Archives: Speakers

With over 25 years of experience in clinical research, Heidi Hoppe brings a wealth of knowledge and leadership to the field. Throughout her career, Heidi has overseen global programs and managed high-performing teams across a broad portfolio of clinical trials, leading departments, streamlining processes, and ensuring the successful execution of complex studies. Having worked in both sponsor and CRO environments, Heidi offers a uniquely comprehensive perspective on the industry. She now leverages her versatile experience with both of these key stakeholders to develop truly collaborative partnership strategies. Known for her commitment to excellence and innovation, she continues to be a driving force in advancing clinical research on a global scale and influencing the Sponsor-CRO relationship for the better.

Michelle is the Chief Product Officer at Kurtosys, where she brings extensive international experience in digital product leadership from major financial centres including London, New York, and Singapore. With a proven track record of building transformative client-facing platforms for global leaders across Banking and Data Services, Michelle’s entrepreneurial and client-centric approach refines products to drive revenue growth, meeting evolving client needs. Her experience encompasses the full spectrum of digital product design, delivery, and market introduction. Michelle has a demonstrated history of redefining product development strategies and spearheading innovation across numerous international enterprises.

Rhys Johnson is a seasoned Solutions Engineer at Talkdesk with over 10 years of experience in solution engineering and AI-driven customer experience solutions. He brings deep AI expertise and a proven track record of advising multiple financial services institutions on their digital transformation efforts—helping them streamline operations, automate workflows, and elevate client satisfaction. Rhys is skilled in public speaking and technical sales, and holds a BA in International Business from The University of Hull

Gerald is a renowned, award-winning expert in intelligent automation and AI, with a proven track record of delivering large-scale solutions across various sectors, especially in complex, regulated environments. His previous roles encompass customer journey transformation, operations leadership, complaint management, and extensive customer remediation. Currently, Gerald serves as the Managing Director of Business Transformation at Concentrix, where he oversees the implementation of technology-driven solutions to address client challenges

Tom has worked in the life sciences industry since 1997, with the first 10 years spent as a pharmaceutical representative and marketing product manager for Bertek, Merck and GSK.

Tom joined Valeris in 2008, created the RxStudy Card offering in 2009 and since then has been focused on changing the paradigm of the traditional clinical trial supply process to one of greater efficiency.

Eleanor McLaurin, Solution Specialist for Medidata has spent over 20 years in the Life Sciences industry. Eleanor supports organisations to create efficiencies throughout the clinical development and regulatory lifecycle through adoption of transformational technologies and data driven clinical and regulatory development approaches. Eleanor has spent the last 6 years working with organisations to leverage practical applications of AI and to implement data strategies which enable reliable generation of evidence and insights for internal oversight as well as for regulatory inspections and submissions.