Speakers 2024

Giorgia is a TMF specialist in the clinical trial operations unit at Alfasigma. She has made significant contributions to the implementation of the eTMF and CTMS modules. Giorgia continues to manage the program and support the wider team.

Silvia has extensive experience in clinical research, in both CRO and pharmaceutical environments. Over the years she has held different positions including CRA, clinical trial manager, CRO outsourcing manager, and associate director of SSU and regulatory. She has experience in GCP compliance, start-up and execution of global multi-center phase I-IV trials, and contracts with sites and CRO. She is currently driving clinical operational excellence and innovation in R&D, working with teams across regulatory, safety, procurement, finance, and legal. She is also temporarily leading the clinical trial operations unit.

Anna is responsible for implementation of SSU Country Intelligence across 40+ countries where AstraZeneca runs clinical trials. She has almost decade of expertise in the systems that support clinical study conduct, including eTMF, CTMS, SSU, safety letter distribution, along with experience in systems migrations.

A clinical trial expert with more than 20 years in the biopharma field, Gergana has held in roles related to site management and monitoring, process management, training, and quality assurance. She spent the last 12 years dedicated to TMF in various roles, primarily providing subject matter expertise and contributing to major projects including technology updates, process adoption, and TMF redesign.

Ellen has 20 years of experience in local and global clinical trial management. In the last five years, she has established a team to support a study-specific training strategy, setting the vision and technology for a multi-method and customer-oriented approach to support the successful conduct of clinical trials. Ellen currently leads the implementation of Veeva Study Training at Bayer.

Gary has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years and has extensive knowledge and experience of CTMS systems and the wider clinical operations landscape that such systems support.

He played a pivotal role in GSK’s enterprise release in 2023 and continues to focus on ensuring good data quality and a validated system that delivers on the ever changing needs of the business.

Over 25 years experience in Pharma Tech, 9 years implementing lab, screening and chemistry solutions at Merck & Co., followed by 18 years delivering and managing clinical operations systems at GSK. Interests: building out a set of solutions/capabilities to optimise clinical operations processes, including implementation of Veeva Connectors, Person/Org MDM, harmonizing central and site monitoring processes. Achievements: Veeva CTMS enterprise go-live in 2023.

Eric has been with Julius Clinical since September 2018. His responsibilities include the provisioning of state-of-the-art solutions and efficient IT services to support strategic business priorities and operations.

Having a background in electronics and more than 25 years’ experience in IT (20 years in the CRO industry – from which 15 years with Quintiles / IQVIA) spanning across engineering, consulting, and management makes him a very strong IT strategy & management professional. During his career he has fulfilled multiple regional and global leadership roles.

As part of his passion he focuses on business partnering, continual service improvement and leading transformational change in life sciences and with everything he aims for high quality, compliance and timeliness.

Margriet van der Beek is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience in the life science industry, with a significant portion of her career—15 years—dedicated to the dynamic landscape of the CRO industry. Margriet is leading the clinical operations team and is responsible for the strategic, operational, and financial oversight of their assigned clinical trials.

Christian Engberg Jacobsen is a season IT leader with 24 years of experience delivering strategically significant IT solutions, 16+ years within the pharma industry – everything from project management, system management and people leadership. He worked as the Release Train engineer in the agile release train established to implement Veeva CTMS and SSU within Novo Nordisk.

Lisbeth brings over two decades of biopharma industry expertise, with a focus on clinical study operations. In her recent tenure as a senior digital product director, she has overseen a portfolio of eight digital products, enhancing efficiencies and optimizing the clinical study value chain with a focus on bringing value to the customers.

As an IT senior manager at PharmaMar, Osvaldo Nestares brings over 30 years of experience in the field. With a degree in computer science and specialized postgraduate studies in machine learning, Osvaldo is well-equipped to navigate the intricacies of modern technology. Alongside his professional endeavors, Osvaldo has also dedicated time to educating future generations as a professor in computer science at the university level. His career is distinguished by a passion for developing and implementing corporate systems tailored to the life science industry’s unique needs. Osvaldo has continually demonstrated his ability to leverage emerging technologies to streamline business processes, driving efficiency and fostering innovation within organizations.

Annie is a product manager on the Vault Clinical Operations team and is responsible for designing and delivering functionality for the Vault CTMS application. Before joining this team, Annie spent a few years as a professional services consultant where she implemented the Vault Clinical Suite for a variety of life sciences companies.

As a Senior Product Expert, Bárbara is part of the ClinOps Product Management team focused on Product Communication and Product Adoption.

With more than 5+ years of R&D industry experience and dedicated focus on CROs & Clinical Trials she joined Veeva in 2016 as an R&D Consultant. After 2 years then moved into Customer Success Manager working on multiple projects, implementing and supporting customers globally on all of the ClinOps Vault Suite applications.

Brian has been with Veeva since 2017 and currently leads the Product team in Vault Clinical, responsible for Vault eTMF, Study Startup (SSU), and certain functionality that crosses the product suite.

Before Veeva, Brian spent three and a half years at Bioclinica, where he led product design and delivery for enterprise data warehouse, reporting, and analytics using EDC, RTSM, and CTMS data. He also led their RBM product.

Before that, Brian led Informa’s Medtrack product, which was a searchable database covering corporate, scientific, and financial data across the life science industry.

Florent Lusardi is EU Vault Clinical Operations Product Expert supporting our clinical product suite in Europe. He has over 15 years of experience in the life science industry working for a CRO and Clinical Trials Technology providers. He developed his experience in Engineering, Technology Services & Consulting and Product Management which gives him a wide and deep knowledge of the industry technology landscape and business processes, especially around CTMS and Clinical Operations.

Francesca is a Senior Solution Consultant, she is involved in the sales process, and together with Strategy, she supports the Account Partners to bring industry and product expertise to customer conversations to help them view the right solution. Francesca has worked in the life science industry for the last eight years, always in a sales role with a strong focus on software. She profoundly understands industry needs, requirements, and market trends.

Garreth is a Clinical Operations professional with experience running global operations supporting trial activities, such as the Global head of SSU and trial masterfile operations.

Joseph brings 17 years of experience in the Clinical Research/Contract Research Organization (CRO) industry, collaborating with biotech and pharma companies worldwide. Currently a Solution Consultant at Veeva, Joseph specializes in the full Clinical Operations suite. He is dedicated to understanding client needs, providing tailored solutions, and ensuring smooth transitions to our Services team for seamless implementation. Joseph is committed to delivering effective, customized solutions and building lasting relationships, ensuring an excellent experience for our customers in the EU region.

Kaitlyn is the senior product manager in the Clinical Operations Suite working on Vault Disclosures, with over 10 years in product management for clinical trials, health care, and population health. Kaitlyn brings a passion and focus on user experience to the product design process, and proven experience in new product launches from inception to delivery. Kaitlyn earned an undergraduate degree from UNC Chapel Hill, and an MBA from NC State University.

Matt DeFranco, the Senior Director of Clinical Strategy – Vault Disclosures, is at the helm of the newly established Disclosures division within Vault Clinical Operations Strategy.

As the lead strategist for Vault Disclosures, Matt’s 15 + years of expertise lies in driving growth within the disclosures customer base and charting the path for the advancement of the Disclosure product capabilities. His involvement extends to various critical facets of market-facing operations, supports customer demos, collaborates seamlessly with the Services team to propose optimal solutions, and works closely with Sales to ensure successful deal closures.

Moreover, Matt plays a key role in product strategy, working closely with Product Management to plan and prioritize future product functionality. Beyond that, he spearheads the development of strategies and relationships with key partners, ensuring that Vault Disclosures stays aligned with market demands and remains at the forefront of innovation.

Pinar Bérénice Bénet is the Senior Director of Strategy for Clinical Operations at Veeva in Europe. She has 15 years of experience in strategy consulting, solution design and business development in the life sciences industry spanning from Large Pharma Sponsors through biotechs to CROs across clinical, medical and commercial operations.

Her experience has been built on supporting life science Sponsors in implementing patient-centric and site solutions as well as designing pan-European product launch strategies across multiple therapeutic areas including oncology, Immuno-oncology, cardiovascular, gene therapies, diabetes and vaccines.

At Veeva, Pinar facilitates the digital transformation and decision making of the Sponsors and CROs across Europe.

Leveraging a robust career in clinical operations spanning roles such as Clinical Research Coordinator, CRA, and CTA, Rachael now has the privilege of supporting the sales process as a Solution Consultant. She adeptly identifies customers’ business needs and aligns them with the optimal solutions offered by the Vault Clinical Operations Platform through engaging product demonstrations.

Vinny Tuminelli is a Director of Product Management on the Clinical Operations team. He has spent much of his career in the Life Sciences space and has always been interested in pursuing innovative ways to improve the industry. At Veeva, Vinny continues to work on features that span Clinical Operations and SiteVault, including those designed to enhance the collaborative experience between Sponsors and Site.