Category Archives: Spotlight Interviews

Phil Dray, Senior Test and Validation Engineer, PRISYM ID

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phil-dray

Phil is Senior Test and Validation Engineer at PRISYM ID, assisting our clients in meeting regulatory compliance to FDA, MHRA, EU and GMP for the company software products supplied to the life sciences industry. He also ensures that validation documents and processes are in line with current regulatory guidance, and delivers onsite training for PRISYM ID’s proprietary software. He provides test plans and processes to ensure software products are robust before release.

What do you hope the audience will learn from this webinar?

The importance of leveraging supplier documents and personnel to potentially reduce your validation effort by using a structured and defendable approach.

What discussions do you look forward to having with the audience?

Discussions about the process to achieve a leveraged position and the content of supporting documents what can be effectively used.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

Assisting in finding the least burdensome approach to validation whilst assisting clients in maintaining and observing their regulatory obligations.

How did you get into the industry?

It seemed to be a natural progression from a software testing role which then combined with Validation activities to result in a Test and Validation role.

Where is your favourite place in the world and why?

I don’t really have a favourite place in the world, just anywhere which offers relaxation and where I can get away from mobile communications.

Join Phil in the PRISYM ID webinar “Mind the Gap! Labeling Experts share the 7 Steps of building a Global Labeling System and reducing the Validation effort“

Richard Van Wijk – Global Business Program Owner, Aviation

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richard-van-wijkRichard van Wijk is the owner of the Aviation program inside Nokia. With over 25 years of experience in Telecommunications business development & consultancy, Richard has been instrumental in many projects for a number of companies like Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia: From contracting the first SDH/DWDM projects to contracting the first LTE Air to Ground Aviation project in Europe.

 

 

1.  What do you hope the audience will learn from this webinar?

Nokia has a strong portfolio when it comes to business critical, mission critical and passenger solutions for Aviation (and for other segments like public safety, utilities, etc). After the webinar I hope the audience understand how Nokia solutions will benefit Passenger experience as well as airport financials.

2. What discussions do you look forward to having with the audience?

Every airport has their own particular challenges when it comes to increasing operational efficiencies, reducing costs, introducing new technologies, etc and I look forward to have a discussion on it

3. What do you enjoy most about your role?

The international aspect & the discussions with airports around their challenges / use cases which are very different from the traditional Telco world.

4.  How did you get into the industry?

I was driving the wireless solution for the Air to Ground project in Europe and obviously started to get excited about the world of Aviation which is quite different from Telco.

5. Where is your favorite place in the world and why?

Picking one place isn’t easy, I have many places I really like: Norway, Italy, Thailand. However, if I really had to pick one (and I think I have to J), it’s probably the Belgium Ardennes, feels like coming home, good food, good beer and a peaceful environment.

Join Richard in the Nokia webinar to discuss ‘Empowering Smarter Airports: Harnessing New Network Strategies’ Register now!

Daniel Faurlin, Director, Solution Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise

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daniel-faurlinDaniel Faurlin is Director, Solution Marketing, in the Network Division of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. Daniel is responsible for positioning, communicating and educating internal and external clients, on the value proposition of ALE solutions in the Transportation and Healthcare verticals. He has worked in start-ups, small to large enterprise businesses, in a variety of leadership roles. Daniel is an Electrical Engineering graduate from Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada.

1. What do you hope the audience will learn from this webinar?

You can build one network infrastructure with one private network for each department enabling department agility and security, while providing support for IoT.

2. What discussions do you look forward to having with the audience?

Are they looking at expanding or replacing their network infrastructure and have they considered a Pay per Use model?

3. What do you enjoy most about your role?

My role enables me to talk to people in various industries with diverse backgrounds and experience, about their networking challenges, which gives me an opportunity to discuss what ALE has to offer.

4. How did you get into the industry?

I got into the tech industry right out of college and haven’t looked back since.

Join Daniel in the Alcatel-Lucent webinar to discuss ‘Optimized Care Pathway Begins with an Intelligent Network Infrastructure‘. Register now!

Tracy Jeffery, Operations Director, Amoria Bond

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tracy-jefferyTracy is Operations Director of International Recruitment firm Amoria Bond. Her role incorporated the role of Financial Director for the first 9 years of the business until the beginning of this year. She still works closely with the accounts team to technically build the reports for businesses analytics. She began her career in the theatre and television industry and then transitioned into the Accounts department.

1. What do you hope the audience will learn from this webinar?

The ability to see how different products can come together to unify business analytics across the entire organisation.

2. What discussions do you look forward to having with the audience?

Being able to share the amount of value that Access has provided in the day-to-day business management of Amoria Bond. Tracy had previously worked to integrate several Access solutions including RDB ProNet, Dimensions and FocalPoint. She’s now working on a project to integrate Insight, which will enable the easy visualisation of data for those inside and outside of the Finance function.

 3. What do you enjoy most about your role?

The diversity of being able to work across the company. Tracy also enjoys being able to integrate the front and back office to unify teams within the company.

 4. How did you get into the industry?

Originally Tracy started in theatre and television. She attended the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), which is known as the Paul McCartney “Fame School”. She then started working in the accounts department for a theatre and then transitioned full time into accounts.

 5. Where is your favourite place in the world and why?

New York. With its rich cultural diversity and because she grew up watching American television, she feels an affinity with the city. In fact, she recently returned from a trip to New York.

Join Tracy in the The Access Group webinar ‘A case study – Unleash the power or your data‘. Register now!

Ronak Savla, Pharm.D., Ph.D., Scientific Affairs Manager, Catalent Pharma Solutions

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ronak-savlaRonak Savla is the Scientific Affairs Manager at Catalent Pharma Solutions and the Catalent Applied Drug Delivery Institute. He earned his Pharm.D. and Ph.D. from Rutgers University. His current research interests include the application of in silico models and simulations to aid in drug formulation design, integration of novel formulation technologies into the industry, and patient centric drug design. Dr. Savla is an author or co-author on over 35 publications including peer reviewed papers, articles, conference proceedings, and posters.

1. What was your inspiration to get into the industry?

I love the combination of the cutting edge science and the collaborative work environment. I have always been fascinated how taking a medicine can treat and cure diseases. Fundamentally, disease is a biological challenge. I became interested in pharmaceutics because it is an interdisciplinary field. We use chemistry backed a physics foundation to solve a biological problem Being in industry, I get to work with different teams and a variety of projects. There’s never a dull moment.     

2. What is your favourite part of presenting to a live audience?

I believe that in order to truly understand a concept, you have to be able to teach it to someone else. There are numerous ways to do this. However, there’s a certain excitement in presenting to a live audience. It’s not one-sided, you can gauge your performance in real time, adjust your approach, and interact with the audience.

3. What are you looking forward to explaining to the audience?

A couple years after insulin was discovered, scientists began trying to delivery by routes other than by injection. Almost a hundred years later, we only have a handful of successful examples of peptides delivered by non-invasive routes. I want the audience to understand that solving this challenge requires understanding the fundamentals of what we’re trying to accomplish, approaching the problem from multiple angles, and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.

4. Where is your favourite place in the world and why?

New York City is my favorite place. It has a vibrant environment. There are always things to do and new places to explore. There are very few, if any, cities that compare to New York’s cultural diversity. 

Join Ronak in the Catalent webinar ‘Overcoming Barriers to Non-invasive Delivery of Macromolecules‘. Register now!

David J Brayden, Ph.D., Professor of Drug Delivery, University College Dublin

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david-j-braydenDr. David Brayden is Full Professor of Advanced Drug Delivery at the School of Veterinary Medicine and a Fellow of the UCD Conway Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge and did a post-doctoral research fellowship at Stanford University. Afterwards, he set up Elan Corporation’s pharmacology laboratory in Dublin, where he became a senior scientist and project manager. In 2001, he joined UCD as a lecturer in veterinary pharmacology and rose to the rank of Full Professor of Advanced Drug Delivery. His major research interests are in oral peptide delivery. He is the author or co-author of more than 200 research publications and patents. In 2012, he was inducted into the College of Fellows of the Controlled Release Society. Professor Brayden serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of several peer review journals. Professor Brayden works as an independent consultant for drug delivery companies.

1.       What was your inspiration to get into the industry?

I am a bit unusual in a European context because I went from academia to the drug delivery industry and back again to academia over a 10 year period.  My industrial appointment at Elan drug delivery in Ireland in 1991 came out of an opportunity and good timing and a realisation that I had technical skills around the understanding of epithelial biology that could be leveraged in industry.

2.       What is your favourite part of presenting to a live audience?

If a presentation is going well and you are reaching most of the audience, you can feel the connection in the room – it can be very powerful and can allow a talk to hit heights that you do not get in a practice.  It is also gratifying if you get good questions, because this means that you have engaged well.  Of course this doesn’t always happen!

3.       What are you looking forward to explaining to the audience?

I want this audience to realise that there is still potential for oral peptide delivery to be successful, but that the field is in a more realistic phase of what can be done with peptides that are of lower molecular weight and are more stable than the candidates of the past. The era of platform delivery technologies claiming 10-20% oral bioavailability is from the 1990s, whereas the modern view is that we have some technologies that are specific for individual payloads and that 5% bioavailability could be adequate for some.

4.       Where is your favourite place in the world and why?

I travel a lot and almost have second home at Dublin airport, so usually on weekends I take a walk on my own down Dun Laoghaire pier in Dublin or out to the Wicklow hills with family and friends. No matter where I am during the week, the beautiful areas near my home are  where I aim to be during time off.

Join David as he discusses ‘Overcoming Barriers to Non-invasive Delivery of Macromolecules‘ in the Catalent webinar. Register now!

William Vambenepe, Lead Product Manager for Big Data, Google Cloud Platform

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william-vambenepe-600x431William Vambenepe leads the product management team responsible for Big Data services on Google Cloud Platform (BigQuery, Dataflow, etc.) William was previously an Architect at Oracle and before that a Distinguished Technologist at HP.

He holds an engineer degree from Ecole Centrale Paris, a Diploma in Computer Science from Cambridge University and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from Stanford University.

What do you enjoy most about your role at Google Cloud Platform?

What I most enjoy is seeing customers bloom on the platform. Here’s an analogy: when my daughter went from elementary school to middle school, she quickly became much more mature and independent. It felt like she grew two years in a few weeks. I see a similar almost-instantaneous maturity happening with many customers on Google Cloud. They first come with an infrastructure-driven approach, and a mindset of scarcity. Often their very first foray in the Cloud replicates on-prem patterns. But very quickly it clicks. Why would they need a long-lived shared Hadoop cluster when Dataproc can provision one from scratch in under 90 seconds, for which they pay by the minute? “Everybody gets a pony” as one Spotify engineer once said describing their use of Hadoop on Google Cloud. Similarly, we see many Data Warehouse customers who spent years strategizing what data to keep and which should be removed to make room in their Data Warehouse. Enters BigQuery, where storage is at most $0.02 per GB per month, and $0.01 after 90 days. Suddenly there is no need to ever delete data, at least not for cost reasons. And they can spend their mental energy thinking about how to use the data, not how to maintain systems and optimize limited storage capacity.

When the mental switch happen, we see a whole new pattern, with much more ambition, much more experimentation (the cost of experimentation is negligible, both in terms of Cloud resources consumed and, more importantly, time spent on the investigation because you can jump straight to the core of the task with no setup time). We see customers who had internalized that batch processing was the natural order of the universe move to stream processing (why wait for your results, when Dataflow makes stream execution as easy as batch).

The next round of discussions with these customers is not about infrastructure, or prices, it’s about them sharing what they’ve achieved and sharing what they plan to do next. For example, to start using Google’s Machine Learning services. In the span of a few months, they transition from IT as a necessary burden to IT as a power tool.

What is the most effective GCP product for managing Big Data?

Our product portfolio is designed as a set of complementary and well-integrated products. Almost no real-world task requires just one product. In this context, a service is not “more effective” than another, in the same way that a shovel is not “more effective” than an umbrella. They do different things. But if I interpret “effective” to mean which one is the most uniquely effective (most innovative, most differentiated from the competition), then I’d say it’s Google Cloud Dataflow, our fully managed (“no-ops”) service for data processing pipelines.

It distinguishes itself on two aspects. First, it’s about what it can do (functional aspects). Google Cloud Dataflow implements the groundbreaking Dataflow Model, which provides developer with a powerful model to create data processing pipelines that can run in either batch or stream mode. And it incorporates the management of event delivery delays so that programmers only need to worry about declaring how they want events grouped, without having to worry about managing state themselves to account for out-of-order and late arriving events.

Note that Google open sourced its implementation of the Dataflow Model and contributed it to Apache as Apache Beam (the name comes from concatenating the “B” of “batch” with the “eam” of “stream”). So, Google Cloud Dataflow runs Beam pipelines, but they can also run on other Apache engines like Apache Spark and Apache Flink.

So why would you run these pipelines on Google Cloud Dataflow? That’s where the second key aspect comes in, the operation aspect. By that, I mean the fact that running pipelines in Google Cloud Dataflow means that the user is free from any operational concern. All they have to do is submit the pipeline they wrote. Period. No need to deploy anything, to scale, to patch, to guess the needed capacity, etc. Dataflow will automatically provision the needed resources, and auto-scale so the pipeline execution is performant without costing any more than it needs to.

How can Google help businesses with digital transformation?

Google can help business not just with digital transformation, but also with the transformation to using Artificial Intelligence. And the good news is that the latter is a natural continuation of the former. Step 1 remains the digitalization of the business, where Google helps by providing fully-managed data storage and processing services so that you don’t have to have a full staff of tech wizards to manage the digital infrastructure of your business. Data ingestion is easy, and in many cases completely automated, e.g. if you use Google Analytics Premium and want to import the data into Cloud. For other cases, Google has developed a rich partner ecosystem to provide the right data integration infrastructure. Once the data is in Google Cloud, all processing systems are “serverless” meaning that customer don’t need to worry about operating servers. This allows people to very easy run analytics (using their favorite tool, e.g. Tablea, Microstrategy or Looker) on the data.

But, as mentioned above, in addition to opening the door to easy and powerful analytics this digitalization of the business on Google Cloud also puts businesses directly in position to take the next step and apply Google’s unique Machine Learning capabilities to their business challenges.

Learn more from William and a variety of other industry thought leaders at the upcoming Big Data Week London Conference. View more details here.

Dr. Thomas Hille, Pharmacist, LTS Lohmann Therapy Systems

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dr-thomas-hilleDr. Thomas Hille is a pharmacist and obtained his postgraduate degrees from University of Bonn. He joined LTS in 1986. Currently he is heading a R&D lab developing TDS and oral thin films. Prior to LTS, he was with Knoll AG, Germany, heading a R & D lab developing solid dosage forms. Dr. Hille is co-inventor in more than 70 patents.

In the last two years he gave presentations in Marburg University, and Concept Heidelberg dealing with the quality by design (QbD) concept in the development of TDS and he was speaker in the A.F.E.R.A. congress and A.W.A conference presenting the pharmaceutical requirements in pressure sensitive adhesives and release liners, when used in TDS.

What was your inspiration to get into the industry?

During my education I got the opportunity to join an R & D lab of Henkel in Düsseldorf as a workshop student and was assigned to work in industrial R & D.

What is your favourite part about presenting to a live audience?

Presenting to a live audience gives you real-time feedback without any delay. This allows you to immediately understand whether or not you are doing a good job whilst presenting.

What will the audience gain from attending your webinar?

TDS are a niche within the pharmaceutical business and so is the knowledge about adhesion and pressure sensitive adhesives. The audience will gain an understanding which kind of physicochemical properties make a polymer a pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA).

Why is it important for the audience to understand the requirements for Pressure Sensitive Adhesives?

The knowledge about TDS in general and about PSAs in specific are key when developing a TDS. The understanding of polymer chemistry and hands-on experience is an important basis to fulfill those challenges.

Where is your favourite place in the world and why?

My favorite place in the world is the Rhine Valley from Basel up to Rotterdam and Antwerp, as this region is the back bone of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry in all of its facets.

Be sure to join Thomas and LTS in their upcoming webinar, “Transdermal Delivery Systems: What are the Requirements for Pressure Sensitive Adhesives?”. Register now!

David J. Laky, Vice President & General Manager, Clinical Solutions, ArisGlobal

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Mr. Laky oversees the Company’s eClinical business unit. The unit includes technology and services used for clinical research, including CTMS, EDC, and other key solutions included in ArisGlobal’s product portfolio.

What was your inspiration to get into the industry?

I’ve always had a passion for life sciences, especially with clinical trials and clinical trial management. These are critical processes that ensure patients are safe and provide critical insights for the pharmaceutical company.  Working in life sciences also provides a sense of purpose.  If we can assist with bringing products to market that help improve the quality of life for individuals then we are helping to make a difference.  Everyone knows someone who has been impacted by a disease or has benefited from the use of a medical device.  Knowing that we can contribute, even in the smallest way, helps drive the passion for working every day.

What is your favourite part about presenting to a live audience?

I enjoy applying what I’ve learned and hear from pharma companies and CRO’s – their business challenges specifically – and how technology can help convert those challenges into opportunities. Sharing these opportunities can help members of the audience and can help us receive valuable feedback..  There are a lot of smart and thoughtful people in this industry and to receive their feedback can be highly beneficial and important in driving our next steps forward as an organization and also helps us stay in touch with challenges that organizations face that may not be highly publicized in the marketplace.

What would you say is the biggest challenge currently being faced by CRO’s?

CRO’s are facing many challenges, but the leading challenge is simply managing the increasing workload. I talk to CRO’s large and small that are unable to realize their full market potential because their internal technology and associated processes simply can’t keep up. This translates into real revenue loss as many can’t support moving from Phase I trials to more complicated Phase II and Phase III trials – their technology simply can’t support it, and they can’t justify paying large software licensing fees upfront to support their growth plans.

What will the audience gain from attending your webinar?

The audience will gain some real-world insights from myself and members of my team as to why many CRO’s are adopting an “Agile CRO” program to better manage clinical trials and the associated workflow. We’re also really excited to have Richard Abbink, Director of Planning and Process Architecture at Julius Clinical on with us to share real-world insights as well. I should also mention that this isn’t just for the larger companies: small-to-medium sized CRO’s will also learn how they can access technology for a fraction of the cost previously available so they can level the playing field when competing against larger CRO’s.

I am excited by our program.  We know that other industry players have CRO programs and they spend a lot of time focusing on generating business from CROs.  We are looking at our CRO program from a slightly different perspective. We are looking to help CROs generate new business for themselves.  We have this wonderful modular solution that is functionally very broad and deep.  Our CTMS and CDMS solutions offer our customers a set of tools that will help their business in their core areas and, because of the modularity, will enable organizations to expand their business offerings into different areas when the opportunity presents itself.  Imagine a CRO being able to add safety case management to their core offering by simply adding the ARISg CRO module to their suite of products?

The other approach we have taken is to enable our CRO partners to sign up for only what they need and add additional users as they go.  In the past the upfront commitment would require a huge investment that precluded some organizations from implementing technology that could be used as a competitive advantage.  We want to extend those tools to everyone.

Where is your favourite place in the world and why?

The beach is my favorite place.  The beach is calming yet exciting at the same time.  It is great to relax by the water and hear the waves crashing against the shore and at other times being near the water seems to re-energize a person and makes you appreciate what you have.  I also associate the beach with my immediate and extended family as we tend to all like to vacation together at the end of every summer in an effort to get summer to last just a little bit longer.

Be sure to join David and ArisGlobal as they present their webinar “Learn How CRO’s Can Boost Profits and Productivity”. Register here!

Roy Wagemans, IFS Product Marketing Manager

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roy-wagemansRoy Wagemans is the Product Marketing Manager at IFS. With an international career spanning more than 25 years with a degree in business from Henley Management College and a Master Degree in Systems Analysis, Roy has the ideal background for translating the technicalities of products into clearly defined messages to the market and our customers.

Why did you decide to present your webinar on trends in analytics?

Analytics has been a topic of discussion for a long time now and pretty much all companies have analytics capabilities in some way, shape or form. With IoT adoption set to take off and the knock-on effect this will have on Digital Transformation efforts, I think we are at an inflection point and need to review whether we are getting the maximum ROI from the data we are storing and analyzing. With the use of machine learning and prescriptive analytics set to increase, we need to ensure our Master Data Management is in order and the processes and systems we use for analytics are rationalized. Otherwise we will run the risk of just adding an additional layer of cost to our data management expenditure.

What insights will the audience gain by attending this webinar?

IFS is not a technology vendor, so we will not be talking about the ins and outs of developments in analytics. We’ll give pragmatic insight into the application of advanced analytics in business systems. Being able to apply machine learning to data is one thing, it is what you do with the results that, in the end, makes a difference on business outcomes.

How did you get into the industry?

In 1997 I started working on projects to manage heterogeneous database landscapes and have lived in the world of data ever since. Most notably, in 1999, I started leading development activities related to Off-board Prognostics and Health Management (i.e. predictive analytics) for the F-35, Joint Strike Fighter. In later roles I moved from program management to put more focus on the hardware needed for cloud based and workstation based analytics for companies such as Exasol, Synerscope and R Systems.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

I enjoy staying up to speed with the state of the art and developing product positioning and marketing messages for the products our R&D department develops. We have a varied, globally available product portfolio so there are always new products to introduce and improvements to be made.

What motivates you?

The speed with which the digital world is changing, and keeping up with it.

Join Roy in the upcoming webinar ‘5 Key Trends in Analytics‘ where experts from Microsoft, IDC and IFS provide new information and insight on big data and analytics. Register now!