Maria Perkinson brings more than 20 years of experience delivering strategic transformation solutions. Ms Perkinson has led many large-scale global initiatives within the pharmaceutical industry. She has extensive experience applying process improvement, innovation, and change management methodologies to maximize the value of an integrated digitalization strategy and solution. Coupled with her ability to bridge disparate organizations and drive unified strategies and disciplines, Ms Perkinson brings critical value as digitalization and innovation continue to play an increasingly vital role in the pharmaceutical industry.

Jane Perlmutter, PhD, is a long-term survivor of multiple cancers and an active advocate. While her advocacy is largely rooted in her own experiences, it is also informed by her formal training in cognitive psychology and experimental methods (PhD), computer and information science (MS) and business (MBA), as well as her career experiences which included many years in academia, not-for-profit R&D, corporate senior management, and independent consulting.

During her early advocacy Dr Perlmutter was a peer counselor and board member for Y-ME, as well as a grant reviewer for ACS, DOD and PCORI. More recently she focuses much of her advocacy on clinical trials, ensuring that the patient voice is considered in selection of research questions and that trial protocols are sensitive to patient issues. She is especially interested in innovative trial designs that can speed new treatments to patients who need them. Dr Perlmutter serves on the steering committees and is lead advocate on the I-SPY2 and TAPUR trials, two groundbreaking Master Protocol trials. She has been an advocate on NCI’s Breast Steering Committee and CALGB’s Breast and Health Outcomes Committees and is currently on NCI’s Cancer Imaging Steering Committee and NCTN’s DSMB and Cancer Control Executive Committee.

Dr Perlmutter has also been involved in health advocacy beyond cancer and works with many government and not-for-profit groups. She is past-chair of the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s (PCORI) Patient Engagement Advisory Panel and a member of their Clinical Trials Advisory Committee. She is especially passionate about developing the next generation of advocates and fostering collaboration between advocates and researchers. She has developed and delivered training for many advocacy groups and been a long-term faculty member of the ASCO/AACR Methods in Clinical Research Workshop. In 2023, Dr Perlmutter was honored with AACR’s 2023 Distinguished Public Service Award for Exceptional Leadership in Cancer Advocacy as well as ASCO’s 2023 Patient Advocate Award.

Gus Perna, the visionary leader of ‘Operation Warp Speed,’ shares the principles of leadership, teamwork, strategic planning, secure operations, and supply chain mastery that helped his team orchestrate the largest, safest, and most rapid vaccine deployment effort in global history.

Before he was named to co-lead the U.S. government’s COVID-19 response in 2020 with Operation Warp Speed, General Gus Perna served as head of the U.S. Army Materiel Command where he managed redistribution of critical munitions to the Pacific and fixed the Army’s housing crisis. As Commander of the Philadelphia Defense Supply Center, he was responsible for the fighting force’s global supply chain.

One of the military’s most skilled and most senior logisticians, General Perna worked to build manufacturing capacity and the end-to-end supply chain needed to get vaccines distributed “at warp speed.” Leveraging public-private partnerships, he accelerated the operation beyond what anyone thought possible—all while the vaccines were still in development.

General Perna retired from the U.S. Army in August of 2021 after 38 years of distinguished service in which he was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Distinguished Service Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, Defense Superior Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Legion of Merit, and Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster. In 2021, the association of Business Executives for National Security honored him with the Eisenhower Award.

Sridevi Rajeeve is an Assistant attending physician with the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York specializing in Multiple Myeloma and Cellular Therapeutics. Dr Rajeeve completed her Internal Medicine residency training and Hematology-Oncology fellowship training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

Dr Rajeeve’s clinical and research interests span across plasma cell dyscrasias (Multiple Myeloma, Precursor states – monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS)/smoldering multiple myeloma(SMM), Amyloidosis) and lymphoid malignancies, cellular therapeutics, clinical trials, digital health technologies and care delivery transformation. She is a grant funded researcher who aims to thoughtfully design clinical trials and make cancer care more accessible to people. She has been involved with patient education groups making educational videos to simplify complex cancer-related topics to patients and caregivers.

Dr Rajeeve is a bibliophile, adores open-air theater performances, travel and an active lifestyle.

Prasanna Rao is a distinguished AI practitioner and industry thought leader with over 30 years of experience in information technology and advanced analytics. Currently serving as the Senior Director, Global Head of AI/ML for Clinical Data Sciences at Pfizer, Mr Rao brings extensive expertise in healthcare and life sciences, spanning more than a decade. Previously as a Watson Solution Architect at IBM, he played a key role in implementing AI systems for various clients. With a strong focus on driving innovation and fostering AI adoption, he collaborates with stakeholders, including vendors, SMEs, developers, and data scientists. He has presented at prominent industry conferences such as SCDM, DIA, DPHARM, SCOPE, and Tufts University CSDD, establishing a reputation as a leading authority in leveraging disruptive technologies for clinical development in the pharma industry.

Amanda Rangel is Senior Vice President of Business Development at 83bar. Ms Rangel is an experienced entrepreneur, business development and operations executive with a 20-year history of success in the clinical research industry.  Ms Rangel started as a clinical research coordinator and spent a decade in a variety of roles across multiple site settings (academic, single site and global site networks). She then went on to hold leadership roles for DCT and Diversity and Inclusion service providers. Ms Rangel has dedicated her career to making clinical trial access better for patients in a way that is sustainable and friendly for sites.

Siân Ratcliffe, PhD, is currently SVP, Head of Quantitative Sciences & Development Operations at Biogen, where she leads large global teams accountable for the strategic planning, execution and analysis of clinical trials across all phases of development and therapeutic areas, ie MS/Immunology, Neuromuscular Disorders, Neurodegenerative Disorders and Therapeutics Development (Neurovascular therapies, Psychiatry, and Genetic Neurodevelopmental Disorders). Dr Ratcliffe is also the chair of the Technical Review Committee reviewing all protocols and protocol amendments for R&D.

Prior to Biogen, Dr Ratcliffe spent 20+ years Pfizer, where she held senior leadership and group head roles in Clinical Development & Operations, Medical Writing, Preclinical Safety (Toxicology and Safety Pharmacology), Safety Risk Management and Regulatory Strategy, managing projects throughout development stages from research to post-approval in multiple therapeutic areas (including Oncology, Neurology, Psychiatry, Pain, Rare Disease, Immunology, Internal Medicine and Vaccines). In that time, she directly led 17 NDA submissions, >70 INDs, >50 health authority interactions across multiple therapeutic areas, as well as functional line oversight of ~50+ NDA/sNDA/MAA submissions, including RTOR pathway and vaccine submissions. In addition, Dr Ratcliffe has co-led a number of cross-industry initiatives for TransCelerate and BIO to transform clinical trials and accelerate clinical development.

Dr Ratcliffe has a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Cambridge (1996). She is a recognized cross-industry expert in CNS clinical trial methodology, abuse potential and suicide risk assessment; she is also the Treasurer and Executive Committee member for International Society for CNS Clinical Trial Methodology and mentors new investigators involved in psychiatry and neurology research.

Susan Reilly Salgado, PhD, is a consultant and speaker whose work focuses on how organizations can leverage a strong and healthy organizational culture to achieve outstanding results. Her proprietary model of culture explains how organizations can build infrastructure to support their desired culture, to retain the ‘soul’ of the company.

During her 15 years as an executive and partner in Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG), Dr Salgado created and implemented the company’s leadership development programs, which were a fundamental component of the company’s success in growing its culture throughout significant growth, including the creation and scaling of the Shake Shack brand. In 2010, she opened a consultancy under the USHG umbrella to help organizations across industries do the same, and in 2017, Susan spun the consultancy off and continues to consult and speak in the areas of organizational culture, leadership, and customer experience.

Dr Salgado has shared concepts and best practices with companies across more than 20 different industries, from hospitality, to luxury retail, to hospitals, to financial services, and beyond [including companies such as Delta Airlines, Hyatt Hotels, Merrill Lynch, CLEAR, Assa Abloy Security Systems, Chanel, Ford Motor Company, Pure Insurance, H-E-B, Cedars Sinai Hospital System, Novartis, BJs Restaurants, Condé Nast, Coca Cola, NFP, and Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry]. Her goal is to help teams understand how effective leadership leads to a positive and uplifting culture that drives performance.

Her work has been profiled in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Business Insider. She was a co-founder of the NYC Chapter of Conscious Capitalism, has recorded a TEDx talk, has been a contributor to Inc. magazine, and was named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business. For more information, please visit www.SusanSalgado.com.

Jason Reynolds is the Chief Revenue Officer at Florence Healthcare™. Mr Reynolds has spent his 30+ year career in the life sciences industry, leading organizations that help the biopharmaceutical industry deliver more value to their end customers. His background includes prior positions at Definitive Healthcare, Intralinks, and Phase Forward. Mr Reynolds currently serves on the Board of Directors of Cisiv, a global software and services company dedicated to non interventional research, registries, and expanded access programs. At Florence, he is responsible for global sales, with a focus on connecting clinical trial sites with sponsors and CROs to streamline clinical research workflows.

Dr. Isaac R Rodriguez-Chavez is a scientific and regulatory leader with expertise in Infectious Diseases, Viral Immunology, Viral Oncology, Microbiology, Vaccinology, and rare diseases. His experience covers the entire life cycle of medical products from basic, preclinical, interventional clinical research (phase I – IV), non-interventional clinical research, and post-marketing studies. Currently, he is an independent consultant for clinical research and digital medicine. Past positions over the last 30 years include being a Senior Vice President for Scientific & Clinical Affairs, leading strategies and operations for Decentralized Clinical Trials (DCTs) and Digital Medicine at ICON plc; FDA, CDER Senior Officer for Clinical Research Methodology, Regulatory Compliance and Policy Development, modernizing clinical research through DCTs enabled by Digital Health Technologies (DHTs); CEO/Founder, 4Biosolutions Biomedical Consulting Firm; Vice President, Research, Texas Biomedical Research Institute; Director of HIV Clinical Research Programs, NIH; Senior Clinical Scientist, Schering Plough Corp.; Scientist, Columbia University; Scientist, Polar Biotechnology Company and Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC). He is a board member of BlueCloud by HealthCarePoint, Reveles Clinical Research, Digital Medical Society (DiMe), and the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association (HCMA). He is a Rare Disease Health Equity Council member for Global Genes, global content Editor for Regulatory Science at the DIA Global Forum Magazine, Co-Chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) fostering industry standards on DCTs and DHTs. He is a former Leadership Council Board member of the Decentralized Trials & Research Alliance (DTRA), and a former Co-Chair of DTRA’s Regulatory Council. He is a former Co-Chair of the DiMe’s Research Committee, driving digital medicine globally. He is also an active member of sixteen professional associations, published over 60 scientific and technical articles, and has been an invited speaker in over 100 global conferences. He has a PhD in Virology and Immunology; an MS in Microbiology; an MHS in Clinical Research; and a BS in Biology.  He has 5 years of post-doctoral specialty training in Infectious Diseases, Viral Immunology, Viral Oncology linked to Clinical Research.

With more than forty years’ experience supporting the planning and execution of clinical trials in all phases of drug development, Mr Roessner provides guidance and oversight to help Parexel’s clients incorporate innovative study designs into drug development in a way that development is more streamlined, faster, and more focused on objectives.