A Managing Director in WittKieffer’s Interim Leadership solution, George relies upon an extensive background in executive talent, strategic consulting, and talent advisory to inform his work. George is driven by his desire to identify creative leadership solutions for pharmaceutical and commercial healthcare clients that align with their strategic needs. He thoughtfully educates and partners with these firms for opportunities to leverage interim and on-demand leadership talent.

George’s background includes broad and deep expertise in business development and commercial strategy for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Prior to WittKieffer, he served as Senior Director of Client Development for a leading executive talent and consulting firm. In this role, he focused on acquiring new business in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, growing service offerings around interim and on- demand solutions.

Before that, George was a Senior Partner managing Strategic Life Science Partnerships at an industry leading alternative legal service provider, partnering with in-house legal leaders to create innovative solutions for high-quality, on-demand legal talent and advising clients on cost-effective alternatives to traditional outside counsel.

Additionally, George’s earlier career included managing interim solutions, managed services, and workforce transformation partnerships with Contract Research Organizations (CROs) and organizations within the Pharmaceutical, Medical Device & Diagnostic, Biotechnology, and Healthcare Provider industries.

Mark Landers is Vice President of Precision Medicine at Akoya Biosciences and has over 25 years experience in oncology diagnostics. Prior to joining Akoya, Mark held leadership positions at Epic Sciences, Guardant Health and Exact Sciences. Leveraging a strong technical background from years in R&D, he has successfully brought multiple diagnostic tests and companion diagnostics to market.

Cheryl Bernstein, RN, BSN, CCRC is Director of Clinical Research at the Bernstein Clinical Research Center, LLC, Cincinnati Ohio. During the last 40 years, Cheryl has coordinated multiple Phase II and III multicenter clinical research trials of new investigational products for Asthma, COPD, Allergic Rhinitis, Urticaria, Hereditary Angioedema and for sublingual allergen immunotherapy tablets.  She currently serves as a consumer representative on the FDA advisory panel for new ENT devices.  Cheryl has co-authored 7 research publications. Throughout her career, Cheryl has been a featured speaker for Allied Health continuing medical education programs at multiple annual AAAAI and ACAAI meetings. For her years of service, she received the AAAAI Allied Health Professional Recognition Award in 2013.

Leslie Lake is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Invus Financial Advisors, LLC, an investment boutique based in New York City. Leslie co-founded the firm in 2006, with a specialty in long short equity strategies. Leslie has been managing assets within the hedge fund industry since 1995. Leslie holds a BS in Economics from Simmons College, where she is also a Trustee, member of the Finance and Investment Committees, and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees.

In 2018, Leslie suffered a bilateral pulmonary embolism (PE). Her quest to learn more about venous thromboembolism (VTE) lead her to the National Blood Clot Alliance. Despite living in New York City, Leslie was shocked by the lack of information available to her after her PE.

Leslie volunteers her time to lead the organization and is committed to raising public awareness so no person affected by blood clots is without the necessary information they need to prevent or successfully treat VTE, and that they also have the information they need to navigate the spectrum of lifestyle issues that can follow a blood clot diagnosis.

Dr. Pan Pan has a rich and diverse experience spanning over a decade in Business Development, dedicated his efforts to accelerating drug development in oncology and immunology through strategic planning and partnering. His track record of forging creative partnerships includes Kelun’s groundbreaking ADC licensing agreement with Merck, resulting in $1.4 billion in total payments. He also orchestrated the Akeso-Summit partnership around Ivonescimab (PD-1/VEGF bsAb), securing a landmark upfront payment of $500 million and total payments of $5 billion. Dr. Pan’s prior scientific experience as a protein engineer at Arkema Inc complements his business acumen. His ability to deftly navigate both scientific and business domains is owed to his educational background. He holds a PhD in Chemical Biology from Stony Brook University, an MBA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and an MS & BS from the School of Pharmacy at Peking University.

Dr. Goates leads a team of data scientists, clinical scientists, epidemiologists, and economists who leverage data to support patient health. He co-chairs the Abbott Patient Engagement Committee which seeks to facilitate and promote patient engagement across Abbott’s businesses. 

Dr. Goates also represents Abbott on the MDIC Science of Patient Input working group and co-authored the report, “Best Practices for Communicating Benefit, Risk, and Uncertainty for Medical Devices.”

He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and a Masters in Statistics from Washington State University, and an MBA from Western Governors University. In addition to his role at Abbott, Dr. Goates is a Professorial Lecturer in Prevention and Community Health at The George Washington University, Milken Institute School of Public Health.

Jamie Goldfarb was diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma in January 2011, when her son was just 11 weeks old. Upon diagnosis, her oncologist told her that he would do everything in his power to buy her 6 more months. Ms Goldfarb joined a clinical trial at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and is now completely disease-free. Having worked in patient recruitment for 8 years and having her own life saved by a clinical trial, Ms Goldfarb's personal mission is to spread information about the importance of medical research as far and wide as possible. To this end, she is involved with the Melanoma Research Alliance, the Melanoma Research Foundation, the Melanoma International Foundation, CISCRP, the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, the Association of Clinical Research Professionals, and Imerman Angels. She also serves as a research advocate for NCI, and works one-on-one with people with cancer to help them navigate their treatment options, including clinical trials.

Vikram Kansra, PhD brings 25 years of experience in the biotechnology industry to Vicero, including significant contributions to the development and approvals of Velcade® (multiple myeloma and mantle lymphoma), Entyvio® (ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease), Opdivo® (several cancers), Yervoy® (melanoma), Copiktra® (chronic lymphocytic leukemia and follicular lymphoma), Xpovio® (multiple myeloma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma), Tazverik® (follicular lymphoma and epithelioid sarcoma), and others.

With a focus on organizational excellence and full integration of high-performance teams with diverse backgrounds, Dr Kansra's leadership enables Vicero to successfully meet the demands of the regulatory and marketing environment, bringing next-generation nanobody therapies from the bench to the clinic and beyond.

Tony Arulanandam, PhD has 20+ years of research and development experience in immunology, immuno-oncology, and gene therapy research from target identification through product registration. He is currently the CEO and Founder of Synaptimmune Therapeutics a Yale Ventures spinout newco focusing on the next generation of IDR-CAR-T cells for Cancers and Autoimmune Diseases. He is also the SVP and Head of R&D at Cytovia Therapeutics developing well differentiated Clinical and discovery stage Immune cell engager bispecific antibodies for Cancer and Autoimmune diseases. He is a co-founder and scientific advisor at NextPoint Therapeutics, an immuno-oncology checkpoint inhibitor company founded by MPM capital that has raised over $150 million in series A and B funding. He initiated newco research activities with Dr. Gordon Freeman out of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, pitching the science and partnering with MPM capital to start the company. He was also a venture advisor and consultant at Longwood Fund, evaluating and advising newco opportunities in the immunology and immuno-oncology space and was the founder of Tolereg therapeutics, a Treg cell therapy company targeting autoantibody-producing B cells in rare autoimmune diseases.

Prior to that, he was the SVP and head of research at Agilis therapeutics, a rare-disease gene therapy company acquired by PTC therapeutics, where he became the VP and head of gene therapy, nonclinical research. He held multiple discovery research and development postions, serving as a director and senior director at Ares-Serono, Biogen-Idec, Regeneron, and Alexion, working on multiple IND submissions in immunology and cancer indications including Dupilumab TM, Cemiplimab TM (PD-1 mAb) and SamalizumabTM (CD200 mAb). He authored 5 BLAs, including TysabriTM for multiple sclerosis (Biogen Idec), SarilumabTM for rheumatoid arthritis (Regeneron), DupilumabTM for atopic dermatitis and asthma (Regeneron), KanumaTM for LAL deficiency (Synageva/Alexion), and UpstazaTm gene therapy for aromatic acid decarboxylase deficiency (Agilis/PTC).

Dr. Arulanandam obtained PhD in Immunology at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst under the mentorship of Dr. Richard Goldsby and did his post-doctoral fellowship in T and NK cell signaling and CD2 structure function studies in the laboratory of Dr. Ellis Reinherz at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical school.

Dr. Bohnsack is a board-certified radiologist with clinical experience in both EU and USA. For 20+ years he's been reputably positioned at the forefront of oncology imaging advances in the clinical trial industry. He co-authored irRC in 2007 and published irRECIST in 2014 which were subsequently validated in February 2022. Both criteria remain the gold standard in solid-tumor oncology and especially I-O imaging. Oliver earned his M.D. from the University of Essen, Germany, his MBA in Healthcare Management from the University of California and his PhD in Radiology, Radiation Modulation and Reduction in CT at the University of Munich.

Gwendolyn Binder, PhD joined Cabaletta Bio in February 2019 as one of Cabaletta’s first employees and established the preclinical, translational, manufacturing, and quality organizations. As President of Science and Technology, Dr Binder is responsible for establishing and executing strategies in research and manufacturing to deliver competitive and transformative cellular therapeutics for patients with autoimmune disease. In addition to her position at Cabaletta, she serves on the Board of Directors of Instil Bio, Inc., a company developing novel cancer immunotherapies, and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Immatics N.V., which is a publically traded company developing engineered T cell immunotherapy for cancer. Prior to joining Cabaletta, Dr. Binder was the Chief Technology Officer of Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc, where she established early clinical, translational research and manufacturing functions in the US arm of the company, including providing oversight on the build-out of a commercial-scale cell therapy manufacturing facility and ultimately transitioned to lead the research team to focus on prioritizing next generation products and novel targets in early clinical development. Earlier in her career, Dr. Binder served as Director of Operations for the Translational Research Program at the University of Pennsylvania, where she progressed multiple Investigational New Drug applications (“IND”) for novel engineered T cell therapies in human immunodeficiency virus (“HIV”) and oncology, including the CD19 CAR IND acquired by Novartis (now Kymriah®), the first human gene editing IND, and three TCR engineered T cell therapy studies in oncology and HIV. Prior to that, she served as the Director of Scientific Affairs at VIRxSYS Corporation in Gaithersburg, Maryland where she supported the development of the first clinical lentiviral vector used in humans. Dr. Binder studied viral immunology and translational research at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland where she earned a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Medicine in 2002. She has authored over 30 publications in the field, including top international journals such as "Science" and "Nature Medicine". She is a recognized leader in the biotechnology sector for the translational and clinical advancement of novel T cell therapies for patients with serious diseases.