Archives: Speakers

Sinead is a Digital Healthcare and Clinical Research Executive with a career spanning clinical care, academic research and digital health across multiple therapeutic areas including oncology, internal medicine and vaccines development. She joins THREAD with over 18 years’ experience in clinical service delivery, sponsor research governance, CRO and eHealth. Sinead oversees the Delivery team in the EMEA as the executive sponsor for customer portfolios within THREAD. Sinead is a clinically trained radiotherapist with a bachelor’s degree from the School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin and a Master of Science clinical research from the University of London.

Johanna Morand is the Associate Director, Site Contracts, at Premier Research, responsible for EMEA, LATAM, and APAC, along with the Benelux Country Lead. She has 12 years of experience negotiating contracts for clinical trials (previously with Genzyme, a Sanofi Company, Parexel, and Cmed). Ms. Morand leads an international team of Contract Leads and Contract Specialists. Her aim remains to balance timely execution while managing legal, financial, and operational risks. Ms. Morand holds an LLM in European Law from Leiden University and an LLM in Law and Economics from Utrecht University where she wrote a thesis on European Orphan Medicinal Product Regulations.

Dr. Cary’s entire professional career has been in the pharmaceutical industry. He has extensive experience in injectable products research and development as well as Drug Development. An MBA degree has given him the background to be an effective leader in New Business Development. At Abbott he successfully championed the development of pre-mixed drugs, as well as the Add-Vantage Drug Delivery System. He also played a critical role in the identification and commercialization of PCA (patient controlled analgesia). He is a co-founder of a successful specialty pharmaceutical company, Cary Pharmaceuticals Inc. and is the sole inventor of US patent 6,197,827 titled, Nicotine Addiction Treatment.

Roger has 30 years of management and drug development expertise from his leading roles in preclinical and clinical drug development programs, regulatory strategy and interactions, funding, and outsourcing to specialist service providers. With his experience in basic research, large and small pharma, and CRO settings he provides valuable insight into business and R&D operations for pharma/biotech companies. His specific therapeutic areas of expertise are in diabetes, oncology, gene therapy, and cardiovascular indications. He is currently President and Co-Founder at BioKier and was previously CEO at Plakous Therapeutics and Senior Scientist in Clinical Development at Cato Research. Roger received a PhD in Pharmacology and Biochemistry from Melbourne University and completed Postdoctoral fellowships at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and at Burroughs Wellcome.

Currently leading Clinical Operations at Tenax Therapeutics, Kevin M. Crawford is a 23-year clinical research veteran, having held leadership posts under such leading brands as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson, and United Therapeutics. A certified executive coach, contributing writer and vlogger as well, Kevin’s insights on a personal and professional mission, organizational leadership and life balance have garnered a growing cult following and demand as an executive consultant and speaker. With a Master’s degree in Biotechnology from the University of Maryland, he has published in the Journals of the American Thoracic Society and American College of Chest Physicians. Kevin lives in Raleigh, NC with his wife and three children, and when he is not “ON,” he enjoys playing soccer, kayaking, volunteering and having bad coffee with good friends

Co-Founder, Clinical Research Innovation Hub, Microsoft Corporation The Clinical Research Innovation Hub (CRIH) is the first industry focused internal startup in Microsoft. Innovation hubs are engines that allow Microsoft to focus on pressing industry problems by combining the speed, agility and autonomy of a startup with resources available to a large enterprise. CRIH analyzes problems deeply through interviews and experiments, then rapidly builds solutions alongside Microsoft customers and partners. Ryan is responsible for the operations of the innovation hub, for the management of the portfolio, and for creating the conditions for agile and open innovation. CRIH is enabling Microsoft and its partners to conceptualize, incubate, and ultimately deliver the technology innovations that will drive the adoption of new clinical research paradigms. Ryan has been with Microsoft for 12 years. Prior to his current role he served as a Chief Transformation Officer for the US subsidiary, responsible for designing and executing change management strategies for transforming sales, marketing, and services operations for the $33B business. Before joining Microsoft, Ryan was the CIO for the City of Chicago city council, responsible for implementing IT policies and data security protocols to protect the integrity of sensitive citizen and employee data. He partnered with Microsoft and implementation partners to modernize and transform dozens of legacy systems, enabling greater transparency in government and more citizen-centric applications. Ryan holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University and a Master of Business Administration from Duke University (The Fuqua School of Business).

Disa has 15+ years of experience working in technology and innovation especially in the pharmaceutical industry. She is the Head of Integrated Clinical and Operational Analytics at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies part of Johnson & Johnson. She was previously at UCB as the Head of Innovation and held other leadership roles. Prior to joining the pharma, she was a co-founder of an IT company. She has an EMBA and B.S. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry. In 2017, Disa started a consortium, a cross-industry collaboration on blockchain via PhUSE. Recently, she was awarded Top 100 Women in Technology, Financial Times top 100 most influential BAME Leader, and featured on the cover of CIO Look celebrating Women in Tech 2019. Her passion is on closing the gap for patients with unmet needs and exploring the right digital technologies to accelerate the implementation of end-to-end patient solution.

Guillem is the Founder and CEO of MediQuo as well as the Founder of MeetingDoctors. Investor and board member of more than 30 startups including: Singularu, Cuidum, Landbot, Demium, Homyspace, Hannun, Taiga Agile, Swipcar, Catevering, Dental Residency, Brickbro, Twenix, The Wild Curl, Shimoku, Spathios, Trialing, Pulpo, Rebag, Impossible Bakers, Incapto and Buscoresi among others. He is a physician and mathematician with an MBA from IESE Business School and has deep knowledge in the eHealth market, MedTech and early seed startups. Guillem’s technical knowledge includes the areas of data-mining, signal processing, artificial intelligence and product development.

Alastair has 30+ years of experience in the biopharmaceutical development of pre- and post-approval drugs, joining Syneos Health on 2017. Prior to joining Syneos Health, Alastair had a Global Delivery Head role at AstraZeneca with responsibility for the delivery of both pre and post approval programmes supporting key brands

As a Director, Operational Strategy with over 17 years’ experience from the Pharma, Biotech and CRO side of clinical trial planning, execution and leadership, Alexis uses her expertise to support Precision for Medicine (PFM) clients. This includes the development of study and portfolio level strategies. Alexis has managed global studies from Phase I FIH to logistically complex Phase III studies and has a passion for operational excellence, process management and study finance. Alexis holds a degree in Neuroscience and a Masters in Biotechnology Law and Ethics. With a focus in Oncology and Rare Disease, PFM is now also supporting clients within Neurology, CVS and Pediatric indications.