Rainmaker20

Nick Merryfield

Verpora

A pioneer in the field of value-based contracting, Nick Merryfield is the CEO at Verpora. A chemist by training, Nick started his career as a representative for SmithKline Beecham, before moving into sales management at Boehringer-Ingelheim. In 1998, he decided to leave the corporate world to pursue his passion – identifying and executing new ways of working. This decision took Nick on an exhilarating 20-plus year journey. His first business, Health Sector Publishing, helped the life sciences industry navigate the embryonic world of market access. Following the success of HSP, Nick invested in Infonetica, a trail-blazing IT company that expedited the clinical trial ethics application process. In 2005 Nick combined his experiences to create NHiS, a leading-edge organization assisting payer-focussed teams communicate value. In 2013, NHiS was purchased by Wilmington PLC, with Infonetica and HSP being sold to a private buyer. This allowed Nick to exclusively focus on the rapidly growing area of value-based contracting and for the last five years, Nick has led Verpora. The company actively assists U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturers to develop and deploy VBA for primary care medicines through to specialist areas such as immuno-oncology and gene therapy. Contact: nick.merryfield@verpora.com

Omar Ali

VERPORA

Qualified with a hospital pharmacy background, Omar has been working as Government Pharmacy Payer for over 15 years, sitting on various Drugs & Therapeutics Committees & Formulary Advisory Committess for Primary Care & Hospital Medicines. Omar has been a visiting Lecturer at UCLH Pharmacy Programme and was both Lecturer & Examiner on the Independent Prescribing Course at the University of Surrey. He has been appointed as Visiting Lecturer on Value Based Pricing & Innovative Contracting at the University of Portsmouth. Omar has served an Adviser to NICE for 9 years across 3 Committees evaluting cost-efefctiveneness, adoption & budget impact thresholds and managed entry agreements. He advises foreign investors (US Embassy) on ‘Value Based
Assessments (hosted by the UK Department of Trade & Industry) and recently delivered a Healthcare
NHS Reform program to over 40 Healthcare Insurance Provider delegates visiting from the US.
Last year he was invited to address the Italian Healthcare Senate [Senato della Repubblica] on
Pharmaco-economic Evaluation & Sustainability Models of Healthcare and featured at the
Westminster Parliamentary Health Forum [chaired by Lord Howe] on the Future for Pharmacy Commissioning, Organisation & Delivery. At this current time he has embarked on a PhD with his doctorate thesis entitled “Value Based Pricing &
Outcomes Based, Innovative Contracting of New Medicines”.

Kathryn Alexander

NCR

2018 CRN’s Women in Channels Award recipient honoring women whose channel expertise and vision are deserving of recognition. Kathryn Alexander brings an impressive 20+ year results-filled leadership career in channel and alliance sales, direct sales, marketing and sales operations with respected IT industry leaders such as NCR, Xerox, Dell, IBM and Bell Atlantic. As Vice President, Head of the Americas Channels for NCR, Kathryn drove global sales and channel revenue growth by leading the execution of the Channel Sales Strategy across three industries; Retail, Financial Services and Hospitality in the United States, Canada, Latin America and Caribbean.

Mohit Agarwal

Model N

Mohit has been with Model N for the past 6 years in the Professional Services organization. Mohit has a 14 year track record of implementing complex Enterprise Software for some of the biggest Pharmaceuticals. Mohit has played several roles like Business Analyst, Solution Architect, Project Manager and Customer Success Manager during the course of this career. Currently Mohit is the Customer Success Manager for one of Model N’s biggest customer and leads the Customer Success team at that customer.

John O’Brien

JMOB & ASSOCIATES

John O’Brien served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he led policy development on multiple Administration priorities, including the drafting and execution of the President’s drug pricing blueprint. He also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy, and a key advisor to the Secretary for health policy research, development, and analysis related to Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurance. Prior to joining HHS, Dr. O’Brien held senior policy positions in the life sciences and managed care industries, was a career official at CMS during the Obama Administration, and served as a health policy fellow in the U.S. Senate. He also holds a number of academic appointments and is passionate about mentoring the next generation of health policy leaders. John has a master’s degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a doctor of pharmacy degree from Nova Southeastern University, and studied pharmacy and public policy at the University of Florida.

Malcolm Penn

Future Horizons

Malcolm Penn is the founder of Future Horizons, a leading semiconductor industry analyst, established in April 1989. Mr Penn has over 55 years of experience covering all aspects of the semiconductor and electronics industry, including new business development, management, manufacturing, marketing and design. Prior to establishing Future Horizons, Mr Penn was Vice President and Director of European Operations for Dataquest (now Gartner), responsible for establishing and running all of its European research operations. Previously he was Manager of Component Engineering for ITT Europe (now Alcatel) and prior to that held various operations and marketing management positions with the worldwide ITT Semiconductor Group (now Micronas and General Signal), starting with TTL logic, then MOS LSI, worldwide DRAM Business Group Manager and finally Executive Director of ITT’s UK-based front and back-end semiconductor operations. Prior to ITT Semiconductors, he was a systems design engineer at Venner Electronics, a UK company specialising in the design and development of electronic measurement instrumentation. Mr Penn studied Electronics Engineering at London’s Southbank University in 1962, graduating with an honours degree in 1966 during which time he worked his way through college as a professional musician.

John Shakow

King & Spalding

John D. Shakow, Partner, King & Spalding – John’s practice focuses on complex regulatory, commercial and litigation issues related to all aspects of drug pricing, price reporting, and government payor program compliance. He counsels a diverse group of pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturer clients on all pricing-related rights and obligations under the Medicaid, Medicare, Federal Supply Schedule, 340B and TRICARE programs. John advises on compliance, strategic planning, contract negotiation, merger integration, internal investigations, civil litigation and defense in government investigations. He regularly assists clients in interactions with government regulators, policymakers, commercial partners and industry groups. He has extensive experience helping clients resolve commercial and organizational challenges while maintaining the integrity of their price reporting compliance efforts.

Russ Anderson

Biogen

Russ has spent 20 years working for various Healthcare and Life Science firms with a focus on technology adoption and improvement.  For the past 6 years he has served as the head of IT for Global Market Access systems at Biogen and is responsible for defining and executing on capability roadmaps surrounding Revenue Management, Global Pricing, CRM, and Data & Analytics.

Alexis Arroyo

HighPoint Solutions

Pricing and Contracting Leader with 15 years of experience working on solutions for pharmaceutical, biotech and med-device companies within pricing and contracting. Alexis’ experience covers all areas of commercial contracting and government pricing spaces with business, functional, and technical expertise including strategic and operational assessments, vendor selections, and large scale system implementations and GP compliance readiness programs for emerging pharma.

Lawrence M. Walsh

THE 2112 GROUP

Lawrence M. Walsh is CEO and chief analyst of The 2112 Group, a business strategy firm focused on improving the performance of technology companies’ direct and indirect go-to-market channels. Mr. Walsh specializes in the development and execution of channel programs, disruptive sales models, and growth strategies for companies of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune 500 organizations. A seasoned journalist, analyst, author, industry commentator, and founder of Channelnomics, Walsh previously served as editor of Information Security, VARBusiness, and Ziff Davis Enterprise’s Channel Insider and Baseline Magazine. He is the co-author of the book, The Power of Convergence and host of the podcast, Pod2112. Follow him on social media @lmwalsh2112.

Warren Barkley

Amazon Web Services

Warren Barkley joined Amazon in September of 2018 as the General Manager in the AWS Machine Learning group responsible for crowdsourcing. Mr. Barkley most recently served as the General Manager for Business AI at Microsoft where he worked on a variety of machine learning technologies. For 5 years Warren was the CTO for SMART Technologies a public company that was sold to the Foxconn Group in 2016. Before 2012, he held several key positions in Microsoft and was instrumental in the development of Microsoft Skype/Lync as the communication and collaboration software of choice for Fortune 500 companies. At Microsoft, he played a central role in establishing WiFi as a worldwide standard and building world class real time communications technologies used by hundreds of millions of users every day. He holds over 35 worldwide patents in networking, wireless and communications.
He holds advanced degrees from the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia.

Tracy Bordas

Stryker

Manager, Strategic Contracts & Pricing at Stryker

Tracy Bordas started at Stryker Orthopaedics in Mahwah, NJ 5 years ago. She joined the company as a Contracts & Pricing analyst and transitioned to Manager of Strategic Contracts & Pricing. Tracy is currently responsible for the contracts and pricing analytics for the West sales area, Government sales support, and the Sales Operations Rotational Program. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and Management from Rider University and recently received her MBA from Ramapo College of New Jersey.

Steve Borsellino

Novo Nordisk

An IT veteran of 25+ years, Steve has been a hands-on technical leader & solutions engineer across many platforms & tech domains in a variety of industries including Telecom, Accounting, Regulatory, QA, HR, Retail, Marketing, Document management, and most recently Pharmaceuticals, where he’s supported Model N at Novo Nordisk for nearly 12 years, during which time he’s been involved with 4 full suite implementations, and tech support of every shape & form. With Novo Nordisk in the midst of a full migration to RMC, Steve is now immersed in Model N’s cloud, looking forward to a successful transition to SaaS.

Dave Cannell

Cumberland

Dave is a Managing Director in Cumberland’s Life Sciences practice with 33 years of experience in the life science industry specifically in the area of Contract Management life cycle and operations. He consults for medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers (generics, brand and specialty) and is responsible for project delivery as well as new business development. He specializes in the commercial domain encompassing chargebacks, institutional rebates, Managed care and Medicaid rebates. He has led numerous system implementations for both on premise and BPO projects utilizing both Powered by N and Powered by Flex systems.

Nancy Doherty

Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Director of Pricing, Contracts and Reimbursement at Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Nancy’s current role is the Director of Pricing, Contracting and Reimbursement at Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc., headquartered in Parsippany. Nancy began her career in Pharma with Schein Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Watson Pharmaceuticals. She moved into contracting and government pricing roles at Watson, and had positions of increasing responsibility in this space over the past ten years, working for Sandoz, Reliant and Bristol Myers Squibb. In her current role she is responsible for commercial and government contract administration, government price calculation and reporting, commercial and government rebate payment activities as well as order management and customer service.

Pravana Goundan

ZS

Pranava has 11+ years of experience advising and leading US value & access engagements with biopharmaceutical clients. Deep expertise in two distinct domains – US market access/managed care, and data science/advanced analytics with a focus on marketing and market access. Within US market access, Pranava has supported biopharmaceutical clients on projects spanning organization design, launch access planning, access and contracting strategy, pricing, patient access support, payer marketing, payer data management, and contracting analytics & reporting.

Bernard Gutierrez

Model N

Bernard is Vice President of Global Solutions Consulting at Model N, and has been with Model N since 2011. He and his team works closely with prospects to understand their challenges around revenue management and map them to Model N solutions and value proposition. Bernard has worked extensively in both our Life Science and High Tech verticals. Prior to joining Model N, Bernard worked in leadership roles at JDA Software, Signal Demand, DemandTec and Blue Martini software.

Paul Hashemi

ZS

Paul is a principal in ZS’s Philadelphia office. His work has focused on go-to-market strategy, resource deployment and optimization, and marketing analytics with pharmaceutical and medical device clients across a wide range of therapy areas. He is one of the leaders of the firm’s Managed Care Analytics and Technology practice, and also leads ZS’s decision analytics track, ensuring that the firm has the people, processes and systems needed to deliver top-notch analytic consulting to clients.

Philippe Adam

STMicroelectronics

PRISMA Business owner capitalizing on a large experience in product marketing and sales business management at STMicroelectronics.
Electronic engineer graduated from Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble.

Jim Holland

Model N

High Tech Product Marketing Manager, Model N

Jim is an experienced product and marketing leader with more than three decades of experience in High Tech enterprise software. Jim’s career traverses startups and early stage companies to large enterprise organizations such as PROS and Compuware. Jim currently is the Product Marketing Manager for Model N’s High Tech products.

Matt Jaffe

CGI

Matt Jaffe leads CGI’s Life Sciences Commercial Domain. He has nearly a decade of strategy and operations consulting experience across a variety of industries. He has expertise in leading large-scale business transformations and in driving improvements across a breadth of commercial and business operations capabilities. Matt holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a B.S. and M.Eng. in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University.

Kristan Almquist

Model N

Kristan joined Model N in early 2016. In her current role, she is a Sr. Education Consultant and Trainer for the Powered by FLEX platform in the GCS organization of Model N. Prior to this, she was part of the Professional Services organization and was a Sr. Business Analyst and Consultant. Kristan has vast experience in Pharma, Life Sciences and Medical Device industries and has worked directly with customers and strategic partners through all phases of the implementation lifecycle while providing a dependable link between business users, key stakeholders, strategic partners, and project management regarding software functionality throughout the development cycle.

Pat Bhatt

Model N

Mr. Pat Bhatt joined Model N in 2017 and was responsible for managing and launching the new Intelligence Cloud solution. Pat is passionate about analytics and artificial intelligence and has worked on numerous projects as well as published papers and articles in this field. He has earned masters’ degrees in engineering, computer science, and business, and holds 10 patents for a variety of inventions.

David Johnson

Model N

Sr. Director, Product Marketing, Model N

David Johnson is a seasoned enterprise software marketing and product leader with more than two decades of experience. David has spent his career transforming startups into market leaders as well as increasing the dominance of mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies like Vignette and Oracle. David is currently Sr. Director of Product Marketing at Model N.

Robert Blank

EVERSANA

Robert Blank is a managing consultant at Eversana, working extensively in revenue management software solutions for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. His expertise includes Medicaid and Managed Care rebates, chargebacks, and membership management. He has developed custom client solutions around value based contracting, formulary validation, discount reallocation, and the 340B Drug Pricing Program. In his speaking engagements and published articles, Robert focuses on outlining industry trends and the impacts of legislation upon commercial operations.

Prabhunandan Bontala Venkata

Biogen

Prabhu Bontala is a Senior Solutions Architect at Biogen supporting the Model N Flex platform. Prabhu has extensive experience on Medicaid, Chargebacks, Rebates and Government Pricing modules. He has been instrumental in implementing the Unbundling solution at Biogen.

Mike Kurland

Eversana

With more than 2 decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, Michael helps clients navigate the complex public and private payer marketplace. He has a proven reputation for helping manufacturers balance their market share goals and commercial rebate strategies with government pricing impacts and compliance. Throughout his career Michael has developed, implemented and managed business strategies and technical solutions for government pricing, market access, rebate and chargeback processing and data analytics. And, in this context, it makes perfect sense that his areas of expertise include government pricing compliance, public payer strategy development, business analysis, project management, process and system reviews, selections and implementations, and cross-functional team management. Previously, Michael served as director at several life science consulting firms, as well as associate director of government regulated systems at Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Penn State University.

Odalys Caprisecca

ASTRAZENECA

Pharmaceutical executive with over 25 years experience. Currently Market Access Executive Director for AstraZeneca responsible for Strategic Pricing, Trade and Contract Operations as well as Government Pricing and Operations. She is an innovative and results-oriented Strategic Executive with extensive history developing and implementing efficient, cost-effective and innovative business strategies strengthening company operations. Proven track record of designing and executing innovative solutions that promote strategy development and process improvement across commercial, regulatory and financial business segments. Actively engaged with Federal and State Representatives informing and shaping policy.

John Lewis

BPI

Sr. Director, Product Strategy and Development at BPI

With more than 18 years at BPI, John is responsible for product strategy and development of the GTN solution where he oversees product delivery for all implementations. He has major influence in strategic planning and R&D activities focused on extending BPI’s product offering to address industry needs and requirements. John also manages BPI’s advisory board with clients and industry resources to develop leading technology solutions and defining the product roadmap for the Model N BPI GTN solution.

Jenn Channel

Model N

Jenn has been a Model N employee for almost 19 years. During this time she has worked in a variety of roles including: Professional Services, Solutions, Product Manager, Customer Success and Education.
Prior to working at Model N she worked in Distribution.

James (Jim) Doumato

Stryker

Jim is currently the Director of Strategic Contracts & Pricing at Stryker’s Orthopaedics Group. Supporting a National Accounts team and selling organization that drive domestic revenue of more than $3.5B, Jim’s team delivers world class full contract lifecycle management. Jim has extensive experience in medical devices, including implants and capital equipment, National Accounts, Integrated Delivery Networks, Group Purchasing Organizations, Enterprise Resource Planning, Revenue Management, and Pricing Analytics. Jim is a strong operations professional with a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) focused in Management of Technology from New Jersey Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Mathematics from Muhlenberg College.

Jennifer Lospinoso

KPMG

Managing Director, KPMG

Jennifer has over 16 years of experience providing services to the Life Sciences industry with a focus on U.S. Managed Markets where she has established accrual rates for Medicaid, SPAP, and federal contracts which account for ~$2.5B in gross sales and $1.3B in discounts. Jennifer serves as subject matter professional for Managed Markets related deductions on KPMG Life Sciences financial statement audits while assisting clients with accrual projections for various types of discounts (e.g. returns, excise fees).

Sean Downey

CUMBERLAND CONSULTING GROUP

With more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical contracting and compliance, Sean Downey leads Cumberland’s Outsourced services practice and directs numerous strategic and operational areas of the business. Sean focuses on helping manufacturers establish and enhance effective business and technical operations to manage government-driven programs including Medicaid, SPAP, Medicare, 340b VA and Tricare. Most recently serving as Managing Partner for Mindlance, Sean has successfully led more than 40 commercial and government contracting projects. Prior to Mindlance, Sean served as Senior Manager of Technical Services at I-many, Inc. and held senior engineering and operations positions in the chemical and paper industries.

Mahmood Majeed

ZS

Mahmood Majeed is a principal in ZS’s Evanston, Ill., office and leads the company’s global business technology practice area. For more than 20 years, he has partnered with top Fortune 500 life sciences companies, advising them on commercial business transformation and enablement of analytics to drive commercial success. Mahmood holds an Executive MBA from Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Computer Science from DePaul University and BS in Architectural Design from University of Oklahoma.

Connie Egleston

ICU Medical

Connie Egleston is the Commercial Manager for Business Systems at ICU Medical in Lake Forest, IL. In her current role, she works in Commercial Contracting as the commercial lead and project manager for on all system related processes, implementations, and upgrades. Connie began her fourteen-year ICU Medical career in the finance department – where she tackled various challenges including being the finance lead in upgrading an antiquated home grown contracting system to Model N while incorporating rebate finance processes, which was being done manually. From there Connie has had several key roles within the Commercial Contracting organization, which provided her both commercial and back office experience. Recently, she was the commercial lead specializing in contract lifecycle management during a project that was bringing another homegrown system into Model N. Because of her diverse background, Connie is integral in guiding ICU Medical and Model N on the understanding of the end-to-end processes, which lead to successful system implementations and upgrades. Connie has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration.

Ashokraj Janarthanan

Model N

Ashokraj Janarthanan has been with Model N since 2003 and is now a Senior Director within the Product Development managing SaaS Operations. He has spent the past seventeen years at Model N working closely with Life science customers and partners. Prior to Model N, he has provided solution and implemented pricing & order management systems for High Tech customers using i2 Technologies products. Has exposure in design & manufacturing of Automobile & Heavy Engineering equipment. Ashokraj has a Master’s degree in Production Engineering from Anna University, Chennai, India

Jake McKernan

Microchip Technology

Senior Manager, Worldwide Corporate Applications
Microchip Technology

Jake has over 25 years of experience in the Semiconductor industry and has been a Model N customer since 2004. In that time, Jake has been involved in implementation, integration, and transformation projects to meet the ever-changing landscape of the industry and help drive the evolution of Client Engagement processes and tools at Microchip Technology.

Gurpreet Kaur

INTEGRA LIFE SCIENCES

Gurpreet Kaur is a Technology and business visionary Executive with Fortune 500 companies in the medical device, high technology and retail industries. She has over 25yrs of experience in leading IT Strategies and Business Operations across various industries. Currently she manages over $50M IT budget (Capital & Operations) focusing on transformational programs, reengineering strategic business processes and delivering complex system solutions across the globe. In addition, Gurpreet is heavily involved in the Non-profit work as her passion lies being relevant to the larger community. She actively volunteers for Kaur & Singh Academy, an Advocate for Women’s empowerment initiatives, serves on the board for Panjab Digital Library, the largest online digital library in South-East Asia. She is an active speaker with various prominent forums. She resides in NJ with her husband, Harinder and 2 children, Jodha & Gani.

Andy Molnar

Cognoa

Sr. Director, Market Access at Cognoa

Andy brings 11 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, specifically bridging technology with business needs. Andy has focused on optimizing operational systems and building consistencies in business processes to build powerful analytics platforms. He transitioned his more technically focused background into market access strategy and contract operations. Combining the technical with pharma, Andy recently decided to join the expanding industry of using digital interventions to diagnose and treat disease. Andy has been instrumental in defining market access launch strategies for multiple digital therapeutics companies and building the infrastructure to manage this new modality.

Gloria Kee

Model N

Director of Product Management for Model N’s Rebate Management, MDF, and Channel Data Management products. Gloria has 13 years of industry experience in B2B Revenue Management software with a strong understanding of best practices within the Pharmaceutical, Medical Technology, and High Tech industries. Gloria holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California Davis.

Christine Ostrowski

Purdue Pharma

Christine Ostrowski has 25+ years of experience spanning various roles in Marketing, Product Planning, Managed Markets, Contract Administration, and Pricing for Purdue Pharma LP in Stamford CT. In her current role, Christine oversees Purdue’s government pricing and contracting functions, managed care and Medicaid rebate operations, chargeback operations, institutional contracting, Customer Service, and various pricing and price transparency functions. Christine holds a B.S in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance, and a Masters in Business Administration in International Business from Fairfield University.

Susan LaFountain

GHX (fna: Global Healthcare Exchange)

Susan LaFountain has made her career healthcare, driven by a need to provide better service to patients.  Susan has extensive experience working with and for suppliers, distributors, GPOs, providers of healthcare, and ultimately patients.  Susan began her career with wound care and medication administration to patients. It was during this time Susan was exposed to purchasing processes and soon picked up responsibilities in procurement – and with it, the challenges and complexities of the healthcare supply chain.  Susan’s work experiences have included roles in hospital pharmacies, materials management, supply chain automation technology, contracting negotiation and contract administration.  In 2006 Susan joined the GHX team, and has held numerous positions that have spanned sales, consulting and product management. Ultimately, all focused on helping partners take cost out of healthcare supply chain process via improved accuracy and automation, that result in better patient care.  In her current role, Susan is an advanced solutions strategist, focused on helping supply chain leaders achieve pricing alignment and cross system automation – all to further improve information quality, creating positive impacts for patient care.   Susan is a graduate summa cum laude in Management of Information Technologies from UIU.

Heenal Patel

HighPoint Solutions

Heenal is a Principal in the Pricing, Contracting & Market Access practice at HighPoint Solutions, focused on designing commercial business operations and technology solutions for pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Heenal has over seven years of life sciences industry experience, with expertise in the commercial contracting space. Heenal’s experience includes master data management, contract lifecycle management, chargebacks, institutional and managed care contracting and rebates within large pharmaceutical and medical device corporations.

Marcia Lambert

Cumberland

With nearly 30 years of experience in solution delivery in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, Marcia Lambert is an IT executive who offers a unique blend of sharp business acumen and strong technical expertise. As partner of Cumberland’s Life Sciences Division, Marcia serves as a trusted adviser for her pharmaceutical clients across the country. Having held leadership positions at pharma manufacturers, consulting firms and software vendors, Marcia has a well-rounded view of the industry and brings thoughtful insight to every engagement. She leads companies in strategic efforts and highlights best practices based on her years of experience in all aspects of systems integration projects, including vendor evaluation, project management, requirements definition, design and support.

Jay Manickam

Genentech

Jay is a Senior Project Manager at Genentech IT. He is responsible for executing programs for US Commercial Operations and Government Pricing business. Currently he is involved in an upgrade and reimplementation of Government pricing systems using ModelN’s Flex.Jay is a Senior Project Manager at Genentech IT. He is responsible for executing programs for US Commercial Operations and Government Pricing business. Currently he is involved in an upgrade and reimplementation of Government pricing systems using ModelN’s Flex.

Ranga Rajagopalan

EMD Serono

Director, Information Systems at EMD Serono

Ranga Rajagopalan is the Director for Information Technology at EMD Serono, with more than 16+ years experience in life sciences industry during which he served in various IT leadership positions in US, Regional and Global IT settings. Ranga and his team successfully delivered multiple implementations and solutions like SAP ERP & HR, Model N, Multi-Channel Marketing, Pharma serialization and tracking, and Analytics etc.
Ranga is a champion for continues development of innovative, robust IT solutions in secure framework. He strives to be the first adopter, biggest influencer, and promoter of relevant digital technologies. He routinely shares his insights in optimizing business results using technology, developing world-class global teams, fueling innovation, and enabling IT operational excellence.

Praney Mittal

Model N

Praney Mittal leads Cloud Services at Model N. He has been with Model N for 15 years and has worked on the field leading customer implementations as well as building Technical Center of Excellence expertise at Model N. In his current role, he leads product management for Model N SaaS technical product and also provides oversight on operational improvement projects. He works closely with the customers to make their Cloud moves easier.

John Schiavone

Model N

Solutions Principal at Model N

John Schiavone is a Solution Engineer with 12 years of experience with Model N and over 20 years of experience in the Life Science industry providing technology solutions to business objectives. John has implemented Revenue Management projects for several of the top Pharmaceutical and Med Tech companies and he brings in depth knowledge of contracting, pricing, quoting, rebates, chargebacks, compliance, master data management as well as reporting and analytics. John is currently on the sales team to help customers with their challenges, find solutions to their problems and educate them on the value of Model N Revenue Execution, especially to the Med Tech community.

Matt Mulligan

Model N

Matt Mulligan joined Model N in 2019 to lead the company’s go to market efforts with partners and drive significant growth through collaborative co-selling and solution delivery.

Matt has built and executed global partner programs for leading enterprise software companies, most recently at Pegasystems where he ran alliances programs for North and South America. In his career he has also served in multiple leadership positions in sales and product marketing at Microsoft and General Electric.

Chander Pal

STMicroelectronics

IT management professional with wide ranging experience of managing teams and programs across diverse cultures and wide ranging technologies and platforms.
Wide experience and expertise in leading end to end transformation programs across single and multiple enterprises.
Currently responsible for Demand creation, Pricing and Margin Management and ICM solutions for the company. Has been part of ST’s ModelN core implementation team for over a decade and leading the changes and evolutions all along.
Has been with ST Microelectronics for over 20 years and has managed IT and business programs across spectrum of business needs, with special focus on Pricing and Distribution Channels.

John Stage

AMD

With nearly a 15-year career at Advanced Micro Devices, John Stage brings over 7 years in Operations & Supply Chain, working in supply plan optimization, demand / supply matching & data reporting across the entire manufacturing chain. JOhn also has 5 years in Business Intelligence for Business Operations, focus on the data ecosystem for revenue and demand related datasets, visualization & dashboarding in support of demand processes through the value chain and data modeling to extrapolate and categorize for business insight.

Igor Polovinchik

Model N

I joined Model N in July 2020

My responsibilities at Model N include oversight of Cloud Engineering, Cloud Operations and Information Security and Compliance.

My experience extends over 27 years, all in SF Bay Area, working across Enterprise Software, Life Sciences, Hight Tech Manufacturing, Advertising Technology (AdTech) as well as government agencies.

In my past I have managed Cloud Teams, Software and QA teams, Product and PMO teams, Architecture and Security and other functions in technology field. I also held  a number of hands on roles in earlier stages of my career.

I am married with two kids, ages 14 and 11, as well as a 2-year-old chocolate lab.

John Puckett

GHX

John Puckett is a CPA and has more than 20 years of combined financial, accounting and general business experience. He currently serves as AVP of Strategic for GHX. Puckett began his role as an Account Manager at GHX where his financial and business experience provided a strong basis for learning and understanding the challenges facing healthcare. This led to opportunities to gain experience across multiple business verticals, including sales and service delivery. Puckett began his career in public accounting with Andersen. Prior to joining GHX he has also worked in finance and accounting positions with Duke Energy and has also held positions with Hyatt Hotels and The Advisory Board. Puckett holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and a Master’s of Accountancy with a concentration in Information Systems from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Tom Evegan

Cumberland Consulting Group

Tom Evegan, Managing Director at Cumberland Consulting Group

As Managing Director of Cumberland’s Contracts, Pricing and Compliance Practice, Evegan identifies strategic opportunities, generates new business and develops partnerships that accelerate the growth of the firm’s consulting and managed services to the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Cumberland, Evegan was vice president of government and commercial consulting for CIS and has held leadership roles in the areas of finance, managed markets, as well as contracts and pricing, for organizations on both the Payer and Pharma/Biotech sides of the industry. He is a frequent speaker and panelist at prominent industry conferences, covering topics such as drug commercialization, government pricing and market access strategies.

Shane Quigley

Seagate Technology

Shane Quigley is a Director of Business Operations with over fifteen years of experience in the high-tech industry running global business profit and loss support. He currently leads a global, cross-functional team at Seagate that oversees worldwide go-to-market analytics, program management office, master data management and customer data management, as well as continuous business process improvement. Shane is a leader that leads by example and envisions near real time, business data driven decision making driving faster business outcomes, allowing for business leaders to be predictive as well as responsive to their markets and industries.

Shane uses a method of applied systematic thinking and problem solving to model and understand complex processes and systems and how they can affect outcomes as a whole. Tuning systems with automation and rule sets are key drivers to increase speed and continually deliver better business outcomes. Shane and his team sit at the union where the world increases its data usage, unlocking the potential of data combined with the complexities of reaching new and diverse customers and markets in an ever changing data experience.

Karl Ramas

IQVIA

Karl is a Principal in the Global Pricing and Contracting practice at IQVIA. He is an experienced consultant who provides Subject Matter Expertise in the Commercial contracting business process areas and in Robotic Process Automation. Karl has over 8 years of experience working in the Life Sciences and Healthcare industry with both pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers with a focus on functional designs and business process analysis, development, and optimization.

Hugh Gaffney

Micron

Distribution Operations Manager

Hugh is a Distribution Operations Manager at Micron has held various roles within Sales Operations team at Micron over the last 9 years. During this time, Hugh has implemented 3 ModelN revision upgrades and working on a 4th revision upgrade now. In Hugh’s current role, he is managing global Sales Programs to maximize channel sales at Micron. Hugh has 25 years of experience in Distribution Sales and Sales Operations; and has previously worked at Intel managing an ISR channel sales team; and at Newark Electronics as a sales representative.

Ruven Remo Eul

IQVIA

Ruven Remo Eul is a Senior Principal for Global Pricing and Tendering Management based out of Zug, Switzerland. He is responsible for project oversight and delivery, resource management, as well as business and solution development. Ruven brings a background of industry experience in large pharma from companies such as Pfizer and BMS. While at IQVIA Company, Ruven has worked with emerging, mid-tier and large pharma on various Tendering and Contracting programs from policy and process assessments, outsourcing of business functions and software vendor evaluations.

Sitapani Koneru

Gilead

Sr. Manager & Architect, Gilead Sciences

Sitapani is an Associate Director within the IT Solution Delivery department at Gilead Sciences, Inc. He has more than 15 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical industry playing different roles as a Tech/Integration Lead, Solutions Architect etc. He ensures smooth operation of various systems in the Revenue Management domain. Sitapani has an MS degree in Computer Science from Eastern Michigan University.

Cesare Rotundo

Model N

Cesare Rotundo is the VP of Product Management for Model N’s High Tech product portfolio, including Deal Management, Deal Intelligence, Channel Management, Price Intelligence, Channel Data Management, Rebate Management, and MDF Management. Before Model N he led Product Management for BPM-based industry solutions at Oracle, Supply Chain collaboration solutions at E2open, and Price and Margin Management at Vendavo. He has delivered large implementation projects as a Senior Manager at Deloitte, worked at IBM for 5 years as a Software Engineer, and served as an Officer in the Italian Navy. Cesare holds an MBA from INSEAD, #1 in the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking, and an MS Cum Laude in Computer Science.

Mike McCarthy

Pharosity Consulting

Founder, Pharosity Consulting

Mike has consulted for over twenty-two years in life sciences manufacturing, with extensive experience in contracting, government pricing and managed markets. Within these domains, he specializes in program management, policy development, process optimization, gross-to-net analysis, contract analytics, data management and systems implementation. He is also a proven practitioner with methodologies that yield the effective strategy, solution architecture and meaningful requirements necessary to capture additional revenue and maintain compliance. He has demonstrated success in building, managing and motivating large project teams, partnering with multiple businesses to deliver solutions of maximum value. Mike maintains a strong working knowledge of the solutions and services available in the managed markets space.

Eric Rustomji

Tolmar Pharmaceuticals

Pioneering Leader, who leverages technology to transform business cultures, build value, drive growth and create an environment of continuous improvement. Exceeds all measurable parameters for quality, customer service, business development, program management and service delivery by visualizing the full strategic picture and aligning IT initiatives with the vision, mission and goals.

Roxana Santiago

Fresenius Kabi USA

Roxana Santiago is a Global Finance leader with 20+ years’ experience and a diverse background spanning Gross to Net (GTN) Finance, Accounting, Audit, SOX Compliance and Controls, Project and Operations Management. Roxana has led large scale projects, spanning international regions including Latin America, Asia and Europe aimed at improving collaboration and continuous cross-functional engagement that restore and strengthen business relationships, systems, processes, data integrity and controls to enable accurate and complete financial statement reporting.

As Director of Revenue Accounting at Fresenius Kabi North America, Roxana oversees revenue recognition for over $2 billion in net sales and related compliance to IFRS15, GTN reserves integrity and controls. Prior to joining Fresenius Kabi, Roxana worked for Hospira, a Pfizer company for 10 years. There, she led the company’s Global SOX Compliance initiatives, and subsequently, joined the US GTN Commercial Finance organization to champion a transformative effort that strengthened internal controls in various cross-functional processes amidst a new revenue management system implementation. Roxana’s background in Audit and Internal Controls proved to be critical towards establishing cross-functional collaboration and training and instill accountability for accurate, valid, timely and complete accrual financial integrity spanning all major GTN and Operations teams including Commercial Contracting, GPO Membership, Chargebacks and Rebates, Business Analysis, Sales and IT.

Roxana earned her Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Northern Illinois University and passed the CPA examination on her first attempt. Throughout her career, she has been an active participant at various professional GTN and Controls seminars and has formed professional benchmark groups with industry experts to share best practices that bring thought leadership to the organization.

David Plass

Model N

Senior Director, Technical COE, Model N

David Plass is a Senior Director in the Model N Center of Excellence (COE) leading the Powered by Flex Technical practice responsible for supporting Flex implementations, upgrades, migrations and custom development. David joined Model N as part of the Revitas acquisition and during his 20 years with the company has journeyed through both Support and Product Development before landing in Professional Services. As a technical consultant, David supported a number of long term projects implementing the company’s contract authoring and commercial and compliance rebating solutions. As director, alongside his resources, he has been engaged in sales efforts and projects with more than 45 customers, most recently focused on supporting the Flex on premise to SaaS transition opportunities.rs.

Ron Ryan

Cambium Networks

SVP, Global Channel Sales, Cambium Networks

Deeply experienced in sales, channel management and general management in technology, Ron Ryan leads the North America sales team for Cambium Networks. His extensive experience in channel management, sales and general management will enable Cambium Networks to grow through close integration with our business partners and customers. Ron has served as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Hutton Communications, a prominent North American distributor of wireless communications. During his 11 year tenure, he also served as Chief Operating Officer when wireless broadband solutions were initially deployed across the country.

Rahul Sarin

Biogen

Lead an IT function responsible for implementing and managing technology solutions within Market Access globally.

Neelabh Saxena

IQVIA

Neelabh Saxena is a Practice Lead within the Global Pricing & Contracting COE at IQVIA, with more than 10 years of Life Sciences industry experience focusing on Global Market Access, Commercial Strategy, Gross to Net Forecasting, Medicaid and Government Pricing. Prior to HighPoint, Neelabh was a consultant at ZS Associates and Michael Allen Company (a boutique healthcare strategy consulting company) focusing on pharmaceutical marketing strategy and analytics. Neelabh has delivered multiple successful engagements across Commercial, Medicaid , GP, Gross to Net and Market Access Strategy. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has published multiple whitepapers and blog posts.

Michael Vargas

Novo Nordisk

Michael has over 25+ years experience in both IT and in Pharmaceuticals. Many of those years have been in a management capacity of various IT functions, including about 10 years with management responsibility for Model N. Michael has held many of the traditional IT roles and brings a rounded perspective to application management. Novo Nordisk is in full swing of an upgrade to Revenue Cloud. Michael is excited to make enhanced capabilities available to the company while adopting an architecture that should be able to keep us up-to-date in the years to come.

Larry Walsh

The 2112 Group

CEO and Principal Analyst, The 2112 Group

Larry Walsh is one of the most recognizable figures in the IT channel and is considered one of the more forward-thinking leaders in the industry. As the founder of The 2112 Group – a business strategy firm focused on improving the performance of technology companies – he works with clients ranging from Fortune 100 service providers to innovative start-ups on growth strategies, enablement, and channel program development to drive repeatable revenue.

An award-winning journalist, Walsh is also founder of Channelnomics.com, a blog about the business models and best practices of indirect technology channels.

Daniel Watts

Johnson & Johnson

Daniel Watts is a Global Process Owner at Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc. in the Contracting Competency Center and for Global Contracting Solutions. With over 15 years of experience in the Health Care and Life Sciences industry, Daniel has experience in both the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device sectors. Daniel’s tenure in the Contract and Pricing area includes Project, Program, and Portfolio Management with time spent supporting Global Enterprise Programs. Recently Daniel has Revenue Management System implementation experience in the Asia Pacific region. Currently Daniel is involved with process harmonization, governance, and system evaluation or system implementations in multiple countries in North America, South/Central America, and Europe. Daniel has also taken on leadership roles in sector-wide initiatives for the improvement of contracting and tendering practices and adoption of technology or data standards. Daniel is currently researching Blockchain Smart Contract, Computational Law, and Ricardian Contract implementation opportunities in the Life Sciences industry. Daniel holds degrees in Computer Science and Business Management and is a certified PMP.

Emily Yang

VP, WW Sales and Marketing, Diodes

Ms. Yang was appointed Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing in mid-December 2017. She has been with Diodes since the acquisition of Pericom Semiconductor Corporation in November 2015, where she was Vice President of Global Sales. Prior to that, she held a number of sales management positions with Pericom including: Contract Manufacturing Sales Director, Western Regional Sales Director, and Strategic Account Sales Director covering Asia, North America, and Europe. Ms. Yang holds a BA in Economics from the University of Toronto.

Krishna Shekhram

Model N Inc.

Krishna Shekhram is a principal software architect with Model N . In his current role, He collaborate with cross functional team of engineers, application architects, product managers and cloud ops professionals to strengthen Model N’s cloud platform and build cloud native capabilities around all Model N applications. Previously, He led the design and development of Model N Rebate calculation engine using big data and distributed computing technologies. He has 17 years of experience working on variety technologies like Java/J2EE, Web applications, Big Data, Distributed Computing, Cloud Orchestration and Analytics. He enjoys learning and exploring new technologies and loves watching documentaries in his leisure time.

Ricky Yuen

ZS

Ricky is a Business Consulting Manager at ZS with over 9 years of consulting experience, and is a key member of the US Managed Care practice. Ricky also serves as product manager of the ZS Contracting Decision Support (CDS) application, a discount/rebate optimization tool that helps clients streamline and optimize pre-deal contracting analytics.

Todd Shytle

Model N

Todd serves as an Account Executive for a select
number of Model N Strategic MedTech Accounts.
He has been with Model N since January 1999 and
has served in various sales management roles since
2001, including VP of Global LS Sales. Prior to
joining Model N, he had various sales, sales
management, and national account management
roles at Johnson & Johnson and United States
Surgical Corporation. Todd holds an MBA from the
McColl School of Business at Queens College in
Charlotte, N.C

Platon

World-Renowned, Award-Winning Photographer and Founder, The People's Portfolio

After working for British Vogue for several years, Platon was invited to New York City to work for the late John Kennedy Jr. and his political magazine, George.

Shooting portraits for a range of international publications including Rolling Stone, The New York Times magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ and The Sunday Times magazine, Platon developed a special relationship with TIME magazine, producing over 20 covers for them. In 2007, he photographed Russian Premier Vladimir Putin for TIME magazine’s “Person of the Year” cover. This image was awarded 1st prize at the World Press Photo Contest.

In 2008, he signed a multi-year contract with The New Yorker. As the staff photographer, he has produced several large-scale photo essays, two of which won ASME Awards in 2009 and 2010. Platon’s New Yorker portfolios have focused on themes including the U.S Military, portraits of world leaders and the Civil Rights Movement.

In 2009, Platon teamed up with Human Rights Watch to help them celebrate those who fight for equality and justice in countries suppressed by political forces. These projects have highlighted human rights defenders from Burma as well as the leaders of the Egyptian revolution. Following his coverage of Burma, Platon photographed Aung San Suu Kyi for the cover of TIME—days after her release from house arrest. In 2011, Platon was honored with a Peabody Award for collaboration on the topic of Russia’s Civil Society with The New Yorker magazine and Human Rights Watch.

Platon has published four book of his work: Platon’s Republic (Phaidon Press, 2004), a retrospective of his early work; Power (Chronicle, 2011), 100 portraits of the world’s most powerful leaders; China: Through the Looking Glass (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015), in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Service (Prestel, 2016), dedicated to the men and women in the United States Military, their physical and psychological wounds, their extraordinary valor, and the fierce emotions that surround those who serve.

Platon is a communicator and storyteller. He has been invited to be a keynote speaker on leadership at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Chanel, Nike, Yale University, Oxford University, Wharton University, the National Portrait Gallery in London and International Center of Photography in New York. He has also appeared on a range of television media including Charlie Rose (PBS), Morning Joe (MSNBC), Fareed Zakaria’s GPS (CNN) and the BBC World News.

Platon’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums both domestically and abroad. He has exhibited in New York at the Matthew Marks Gallery and the Howard Greenberg Gallery, as well as internationally at the Colette Gallery in Paris, France. The New York Historical Society has exhibited a solo show of Platon’s Civil Rights photographs, which remain as part of the museum’s permanent collection. Other permanent collections holding Platon’s photography include The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in Tampa, Florida and The Westlicht Museum for Photography in Vienna, Austria and the Scotland National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.

In 2013, Platon founded a non-profit foundation named The People’s Portfolio. The foundation aspires to create a visual language that breaks barriers, expands dignity, fights discrimination, and enlists the public to support human rights around the world. He serves as the Creative Director at Large for the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia.

Platon is currently on the board for Arts and Culture at the World Economic Forum and serves as a steward for the Economic Growth and Social Inclusion Initiative.

Jeff Tanner

Cumberland Consulting Group

Jeff  Tanner is a seasoned consulting professional with over 20 years of experience in information technology consulting and program management. Jeff has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry and in commercial and government contracting. Previously, Jeff served as Managing Director of Mindlance’s Life Sciences practice and as Senior Director for iMANY, Inc. where he served in various leadership positions in their Industry Solutions and Contract Management practice.

Patrick Tobin

Model N

Patrick is part of the Center of Excellence for Life Sciences. He has been with Model N for 12 years working on numerous implementations for the Pharmaceutical and MedTech industries as a cross functional SME. More recently he has undertaken the role of COE lead for testing, primarily concerned with test automation.

Adam J. Fein, Ph.D

Drug Channels Institute

Adam J. Fein, Ph.D., is the CEO of Drug Channels Institute, a leading management educator for and about the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Fein is one of the country’s foremost experts on pharmaceutical economics and the drug distribution system. He has published hundreds of academic and industry articles, and is regularly quoted in such national publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, and many others.

Most people know him from his popular and influential Drug Channels website (DrugChannels.net). It’s the go-to source for definitive and comprehensive industry analysis, delivered with a witty edge. Drug Channels is the only place where you’ll find a serious discussion of PBMs, drug pricing, and pharmacy economics explained for you with humor and a healthy dose of pop culture—anything from Star Trek to SpongeBob SquarePants.

Dr. Fein earned his doctoral degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A., summa cum laude, from Brandeis University. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and their two children.

Thomas Weckman

MOLNLYCKE

Thomas Weckman is the Global Director Sales Force Effectiveness at Molnlycke. He has 29 years of experience from the MedTech business, working in a number of sales and marketing roles, locally, regionally and globally. In his current role he is focusing on setting global standards, ensuring local relevance and making them stick, in the areas of sales processes and contract and tender excellence.

Jay McBain

Forrester

Jay leads Forrester’s research and advisory for global channels, alliances, and partnerships. He focuses on B2B marketing in the age of the customer; understanding and navigating the complexity of multiple routes to market; ensuring contextual and relevant content to accelerate the indirect sales process; and describing the technology infrastructure to build and support channel relationships.

His background is in channel leadership, sales, marketing, and operations, with a specific emphasis on indirect sales strategy/execution, covering multiple industries, segments, and underlying technologies. Jay is renowned for his industry thought leadership and expertise in partner recruitment, development, and acceleration through effective partner coverage, enablement, communication, and incentives. He is an expert in building and leveraging channel communities and one of the global leaders in social media, partner marketing automation, and other indirect growth strategies.

Jay provides research, advisory, and consulting to companies ranging from Fortune 100 vendors to startups on the entire scope of their channel and alliance strategies. He is a contributing author and has been cited in numerous channel media publications, including Channel Reseller News (CRN), ChannelPro, ChannelE2E, The VAR Guy, MSPMentor, Channelnomics, Computer Dealer News (CDN), Australia Reseller News (ARN), eChannelNews, Business Solutions Magazine, ChannelLine, ChannelInsider, SearchITChannel, Redmond Channel Magazine, Vertical Systems Reseller, Channel Buzz, and SMB Nation. He also maintains a popular blog on channel trends.

Jay is based in Florida but advises vendors, distributors, and partners around the world.

Read Jay’s blog posts