Speaker Biographies

Harry Atkins has been a member of the Global Strategy and Corporate Development department at Incyte since 2018. Prior to joining Incyte, he held Corporate Development, Alliance Management, and Marketing roles at Specialty Pharma companies such as Aralez, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Endo, Pharmos, Berlex, Eisai and Lederle. He is a Board Member of the Harvard Business School Healthcare Alumni Association, having earned an MBA at Harvard, and holds certifications as a Certified Licensing Practitioner and a Certified Strategic Alliance Professional. Prior to his career in pharma, he retired at the rank of Commander from the US Navy where he served as a nuclear engineer in the submarine service, and lived and worked in Japan for 3 years.

Aida is leading the Alliance Management Group in Oncology R&D at AstraZeneca. Her team is responsible for a broad portfolio of global strategic Alliances, including co-development, licensing, acquisitions, externalizations, and clinical collaborations. Aida has 24 years of experience in the biopharma industry including Project & Portfolio Management, Alliance Management, Business Development, and Compliance. At Medimmune she created and led a centralized Alliance Management function with accountability for key strategic partnerships across therapeutic areas. She was responsible along with her team for establishing innovative alliance best practices, advanced systems, and Alliance capabilities at Medimmune. Prior to that during her 13 years at Medimmune, Aida held positions of increasing responsibility while managing a variety of drug development projects and partnerships across Oncology, Respiratory, Inflammation, Autoimmunity, and other therapeutic areas. Aida has experience leading through broad organization-wide change initiatives and has extensive drug development experience across diverse therapeutic areas gained through multiple roles earlier in her career. She is President of the DC/Mid Atlantic Chapter of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals, and CA-AM certified.

Isaac Block is a Senior Consultant at Vantage Partners, and a member of the firm’s Biopharma Alliances practice. Isaac works with leading companies across a range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and information services.  He has particular expertise launching and managing strategic partnerships, including design and implementation of joint planning, co-innovation, issue management, and escalation processes with partners, as well as internal governance and communication protocols.

Joy has a passion for establishing successful partnerships that bring life science discoveries from bench to bedside. In her current role, Joy leads the Strategic Alliances and Program Management team within Mount Sinai Innovation Partners. The team is responsible for maximizing the long-term value of Mount Sinai assets and creating new opportunities for partnerships with commercial organizations. In addition to driving successful collaborations in an academic environment, Joy has significant commercial experience working for both large pharmaceutical and small biotech companies. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, Joy held senior positions at Pfizer and Mankind Corporation in the areas of alliance management, product marketing/strategy, and finance, across multiple therapeutic areas including diabetes, neurology, and arthritis. Joy holds a BA economics from Brandeis University and an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Katherine Ellison leads Illumina’s Alliance Management team. The team is responsible for a wide variety of partnership types, including companion diagnostics, co-development, co-commercialization, technological innovation, licensing, and supply agreements. As a dedicated servant leader, Katherine focuses on building and supporting great teams to drive results for Illumina. With 17 years’ experience working with critical partners, she is responsible for developing Illumina's partnering strategy and assessing organizational fit with potential new partners as part of the company’s goal to advance gene sequencing and personalized medicine. Prior to her work in alliance management, she was a product management leader who successfully launched multiple major platforms and products used by thousands of diagnostic testing laboratories worldwide. A lifelong learner, Katherine has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemistry, a graduate certificate in Marketing, an MBA, and earned her Certification of Achievement-Alliance Management (CA-AM) from the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals in 2017.

Brent leads teams focused on maximizing the value of partnered assets at each stage of the development and commercialization cycle. Brent has played an integral role in some of the largest development and commercial alliances at Lilly, including worldwide partnerships with BMS, Merck KGaA, Daiichi-Sankyo, Innovent Biologics, GSK, and Sanofi. He is also the alliance manager on collaborations with venture capitalists, strategic equity investment companies, and oncology clinical trial collaborations. Brent has responsibilities for M&A integration as well. Brent has an engineering degree from Purdue and an MBA from Indiana University. He also has a CA-AM and is a certified management accountant (CMA).

Have served as a Strategic Alliances Director at Eli Lilly & Company for three years. Prior roles at Eli Lilly involved Competitive Intelligence Analysis and Business Development Forecasting.

Dana Hughes is a Vice President in Pfizer’s Worldwide Business Development group. For Pfizer, he is the Global Head for Integration Management, Global Head of Alliance Management and also runs BD Operations. He completed the integration of Wyeth ($68B, 2009-2010) and is currently leading the separation of Upjohn for its combination with Mylan (2019-2020), and his team continues to manage the ongoing separation of Pfizer Consumer Health (Undisclosed, 2019) to a joint venture with Glaxo SmithKline. Dana is responsible for the implementation of Pfizer’s most important partnership deals as well, managing Pfizer’s enterprise alliance team that supports the complex partnered programs with peer global pharmaceuticals such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Merck and Merck KGaA. Prior to Pfizer, Dana was a Principal in The Boston Consulting Group and with Lazard Frères & Co. Dana has an MBA Columbia Business School and an AB from Harvard College. He lives in Brooklyn, NY, and highly values his DUMBO neighborhood.

Over the past 7 years, I've had a number of roles within UK charities supporting the translation of fundamental science to new treatments for patients. I've spent just over a year at Cancer Research UK, managing strategic alliances with industry partners focussed on multi-project drug discovery collaborations. As an alliance manager, I focus on developing a strong relationship with our partners and manage the contractual aspects and strategic direction of the alliance. Before Cancer Research UK, I managed translational funding grants and commercial activities for the British Heart Foundation. I've held roles at Wellcome Trust, managing a broad portfolio of grants supporting academic biomedical research. I have a BSc in Pharmacology, an MSc in Drug Discovery and I am an certified Alliance Manager with the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals.

Michael Kennedy is an experienced alliance management professional with 20 plus years experience in the pharmaceutical industry embracing local, regional and global roles. He joined the Bayer AG BD&L / Alliance Management Team in 2012. Prior to that Michael was Vice President, Head of Alliance Management at Mylan Pharmaceuticals. Before that he ran Business Operations for Pfizer Animal Health. In various leadership roles Michael has led efforts to build out organizational partnering capability and develop partnering strategies. As an alliance manager he has been instrumental in identifying and pursuing strategic partnerships and business opportunities to expand markets, generate new sources of revenue and maximize the value of the alliances he has managed.

Mai-Tal Kennedy is a Principal at Vantage Partners, where her practice focuses on governance, organizational effectiveness, and cross-functional collaboration.  As part of this work she is often required to assess and provide feedback on the enabling and disabling features of the relationship’s operating context – including the parties joint and respective governance structures and leadership behaviors. 

Stuart Kliman is a founder and Partner of Vantage Partners. Stuart works with his clients to help them maximize the value they get out of key, complex relationships. Stuart is a frequent speaker and writer on issues of negotiation and relationship management. He is a co-author of Vantage’s study on Alliance Management and he has written numerous publications. In addition to his work at Vantage Partners, Stuart has taught at the Harvard Program on Negotiation. Stuart is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and Harvard Law School and is a member of the Maryland Bar. He has two children, Jessica and Max.

Stuart Kliman is a founder and Partner of Vantage Partners, where he leads the life sciences alliance practice. Stuart works with his clients to help them build and implement the processes, tools, skills and structures necessary to more effectively manage key alliance relationships.

Stuart is a frequent speaker and writer on issues of negotiation and relationship management. He is a co-author of Vantage’s study on Alliance Management, and has written numerous publications – most recently “Effective Strategy and Partnering Approaches for University-Generated IP.”

In addition to his work at Vantage Partners, Stuart has taught at the Harvard Program on Negotiation and at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business . Stuart is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and Harvard Law School, and is a member of the Maryland Bar.

Adam Kornetsky is a Principal at Vantage Partners and a member of the Alliances Practice, with a focus on life sciences and healthcare. Adam works with clients to help unlock the value of collaboration and achieve breakthrough results in a changing healthcare landscape. His experience includes building alliance management capabilities in several leading pharmaceutical and contract research organizations, conducting partnership health checks, facilitating negotiation and conflict management training, and advising organizations on major change management and organizational design initiatives. Adam has also supported many clients in their goal of creating a more innovative business environment.

Eric Lawrence is the Alliance Lead for Specialty Lab testing in support of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Global Clinical Operations. Eric is responsible for enabling successful external partnership strategies thru governance implementation, vendor oversight and strategic risk management across a technologically diverse portfolio of service providers. In his 12 years of service at BMS, he has spanned roles supporting early discovery thru development providing a breadth of experience supporting portfolio management, budgeting, capacity planning and outsourcing management strategies. Eric is passionate to build strategic partnerships with external partners to harness additional value thru continuous improvement initiatives that leads to improved quality in support of clinical trials. He holds a BS in Biology from Rutgers University, a MS in Biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania and a MBA from Rutgers University.

Ryan Lenox is an alliance manager working in Medical Affairs at Merck. He has held several roles in Medical Affairs, currently he finds efficient ways for Medical Affairs to operate in complex strategic alliances.

Anna Maroney has experience in drug discovery and clinical development with a unique blend of biotech and large pharma research and business development. Prior to joining AbbVie as Head of Alliance Management under the Corporate Strategy Organization, Anna had executive roles in business development and clinical leadership at GSK, where she was Head of the US Site for the Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery and a Medicine Development Leader on a late-stage clinical program. Earlier career experiences include R&D roles at JNJ, 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals and Cephalon Inc. She holds a PhD degree in biochemistry from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Michael is a Senior Director within the Alliance Management function at Bristol Myers Squibb. His responsibilities include a specific focus on late-stage partnerships including: clinical collaborations, translational medicine and diagnostics partnerships, digital partnerships as well as commercial alliances. During his 26 years at Bristol Myers Squibb, Michael has worked across Europe, Asia Pacific and the US in a variety of roles leading and developing high performing, diverse teams, while growing his responsibility and knowledge of the BioPharmaceutical Industry. Prior to his current role in Alliance Management, Michael was responsible for oversight of IT, Infrastructure, and adjacent services in support of Business Development priorities (M&A, divestitures, strategic alliances, collaborations and licensing) at Bristol Myers Squibb. This involved the full spectrum of the deal lifecycle from pre-deal diligence, operational and synergy reviews, 'Day-1' planning and post-deal implementation support. In addition to his IT/Corporate Services experience in supporting Business Development, Michael has supported a Manufacturing Operations Globally, Product & Process Development, Engineering & Quality functions. Michael began his career in Ireland as Chemist with Bristol Myers Squibb in 1994, after completing his Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Chemistry and Business Administration postgraduate studies. Michael currently resides in Princeton, NJ.

Urs Schleuniger is the Global Head of Roche's Alliance and Asset Management Organization which manages over 220 alliances and divests around 05. bio CHF of established non-strategic products on an annual base. Urs is a seasoned Roche pharma leader with more than 30 years of experience, starting his career in Australia in medical affairs, leading as head of strategic marketing in Switzerland and US several lifecycle teams in disease areas such as Oncology, Rheumatology, Respiratory and Ophthalmology and building the specialty care sales and marketing organization in Canada. Prior to joining Alliance Management, he led the disease area leadership team in Palo Alto which had global responsibility for research and early clinical development in Inflammation. He is a licensed pharmacist by training and earned his PhD in natural sciences at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ).

Ben Siddall is a partner at Vantage Partners, LLC, and a member of the firm's sales advisory and alliances practices. Ben works primarily with customer-facing groups to achieve breakthrough results by building deeper relationships with their internal and external stakeholders, identifying new forms of value, and negotiating more effective agreements with customers and between partners. Ben has worked with sales and alliance organizations in numerous industries, with a particular focus on pharmaceutical, medical device, healthcare, and information technology. Ben regularly works with pharmaceutical companies to enhance their market access effectiveness. This work includes leading negotiation, stakeholder engagement, and collaboration workshops; helping develop customized negotiation support and execution tools; supporting product-specific mock negotiations; and supporting identification and execution of local and global partnerships to support product launches. During his career at Vantage Partners Ben has contributed to a number of Vantage Partners publications, including the Customer-Supplier Negotiation Study and Extreme Negotiations with Customers. Ben also regularly speaks at conferences on market access negotiation, collaborating with customers, and cross-industry partnerships. Prior to joining Vantage, Ben led business development and partnership outreach at a start-up technology company in Boston, Massachusetts. He also worked as a lawyer at Covington & Burling in Washington D.C., and as an economic consultant. Ben received his JD from Georgetown University Law Center and his BA in political science from Boston University.

Ben Siddall is a Partner at Vantage Partners, where his practice focuses on helping companies build and execute strategies which involve collaboration. Ben works primarily in the biopharma, device, and healthcare sectors, with additional experience in the technology and professional services sectors.

Ben’s projects include a blend of strategic analysis and supporting individual relationships. He regularly helps clients conduct scenario planning and war-gaming to inform collaborative strategies, define partner ecosystems, build and support partner selection processes, and launch individual collaborations.  He also helps organizations define and improve their capability to partner effectively.  He works with both innovation and customer related collaborations, and regularly supports cross-industry partnerships.

Prior to joining Vantage, Ben worked as an economic consultant and a commercial litigator. Ben received his J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center and his B.A. magna cum laude in political science from Boston University.

Steve is currently president of a newly formed consulting firm. Steve previously had responsibility for AstraZeneca’s global late-phase and commercial alliance and integration management (AIM) strategy and execution capabilities. Steve’s team led the integration of asset acquisitions, the transitions for divestments, and management of key late-phase alliances for AZ. Steve joined AZ in January 2015, after spending 26 years at Eli Lilly and Company where he was a founding member of Lilly’s Office of Alliance Management. Steve is a well published author in Pharmaceutical Executive, PLG’s Business Development & Licensing Journal, and Strategic Alliance Magazine and has been a board member and treasurer of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals.

Jan Twombly, CSAP is the president of The Rhythm of Business, a consulting and training company empowering ecosystem partnering, alliance, and collaboration success. For over 20 years she has been an leader in advancing the practice of alliance management. As a trusted advisor to life science companies, she supports alliance managers in research and development, go-to-market, and new digital partnering initiatives. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals.

Lucinda (Cindy) leads the Neuroscience Business Development Team globally and all business development activity in Japan as a Region, including scientific finding, licensing transactions, mergers, acquisition, out licensing, divestitures and alliance management. With over 25 years of broad industry experience, Lucinda began her Pharma career in Canada. In 1999, she joined the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies and has held various USA and Global roles of increasing responsibilities, including Sales, Marketing, New Product Development, Alliance Management, and Business Development Leadership. Lucinda has been responsibility for the leadership and oversight of some of Janssen’s longest and largest global commercial alliances in addition to leading the global integration of Johnson & Johnson’s single largest asset REMICADE®, back into the organization in 2011. Cindy currently sits on the Board of Directors for International School Services, serving on both the Financial and Governance Committees, as well as an Executive Committee Member on the board for The Association of Strategic Alliance Professional (ASAP). Cindy received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alberta, Canada.

Naidi Xu, Ph.D., who goes by Nelson, is Senior Director, Business Development and Alliance Management at Innovent Biologics, where he leads key international partnerships. Nelson’s 20 years of pharma industry experience span both China and the US, having worked in both countries and having succeeded in the functions of new product development, market research and analytics, business development, oncology marketing, sales management, and pharma sales territory representative. He has worked at Eli Lilly and Imclone in the US, as well as Eli Lilly China. Nelson earned an MBA in Marketing from The University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor of Medicine degree from Shanghai Medical University.