EVP, Head of Oncology Practice, Lumanity

Pharmaceutical Training Consultant Course Director, University of Cardiff

Dr Laura Brown is Course Director of the MSc in Clinical Research, University of Cardiff and a Training and QA Consultant.

Dr Brown has held a number of international and senior management positions in the pharmaceutical industry. She has worked for several international companies including GlaxoWellcome, Hoechst Marion Roussel and Phoenix International.

She was a member of the Editorial board of the Good Clinical Practice Journal for 10 years. She is author of several books including Project Management for the Pharmaceutical Industry, a Practical Guide to the Clinical Trial Directive and several articles on the new EU Clinical Trial Regulation.

Chief Executive Officer, Greater Gift

Joan Chambers is the CEO of Greater Gift, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase public understanding and awareness of clinical research and foster trust by celebrating all those engaged in it, including patients, caretakers, healthcare and business professionals, and team members. Clinical study participation is essential to advancing public health and enhancing community wellbeing. We at Greater Gift believe one good deed deserves another.

Over the course of her career, Joan, who has more than 30 years of expertise in the clinical research industry, has implemented a variety of senior leadership strategies and functions within the organizations she has worked for.

A seasoned executive with strong leadership abilities in team management, strategic business and financial planning, integrated marketing, communications, and educational initiatives for B2B and B2C audiences—print and digital—with the aim of enhancing audience engagement, fostering partnerships, and establishing scalable and sustainable business growth.

Joan currently serves on the Executive Steering Committee for the PharmaTimes Clinical Researcher of the Year program.  She has served on the Greater Gift Board of Directors, Biobridges Board of Directors, and CISCRP’s Advisory Board.

President, The PEER Consulting Group

George Gasparis has over 35 years of experience in the administration or conduct of human subjects research. Prior to founding “PEER”, he served as the Asst. VP and Sr. Asst. Dean for Research Ethics at Columbia University (CU), CU Medical Center (CUMC) from 2003-12, where he directed the IRB Office and compliance team. He worked at the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) for seven years and served as the Director, Division of Assurances and Quality Improvement from 2000-03, where he led the development of the OHRP QI Program and electronic submission of the Federalwide Assurance (FWA). He has also served as the Director, The George Washington University Medical Center (GWUMC) IRB and Research Pharmacy after serving as a Data Manager for over 40 clinical trials at GWUMC.

President, Halloran Consulting Group

Laurie Halloran founded Halloran Consulting Group in 1998, originally operating out of an unfinished bathroom. Her time as a pediatric ICU nurse had inspired her to start a company that helps move new therapies through FDA processes to get them into the hands of patients desperately in need. By providing a strategic development team, innovative start-up companies could have access to world-class expertise at a fraction of the cost. Since its humble beginnings, Halloran has grown into a successful consultancy of like-minded experts who are dedicated to improving human health by making life science companies better at what they do.

Laurie has been named 2018 Women’s Business Enterprise Star by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and has won a 2017 Enterprising Women of the Year Award from Enterprising Women Magazine. Halloran Consulting Group was also named an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company for the past three years in a row. In 2015, Laurie was honored by the Boston Business Journal as a Woman of Influence, in 2010 was selected as one of the 100 Most Inspiring People in Life Science by PharmaVoice, and in 2009, she was awarded Clinical Researcher of the Year by the New England Chapter of the Associate of Clinical Research Professionals.

Founder and Principal, Cambridge BioStrategies

Dr. Howard is Principal and Founder of Cambridge BioStrategies, LLC, a consulting practice supporting biomedical companies at the interface of science, strategy, and commercialization. With over 30 years of academic, industry and management experience in the US and Europe, Dr Howard works with boards and executive leadership teams at the corporate, business unit and product level to mitigate risk, maximize commercial potential and enable sustainable growth. Corporate-level engagements include appraisal of current and new businesses, defining company priorities, shaping strategic plans, and developing road maps for execution. Business unit and product level assignments encompass scientific, technical, and medical assessments, competitive positioning into evolving treatment algorithms, and the design of pre-clinical and clinical development plans for investigational and marketed assets as well as technology platforms.

President, C. Kalb & Associates

Cliff Kalb is President of C. Kalb& Associates, LLC, a pharma consultancy in intelligence and strategy.

He has served for over four decades in a broad variety of senior level functions the industry. Cliff was Senior Vice President with Wood Mackenzie, where he provided thought leadership on life science industry issues and directed their knowledge based research and consulting practice.

Previously, he served as Senior Director, Strategic Business Analysis at Merck, heading their global intelligence function. Earlier in his career he worked for Marion, Pfizer, and Roche in sales, market analysis, health economics, public policy, marketing, licensing, business intelligence and business development building experience across virtually all therapeutic categories.

Chairman of the Board of Directors, Institute of Clinical Research

A molecular geneticist by training, Dr. Alison Messom has nearly 20 years of industry experience, working both within Pharmaceutical Companies and Clinical Research Organisations and is the current Chairman of the Board of Directors of the ICR.

With detailed experience of directing global clinical trials, Dr.Messom has worn many different hats during her career. She has had the opportunity to travel far and wide on business; lived in the UK, France and Switzerland, and gained operational experience in over 50 countries and line management in over 30.

During the course of her career she has line managed at all levels from CTAs through to Directors and VPs. At both i3 Research and ICON she helped build a new department of dedicated line managers for CRAs and also Start Up teams. While within the Pharma environment she line managed teams within Study and Project Management, Clinical Supplies, Translational Medicine, Data Management, Statistics, Informatics and IT – showing that line management skills are transferrable across functional areas.

Senior VP, Head of Advanced Therapeutics, Lumanity

Mike leads Defined Health’s Gene and Cell Therapeutics and Rare Diseases practices. He also co-heads the oncology practice focusing on hematologic malignancies and genetically defined cancers. Prior to Defined Health, Mike gained over a decade of experience creating new biotech ventures from academic inventions pertaining to nucleic acids and cellular platforms applied across monogenetic diseases and oncology. Industry positions involved translational research, strategic planning, technology transfer, finance and business development.

Mike holds an MBA, with a concentration in Biotechnology from the Alfred Lerner School of Business and Economics, at the University of Delaware, an MS in Molecular Pharmacology from Thomas Jefferson University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Delaware. Mike studied the molecular basis of cancer at the Kimmel Cancer Institute and is recognized for his extensive intellectual property and publication portfolio pertaining to cancer genetics, recombinational DNA repair, gene therapy, diagnostics, and agricultural trait improvement.

Mike is an inaugural member of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT), as well as a member of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the Licensing Executives Society (LES), and the American Heart Association (AHA).

Chief Executive Officer, Sauvie

Ken is currently the CEO of Sauvie Inc., an immuno-oncology focused biopharmaceutical organization. Prior to Sauvie, Ken founded Willow Biopharma Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, in 2015 and served as President and Chief Executive Officer and a Board Director. In 2018, Willow was acquired and became a subsidiary of VIVUS, Inc. a biopharmaceutical company at the time listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Ken was subsequently appointed as President of VIVUS. Today, VIVUS is a subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises L.P. (NASDAQ: IEP). Prior to establishing Willow, he founded KRIM Biopharma Inc., where he served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a Board Director. Before establishing KRIM, Ken held multiple roles of increasing responsibility for Novartis Pharma Canada as well as being part of various global commercial operations teams. He received a Bachelor of Commerce, Honors Program from the University of Guelph, Ontario.