• Bob Amareld, Manager Procurement Solutions is the current acting Head of Procurement Solutions at Biogen Idec. He is a founding member of the Procurement Solutions team within our Global Procurement organization and has worked with his team to advance the state of maturity of Biogen Idec's Global Procurement organization. Over the last 18 months our Procurement Solutions team has implemented a Global Market Intelligence program, Oracle Spend Classification and Analytics, Oracle E-sourcing and contributed to many other areas within Global Procurement at Biogen Idec, including supplier diversity and category management. Bob also has experience within Biomedical R&D, Technology Transfer, Patent Examination as well as Biotech Manufacturing and holds an MBA from UNC's Kenan Flagler Business School in Chapel Hill, a Master's in Applied Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a BS in Biochemistry from Lehigh University.

Nathan J Ayres is Executive Director – Global IT & BPO Procurement at Merck & Co. He joined Merck in 2005 and has held positions of increasing responsibility within global procurement across logistics, marketing and telecoms as well as leading country procurement and integration roles. Nathan is based in Whitehouse Station, NJ.

In his current role Nathan is focused on creating customer focused sourcing strategies that enable the business to react and adapt to the constantly changing external market and enable Merck to drive value from supplier partner networks. 

With more than 20 years’ experience in procurement he has held positions within Thomson Consumer, Motorola, Xyratex Seagate and Raytheon prior to joining Merck.

Nathan holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from Ashridge Business School and is a qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply both in the UK.

Jayme Bombo is Executive Director, Sourcing Excellence. Jayme joined Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2006 and has held positions of increasing responsibility within BMS Latin America, both in the Commercial and Procurement organizations. He is currently based in Princeton, New Jersey and is the head of a global team responsible for sourcing, negotiating, contracting and developing supplier relationship management activities across company’s spend. At this capacity, he works extensively with Functional Category Heads and Business Partners to execute categories strategies and ensure that total costs are minimized and optimal value is realized in the execution of contracts. His team is also responsible for managing a strategic BPO partner, which is engaged in driving Strategic Category Management for all mature categories (Tier 3) for BMS. Jayme has more than 20 years of experience, having been one of the Operations Practice leaders within A.T. Kearney Management Consulting in Brazil and Mexico. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Engineering and a MBA from FGV- Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Brazil, having participated as special student in the Sloan School of Management MBA program in Boston, MA.

Noah Borgen is the professional services and meetings category lead for Johnson & Johnson R&D Procurement where he crafted and established an investigator meeting procurement process that both simplified the customer experience and significantly increased risk mitigation. He received his B.S. from Towson University and is currently working on his MBA at Villanova University. Noah also served as a petty officer in the United States Navy for eight years in both law enforcement and logistics including one tour in Afghanistan where he helped manage manning levels for over 400 NATO personnel. He currently resides here in Philadelphia with his beautiful wife and their four month old brown Chihuahua, Doc.

Dr Brooks has over 20 years experience working both as a consultant to the Pharmaceutical & Healthcare Industry or directly within the industry at Divisional and Corporate level for Abbott and most recently AbbVie. His experience covers QA, Health & Safety , Production, Operations, Supply Chain, Logistics and Procurement. He is a successful project and programme manager having delivered $Millions in savings as a result of operational improvement projects and strategic sourcing projects. He joined Achilles in February 2013 to bring the Achilles concept of ‘Collaborative Purchasing Communities’ to the Pharmaceutical & Healthcare Industry at both the organisation and sector level. Based at Achilles HQ, in Oxfordshire, he is looking forward to working with you to ‘build your collaborative purchasing community.

Responsible for the ongoing management of the Global Oncology Procurement organization. Responsibilities include developing and implementing the sourcing strategies of all indirect spend categories which included research and development, marketing, IT, and corporate spend categories. Additionally, responsible for developing and implementing the overall Novartis Global Oncology productivity plan using Lean Sigma principles to simplify business processes across the organization. Previously, Joe was the Global Head of IQP (Innovation, Quality and Productivity) for Novartis Global Oncology. Prior to joining Novartis in early 2010, Joe held various leadership roles during a 10-year career with GE Healthcare, including Americas Lean Productivity and Field Operations Manager, Regional Operations Manager, and Area Service Director. Additionally, Joe was a Captain in the US Army. He holds an MA in Developmental and Cellular Biology and a BS in Biology from the American University, and an MBA from Babson College. Joe is also a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

David Campbell is the Contract Manufacturing Lead, Global Operations Procurement at Shire. He joined Shire in 2011 having over 15 years’ experience as a pharmaceutical operations leader with proven competency in managing contract manufacturing relationships. David led Shire’s global supply chain external partnership program by developing manufacturing strategies and a novel CMO engagement model. Shire, with over 5,300 employees and numerous products marketed in over 50 countries, is one of the world’s leading specialty biopharmaceutical companies—but, more importantly, Shire makes a difference to people with life-altering conditions, enabling them to lead better lives. The patient-focused culture comes to life through Shire’s employees, who together form One Shire. Prior to joining Shire, David held various positions in supply chain, manufacturing and engineering at J&J, Bayer and LyondellBasell. At J&J, Dave led virtual supply chain organizations driving quality and cost improvements using lean six sigma and developmental solutions at contract manufacturers. He earned his MBA from the University of Delaware and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

Tom Cichon is the Senior Director and Head of Global Procurement for Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a leading global biopharmaceutical company, which combines groundbreaking science with a steadfast commitment to meeting the needs of patients living with severe, life-threatening and often ultra-rare diseases. Tom leads the entire Procurement Operations and Strategic Sourcing functions, supporting worldwide growth as a commercial enterprise. His organization partners with all functions, departments and country offices to drive process, innovation, renovation, cost savings and continuous improvement initiatives across the entire enterprise. Tom’s career spans across more than 28 years of increasing levels of leadership in the Procurement & Sourcing arena. In addition to Tom’s role with Alexion, he also serves on the Board of Advisors for ISM-CT as well as various professional procurement consulting and advisory committees. Prior to joining Alexion, Tom held senior leadership procurement positions with CIGNA Healthcare and Quest Diagnostics. Tom holds a Political Science degree from the University of Connecticut. He currently resides in Cromwell, CT and enjoys spending quality time with his two daughters. His hobbies include coaching his kids in sports, playing golf and reading political and historical books.

Bill Dempsey is Vice President, Global Procurement (CPO) for Shire. Shire is one of the world’s leading specialty biopharmaceutical companies—but, more importantly, we make a difference to people with life-altering conditions, enabling them to lead better lives. We have a patient-focused culture which comes to life through our employees, who together form one Shire. Shire has over 5,300 employee with products marketed in over 50 countries. 2013 year revenues were $4.9B. In his role, Bill and his team are responsible for collaboratively building strategic sourcing solutions for Shire’s businesses around the globe. They manage global activities ranging from strategic category sourcing to supply management to operational procurement. His team is located in both North America and Europe. Prior to Shire, Bill was a Director of Procurement for MillerCoors, where he and his team were responsible for sourcing $3.5B of direct and indirect materials. Prior to that, Bill was a Managing Consultant for IBM Business Consulting Services/PwC Consulting in their supply chain/procurement practice. Bill led procurement transformation projects for world class organizations in the Entertainment, Consumer Products, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Financial sectors. Bill also has experience as an Industrial/Operations Engineer at UPS , Roadway Package (now Fedex Ground) and HB Maynard. Bill earned his MBA and a BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. Currently, Bill lives in Exton, Pennsylvania with his wife and three children.

A driven leader with excellent communication skills to influence and constructively challenge cross-functional project teams and business partners to achieve corporate goals. She has spent the last three years creating and developing the LEO Procurement Division in the US and partnering with LEO/AK Procurement on a global level. Promoted to Senior Manager, Strategic Global Procurement in 2014, by embracing the core values of LEO Pharma,:Integrity, Passion, Customer Focus, Adaptability and Innovation, Helene is among the top performers world wide and continues to contribute to LEO Pharma's success.

Dave Freschi is Head of Clinical Outsourcing at Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development and Commercialization where he manages a group that oversees all aspects of clinical development outsourcing. In addition, he is co-leading the effort to integrate Otsuka’s US and Japanese clinical outsourcing operations. Prior to Otsuka, Dave held clinical sourcing positions at Novartis and Merck. He has over 20 years of experience in clinical development across various functions, organizations and therapeutic areas.

Dave has been in the pharma industry for over 20 years and has worked for both large and mid-sized companies. His background includes senior leadership roles in clinical operations, strategic sourcing, and finance. Dave is currently Head of Clinical Operations and Strategic Sourcing at Otsuka. Prior company experiences also include work with Novartis, Daiichi Sankyo, TAP, and Hoechst Marion Roussel. During his career he has had the opportunity to contribute to the development of successful compounds including; Abilify, Previcid, Uloric, Allegra, Nicorette, and Nicoderm. Dave has a BS and MBA from the University of Kansas, with additional healthcare administration studies from Wichita State University and most recently financial leadership courses from the Harvard Business School.

Brian Johnson has focused on building procurement capability locally, regionally, and globally at Merck and has significant experience sourcing from Emerging Markets in Manufacturing, Indirect, and Research categories. He has held procurement roles as Head of Asian Markets Sourcing, Head of Procurement for Greater China, Direct of Research Procurement and has recently been appointed Director of Tech Portfolio Management for outsourcing of all APIs in the Animal Health Business. Brian lived and worked in Asia for 5 years and helped build Merck’s procurement presence in the emerging markets. He obtained his PhD from Princeton University in Chemical Engineering, has Black Belt in Six Sigma, and spent his first 14 years before procurement at Merck in process development taking pharmaceutical processes from bench scale to the factories across the world. He has written articles, patents, and speaks internationally.

Scott Kaya is Director of Information Technology purchasing and supplier management at AbbVie and has responsibility for leading a team that negotiates purchase agreements and manages the supply base for the Global Information Technology organization. Scott joined AbbVie in September 2012 from Baxter Healthcare, where he served as Director of Information Technology purchasing and supplier management. While at Baxter, Scott was part of the CIO’s leadership team, working closely with her and her staff to source, negotiate, implement and operate global application support, datacenter and helpdesk outsourcing agreements. He also sourced the ERP integrator for the global consolidation and upgrade of Baxter’s system. Prior to this, Scott spent 3 years at Hewitt in a similar IT purchasing role and 11 years at Accenture where he had responsibility for technology purchasing, and various IT roles supporting internal groups such as Accenture’s outsourcing business, knowledge management and learning organizations. Scott started his career at Digital Equipment Corporation as a material requirements planning analyst. Scott earned his master’s in business administration from Boston University and his bachelor’s degree in business, supply chain management from Michigan State University.

Jon Leisner is the Assistant Director, Sourcing and Facilities for AMRI, a contract research and manufacturing organization headquartered in Albany, New York. In this role, he is responsible for the procurement of indirect goods and services for AMRI’s global facilities, as well as the logistics and facilities management functions related to AMRI’s R&D and small-scale manufacturing facilities in New York and Massachusetts. Additionally, he also serves in an advisory capacity for the procurement of raw materials and factory supplies for AMRI’s large-scale manufacturing facility in Rensselaer, New York. He has been a member of AMRI’s team since 2008. Prior to joining AMRI, Jon was a Direct Material Sourcing Leader for Momentive Performance Materials (formerly GE Silicones) in Waterford, New York, from 2005 - 2008. In this role, he was responsible for the procurement of key raw materials, fillers, pigments and additives. Prior to that, Jon served as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy, with a specialty in Surface Warfare. Jon served on two warships, the USS MITSCHER (DDG 57) and the USS CAPE ST. GEORGE (CG 73), in divisional leadership roles within the Operations and Engineering Departments. His responsibilities included management of shipboard communications systems, gas turbine engines and generators, and deck seamanship processes. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jon graduated with merit from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. Jon also holds a Master of Engineering degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Mr. Lightman heads ISG's Life Sciences practice whose clients include more than half of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies. He advises ISG clients on all aspects of the services lifecycle from initial strategy through design and build of governance organizations. As a qualified English attorney he initially focused on the transactional activities and still maintains deep SME knowledge relating to structuring and negotiation of contracts. His experience includes over 50 ISG engagements whose scope comprised ITO, BPO, FSO and KPO elements and has also assisted clients in developing enterprise vendor management functions, in many cases on a global basis. He has supported clients in over 10 countries and is based in New York City.

Ed is currently the Head of Procurement for North America at AstraZeneca. In this role he leads the US and Canada in market procurement teams. He also has global accountability for AstraZeneca’s core commercial categories including Advertising, Digital/Media, Market Research, Contract Sales and PR. Prior to his role as Head of Procurement, Ed held multiple Global Category Leader roles where he developed and implemented global category strategies across key global markets. Established, developed, and managed key global supplier relationships and implemented global category best practices and sourcing programs. Ed has experience in procurement technology implementing Ariba platforms on a global scale and process expertise in strategic sourcing and category management. Ed holds a Bachelors Degree from Eastern University and an MBA from St. Josephs University.

Brenda Miller Is a 24 year industry professional serving in the role as a Global Program Director for a large SMM (Strategic Meetings Management) Client for CWT Meetings & Events. Brenda’s experience spans not only the meetings and travel space but also experience from the customer side within an established procurement community. As such, Brenda was responsible for negotiating and sourcing global travel and meeting vendors for a $200MM meetings and $350MM travel program. Brenda since 2010, has been a leader in the development of best in class strategic meetings programs. Brenda currently supports a large pharmaceutical client and manages their SMM program globally including support for over 20 countries, managing 3rd party meeting supplier performance and all regulatory and compliance reporting processes. Brenda holds a BS in Accounting/Finance. She has held various roles in her career including procurement, project management, contract negotiations/analysis, operations management and program/account management.

Jill Joy Rankin, C.P.M. Global Category Manager, is part of a Global Sourcing Team at Boehringer Ingelheim, whose corporate offices are based in Ingelheim, Germany. Jill is based out of Ridgefield Connecticut and is currently responsible for Global Sourcing initiatives for domestic and international programs. She has extensive leadership and cross functional experience across Sourcing and Procurement for more than 20 years. She currently supports Meetings, Congresses, Sales Training, and Print management at BI. Prior to Boehringer Ingelheim, Jill supported Sourcing and Procurement Categories as Associate Director at Novartis Consumer Health which included Global Category strategy management of their Marketing Services and Digital Services programs as part of their Over the Counter (OTC) Division. In addition she worked in Strategic sourcing group for Johnson and Johnson, based in New Brunswick New Jersey as part of a shared services team function supporting and leading Strategic Sourcing specific categories across three business sectors including Pharma, Consumer and Medical Devise Business units. Jill was previously based on the West Coast as part of the Purchasing team for Neutrogena supporting all Supply Chain plant site functions. Jill has been in a Procurement function across multiple industries including Software, Health and Beauty, and worked in manufacturing leading the purchasing team for a Billion dollar Global Corporation in the Food industry as well as experience working for Wella Corporation running the Purchasing function for their West Coast division. She is a Lifetime Certified Purchasing Manager and Green Belt for Six Sigma and has a vast knowledge across many industries which lends to her success and leadership in Procurement roles and expertise initiating new processes, approach and innovation to this field with both her internal stakeholders and Suppliers.

Ratan Ratnesh has over 17 years of global experience in consulting, procurement, clinical development and outsourcing across multiple therapeutic areas. He is Director of Clinical Outsourcing at Otsuka Pharmaceuticals managing clinical contracting and category management of clinical spend. Prior to current role, Ratan served in clinical outsourcing at Novartis and Wyeth Pharmaceutical. Prior to joining pharmaceutical industry, Ratan worked in supply chain consulting managing several indirect categories for multiple Fortune 500 companies in pharmaceutical, manufacturing, telecom and financial industry. His areas of expertise include design and implementation of procurement process & organization, strategic sourcing and category management and program management. Ratan has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology, India and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from University of Louisiana.

Robert Saini is the Director of Procurement for the U.S. affiliate of Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma Inc. Astellas is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products. Specifically in the U.S., Astellas is intensely focused on several key therapeutic areas including cardiology, dermatology, immunology, infectious diseases, oncology, and urology. Within Astellas, Rob is charged with the role of Head of Indirect Procurement for the Americas Region. He joined Astellas eight years ago to create and sustain a value-driven, centralized Procurement Function, streamline the enterprise-wide Procure-to-Pay (P2P) process and supporting technologies, and champion the maturation of the global Procurement organization. He leads a team of Strategic Sourcing professionals and collaborates with other Procurement-related teams via an aligned approach towards common vision. Rob has over 20 years of Strategic Sourcing, Procurement Operations, and Supply Chain experience across several industries including life sciences, utilities, media, consumer goods, and automotive. Prior to Astellas, he served as a leader in the Strategic Sourcing and eProcurement Practice of Ernst & Young/Capgemini for several years, and served in various engineering roles at General Motors. Rob is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with an MS in Systems Engineering, and GMI Engineering & Management Institute (aka Kettering University) with a BS in Electrical Engineering.

Chantal Sarmanoukian is currently the Head of General & Administrative Procurement for Shire. General and Administrative categories include IT and Technology Enablement, Professional Services and Travel. Since joining Shire in 2005 Chantal has held positions as the Director of R&D as well as Director, Commercial Procurement. Shire is one of the world’s leading specialty biopharmaceutical companies—but, more importantly, Shire makes a difference to people with life-altering conditions, enabling them to lead better lives. The patient-focused culture comes to life through its employees, who together form One Shire. Shire has over 5,300 employee with products marketed in over 50 countries. 2013 year revenues were $4.9B. In her role, Chantal and her team are responsible for collaboratively building strategic sourcing solutions for Shire’s businesses around the globe. They manage global activities ranging from strategic category sourcing to supply management to operational procurement. Her team is located in both North America and Europe. Prior to Shire, Chantal held various positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb in the Pharmaceutical Research Institute and in Global Strategic Sourcing focused primarily in the R&D functions. Chantal holds a MBA in Strategic Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology both from Rutgers University.

After graduating from Purdue University with a degree in Organizational Leadership and Supervision in 1991, Vera joined Abbott Laboratories and held a variety of supply chain positions thru 2000. Her career with Lilly began in 2000 as a site buyer in Indianapolis Dry Products. Vera has held roles as a Procurement Sourcing Professional, a Six Sigma Black Belt, and most recently the Global EERS Business Integrator. She has made significant contributions with the Global Implementation of EERS and the Procurement Transformation. Vera’s experiences in leading teams, change management, business partnering, and project management serve her well in her leadership role. Vera has earned her status as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt through Eli Lilly and Company’s Six Sigma Program (March 2012). She led several projects in the Finance and Procurement area most notably was responsible for setting direction for the foundational processes of the Procurement organization, category management, account management, and operational efficiencies.

Joe Shatynski, P.E., C.P.M., CPSM, is the Head of Strategic Sourcing, Procurement & Production Operations at Daiichi Sankyo Inc. His efforts include building a world class strategic sourcing and supplier management program, driving continuous improvement and efficiencies to the Procure to Pay process and ensuring optimal production and promotional asset delivery to the organization. Joe led international procurement teams for marketing & sales at Pfizer and Pharmacia and R&D, manufacturing & buying /planning procurement teams at Roche. Previously, he worked in new product process development at Roche scaling up processes from lab scale to pilot plant to manufacturing. Joe holds an MBA from NYU in Marketing & International Business, an MS and BS in Chemical Engineering from NJIT. He is a licensed professional engineer in the state of NJ.

Subs Tripathy is at Novartis Pharmaceuticals and is responsible for Global Oncology Sourcing initiatives in the USA. He has extensive leadership experience across Sourcing and Finance in his 11 years at Novartis. This includes sourcing operations, category management, shared services and financial planning and analysis. He currently divides his time between driving Sourcing initiatives and finding business licensing opportunities for the Oncology Division. Prior to Novartis, he has worked in Alcoa where he leveraged spend through efficient processes and automated systems. Prior to Alcoa, he was involved in Business Process and ERP consulting across companies in Europe, Asia and the USA. He has an Engineering degree, an MBA and a Masters in eBusiness.

Doug has spent his entire 25-plus year career in the software industry - helping customers maximize the value they receive in their technology investments. Doug is responsible for all aspects of customer success, including implementation, customer support and long-term customer success, inclusive of the Hiperos Network. Prior to joining Hiperos, Doug was vice president of services at Misys, a UK-based software company. While at Misys, Doug oversaw a team of 550 consultants that produced $125 million in annual revenue. Prior to Misys, Doug spent more than 10 years at Oracle during two tenures. He was group vice president responsible for the North American consulting supply organization, and he played an integral part in integrating PeopleSoft’s consulting business with Oracle’s. In between his tenures, Doug joined Ariba to start the Eastern Region services team. Doug eventually became vice president of North American services, overseeing an important profit center for the company. Doug holds a bachelor of arts degree in computer and informational sciences from the University of Delaware.

Ganesh Vedarajan is a Managing Principal on ZS Associates’ executive team and is based in the firm’s San Mateo, Calif. office. Ganesh advises life science clients across a range of issues, including brand marketing, marketing execution effectiveness, managed care marketing and contracting, sales strategy and commercial analytics and operations. He holds a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Stan Woodland is an entrepreneur, an angel investor and an early tech adopter. As founder and CEO of Communications Media, Inc., Compas, Inc. and its family of companies, Stan has been recognized as one of the most influential leaders of the pharmaceutical industry’s 30-year evolution. Media buying firm Compas services more of the industry than any other, accounting for one-third to one-half of all volume, and to date has returned more than $250 million in savings to clients. Stan has been recognized as a top minority business leader, top small business leader and as one of PharmaVOICE’s most innovative leaders.

A native of North Carolina, Mark Zaremski holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University and a Master of Science degree in Statistics from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He has 30 years of experience in engineering, Six Sigma, and Procurement. He came to Johnson and Johnson in 1997 as a supplier quality engineer. He joined Ortho Clinical Diagnostics in 2004 as manager of Indirect Procurement, and became Director in 2006. In 2007, he took on the Procurement Operations team for the Medical Device and Diagnostics sector for Johnson and Johnson which included Metrics and Analytics. In 2013, Mark became Director of Procurement Metrics and Analytics. Mark leads a team of 17 analysts looking at a global spend of $29 billion. Mark is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. Mark lives in Rochester NY with his wife Amy and son Luke.