to business school, he worked in a molecular biology research position and as a project manager at a CRO. Greg holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Wake Forest University and an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Richard Bayney, PhD, President & Founder, Project & Portfolio Value Creation (PPVC)

Dr. Richard Bayney is President & Founder of Project & Portfolio Value Creation, a consulting boutique providing training and education in project, program, portfolio, resource, and risk management as well as client services in strategic, business, and portfolio planning. He is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bayney is a 23-year veteran of the Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology industry at Merck & Co., Bayer Corp. and AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development. He obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from University of London, MBA from Columbia University, and PMP from the Project Management Institute. In his last corporate position, Dr. Bayney was Head of Decision Analysis & Portfolio Management at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development.

Mark Bedard, Project Manager, Devens Biologics Manufacturing PMO, Bristol-Myers Squibb

Mark Bedard is a Project Manager in Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Project Management Office at the Devens, Massachusetts biologics manufacturing facility, where his role includes the design and development of resource management solutions for commercial and clinical manufacturing business operations. Mark has over 19 year’ experience with Bristol-Myers Squibb, serving in various technical and managerial roles supporting Quality Control laboratory operations, as well as project management for Operational Excellence program deployment before joining the PMO team. Mark holds a BS Degree from the University of New England and is a certified in Lean/Six Sigma Green Belt.

Robert Boland, MBA, Associate Director, Emerging Science and Innovation Strategy, Johnson & Johnson

Robert J, Boland, MBA is currently Associate Director of Emerging Science and Innovation Strategy at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies. In this role Robert is responsible for driving Strategy and Operations for Emerging Science and Innovation (ESI) initiatives, leading External & Open Innovation, Opportunity Assessment & Scouting, and key Strategic operational initiatives while managing the ESI portfolio and measuring value creation for the Emerging Science and Innovation (ESI) function of Johnson & Johnson Consumer R&D. Additionally, Robert is responsible for driving the cultivation of a “culture of innovation” and cutting-edge research across the Consumer R&D organization and in developing an upstream portfolio of early science that will help ensure the long-term sustainability and growth of the Johnson & Johnson Consumer business. Responsibilities also encompass driving OI strategic partnerships, Crowdsourcing and key decision-making and execution of the ESI strategy along with business model innovation, business analytics, intelligence and bench-marking and value creation metrics; driving development of collaborative open innovation models, incubators/accelerators, catalyzers, and leading ESI communication initiatives, both internally and externally, and manage a new Scientific Advisory Board of internal and external key opinion leaders and experts. Robert is also leading and managing contracting and agreement-forming activities with external partners and navigation of the healthcare compliance approval process and serves as the primary point of contact for interactions with other Consumer functions (e.g., R&D Leadership Team, Franchise R&D and Platform Leads, Finance, Regulatory, Legal and External/Open Innovation) as well as with cross-sector functions/teams from Pharma R&D, and Medical Device and Diagnostics.

Matthew Brown, PhD, Vice President (retired), Enterprise Governance Management, Bristol-Myers Squibb

A 26-year veteran of industrial R&D, Matt Brown recently retired as Vice-President of Enterprise Governance Management for Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), driving agility in C-suite governance processes.Prior to that, Matt rose through the drug project management function to lead the BMS global Biopharma Project Management department for 6 years. Contributing to multiple new drug registrations internationally, he also led integration activities for a biotech acquisition and change management for process improvement initiatives. Matt holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Pennsylvania and Bachelor's degree from Cornell University. He is the author of 16 external technical papers and 1 patent.

Andrew Cheng, PhD, Business Capability Analyst, R&D Strategy & Planning, Bristol-Myers Squibb

Andrew is on the BMS team that serves as stewards for the Planisware enterprise project and resource management system. He is responsible for facilitating the development and adoption of project and resource management planning and tracking practices that promote accurate and transparent portfolio and project forecasts. Prior to joining the team, Andrew obtained his Ph.D. in Bioengineering and worked on developing gel and nanoparticle-based drug delivery technologies. Since joining, Andrew has worked toward designing, implementing, supporting, and training for the Discovery Tracking module. Andrew currently live in Blue Bell, PA with his wife Sherry.

Greg Cohee, Partner, Pharmica Consulting

Greg Cohee is a scientist, turned project manager, with over twenty years of pharmaceutical industry experience. Greg is a managing partner at Pharmica Consulting and VP, R&D solutions at Intrinsic Clinical Systems. Throughout his drug development career, he has worked in Discovery, Clinical, Program Management, and has developed a variety of innovative technology solutions. Today, Mr. Cohee, and his team of industry professionals, help R&D organizations develop critical capabilities and delivery on their pipelines.

Alison Conlon, Vice President, Program & Portfolio Management, bluebird bio

Alison has had the opportunity to build bluebird bio’s Program & Portfolio Management function from the ground up over her 5 years with the company.  During that time, the company experienced a tremendous amount of growth due to the success of the pipeline, which in turn meant systems, processes, and tools sometimes required updates only a few short months after they were implemented. The dynamic environment provides an amazing opportunity for experimentation and innovation, and the next phase of evolution is aimed at laying the groundwork needed to drive enhanced portfolio insights to stay ahead of potential resource constraints across an expanding pipeline.  Prior to bluebird, Alison spend almost 10 years at Genzyme in various positions in Program & Alliance Management. Alison holds a BS in chemistry from Kansas State University, and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Melquidades de Jesus, MBA, Director, R&D Strategy & Planning, Bristol-Myers Squibb

Mel leads the team that serves as the stewards for the Planisware enterprise project and resource management system. The team is responsible for facilitating the development and adoption of project and resource management planning and tracking practices that promote accurate and transparent portfolio, project and clinical trials forecasts. The team achieves this by integrating the needs of all the stakeholders in support of the drug discovery and development teams to produce a comprehensive process and tool that are expandable and modular. Prior to joining BMS, he worked at Abbott, PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PwC) and Merck. At Abbott Labs, Mel led the team responsible for new product and technology transfer to the Puerto Rico manufacturing facilities. At PwC he served as Management Consultant for Roche, Pfizer, and Merck with a focus on cycle time reduction and business process standardization. At Merck, he lead the business process design, implementation of their first off the self- clinical trial management system (CTMS) and the initial implementation of the Planisware system in the Pre-clinical functions. He lives in Yardley Pennsylvania with wife Stephanie, their 11-year-old daughter, Sophia Rosa and 8-year daughter, Olivia Jasmine.

Roman Fedorovsky, President and CEO, Philadelphia Accelerator, AmpTech

Biography coming…

Michael Ferrante, Head, R&D Business Capabilities, R&D Strategy and Planning, Bristol-Myers Squibb

Dynamic life sciences “builder” with over twenty years of experience driving improved business performance through developing and deploying strategies, processes, and technology. Global experience bridges both industry and consulting, and both strategy formulation and tactical execution. Led the implementation of a large system/process tool for R&D planning, helped to twice launch a new consulting practice, and has led new business groups from inception. 

Lena Frank, Executive Director, Program & Alliance Management, Oncology Business Group, Eisai Inc.

Lena Frank is the Executive Director of Alliance and Program Management in Eisai’s Oncology Business Group. Before joining Eisai in 2014, Lena held positions of increasing responsibility with Acorda Therapeutics, Alpharma and Rhone-Poulenc. Her past experience includes business development, project and portfolio management, marketing, product management, and sales. Throughout this work experience she has managed various joint ventures, alliances, and licensing relationships, resulting in more than 15 years of experience with alliances. Over the past 20 years, Lena has also managed a wide variety of projects and programs ranging from drug development to supply chain optimization to the transition of products into and out of various companies. In addition to being a Certified Strategic Alliance Professional, Lena also holds Project Management Professional certification.

Sam Gabrielli, Associate Director, Portfolio & Project Management, Gilead Sciences

Sam is currently an Associate Director in Research & Development, Project and Portfolio Management at Gilead Sciences and is responsible for Strategic Resource Management and the development and implementation of integrated PPM processes, systems and tools. Sam has 18 years’ experience in Bio-Pharma at Gilead Sciences, Roche & Genentech. He holds a BS from University of California Davis, MBA from University of Colorado, and PMP from PMI.

Anjali Ganguli, Ph.D., Executive Director Corporate Development, Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Biography coming…

Keith Gardner, Senior Director, Decision Science, AstraZeneca

Keith Gardner is the Senior Director and founder of the Decision Science Practice at AstraZeneca. He came to AZ after a long career in Defense and the Intelligence community. His background is in Mathematics, Operations Research and Decision Analysis. He and his team have been delivering results using decision trees, multi-criteria choice, recruitment modeling, facilitation and strategic planning.

Dana Hammill, MS, MBA, Director, Business Development and Alliances, Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, University of Pennsylvania

Dana Hammill is the Director of Business Operations for the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies (CCI) at the University of Pennsylvania – Penn Medicine. She is responsible for, business development and strategy, development and management of broad and complex external alliances, including strategic pharma-academia alignment, technology transfer, multiple program timelines and expectations, financial management, and commercialization efforts. In addition to creating value-added analyses, reports, and other critical tracking tools needed for long range alliance planning and prioritization, she also leads a multifunctional business team within the CCI to help determine, plan, and track strategic direction to ensure programmatic, CCI, and University goals and milestones are met.

Lauren Hirshon, Lecturer, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; Director of Operations and Development, Leadership for a Networked World, Harvard University

Lauren Hirshon is an organizational change and transformation consultant for businesses, governments, and nonprofits. Curious by nature, she has a broad set of interests and areas of expertise, including: organizational development, change management, group and team dynamics, and working across organizational boundaries. She is currently the Director of Operations and Development for an applied research and advisory program at Harvard and a Lecturer and Consultant with the Wharton school. Lauren received her B.A. from Harvard College in Psychology with a minor in French, and her Master’s Degree in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania. Outside of the office, Lauren serves as the Secretary for the Harvard Club of Philadelphia and plays on touch football, basketball and softball teams. And don’t mess with her – she’s a wicked shot with the javelin.

Josh Kaminetz, Resource Management Lead, Global Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Safety, Merck & Co.

Josh Kaminetz is Resource Management lead in the Business Operations and Strategy group of Merck’s Global Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Safety subdivision. His small team enables GRACS leadership to make informed business decisions by providing capacity and demand forecasts. Josh has a 25-year professional career in the pharmaceutical industry. After earning a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Richmond, he spent the first half of his career as a bioanalytical chemist and laboratory manager for a CRO in Richmond, Virginia. Shortly after achieving a Master’s of Business Administration degree at Virginia Commonwealth University, he joined Merck Research Laboratories in Upper Gwynedd, PA, where he held operations management roles supporting a variety of Discovery and Early Development leaders for a decade- until moving into his current role as Resource Management lead within Global Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Safety

Michael Kennedy, PhD, MBA, Director, Alliance Management, Business Development & Licensing, Bayer AG

Biography coming…

Matt Kiernan, Partner, Pharmica Consulting

Matt Kiernan is a sports enthusiast with over twenty years of pharmaceutical experience. Matt is a co-founder of Pharmica Consulting, a firm that focuses on project management in the pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Kiernan is also a co-founder of Intrinsic Clinical Systems, which provides modern software for clinical operations and project management. Prior to this Matt worked at Bristol Myers Squibb, Covance and Parexel.

Matthew Kokkonen, MBA, Director, Portfolio Management and Governance, CSL Behring

Matthew Kokkonen is the Director of Portfolio Management at CSL Behring. Previously: - Director of Project Portfolio Management of Technology Projects at BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Inc. - Management Consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton and Maven Wave Partners, clients included AbbVie, NASA, NOAA, and the Department of Health and Human Services - Captain, United States Air Force Education - MBA from the University of London - Harvard University's Drug Development Boot-camp - Stanford University’s ‘Stanford Advanced Project Management’ certification - UC San Diego’s Certificate of Clinical Trials Design and Management Married, two twin daughters. Enjoys global travel, skiing, and all things outdoors.

Joseph Koziak, CEO, Executive, Amblyotech Inc.

Biography coming…

Delfi Krishna, PhD, Director of Operations, Planning and Strategy, Cell and Gene Therapy Platform, GSK

Ph.D in Chemical and BioMolecular Engineering, Specialization in Cell and Gene Therapy Current Role: Director of Strategy, Operations and Planning, Cell and Gene Therapy Platform at GSK R&D Accountable for 3-5 year strategy development and deployment, streamlining operations and developing solutions for recruitment, engagement, training and development. Assessing performance, enabling senior leader decision making etc. Previous roles: Biopharmaceutical Portfolio Strategy and Operations, Supply Chain Strategy, Matrix Project Leadership

Eric Lake, Partner, Pharmica Consulting

Eric Lake is a Partner and co-founder of Pharmica Consulting, which provides project management expertise to the pharmaceutical industry. He is also the co-founder of Intrinsic Clinical Systems, which creates simple, easy-to-use clinical operations and resource management software. He has over twenty-five years of pharmaceutical industry experience.

Courtland LaVallee, MBA, Head, Project Management, BeiGene

Corky has worked in the biopharmaceutical project management industry since 1998, where he started as the PM for the Viagra program at Pfizer. Corky joined Genentech in March 2006 as the Director of Development Project Management, tasked to create from scratch a project management capability focused on supporting drug development teams. Since then he has held PM leadership positions at companies such as Onyx, Elan and Dynavax, and is currently Head of Program Management for Immuno-Oncology at BeiGene USA. He is also active as an instructor for DIA, and as a member of BioPharmaPM. Corky has spoken at many conferences and is the author of a chapter on project risk management in the book “Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Project Management in a Changing Global Environment” published by Wiley.

Peter Malamis, COO, ImmunoRestoration

For more than three decades Peter Malamis has strategically guided the growth and development of service firms supporting biopharma clinical research and commercialization. In addition to serving as ImmunoRestoration, Inc. COO, Peter along with co-founder Dr. Michael Howley, leads CRO Analytics. The company recently launched Performer, a groundbreaking clinical trial oversight and performance improvement software platform.

Christine McCauley, Partnering Operations Lead, Senior Scientist, Early Proof of Concept, Johnson & Johnson

Biography coming…

Helen Merianos, PhD, Vice President, Portfolio Management, GSK

As the Vice President, Portfolio Management, Helen leads a team of senior directors and managers who provide strategic advice to the portfolio owners, governance boards, & project teams through objective internal and external portfolio insights, challenge, and an enterprise view of the portfolio. Prior to her current role, she was the Medicine Development Leader for Rare Diseases where she led a global cross-functional matrix team of 20-30 director level team members responsible for the development of a potential medicine in Phase III to treat TTR amyloidosis. Helen is a scientist by training, earning her PhD in biophysical chemistry from Yale University. She used her scientific roots as a foundation for building deep business expertise in the Life Sciences industry though a number of roles of increasing responsibility initially at McKinsey & Company and now at GSK- a ₤24B science-led global healthcare company of nearly 100,000 employees, with commercial operations in more than 150 countries, a network of 84 manufacturing sites in 36 countries and large R&D centers in the UK, USA, Spain, Belgium and China.

Eric Moss, MBA, Director, Portfolio & Decision Analysis, Pfizer

A member of Pfizer PDA (Portfolio & Decision Analysis) group since 2003. As a member of the PDA organization has an extensive background in portfolio management, asset strategy optimization, and strategic planning. Has been recognized not only for expertise in executing asset and portfolio analyses but also for leadership in Decision Analysis best practices. Prior to joining Pfizer, Eric held several positions in the oil industry including; Process Engineer, Planning & Economics, and Area Sales Manager. Eric holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and a MBA; both from the University of Missouri

Janet Mulheron, Vice President, Head, Integrated Oncology Strategy & Operations, Bristol-Myers Squibb

Janet Mulheron is the VP and Head of Integrated Oncology Strategy and Operations, R&D Strategy & Planning, at Bristol-Myers Squibb. As Head of Integrated Oncology Strategy and Operations, Janet oversees the strategy and execution of a global R&D oncology business for Bristol-Myers Squibb. She leads a matrix team of functional leaders who collaborate to drive delivery of a dynamic oncology portfolio that spans from pre-clinical to lifecycle management. Her responsibilities span management of portfolio and functional budgets, resource allocation, project and schedule management and business operations. Janet began her career at BMS as a discovery biologist and has held roles of increasing responsibility in Informatics, Project Management, and Operations. Janet received her BA in Biology from DePauw University and MS in Molecular Biology from Duke University.

Michael Myers, PhD, Senior Director, LRL Due Diligence, Eli Lilly & Co

Dr. Mike Myers has spent 30 years in the industry contributing to the discovery and development of new drugs. He has led drug discovery teams in the pursuit of innovative treatments for cancer, CNS, Infectious and Cardiovascular diseases. Across these areas of significant need, Dr. Myers has contributed as an inventor on more than 35 patents. Dr. Myers has also led efforts in evaluating new lead generation technologies, predictive ADMET and computational chemistry approaches and led a significant effort at Lilly to optimize Lead generation processes in early drug discovery. More than a dozen years ago, Dr. Myers moved from his Drug Discovery role to Sr. Director of Project Management and he was engaged in project and portfolio management. Currently, Mike’s main responsibilities within the External Innovation team at Eli Lilly & Company includes leading scientific Due Diligence activities in support of in-license/acquisition, out-license and strategic partnering activities.

Jess Nauman, PhD, Operations Analyst, Product Development, Portfolio Strategy and Integration, Bristol-Myers Squibb

Jess Nauman is a Operations Analyst in Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Product Development – Portfolio Strategy and Integration group at the New Brunswick, NJ facility, where his role includes the design and development of resource management solutions for process and product development business operations. Jess has over 10 years experience with Bristol-Myers Squibb, serving in various technical and managerial roles supporting biologics clinical manufacturing, process development, product development and operations. Jess holds a PhD Degree in chemical engineering from the Carnegie Mellon University, and BS biochemistry & chemical engineering from North Carolina State University.

Derek Newberry, PhD, Business Anthropologist; Affiliated Faculty in Organizational Dynamics, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; Author “Committed Teams”

Derek Newberry is Affiliated Faculty in Organizational Dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania. He also teaches in the Wharton School’s Executive Education program on interpersonal communication, collaboration, and corporate culture. As a consultant, he advises senior leaders in Fortune 500 companies and major non-profits on the human factors that drive organizational effectiveness. Derek has worked with organizations in a wide range of sectors, including energy, financial services, management consulting, and healthcare. Derek is the co-author (with Mario Moussa and Madeline Boyer) of Committed Teams: Three Steps to Inspiring Passion and Performance (Wiley Press, 2016); a practical, research-based guide for getting the most out of groups. His work has been featured in Forbes, Quartz, and leading industry publications. He is a contributor for Fortune.com and Entrepreneur.com. He designed and launched a series of Coursera courses on building high-performing teams with University of Pennsylvania colleagues that have been taken by thousands of learners. Derek has published extensively and lectured internationally on cultural barriers to organizational change, including speaking engagements at the World Bank, Copenhagen Business School, Stanford University, and the University of São Paulo, among others. Derek received his Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, where he won a National Science Foundation grant to support his research on barriers to change in the Brazilian energy industry.

Akshay Patny, PhD, Director, Global Project Management, EMD Serono Inc.

Akshay is a Director / Global R&D Project Leader for an Immuno-Oncology program (Bavencio®, Avelumab) at EMD Serono Inc., and leads the Lung Cancer Indication and Biomarker Strategy teams for the Avelumab asset. The teams bear a mandate for delivering on global (US/EU/JP) late-stage development, regulatory submissions, including (pre)-launch milestones for the biologic and companion diagnostic. Akshay has extensive experience navigating complex, dynamic, and international clinical-stage drug development programs through successful milestones. Prior to that, Akshay was a management consultant at IPM Inc., and served as an advisor and consultant to multiple biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on program, portfolio and resource management initiatives. Akshay’s experience within the pharmaceutical industry spans over 11+ years and ranges the gamut from early drug discovery to late-stage drug development and across Inflammation & Immunology and Oncology therapeutic areas. During his early tenure in the industry as a research scientist at Pfizer, he worked on a discovery project where his contributions led him to become a co-inventor of the clinical candidate, PF-06650833 (IRAK-4 kinase inhibitor), currently in proof of concept Phase 2 trial for rheumatoid arthritis. Akshay holds a B.S. in Pharmacy from Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology in India, and Ph.D. from The University of Mississippi. Akshay works and lives in the greater Boston area.

Daniel Patrick, MBA, Director, Business Consulting, Grant Thorton

Daniel Patrick is a Principal Consultant at TayganPoint Consulting Group. Dan has more than 25 years of combined experience in the Life Sciences and Financial Services industries. His areas of expertise include R&D, program and project management, merger & acquisition planning and integration, business process reengineering, and strategy development and implementation. In the life sciences industry, he has worked at Merck and Celgene, holding positions of increasing responsibility in Financial Evaluation & Analysis, Divisional Financial Services, Treasury, Corporate Operational Excellence, and R&D. Dan holds a BS in Finance from Manhattan College and an MBA in Finance & Marketing from the Simon Business School, University of Rochester.

Ian Popoff, Senior Director, Strategic Portfolio Management, Pfizer

Ian is currently in role as Senior Director, Strategy & Portfolio Management (SPINE), and has over 15 years of Pharmaceutical Industry experience. He has authored nine publications in scientific journals including Nature, Diabetes & PNAS, and has eight issued patents (several pending). Ian began his career in science at the laboratory bench, discovering new treatments for cancer and diabetes, based on the emerging scientific literature and rational drug design. After taking an opportunity to move into the Project Management field, he has led projects, built and managed teams, and provided senior leaders with objective risk assessments to enable decision making. Ian leveraged his MBA into a skip level promotion, and began to provide Portfolio Strategy, Analytics, and Management guidance to senior executive leadership. His current role within Research & Development aims to marry sound business judgment with cutting edge science, to provide Pfizer with the best options for drug development investments. Ian graduated from the University of Calgary, Canada with a Master of Science in the Faculty of Medicine, department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and earned an executive MBA from the University of California, Irvine (Beta Gamma Sigma Award, Dean's Scholar).

Sushil Rijhwani, PhD, MBA, PMP, Vice President, Project Planning & Management, Taiho Oncology, Inc.

Sushil Rijhwani currently heads the Project Planning and Management group at Taiho Oncology, Inc. managing and coordinating development of Oncology compounds from research to commercialization. In this role he is also establishing project management tools and capabilities, and working to optimize global drug development and decision making processes at Taiho Oncology, Inc. Previously Sushil worked at Daichi-Sankyo, Inc. for 7+ years leading cross-therapeutic area portfolio management, resource management and decision analysis to help facilitate asset level and portfolio level strategic decisions to optimize global R&D investments for superior returns. Prior to that Sushil spent 11+ years at Bristol Myers Squibb working in areas of oncology decision analysis, project management and CMC development. Sushil has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, MBA in Marketing/Supply chain and certifications in Decision-Risk Management and Advanced Project Management.

John Roberts, MBA, Senior Director, Strategic Portfolio Management, Worldwide R&D, Pfizer

John is focused on leading the prioritization of the Pfizer Worldwide R&D portfolio, representing the early to mid-stage clinical portfolio across 5 primary therapeutic areas. Previously with Pfizer in the UK, John led the financial management of the Discovery and Strategic Alliances departments. Before joining Pfizer, John was a Portfolio Director in GlaxoSmithKline’s Biopharm R＆D Unit, where he was responsible for valuing and prioritizing the late stage development biologic drug portfolio. Also with GSK, he negotiated in-licensing deals in the Worldwide Business Development group. John also was previously an Equity Research Analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group covering the large cap and specialty pharmaceutical industries. John received his MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Pierre Roussel, DIrector, Head, GRA Demand, Capacity and Performance Management, Vaccines Global Regulatory Affairs, GlaxoSmithKline

14 years’ experience in Regulatory Affairs with strong knowledge on early activities, new file, lifecycle activities. This expertise allowed me to understand the associated constraints in term of resource management and capacity to develop reliable forecast with stakeholders.

Alexander Rucci, Senior Business Capability Analyst, R&D Strategy & Planning, Bristol-Myers Squibb

Alex is on a team that serves as the stewards for the Planisware enterprise project and resource management system. He supports the use of the Planisware tool by identifying areas where the tool can be used to support business needs, maintaining a high-level data quality between interfacing systems, and collaborating with scheduling and resource groups in the development, adoption, and management of a variety of planning tools. Prior to joining BMS, he worked Xerimis, a Clinical Packaging Company. At Xerimis Inc. he worked in Validation of environments and tools related to the storage and packaging of clinical materials. He worked under the regulations of cGMP and standards of the U.S. Pharmacopeia. Mr. Rucci earned a Master’s in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in Pure Mathematics from Rutgers University. He lives in Burlington, NJ with his partner Colleen.

Armin Schneider, MD, PhD, VP, Scientific & Medical Affairs, Pharma & Biotech, Molecular Health GmbH

Armin Schneider, VP, Scientific & Medical Affairs, Pharma is a MD PhD, and has a broad background in neurology, pharmacology, pathophysiology, molecular biology, medical statistics, and drug development. He worked in leading positions in a number of biotech companies in areas from drug discovery to clinical drug development. Armin has authored over 150 publications and numerous patent families, and is adjunct professor at the university of Heidelberg.

Raveen Sharma, Life Sciences Practice Specialist Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Raveen is a leader in Deloitte’s Life Sciences & Healthcare practice and has over 20 years of experience designing and delivering analytics solutions in the areas of clinical, translational, observational research, and digital health. Currently, Raveen is working with life sciences clients to apply emerging and innovative technologies to transform analytics processes to speed the time to insights in the areas of clinical development, resource management, and portfolio management.

Dan Smith, Vice President, Enrich Consulting

Daniel Smith leads the consulting practice at Enrich, overseeing customization and implementation of the EAP platform to meet each client's unique needs. Prior to joining Enrich in 2000, he served as a consultant with Applied Decision Analysis and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Dan holds a graduate certificate in engineering management from the University of Cambridge, an MBA from Santa Clara University, and a BSE in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He believes a company runs on its collective stomach, and in his spare time plots reasons to bring cake into the office.

Frances Smith, Associate Director, Portfolio Management, Sanofi

Frances M. Smith is the Associate Director of Biologics Portfolio Management at Sanofi. Over 15 years of experience in Life Sciences (focus on commercial operations and GMP activities). Roles have included Quality management, Fabrazyme Operations Product Manager, and Program Manager of Global Cell Banking and Fabrazyme Manufacturing. Drove operational launch of Mozobil® (used for stem cell transplant). Managed the operational filing of over four new cell banking lines for biologics. Facilitated fill finish transfer of 2 commercially approved products from US to EU, including 3 different presentations. Extensive knowledge of GMP Manufacturing regulations. Education degrees in Environmental Science from University of Vermont and Masters in Regulatory Affairs (Drug and Device) Northeastern University.

Richard Sonnenblick, PhD, CEO, Enrich Consulting

Richard Sonnenblick founded Enrich Consulting in 1998. His vision has been realized in the Enrich Analytics Platform (EAP), which he created in 2000. Prior to founding Enrich, he built a decision analysis consulting practice at Lumina Decision Systems. Rich holds a PhD and an MS in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University and a BA in physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. When Rich isn't running the show at Enrich, he can be found kayaking in Monterey Bay or cruising the singletrack at Wilder Ranch.

Chad Stewart, MBA, PMP, Sr. Director, Program and Alliance Management, Immatics, US

As program leader, I am responsible for integrating the strategic and operational plans for the development of assets in the clinical phase of development at Immatics. With over 20 years of pharmaceutical and biotech industry experience with companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Shire, Merck and most recently with Immatics, I have program management experience in oncology drug development programs from candidate selection through registration and approval. In addition to drug development experience, I also have significant experience managing due diligence programs ultimately leading to successful M&A and licensing agreements. Lastly, I have significant alliance management experience coupled with management of drug collaboration programs in the immuno-oncology space.

Dan Tierno, MBA, Strategic Implementation, Global Data Sciences and Analytics, Bayer U.S. LLC

Mr. Dan Tierno has over 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical portfolio management, R&D and commercialization. Mr. Tierno also specializes in digital health initiatives, inclusive of gene editing as well as integration of wearables and big data in clinical trials. Mr. Tierno has spoken on the following topics: training scientists for rare disease therapeutic development, impacts of genomics in clinical trial design for cell and gene therapies, and defining and generating value as a result of effective portfolio management. In 2018, topics Mr.Tierno will be speaking on include innovative models for cell and gene therapy clinical trials, funding and payer models for novel therapeutics, as well as the mix of skills that make for the most effective program management. Mr. Tierno holds his B.S. in Nutrition Science from New York Institute of Technology, his Honors M.B.A. from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, and his M.A. in Biotechnology from Columbia University.

Geert Vanhove, Founding Partner, Binocs

Geert Vanhove co-founded Bluecrux in 2011, a company with meanwhile 70 planning experts operating on a global scale. Geert has a master in Engineering started his career at Compex as a product designer and strategist in the area of supply chain and manufacturing execution and quality management. After Siemens acquired the company in 2001, Geert joined S&V management consultants (acquired by PWC in 2010). As a partner, he contributed to a company growth from 10 to 80 people with a focus on the pharma industry segment. During that period, Geert developed and implemented methods that originated from the supply chain operations and tuned them to boost performance in R&D and clinical operations. During the past four years Geert made a deep dive in the world of planning knowledge workers. Together with GSK and Pfizer, he co-created Binocs, a cloud solution for resource planning and scheduling.

Michele Washko, MBA, Program Manager, BioStrategy Partners

Michele Washko, M.A., M.B.A., has more than 20 years’ experience working for, or advising, for profit and not-for-profit healthcare-related enterprises of various types and sizes. She has particular expertise in healthcare innovation, having worked for Merck & Co., Inc., in new product launches; as V.P. Strategic Services for the Life Sciences Greenhouse, a public/private seed-stage life sciences fund; and for Geisinger Health System in its Institute for Advanced Application, among others. She currently serves as Director, Germinator Programs, BioStrategy Partners.

Kelly White, MSN, RN, Director, Global Operations Oncology, Global Trial Optimization, Merck

Kelly White has more than 20 years of clinical research experience that spans site, CRO, and sponsor organizations. She has been supporting Merck Oncology Operations for 11 years and is responsible for many of the process improvements in feasibility and accrual planning for the organization.

Randall White, PhD, Senior Director, Global Project Management Oncology, Daiichi Sankyo Inc

Randy worked for 10 yr in the Agri-chemical/Ag-biotech industry at Monsanto and BASF. He then changed industries to pharma in 2001, working for a small biotech company (Protarga) as well as a generic company (Sandoz) before joining BMS in 2003. He worked as a Project Manager for BMS for 14 yr, in multiple therapeutic areas and stages of drug development, including the marketed brands of Eloquis, Orencia and Opdivo. His last 5 years at BMS included project responsibilities for nivolumab (melanoma, RCC and other LCM indications), portfolio oversight for early I-O pipeline as well as functional leadership in the Project Management group. He joined Daiichi Sankyo, Inc in 2017 to head their US Oncology PM group as well as provide portfolio and governance oversight for the Cancer Enterprise organization. He attended Cornell (BS), North Carolina State U (MS); U. Illinois (PhD); Post-doc (Monsanto, St. Louis).