Ray Abaskharon, ThinkGen
Ray Abaskharon, Vice President, ThinkGen
Ray is a career market researcher and consultant. He has spent nearly a decade in both quantitative and qualitative market research as well as sales consulting and strategy. Ray is known for approaching every business situation analytically while developing a narrative that bridges insight into tangible strategy and tactics.
His work has spanned physicians, key opinion leaders, para-professionals, patients and caregivers and has been demonstrated across every phase of product lifecycle including pre-development, clinical trials, launch, in-line products and patent expiry.
Ray has conducted market research in Oncology, Alzheimer’s, HIV, HCV, Diabetes, Allergies, Diagnostics, Biotech, Corporate Strategy and Reputation, among others. His work has had global reach in over 20 countries across North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Ray holds a B.S. in Finance and a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University.
Mallika Ann Ambat, Actelion Pharmaceuticals
Mallika Ann Ambat, Senior Director, Market Research, Actelion Pharmaceuticals
Mallika Ann Ambat is the Director, US Market Research Lead at Actelion. She has over twenty years of hands-on pharmaceutical and bio-tech experience.
She started her career at Pharma companies such as Hoffman-La Roche and Schering-Plough on the East Coast, and most recently worked at bio-tech companies, including Agouron-Pfizer (formerly in San Diego) and Actelion in the Bay Area.
She has extensive market research experience with key stakeholders (HCPs, patients and payors) and has worked in both primary care and specialty markets. At Actelion, she works in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, MF-CTCL and Gaucher’s Disease.
In her role at Actelion, she collaborates closely with her sales analytic colleagues to optimize decisions for business development, portfolio planning and new product commercialization.
Mallika earned an MBA degree from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and has a B.S. in Life Sciences.
Steve Bell, AplusA Bell Falla
Steve Bell, Senior Partner, AplusA Bell Falla
Steve Bell is a statistician and consultant specializing in pharmaceutical markets and quantitative marketing research methods. Steve has applied his statistical and software development background to create several original quantitative methods tailored to the needs of pharmaceutical marketers. From 1989—1998, Steve was an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Stern School of Business, New York University. From 2002—2016, together with Juan Falla, Steve was a Founder and Senior Partner of Bell Falla. Since June 2016, Steve has been Senior Partner of AplusA Bell Falla. Steve has a B.A. from Davidson College, M.S. from Texas A&M University, and an MBA and Ph.D. from Columbia University.
Meghna Chowdary, Relypsa, Inc.
Meghna Chowdary, Executive Director, Strategic Insights and Analytics, Relypsa, Inc.
Meghna leads Strategic Insights and Analytics at Relypsa. In her role, she serves as a strategic advisor to executive leadership, providing insights on product performance and contributing to portfolio planning. She was previously at Genentech for 10 years, where her last role was leading the Market Planning group supporting the Oncology business unit. The group was responsible for driving strategic planning efforts for 13 in-line products and late-stage molecules. Prior to Genentech, she worked at a boutique hospital strategic planning firm that assessed how new technologies would change the delivery of healthcare services. She holds a BS in Biology from Stanford and an MBA from Wharton.
Matthew Chu, Genentech
Matthew Chu, Senior Market Planning Manager, Genentech
Matt joined Genentech in 2016 and currently serves as a senior manager in Genentech’s Marketing Analysis and Strategy group, where he leads a cross-functional team of experts in market research, secondary data analytics/data science, and competitive intelligence in supporting the RA franchise. He also co-leads the Market Research Innovation team within MA&S.
Prior to joining Genentech, Matt worked in corporate strategy at Target Corporation in Minneapolis. During his time there, he helped a variety of business units identify and activate new growth opportunities and revitalize mature ones. He also contributed to the company’s transformation to a more agile organization in the face of disruptive and intensifying e-commerce threats. Prior to Target, Matt served as a consultant with ZS Associates in his native Los Angeles where he worked with clients in pharma, biotech, and medical devices.
He received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Erik Coats, Fulcrum Research Group
Erik Coats, Managing Partner, Fulcrum Research Group
Erik Coats is a founding partner of Fulcrum Research Group. At Fulcrum he has leverage his background in psychology and behavioral economics to provide clients with a better understanding of decisions making, and to improve the traditional toolbox of market research techniques. Erik holds a PhD in experimental social psychology with a concentration in survey design and analysis.
Amalia De Luca, Lifescience Dynamics
Amalia De Luca, Ph.D., Consultant, Lifescience Dynamics
Amalia is based in the London office as a consultant. She is involved in market research, competitive intelligence and market access consulting projects across various therapeutic areas including oncology, rheumatology and inflammatory diseases. She is also experienced in medical devices and diagnostics. As a consultant at Lifescience Dynamics, she works as a part of a team committed to helping develop executable strategies for clients around the globe and she is a full member of the client engagement team.
Amalia, whose native language is Italian, is also fluent in English. She works closely with the Italian market.
She holds a PhD in Bioengineering applied to cardiovascular sciences from Imperial College London, where she took part in a multidisciplinary project investigating the causes of atherosclerosis. She also holds a BSc and MSc in Medical Engineering from the University of Rome.
Outside of work, Amalia enjoys travelling and discovering new cultures. She is also a food lover and cannot turn down a glass of good Italian wine.
Erin Echter, Genentech
Erin Echter, Patient Insights, Senior Manager, Genentech
Mark Fischer-Colbrie, Labcyte, Inc.
Mark Fischer-Colbrie, President, CEO, Labcyte, Inc.
Mr. Fischer-Colbrie became CEO of Labcyte in 2008. He has more than 30 years of experience in launching novel diagnostics, medical devices, therapeutics and high technology products for growth companies, building from start-up through IPO and beyond.
Prior to joining Labcyte, Mr. Fischer-Colbrie was CFO and head of Business Development at a women’s health care start-up company, which went public in December 2004, and was subsequently sold for $450 million. Mr. Fischer-Colbrie was the inventor on 4 patents and 6 patent applications. Mr. Fischer-Colbrie was CFO for nine years at a startup vision correction company that subsequently went public. Earlier in his career, he held several positions including vice-president, finance, corporate controller and advanced technology business manager at a manufacturer of disk drives that grew from a start up to $1.2 billion in revenue and also went public.
Mr. Fischer-Colbrie holds a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.B.A. in Marketing and Finance from the University of California at Berkeley. He is currently Chairman of the Board of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Mr. Fischer-Colbrie is also a board member of the Analytical, Life Science & Diagnostic Association (ALDA), an industry association. He was honored to be selected as National EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2013 Life Sciences Finalist and Northern California EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2013 Life Sciences Winner.
Michael Gerhold, Neurocrine Biosciences
Michael Gerhold, Head of Commercial Analytics, Neurocrine Biosciences
Michael is the Head of Commercial Analytics at Neurocrine Biosciences. In his role, Michael oversees a team that provides market research and analytics support for newly launched INGREZZA as well as life cycle management opportunities.
Prior to joining Neurocrine Biosciences, Michael was at Otsuka Pharmaceuticals where he provided market research insights to the successful HCP and DTC launch of Rexulti, a novel antipsychotic. Michael has over 15 years of experience working in a variety of roles in market research, marketing, analytics and forecasting supporting in-line brand teams, life cycle management, and business development.
Michael holds a MBA and Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University and a BS in Biophysics from University of California San Diego. Michael is originally from San Diego, California.
Rahim Hirji, Omeros Corporation
Rahim Hirji, Director, Marketing and New Product Planning, Omeros Corporation
Michelle Hirsch, Grifols
Michelle Hirsch, Associate Director, Global Market Research, Grifols
Michelle is currently Associate Director, Global Market Research at Grifols Diagnostics Solutions. Michelle has over 15 years of experience in market research and analytics in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry. She supported the strategy development of drugs in several therapeutic categories including CNS, cardiovascular disease, respiratory, diabetes, dermatology, cervical dystonia, osteoporosis, chronic kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, oncology, breakthrough cancer pain, gene risk assessment tests, HIV and orphan diseases.
Michelle began her market research career at Merck, Sharp and Dohme (MSD). She completed her Master in Management at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM).
Graham Hurrell, J&J Diabetes Care Companies
Graham Hurrell, Director Global Insights, J&J Diabetes Care Companies
Graham started life in pharma and gained experience in global product management, sales/market research, new business development, eBusiness and sales force effectiveness. Working in three countries and for 5 big-pharmas has been a journey with research and insights generation always a delighter. Now at J&J, Graham is applying these learnings to discover how to best serve customers using medical devices.
Stephanie Jones, Health Strategies Group
Stephanie Jones, Senior Consultant, Health Strategies Group
Stephanie Jones is a Senior Consultant to the Custom Research practice at Health Strategies Group. Since joining Health Strategies Group in 2007, Stephanie has led numerous market access strategy engagements, including account segmentation, customer relationship evaluation, product value proposition, message testing and channel strategy. Stephanie has over 20 years of domestic and international market research experience spanning major markets and industries, including pharmaceuticals, health care, consumer packaged goods, finance and technology.
Prior to joining Health Strategies Group in 2007, Stephanie was research manager at Attitude Measurement Corporation, where she led numerous research projects in new product planning, product positioning, customer segmentation, and attitude and usage tracking. Stephanie was also a strategic brand director with Harris Interactive, where she was involved in customer satisfaction, brand equity, and pricing research.
Anurag Joshi, Genentech
Anurag Joshi, Analytics Manager Marketing Science, Genentech
Anurag joined Genentech in 2015 as an Analytics Manager in Genentech Market Analytics and Strategy Group where he applies advanced analytics/ data science to provide key strategic decision making. He also leads different strategic initiatives to enhance analytics capabilities of cross-functional teams within the organization.
Prior to joining Genentech Anurag worked as Optimization Engineer and then Manager for Philips. His work at Philips focused on leading and developing state of the art advance analytical supply chain modeling and optimization systems.
Anurag has a Masters Degree in Operations Research from State University of New York Buffalo, Bachelor of Technology from Government College of Engineering Pune, Inda and also has completed a Graduate Certificate Program in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.
Katrina Journey, Santen
Katrina Journey, Associate Director of Commercial Strategy, Santen
Katrina Moseley Journey is the Associate Director of Commercial Strategy at Santen, Inc a global pharmaceutical company that focuses solely on ophthalmology. In her role Katrina is responsible for maximizing revenue and profitability for Santen’s late stage pipeline assets and performing analysis on business development opportunities.
Prior to Santen, Katrina has worked in marketing and brand management for Dynavax Technologies, Plum Organics, and Eli Lilly and Company. She’s helped build the foundation for several new product launches in Psoriasis, Hepatitis B Vaccination and Organic Baby Formula using customer insights to create strong connections between products and customers through development of positioning and tactical launch planning.
Prior to marketing Katrina also spent time as an Operations Team Leader running a Fermentation plant and as a process engineer making insulin while at Eli Lilly in their Manufacturing Organization.
Katrina has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and graduated from the University of Colorado with a Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering.
Jami Krueger, Align Technology
Jami Krueger, Global Insights, Align Technology
Jami Krueger is a strategy & global insights professional with over 15+ years helping multi-national corporations develop strong brands, optimize product portfolios, and improve the effectiveness & efficiency of brand marketing plans.
Before joining Align Technology, Jami lead the Consumer Affairs operations, insights, and technology team at Clorox where her team was responsible for providing the best consumer experience to the 25,000 consumers who contact Clorox a month, working to turn dissatisfied consumers into advocates to maintain loyalty and positive WOM.
Previously, Jami managed Global Insights on the Clorox Healthcare account, particularly the surface disinfectants & UV medical device portfolio. In this role, she expanded her strategy & insights experience into the healthcare B2B realm, where she helped her team influence and sell products to large IDN systems.
Jami has also spent time developing Innovation for Clorox’s specialty division, in CPG Brand Insights at Unilever, consulting & sales forecasting for large CPG innovations at Nielsen BASES, and optimizing established brand marketing activities using marketing mix & predictive analytics at M/M/A.
Jimmy Lin, Natera
Jimmy Lin MD, Ph.D., MHS, Chief Scientific Officer, Oncology, Natera
Dr. Cheng-Ho Jimmy Lin is the Chief Scientific Officer, Oncology, at Natera. He comes from a long history as a pioneer in cancer genomics. Most recently, he led the clinical genomics program at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Previously, at Johns Hopkins and Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. Lin was part of one of the first clinical genomics labs in academia and led the computational analyses of the first ever exome sequencing studies in cancer, including breast, colorectal, pancreatic, glioblastoma, medulloblastoma, and melanoma. He has published in top academic journals, such as Science, Nature, and Cell, and has been an expert in national and international media outlets, such as New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, Washington Post, and the Financial Times. Dr. Lin holds an MHS in Bioinformatics, a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and an MD from Johns Hopkins University as well dual majors in Cognitive Science and Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.
Kristine Mechem, OncoCyte
Kristine Mechem, VP, Marketing and Planning, OncoCyte
Kristine Mechem is the VP of Marketing and Planning for OncoCyte, a molecular diagnostic company that is focused on areas of high unmet need in Oncology. She has over 15 years of Life Science experience in diagnostics, medical devices and therapeutics. Her corporate background includes market planning and business planning roles at both Genentech and Abbott, as well as leadership positions at a Maternal Health diagnostics company. In addition to her corporate experience, she has also worked in market access consulting and commercialization consulting. She has a Ph. D. from the University of Chicago.
Ryan P. Million, Gilead Sciences, Inc.
Ryan P. Million, Ph.D, Director, Corporate Strategy, Gilead Sciences, Inc.
Dr. Ryan Million’s 20+ years of professional experience in life sciences has focused on delivering growth and innovation with the goal to significantly improve the lives of patients with severe diseases through commercialization of high-impact new medicines and technologies. Dr. Million is currently a Director of Corporate Strategy and Planning at Gilead Sciences where he spearheads transformational initiatives, identifies catalysts for growth, and engages in enterprise-level strategic planning. As a cross-functional leader, Dr. Million works with all functions of Gilead’s business units to affect change and prepare the company to serve patient needs of the future.
Previously Dr. Million was a Vice President of Enterprise Accounts at Quid, a leading late-stage start-up technology company focused on linking the new field of data science to strategic insights. Prior to his time at Quid Dr. Million was a Partner at Trinity Partners, a US-based strategic healthcare consulting firm for nearly 15 years. At Trinity he founded the New York City office, which he ran for over 10 years, and worked with clients in new product development, business development, market analytics, and sales and marketing in several therapeutic areas including oncology, immunology, allergy and respiratory, pulmonology, ophthalmology, pain, urology, CNS, CV, diabetes and anti-infectives. Results delivered to Dr. Million’s clients included several successful licenses and acquisitions, launch and expansion in growth therapeutic areas, and early identification of strategic drivers for in-line and pipeline products.
In addition, Dr. Million brings experience from engeneOS, Inc., a venture-backed biotechnology start-up company in Waltham, MA, where he was a member of the business development team. Dr. Million completed his doctorate training in the Genetics Department at Harvard University publishing several peer-reviewed scientific papers on the ABL oncogene (target of Novartis’s Gleevec/Glivec) and a mouse model of chronic myeloid leukemia. Dr. Million attended the University of California, San Diego where he earned a B.S. in Chemistry/Biochemistry, graduating cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
Dr. Million is based out of the San Francisco Bay Area where he lives with his wife and three children.
Kim Mizrahi, Shapiro+Raj
Kim Mizrahi, Managing Director, New York, Shapiro+Raj
Kim Mizrahi is a social psychologist who has focused her career around the study of social behavior, attitudes, and group dynamics. She has spent the last decade applying that knowledge to help her clients solve complex business problems and build stronger brands. Kim specializes in global health-related brands, but has research and consulting experience across a range of business sectors from travel, to financial services, to food and beverage. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the City University of New York.
Lauren Nelson, Sanofi Genzyme
Lauren Nelson, Director, US Market Access – Rare and Oncology, Sanofi Genzyme
Lauren has almost 20 years of experience in biotechnology and a career focus on orphan and ultra-orphan products. Her career began in the laboratory where she conducted IND-enabling preclinical work at Human Genome Sciences before moving into a position in regulatory affairs consulting. In 2005, she transitioned to the commercial side of the business in sales with Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Biogen Idec before moving into a consulting role focusing on product strategy and market access. She has been with Genzyme for the past 6 years where she currently works as a Director of Market Access, responsible for our rare and oncology portfolios. Lauren has served on multiple program committees, including the BIO international program committee. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Virginia and a Master’s degree in Drug Development and Commercialization from The Johns Hopkins University.
Patti Dame Rohrmeier, Depomed, Inc.
Patti Dame Rohrmeier, Sr. Director, Market Research, Depomed, Inc.
Peter Simpson, Segmedica
Peter Simpson, Principal, Segmedica
Thirty five years of business experience have taken Peter all over the globe. He has lived and worked in the US, UK and Belgium. He has operated in most of the world’s major markets, including Japan and all of Europe. Most of his career has been spent in the Specialty Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Biotechnology areas. His experiences have included the General Management of major businesses, CFO of several companies, Strategic Planning Executive for businesses up to $2.5BN of revenue, as well as acquisitions and divestments, all within the precursor units of AstraZeneca. He is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Management Accountants.
He has been Director of Marketing at Life Technologies Inc., a global supplier to the Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutical industry and Vice President of Consulting and Market Research at Lowe Healthcare, one of the world’s largest medical advertising agencies.
His client experience includes AstraZeneca, Schering Plough, Johnson and Johnson, TAP Pharmaceuticals, Boston Scientific, C R Bard, Pfizer, Merck and many more leading companies. He has also worked with HMO’s, Hospitals and Physicians’ Practices.
Peter’s skills include strategic planning processes, branding issues, healthcare marketing and innovative market research. In over a decade of consulting with the healthcare industry he has conducted numerous research projects of all types and is an experienced interviewer and facilitator. He has been researching and developing psychology based methodologies for medical market research for seven years and has developed a number of novel techniques and processes.
Lori Tarabek, Abbott Diabetes Care
Lori Tarabek, Senior Manager, Global Market Insights, Abbott Diabetes Care
Lori is Senior Manager of Global Market Insights at Abbott Diabetes Care based in Alameda, California. In her current role she is responsible for leading the strategic and foundational market research team.
Lori has had an eclectic market research career in organizations small and large, and in a variety of industries including Consumer Packaged Goods, Healthcare, Diagnostics, Online Services and Medical Devices. She established the primary market research function in three companies and has led teams of business analytics, market and competitive intelligence, demand forecasting and sales administration professionals.
Lori is known for her curious mind, breadth of research expertise and ability to synthesize information into a compelling story yielding strategic business recommendations.
She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Psychological Sciences and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Purdue University.
Kris Treanor, Aimmune Therapeutics
Kris Treanor, Director, Business Insights, Aimmune Therapeutics
Kris has been with Aimmune for the past year, leveraging all manner of data sources to help develop a launch strategy for the anticipated commercialization of AR101, Aimmune’s lead pipeline drug. Prior to Aimmune, Kris was with ZS Pharma, where she oversaw market research, also in the launch preparation space. Before moving to small biopharma, Kris spent nearly four years at Gilead in a couple of roles, including global commercial planning, and almost six years at ZS Associates. Her passion is integrating cross-functional insights to optimize launch and commercialization strategy.
Kris holds an MS in Microbiology & Immunology from Stanford University and an ScB in Biology from Brown University.
Ruchi Varshneya, Abbott
Ruchi Varshneya, Senior Director, Corporate Marketing, Abbott
Ruchi is Senior Director of Global Market Insights and Strategy at Abbott Diabetes Care based in Alameda, California. In her current role she is responsible for driving insights based product innovation and
strategic planning. Ruchi has led Insights function and teams in diverse industries including Consumer packaged goods, Application Software, Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices.
She has a reputation of being an authentic voice of the customer. She is regarded as an inspiring and collaborative leader who is respected for setting high goals for her team and consistently delivering on
them.
She earned her engineering degree from India Institute of Technology, India; an MBA from XLRI school of management, India and a Master’s in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
Ruchi is passionate about volunteering in her local community and for a variety of causes in India.
Elizabeth Walton, Lifescience Dynamics
Elizabeth Walton, Business Analyst, Lifescience Dynamics
Elizabeth is an experienced business analyst based in our London office, with core consulting capabilities and experience working across market research, competitive intelligence and market access consulting projects.
Before joining Lifescience Dynamics, Elizabeth was an Associate Business Consultant at Sapient Global Markets, where she worked with two major multinational clients on competitive intelligence and technology strategy projects.
Elizabeth graduated from Oxford University with a MEng degree in Material Science. During her final year of study, she attended an exchange program at MIT where she worked in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Langer lab, to develop a novel polymer platform for drug delivery. In 2015, her Master’s thesis, was recognised by IOM3 (The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining) in the form of the prestigious James S Walker prize.