Archives: Speakers

I have diverse experience in the pharmaceutical and medical device fields in patient advocacy as well as coaching pharma and STEM clients in communication and leadership skills.

I am passionate about patient advocacy and being the voice of the patient. I have held active and influential roles in advocacy, Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) relationships, marketing and senior management. My experience in both the commercial and patient advocacy side of business makes me:

• Nimble in fast-paced, dynamic, regulated environments
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to build high performance teams
• Identify synergies and collaborations that support opportunities for the company with various stakeholders
• Teamwork with the ability to work cross-functionally and communicate with a myriad of internal and external stakeholders

I believe that storytelling is an invaluable way to create awareness and build community. Within the healthcare, entertainment and media sectors, I work with businesses, individuals and non-profit organizations to create, consult and build community. I facilitate clients, potential customers and vendors using the real-time web, helping companies build communities.

My professional experience include speaking from the perspective of a person living with chronic diseases at leading healthcare conferences from keynoting conferences, speaking and serving as a panelist. The patient perspective is vital in the healthcare conversation whether I am leading workshop and conference sessions for your company in a conference room or in front of over a thousand people in a ballroom. Including patients as advisers and consultants is a valuable way to gain insights and perspective. Using social media to create and build brand, product or event awareness my services provide engagement that works on across internet platforms in a variety of industry sectors. Understanding the power in “humanizing the connection” to work for you and your bottom line.

During the pandemic I became a certified Health and Life Coach, and I utilize my personal experience and training enable me to support and empower those living with a chronic illness. Whether newly diagnosed or struggling to manage the complexities of managing health and life. I strive to help everyone thrive with simple tools and easy shifts to create meaningful impact in their lives.

• 20+ years’ experience in clinical development, and operations in class II and III implantable medical device industry.
• Known for outstanding work ethic and delivering the clinical projects on time and budget.
• Adept and pragmatic in using project management tools with a focus on cross-functional collaboration and achieving goals by deadlines.
• Steered the team in accordance with company strategic vision and business expectations sticking to commitments with clinical development & medical affairs partners.
• Lead clinical support for commercial products globally (US, EU, Canada, Paris, Swiss, Germany, Turkey, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan and Korea).
• Expert in clinical data analysis, patient reported outcome (PRO) design and assessment, and data analytics. Comprehensive knowledge about clinical database systems design and development.
• Highly passionate, technology driven, big picture oriented team player.

Clinical Development Operations Leader with over 20 years of drug development and clinical project management experience.

I am very passionate about drug development process and bringing new therapies to patients in need. My expertise benefits small and large biotech and pharmaceutical companies with all stages of drug and medical device development programs. I have worked in the following therapeutic areas: Alzheimer’s disease, oncology (hematologic malignancy T- cell therapy, and solid tumors), cardiology (stem cell therapy), infectious diseases, endocrinology and rare diseases.

Specialties: Clinical Operations department head (team structure and assignments), Clinical Study strategy and management (CRO/vendor selection, management and oversight) cross-functional team leader, global phase 3 studies, study sites selection, management and monitoring, study Protocol and other document writing, GCP and FDA regulations, budget management, risk management

As a Practice Leader in Advanced Analytics and Data Science for Life Sciences Commercialization, I specialize in navigating the complexities of data and technology strategy to drive impactful business outcomes. My expertise spans Life Sciences Commercialization from pre to post-launch, crafting robust Data Strategies, defining KPIs and BI Strategies, and leveraging Advanced Analytics for a comprehensive understanding of the Patient Journey. I also bring a rich and diverse experience of guiding 20+ large bio-tech, emerging pharma, and med-tech companies involved with their product launches, growth trajectory, and M&A scenarios

With a deep focus on Customer Strategy and Segmentation, Opinion Leader Intelligence, Omni Channel, and CRM Experience, I deliver actionable insights that drive organizations towards success. I bring deep expertise around diverse commercial and market access data, to help deliver insights for key account planning, payer targeting and various other operational and analytics use cases

Leveraging a diverse skill set, I excel in Cross-Functional Partnerships, Team Building, and Coaching, driving data science, engineering, and architecture initiatives. Proficient in Cloud Architecture and tools for CRM/CDP/MDM, I bring an Agile mindset to strategy and execution.

Dr. Spear has been working in oncology and gene therapy research and development for over 30 years. He received a B.A. degree from the Johns Hopkins University and an M.D. degree from Stanford University. Post-graduate training was in the Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard University program. He has served as an Associate Professor on the faculty of the USC Keck School of Medicine, and the UCSD Medical School / UCSD Cancer Center where he managed a clinical practice, drug discovery/gene therapy research, and clinical trial programs for cancer. Dr. Spear led multiple oncology clinical development programs at Pfizer. He subsequently served as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice-President at Nereus Pharmaceuticals, followed by Head of Oncology and Head of Biotherapeutics at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, then as a Vice-President at Incyte and Sangamo Therapeutics, and Chief Medical Officer at Poseida Therapeutics developing multiple CAR-T cell and gene therapy products. He is currently Chief Development Officer / Chief Medical Officer at Denovo Biopharma. He has also served as a CIRM CAR-T cell principal investigator, NIH / NCI study section, CPRIT grant review panel, biotechnology and pharmaceutical advisory boards, IRB/SRC, and scientific journal editorial review committees related to cancer and gene therapy, as well as authoring numerous scientific papers and patent applications.