Archives: Speakers

Les Sparrow has been with World Courier for 20 + years. He is currently the Senior Manager, Cold Chain Technology for this specialty global transportation company that supports the bio/pharm industry in the rapid and secure transport of clinical supplies and diagnostic materials. Les leads a team that interfaces with every intra-company department, monitoring all temperature control related activity. In this role, it is his responsibility to ensure that the company meets or exceeds client expectations by using optimum logistical planning and the most current tools to maintain temperature integrity. This group creates and modifies SOPs that secure this goal.

Over the course of Les’ tenure with the company he continues to interface with clients and employees in a training and/or consultant capacity in the areas of dangerous goods, cold chain, documentation and packaging. He has also been very involved in working with the airlines and cargo management.

Throughout his 25+ year career in GMP production of biopharmaceuticals, biologics, bulk chemicals, and medical device consumables, Rob has led scientific, engineering and manufacturing teams across diverse geographic locations; introduced continuous improvement cultures to maximize manufacturing efficiency; gained recognition as a problem solver with an inherent ability to come up with on-target solutions to tough challenges and updated legacy production processes to modern GMP and analytical standards. Utilization of core competencies in LEAN processing, large-scale manufacturing, ERP implementation/optimization, project management, 3rd party management, production finance, inventory management and supply chain management have driven operational success.

Jasmine Dow is a outsourcing professional at Nektar Therapeutics and has 10+ Pharmaceutical and Biotech experience in procurement, contracting, strategic sourcing and operational process development.  She holds a Masters of Business Administration in Leadership and Health Care Management from the University of Saint Mary.  Jasmine is passionate about strong business relationship development, strategic negations and  effective communications.  Her experience and passion uniquely qualifies her to advocate for strong business practices for the benefit of the patients, this community and clinical research.

With over ten years in the big pharm and biotech industry, Santana currently serves as Senior Manager, Clinical Contracts and Outsourcing at Cytokinetics. Santana has combined her legal education and training with industry experience to create foster collaborative relationships between sponsors and vendors.  She believes that robust specifications, partnership, intent toward value and clear communications lead to quality deliverables and effective sponsor vendor relationships.

Santana is an organizational coach and speaker with attention to communication, personal and professional growth and start-up strategies.

Andrew is the Chief Operating Officer at YourChoice Therapeutics, a startup launched by a team of researchers that is revolutionizing the global contraceptive market. He is also the Co-founder of Aescula Tech, a preclinical medical device company focused on developing solutions for disorders of the eye.

Focused on the development and execution of Flint Group Packaging Inks’ Vision, Strategy & Marketing, Thomas works cross-functionally with stakeholders across our global operations. Having previously worked for a packaging converter, Thomas’ understands the opportunities and challenges of our time, across the industry.

Benjamin Köhler is Chief Sales Officer and Co-Founder of Betterspace, one of the leading 360 software providers of digital solutions for the hotel industry, the software company he co-founded has more than 800 customers in over 10 countries. With a lot of enthusiasm, the committed entrepreneur continues to push the internationalization of the tec supplier.