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Leadership

Steering strategy and driving innovation in advanced clinical research evidence generation.

Steering strategy and driving innovation in advanced clinical research evidence generation.

Executive Committee

Roger Smith | CEO

Roger Smith

Chief Executive Officer

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Roger Smith joined Signant Health as Chief Executive Officer to guide the company during an exciting time of evolution and growth. Roger is focused on realizing the company’s immense unlocked value by leading customers to aggressive adoption of eCOA, IRT, and Endpoint Solutions individually, as a platform to future direct-to-patient trial conduct. His vision is for Signant to lead the industry through product roadmap priorities, customer service excellence, commercial expansion, and most importantly, coming together as one culture around these principles. Roger joins Signant from PPD, where he was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Accelerated Enrollment Solutions (AES), which offers biopharmaceutical sponsors and contract research organizations best-in-class clinical trial site conduct and patient access solutions. In his role, he was responsible for AES’s strategic direction and financial growth as its chief executive, and played a pivotal role working closely with research sites and pharmaceutical organizations to solve patient recruitment challenges by utilizing digital technology and data science.  Prior to joining PPD in 2013 through its acquisition of Acurian, Mr. Smith held a number of senior management positions for Acurian, Kozmo.com and Sony Corporation. Roger brings decades of experience to the company and has a proven record of taking customer-centric technology and solutions companies like Signant Health to the next level by expanding the market for their services.

Doug Battista

Doug Battista

Chief Human Resources Officer

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As Chief Human Resources Officer, Doug leads our people agenda. He brings a successful background at driving service-oriented people cultures within large, distributed workforces at both large global and smaller private companies.

Doug joined Signant from a biomedical research foundation where he served as Chief HR Officer. Previously, he was at health management company Jenny Craig where he held the positions of Chief Human Resources Officer and President of Operations and prior to that led talent acquisition at Nestle.

Doug holds a BSc degree from Niagara University and an MSc in Organizational Behavior from the University of Hartford, Connecticut.

Jean-Jacques Charhon

Chief Financial Officer

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Jean-Jacques (JJ) Charhon leads the finance organization, with primary responsibility for financial planning and analysis, accounting & controllership, treasury, tax and procurement. JJ has over 25 years of experience in financial leadership roles with public and private companies across healthcare, high tech and services primarily at General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Novartis and Purdue Pharma. JJ is passionate about driving business enablement through the finance function for both strategy shaping and operational execution. JJ holds a master’s in business administration from the Solvay School of Management in Brussels, Belgium.

Scott Connor

Chief Marketing Officer

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Scott Connor joined Signant Health as Chief Marketing Officer, bringing over 30 years of marketing experience in the life sciences and technology sectors. He is responsible for positioning Signant as the leading provider of evidence generation and digital enablement of clinical trial conduct. Scott joins Signant from PPD, where he was Vice President Corporate Marketing & Strategy of Accelerated Enrollment Solutions (AES), which offers biopharmaceutical sponsors and contract research organizations best-in-class clinical trial site conduct and patient access solutions. Prior to joining PPD in 2013 through its acquisition of Acurian, Mr. Connor held marketing positions at Liquent, the leading provider of regulatory submission software and services for the biopharmaceutical industry (now a Parexel subsidiary); and SCT (now Ellucian), a developer of administrative software and outsourcing services to the higher education, local government, public utility, and process manufacturing industries. Scott graduated summa cum laude from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University with a B.S. in Advertising and English.

Graciela Racaro

Chief Operating Officer

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Graciela leads Signant’s Operations team, including our Global Project Management, Global Shared Services, Global Technical Delivery, Global Clinical Supply, and Global Infrastructure teams. Graciela brings a deep and wide knowledge of the industry and has a successful track record in leading global operations teams at scale, with solid experience in drug development including pre-clinical trials, and clinical research across a broad range of therapeutic areas. 

Graciela joined Signant from Parexel where she spent 18 years including serving as Executive Vice President of Clinical Development and the Global Operational Head for the company’s Biotech division. 

Graciela is from Argentina and holds Biochemistry (Hons) and Pharmacy degrees from the University of Buenos Aires. She is the recipient of a number of scientific production awards and has published many scientific papers.  

Graciela plays an active role in promoting Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and she has been a Board member of Make-A-Wish Eastern North Carolina since January 2021. 

Michael Tucker

General Counsel

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As General Counsel, Michael is responsible for leading Signant’s Legal, Risk and Compliance team. He joined Signant most recently from Avis Budget Group where he served as the Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. He has also previously held the position of General Counsel at Tyco International and multiple divisional General Counsel roles at General Electric. Michael received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his business law degree from the Boston University School of Law.

Sanjiv Waghmare

Chief Product Officer

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Sanjiv Waghmare serves as the Chief Product Officer of Signant Health focused on the strategy and development of all solutions in the portfolio. He leads a team of product managers and experience designers who are experts in the work our customers do as well as their respective functional roles. Sanjiv focuses on delivering a portfolio of market leading solutions that enable our customers to achieve efficiency in their work while maintaining the highest level of data integrity.

Sanjiv has extensive leadership experience in product management and strategy development. Prior to joining Signant Health, Sanjiv led product management teams at Intuit, Finastra and Wolters Kluwer. He also served as the general manager for Intuit Health Group. Prior to entering the field of product management, Sanjiv was with McKinsey & Company where he served clients in multiple industries addressing challenges in business strategy and operational effectiveness.

Sanjiv has a Bachelor of Engineering degree with honors in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He earned his MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Dawie Wessels

Chief Medical Officer

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Dawie’s deep expertise across multiple therapeutic areas, multinational development leadership, and experience in associated commercial growth supports the expanding impact of the Signant Science and Medical team. Dawie joins us from AES, where he served as Chief Medical Officer for five and a half years. Prior to AES, he held various research and senior leadership roles at Parexel for over 15 years, developing and implementing medical scientific focused business strategies across the early phase space. Dawie holds MBA and MBChB MBA (Medicine and Business) degrees from University of the Free State, South Africa. We are rightly proud of our science and medical heritage and how it has contributed to – and continues to – position us as leaders in our industry. Building on the therapeutic approach to our sales pipeline, the development of our offerings across as many therapeutic areas as possible continues under Dawie’s leadership. Originally hailing from South Africa, Dawie is based in the UK.

 Ed Pollack

Chief Technology Officer

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Ed Pollack serves as Chief Technology Officer where he steers strategy and oversees delivery of the products and systems underpinning Signant’s growth strategy. He is responsible for driving high-performance, cross-functional teams across several disciplines and leading the development and optimization of clinical trial solutions for Signant’s life sciences customers across the globe. 

Ed joins Signant from Elsevier, a leader in helping healthcare professionals advance science and improve patient outcomes, where he served as vice president of technology. His experience there, as well as his extensive background in software engineering, ensure Signant is prepared with the leadership and vision to continue scaling through accelerated growth while delivering industry-leading solutions to customers.  

Prior to Elsevier, Ed held technology leadership roles at several companies focused on supporting the regulatory business process of global life sciences companies. 

Ed holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Computer Science from Temple University. 

Key Senior Leadership

David Daniel, MD

Executive Advisor, Schizophrenia

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Dr. David Daniel provides overall scientific, clinical and strategic direction for our CNS solutions. Dr. Daniel was the founder and President of Global Learning, LLC which was acquired by United BioSource Corporation in July 2006. He formerly served as Medical Director of the NIMH Neuroscience Center at Saint Elizabeth’s, Director of Clinical Trials for the Stanley Foundation and was a founding Principal of Best Practice, LLC. For over 30 years, Dr. Daniel has supervised and trained raters in psychiatric clinical trials globally. He has published numerous scientific articles involving clinical trials and investigations of the psychopathology of mental illness. He has received patent protection for new treatment approaches in epilepsy, anxiety disorders and psychotic disorders. Dr. Daniel graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Emory University and obtained his medical school and psychiatry post-graduate training at Vanderbilt University, where he served as chief resident. He was a medical staff fellow and senior staff fellow within the intramural program of the National Institute of Mental Health (DIRP, NIMH) for five years.

Bill Byrom, Ph.D.

VP Product Intelligence and Positioning

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Bill serves as Vice President of product intelligence and positioning at Signant Health, where he also serves as a principal ePRO scientist. He has worked in the Pharmaceutical industry for 30 years and is the author of over 70 publications and two industry textbooks on electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePRO). His recent scientific work includes the use of wearable technology and bring- your-own-device (BYOD) eCOA in clinical trials. Bill recently served as Vice Director of the C-PATH ePRO Consortium, and is an active member of the DIA Study Endpoints Community where he leads a cross-disciplinary group on the use of endpoints derived from wearable devices to support labelling claims and regulatory decision making. Bill provides independent eClinical commentary via LinkedIn and Twitter (@billbyrom).

Steve Targum, MD

Scientific Director

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Dr. Targum consults widely to the pharmaceutical industry regarding the design and implementation of clinical trials for new psychotropic drugs and the progression of drug development from concept to approval to launch. In addition to his work at Signant, Dr. Targum is a Chief Medical Advisor at Prana Biotechnology Ltd. and has served as Chief Medical Officer at several small biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. In 1991, Dr. Targum established and operated a multi-site clinical trials program in Philadelphia. As Principal Investigator, he conducted over 200 clinical drug trials in therapeutic areas that included anxiety, depression, mania, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease. In 2001, Dr. Targum founded PharmaStar, a rater training and medical education company focused on CNS drug development and international clinical trials. The company grew quickly and became the global leader in this niche when it was sold in October 2004 to United BioSource Corporation. Previously, He was Professor of Psychiatry and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Mental Health Sciences at Hahnemann University School of Medicine (Philadelphia) from 1989-1995. He has published over 100 scientific articles in the areas of psychopharmacology, psychobiology, and clinical trials methodology. Dr. Targum has a B.A. in biology from Colgate University and an M.D. from Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Joan Busner

Joan Busner, Ph.D.

Clinical Vice President

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Dr. Busner has over 35 years of experience as an academic clinical psychiatric researcher. She has served as the Principal Investigator for 49 industry-sponsored psychiatric clinical trials and Sub-Investigator for 35 additional clinical trials. She has served continuously on University Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) for the 20 years that preceded her move to Signant Health. Dr. Busner is an active contributor to the psychopharmacology literature and has authored or co-authored over 140 peer-reviewed articles and national or international scientific presentations. Prior to Signant, Dr. Busner directed the psychiatric clinical trials units of two major medical schools. Dr. Busner has held medical school faculty appointments since 1985 and is currently Affiliate Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University. She serves as Signant’s Expert Presenter and Scientific Lead for US and multinational studies of pediatrics, rare and orphan diseases, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and all child and adolescent psychiatric indications. She has trained thousands of psychiatric clinical trial investigators across the globe and lectures frequently on the application of objective rating scales in the assessment of diagnosis and efficacy in psychopharmacology, ethics in psychiatric research, the placebo effect in psychiatric research and techniques for its minimization, the role of IRBs and clinical trial methodology. Dr. Busner received her PhD in Experimental Social Psychology and her MA in General Psychology from Adelphi University. She is licensed to practice psychology in Pennsylvania, Missouri and New York.

Gary Sachs, MD

Clinical Vice President

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Dr. Sachs is the Therapeutic Area Leader in bipolar disease and mood disorders at Signant. He previously co-founded Concordant Rater Systems, a specialty provider of technologies to improve CNS clinical research. Dr. Sachs is a recognized expert clinical trialist with extensive experience in rater training and the methodologies of mood and anxiety disorder research. He has been instrumental in developing technology-based solutions for randomized controlled trials that identify correlates of high placebo response, improve signal detection and reduce the risk of failed trials. Dr. Sachs is the founder and director of the Bipolar Clinic and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maryland Medical School, he completed his residency at MGH. His areas of academic interest include psychopharmacology, chronobiology, bipolar mood disorder and development of pragmatic measure-based practice guidelines. Dr. Sachs is Chair of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Scientific Advisory Board and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. He has authored over 200 articles, abstracts, books and book chapters.

David S. Miller, MD, MA

Clinical Vice President

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Dr. Miller has over 20 years of clinical, clinical research and teaching experience, primarily in the field of geriatric psychiatry. After completing his 2-year fellowship in geriatric psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, he joined the faculty and served as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Dr. Miller then went on to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where he served as an Associate Professor of Psychiatry. Prior to joining Signant, Dr. Miller served as Chief of Geriatric Psychiatry, Medical Director of ECT, and President of the Medical Staff at Friends Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. At all of these institutions, he oversaw the education and training of medical students, residents and fellows in geriatric psychiatry, and was recognized with a departmental teaching award. Dr. Miller has served as a Principal Investigator in a number of dementia clinical trials. In addition, he has lectured locally, nationally and internationally on his dementia related research. Dr. Miller serves as the Co-Chair of the ISTAART funded Neuropsychiatric Syndromes in Dementia – Professional Interest Area (NPS-PIA), and as the Co-Chair of the ISCTM Working Group focusing on the same area. Additionally, Dr. Miller is a co-author on the updated ADCS ADAS-Cog administration and scoring manual. Since joining Signant, Dr. Miller has consulted on multiple dementia protocols and has served as the Expert Presenter at dozens of investigators’ meetings across the globe, including those addressing behavioral abnormalities and agitation in the context of dementia.

Anthony T. Everhart, MD

Clinical Vice President, Internal Medicine

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Todd Everhart, MD, FACP, is the internal medicine leader at Signant. Dr. Everhart is board-certified in internal medicine and a fellow of the American College of Physicians with over 23 years of experience in the practice of medicine and over 12 years of experience in clinical development. Prior to joining Signant, Dr. Everhart held positions of Vice President, Medical Affairs and Vice President, Medical Informatics at Chiltern and Covance, and consulted independently in the areas of medical monitoring, medical data review, data analytics, and physician adoption of technology. He has worked in all phases of clinical development in numerous therapeutic areas including allergy & immunology, cardiovascular, hematology & oncology, infectious disease & HIV, neurology, ophthalmology, psychiatry, respiratory, and rheumatology.

Lewis M. Fredane, MD

Clinical Vice President

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As Clinical Vice President, Dr. Fredane will serve as the Therapeutic Area Leader for neurology and will oversee Signant’s eCOA, Rater Training, and Quality Assurance work in this important therapeutic area. Prior to joining Bracket, Dr. Fredane served as a practicing neurologist and clinical assistant professor of Neurology at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has worked in pharmaceutical drug development at several companies including at Sanofi/Genzyme Pharmaceuticals, Meda Pharmaceuticals and with CRO Omnicare Clinical Research. He also maintains extensive experience in medical affairs and has published research on multiple sclerosis, pain management and transplantation. Dr. Fredane received his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed his training with a residency in Neurology at Duke University. He completed fellowships in Clinical Immunology at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York and in Immunology at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut through a research fellowship with the National MS Society.

Alan Kott, MUDr.

Clinical Vice President and Practice Lead, Data Analytics

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Dr. Kott is based in Signant’s Prague office and until recently was Senior Clinical Manager for Europe. Having led the development of the Data Analytics Program for Bracket, he has overseen the design and reporting of data analytics in multiple large schizophrenia studies. For the past seven years, he has also provided training to investigators as an Expert Trainer. Dr. Kott has been responsible for the design and implementation of multiple in-study data quality programs and served as a Product Business Owner for Rater Reliability Statistical Measures Application. Prior to Bracket, Dr. Kott worked as a house officer in Psychiatry at General Teaching Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, and as an Assistant Professor at Charles University, 1st Medical Faculty – Department of Psychiatry, in Prague. Dr. Kott has a Medicinae Universae Doctor (MUDr.) from Charles University.

Elias Ketiar, MD, MRCP

Clinical Vice President

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Dr. Elias Ketiar serves as the Clinical Vice President, Science & Medicine, at Signant Health. Dr. Ketiar draws on his wealth of more than 20 years of academic and clinical experience to advise on clinical trial design, execution, and governance.

He has extensive experience in General Internal Medicine and Cardiology and is a Member of Royal College of Physicians (London), UK. Dr Ketiar has been engaged in academic research and was involved in a pioneering project investigating genetic causes of congenital heart disease, which culminated in a Medical Doctorate with St George’s University of London, UK.

He also has peer reviewed papers published. He has always been involved in all phases of clinical development and interested in global clinical trial solutions.

Board of Directors

John Hubbard, PhD, FCP

Chairman

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John brings more than 30 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry to guide Signant Health on its mission to transform the clinical trial process by providing simple, intuitive technologies that accelerate the clinical trial process, improve clinical data quality and enhance the lives of patients around the world.

Most recently, he was President and CEO of Bioclinica, a leading provider of medical imaging and clinical technologies.  Prior to Bioclinica, he was Senior Vice President and Worldwide Head of Development Operations at Pfizer.  He was responsible for global drug development of more than 450 clinical trials. Before joining Pfizer, he was Group President of ICON plc’s Global Clinical Research Division and also held executive positions at Parexel International Corporation and Sanofi Pharmaceuticals (formerly Hoechst Marion Roussel).

John was a founding member of the Board of Directors of TransCelerate Biopharma, Inc., is an Executive Committee Member Emeritus on the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI).  He is on the board of Agile Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AGRX), Life Sciences Pennsylvania, and was former Chairman of the Board of the Association of Clinical Research Organizations (ACRO).  As part of his role as a Healthcare Strategic Advisory Board Member to Genstar Capital, John advises the firm on healthcare investments and serves as a board member on portfolio companies (Signant Health and Advara). He was recognized by Pharma Voice as one of the 100 Most Inspirational People of 2016.

John’s Ph.D., is in cardiovascular physiology and he is a Fellow in the American College of Clinical Pharmacology.  His hobby is martial arts and holds a 4th Degree Black Belt and is a Master Instructor in Kung Jung Mu Sul.  John and his wife have been married 40 years, enjoy traveling globally and reside in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

Scott Niehaus

Director, Genstar

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Scott Niehaus is a Director at Genstar Capital, helping to identify, evaluate, and execute acquisition and investment opportunities. Scott leads Genstar’s investment efforts in the healthcare vertical. His current and former board seats include Advarra, Signant Health, Lightspeed Systems, Numerix, OEConnection, Enverus, ISS, Insightsoftware, Marcone and Obsidian.
Prior to joining Genstar, Scott was an Associate at Summit Partners, a private equity investment firm. Scott began his career as an investment banking analyst in the Restructuring group at Deutsche Bank.

Jean-Pierre Conte

CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, Genstar

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Jean-Pierre Conte is the Chairman and Managing Director of Genstar Capital, responsible for acquisitions, divestitures and oversight of portfolio companies in a number of industries including healthcare and industrials. He joined Genstar Capital in 1995. Prior to leading Genstar Capital, J-P was a principal at The NTC Group, Inc., a private-equity firm focused on industrial technology companies. He began his career at Chase Manhattan Bank in 1985.

Linda Baddour

Genstar

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Ms. Baddour is currently serving on the board of directors of Advarra, Signant Health and Waters Corporation (“Waters”). Waters is the world’s leading specialty measurement company focused on improving human health and well-being through the application of advanced analytical science technologies. With approximately 7,000 employees worldwide, Waters operates directly in 31 countries, including 15 manufacturing facilities, and with products available in more than 100 countries.

Ms. Baddour has over twenty years of experience in the Life Sciences industry. From June 2007 to October 2018, Ms. Baddour served as Executive Vice President and CFO of PRA Health Sciences (“PRA”). PRA is a global contract research organization and data science company serving the pharmaceutical and biotech industry for more than 40 years. PRA, formerly a Genstar portfolio company, grew from approximately 3000 employees to over 17,000 during her tenure with the company.

In addition to her eleven years at PRA, Ms. Baddour worked at Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc (“PPD”) from November 1995 to May 2007. She served as CFO at PPD from 2002 until her departure to join PRA. At PPD, she also managed the company’s M&A and information technology strategies. Prior to being named CFO at PPD, she was Treasurer and Chief Accounting Officer.

Ms. Baddour is also a certified public accountant.

Richard Thomas

Genstar

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Richard serves as a director for Genstar portfolio companies Signant Health and Advarra. Independently he is a director for Trialbee in Malmo, Sweden and serves as an advisory board member for technology companies Change Healthcare (NASDAQ: CHNG), Datavant, Vitaltrax and Lokavant. As CEO of R Ventures Inc, Richard is also an active investor and advisor to early stage technology companies.

Prior to Genstar, Richard served as President-Technology & Solutions and executive committee member at Quintiles, the world’s largest pharma services organization, from 2005-2016. He built its technology business through a high growth era which included a successful IPO in 2013 (NYSE: Q), and merger with IMS Health in 2016 to create IQVIA (NYSE: IQVIA). He led the creation of its award-winning technology business providing platforms used by many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies for clinical development, commercialization and real-world evidence research.

Richard has a 30-year track record of leadership and innovation building technology and data/analytics focused product and services businesses across industries including roles at Nielsen, Castrol and bay area startup Telephia. He has received multiple accolades for innovation including the #1 business technology innovator across the pharmaceutical industry (2011, 2012), and the Scrip award for best clinical development technology innovation (2013).

Richard also competes globally in motorsport with numerous podiums and two North America championships.

Robert Conway

Genstar

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Bob Conway served as the Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of Array BioPharma (NASDAQ: ARRY) from 1999 to 2012. Array is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of targeted small molecule drugs to treat patients afflicted with cancer and inflammatory diseases.  Array was acquired by Pfizer in 2019.

Prior to joining Array, Bob Conway was the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Hill Top Research, Inc., a clinical research services company, from 1996 to 1999. He also held various executive positions for Corning Inc . (NYSE: GLW) including Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Corning Hazleton, Inc., a contract research organization, from 1979 to 1996.

Bob Conway serves as Chairman of ARCA biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABIO) a biopharmaceutical company developing genetically-targeted therapies for cardiovascular diseases. He is on the Board of Directors of Alpine Immune Sciences, an oncology-focused biotech (NASDAQ:ALPN). Previously he was Chairman of Wall Family Enterprise, a leading library and education supplies company. He served as a Director of eResearch Technology and PRA International, Inc. prior Genstar companies and currently serves as a Director of Advarra and Signant Health, two of Genstar’s portfolio companies.