Archives: Speakers

In his role as VP, eCOA Science & Consulting, Bryan McDowell brings extensive experience and expertise to achieve smarter drug development, clinical trial design and execution (including decentralized and remote trials) to vastly expand the reach and access of trials to more patients, provide improved patient experience and data quality to deliver accelerated drug & device development programs. Bryan is a thought leader and recognized strategist & visionary and continues to influence, drive and deliver on the pharma-wide industry necessity for smarter drug & device development and life cycle management.

Phil Lake is a respiratory specialist who supports clients all around the world and has held various roles in drug development for more than 22 years, predominantly focused on respiratory trials. Previously, he held positions at SmithKline Beecham and GlaxoSmithKline within respiratory drug development, working on respiratory drug development in a range of drug mechanisms and trial designs including landmark studies such as exacerbations, mortality, and mechanistic studies focusing on biopsy and sputum biomarkers. Phil has concentrated extensively on understanding drivers for variability to reduce the risk of study failure that included traditional respiratory indications as well as generic bioequivalence studies and the use of lung function as a biomarker within many rare diseases. He has focused on understanding potential safety signals within drugs which could have negative impacts on lung health. Phil has been pivotal in early centralized over read studies and is committed to driving improvements in lung function testing within decentralized trials.

Chris Driver is currently Director, IT Architecture at IQVIA, with over 21 years of experience in the IRT and Biotechnology space, and across a number of R&D and Information Technology functions. Chris’s experience and background in infrastructure architecture, global health platforms and more recently, decentralized trial adoption through real-time integrations, drives his enthusiasm for the future state of patient-centered health care.  In his “downtime”, Chris enjoys spending time with his growing family, advocating for adoption, especially for those blessed with an extra chromosome!

Horst Becker has more than 15 years of working experience in the Financial Services Sector & Captives and is member of KPMG’s Automotive/ Mobility Financial Services Group. Servicing European as well as regional clients in implementing Software and Finance Transformation projects. As an Engagement Manager of those topics I typically work at the intersection of Project Governance, IT Provider, Accounting/Risk Departments and Focussing on the needs and goals of the People within those projects as well. In recent two years a lot of these projects were performed in the Leasing area within specific leasing companies or captives.

Michael Hickey is the VP of Clinical Operations at Bio-Path Holdings, LLC, a small biotech focused on developing liposomal antisense oligonucleotides in leukemia, lymphoma and solid tumors.  With over 26 years of experience at large and small sponsors including 6 years on the CRO side, Michael brings a truly collaborative approach and broad expertise in oncology and rare disease clinical drug development.  His clinical experience has focused on challenging indications such as head-and-neck cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer with BRCA mutations as well as chemotherapy induced myelosuppression, hemophilia, and Battens Disease.

Nicole Haupt-Drescher, Product Manager, Clinical Trial Supplies & Logistics, Parexel, offers a decade of experience managing the organization’s activities, operations, and performance for clinical supply management. Nicole has been with Parexel since 2010 and graduated from the University of Tubingen, Germany.