Speakers

With more than 25 years’ experience with Bayer and Schering in local and international markets, I am passionate about partnering with customers, partners, government and researchers to deliver innovative solutions that enhance people’s lives.

Josie is currently Managing Director at Merck Healthcare ANZ. She commenced her career in the biopharma industry as a research scientist and has held commercial roles encompassing early phase development through to loss of exclusivity. She brings over 25 years of industry experience across large and small companies, with strategic and operational commercial, regulatory and market access experience in Australia and Asia. She has managed diverse teams focused on driving improved and sustainable access for patients in both public and private settings. Josie is passionate about transforming organisations and developing people. More importantly, she is driven to improve the lives of patients through a relentless pursuit of solving access challenges to ensure that no patient is left behind.

Chris Shim is General Manager, responsible for all of Veeva’s operations for Vault development cloud business including strategy, sales, and professional services in Asia. Chris spent the last 6 years to set up the business in Asia while leading the team in Medidata Solutions. He played the role of advisors to major pharmaceutical companies, CROs, and Academies to transform their complex IT infrastructure to be successful in drug development. He was taking the pioneer position to discuss business agility and seamless development, especially about the collaborative working organizations in the life science industry. Prior to Medidata, Chris worked in various positions in software companies including PTC and Heartbeat Experts across life sciences, electronics, and other discrete manufacturing verticals for more than 16 years as an experienced sales leader.

As Senior Director, Product Management Commercial Cloud, Giorgio is responsible for the definition and prioritisation of the roadmap for all Veeva CRM products, ensuring that Veeva delivers the best-in-class solution for the APAC region. Giorgio also supports the growth of the region and the expansion in new emerging markets, investigating and understanding the nuances of each country. Giorgio has worked in the pharma industry for over 13 years, evolving from a leadership role in EMEA support, to Professional Services to Product Management. He has managed regional and global CRM implementations for enterprise customers in both Rx and OTC at Veeva. Prior to joining Veeva in 2012, Giorgio worked at Eli Lilly as an external consultant for 9 years, leading their Regional Support CoE out of Italy and building knowledge in Clinical Operations, Global Product Safety, MedInfo, Sales and Marketing.

Shafi is responsible for leading Veeva’s Business Consulting Practice in Asia, with a focus on supporting our customers’ commercial strategies through the design and delivery of solutions addressing core business issues faced in today’s market. Over the course of his more than 20-year career, Shafi has driven P&L growth strategies and achieved transformational change outcomes in various roles within management consulting and industry. He has held leadership roles at PwC, Accenture, and General Electric, where he led global growth strategies across sectors to penetrate new markets; he built and led a digital/IoT Asset Performance Management professional services organization at GE Healthcare; and led the pharmaceutical R&D practice at SailWing Consulting. Shafi began his career as a research scientist focusing on transplant immunology at the University of Chicago. He holds a B.S. degree from Saint Louis University, an M.S. from the University of Missouri, and a graduate certificate from Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

Sudhir is responsible for Veeva’s commercial suite of solutions across the Asia Pacific. The market spans Australia, South East Asia, Korea and India. Additionally, Sudhir is also the Regional Manager for South East Asia & India and is responsible for customer success in the region. Sudhir has over 16 years experience working in the Enterprise Software and Pharmaceutical Industry. Prior to setting up Veeva India’s operations in January 2015, Sudhir worked at Oracle Health Sciences Global Business Unit in Mumbai. In this role he was responsible for enabling pharma companies to adopt strategies and solutions to manage clinical trials, clinical operations, pharmacovigilance and safety. Sudhir also launched strategic initiatives at Dr.Reddy’s, leading large scale field sales deployment projects with one of the earliest technology led Sales Force automation projects in 2001. Sudhir has held roles in Consulting, Sales, Business Development and Alliances with SAS India, IBM Software and IBM GBS. Sudhir holds an MBA from North Maharashtra University.

Mahesh has 24 years experience in the pharmaceuticals industry across UK, Australia, and New Zealand with successful roles in sales, sales management, learning & development, brand management, marketing leadership, business unit leadership, strategy, and innovation. He joined AbbVie in 2021, from Takeda, where he was the Marketing Lead for IBD and Business Unit Manager for Gastroenterology having previously held successful leadership roles at Eli Lilly. Mahesh holds a BA (Hons) degree in Management Studies from the University of London, a Diploma in Mental Health Nursing from Kings College, University of London and has successfully completed the Oxford Executive Leadership Program and holds a certificate in Disruptive Innovation from Harvard Business School. Mahesh is passionate about driving innovation, developing enterprise capabilities, and coaching others to be their best selves.

After 6 years within the AZ Medical Affairs team as Head of Medical Excellence, Robin has recently moved into an International Medical Excellence role. Medical Excellence is responsible and accountable for Capabilities Build, On Boarding, Certification, Systems and Tool, Objectives/KPIs/Reporting as well as Strategy, Communications and the new Digital world for Medical Affairs

Talented leader at building brands and improving business performance, by helping others succeed. Working across business, strategy, creative, digital, technology, data and production to create impactful brand experiences, marketing and advertising. I value people, relationships, ideas, innovation, technology, strategy, and leadership to create success personally and professionally.

Simon Davies is the founder and chief executive of Bastion Brands, Australia’s leading independent award-winning creative agency specialising in health advertising and medical communications. A sought-after marketing and brand strategist, Simon started the business in 2012 and now leads teams across Sydney and Melbourne. His business serves an impressive list of clients from health start-ups to multinational pharmaceutical companies.

Clinical Study Manager with experience across multiple therapeutic areas currently driving research to significantly improve life’s of subjects with B-cell Malignancies using medical means. Interested in learning how modern technology and analytical tools could simplify the work of conducting clinical trials and reduce the duration of bringing new medicines to patients sooner.

A seasoned leader in the pharmaceutical industry with over 20 years of experience, Dirk is passionate about the role innovative medicines play in transforming the health and wellbeing of patients and their communities. Since 2022, Dirk has led Boehringer Ingelheim in Australia and New Zealand, where the global and family-owned research-driven pharmaceutical company has served customers for over 50 years. Having worked in six countries across five continents, Dirk brings to Australia and New Zealand a deep and unique understanding of health policy around the world. His most recent roles saw him leading the challenging portfolio of Specialty Care in Spain and heading the global marketing team for one of Boehringer Ingelheim’s blockbusters at the company’s headquarters in Germany. From his international experience, Dirk has a strong understanding of the common themes and challenges patients, health systems, and payers face in achieving timely and affordable access to innovative medicines. In particular, he is passionate about primary care and exploring ways to build collaboration between government and healthcare professionals to deliver better outcomes for patients.

Damien has over 20 years’ experience within the Pharmaceutical Industry across Technical Operations and Pharma divisions, both locally and abroad. He has led the implementation of key business systems across CRM, customer data, remote engagement, events management and cloud based reporting solutions. Damien has enjoyed playing the role of ‘solution architect’ ensuring that the end user and customer experiences are at the forefront of any system deployment. Damien and his team continue to evolve Field Force effectiveness processes and systems to support Omni-channel planning and execution within BMS. Damien holds a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry and enjoys watching, playing and coaching sports.

John has over 12 years experience managing CRM, alignment tools, and customer master at BMS and was one of the first Veeva Align version project stakeholders. He implemented Veeva Align in Australia, then rolled out to a further 6 APAC countries.

In her current role as Clinical Studies Systems Manager at an international Medical Device company, Janis is able to leverage this experience and is responsible for evaluating and implementing systems and technology to facilitate efficiencies in clinical investigations.

Tim started in clinical research at a time when data was collected on physical NCR pages and Y2K was an imposing threat. Methods and technology have evolved, yet the core requirement has stayed the same: to collect robust data that enable analyses that help us determine whether products are safe, effective and appropriate for human use. Tim regularly returns to the questions of “What are we trying to achieve?”, “Is this scientifically valid?” and “Is there a simpler way to do this?”

Clair is an experienced leader with over 20 years of experience within the Pharmaceutical Industry, many within Contract Sales Organisations delivering success for commercial partners. Proven operational experience in driving significant improvements to enhance overall business performance. A successful track record in managing all aspects of sales force effectiveness, salesforce administration & operations, sales force leadership and managing CRM systems in the healthcare industry. Clair is a leader who can align teams to execute the desired business vision through excellent system implementation, organisational efficiencies, analytical ability and communication skills.

As a Principal Clinical Data Manager Sophie leads and oversees the Data Management aspects of clinical projects. With 15+ years experience as a data manager, leading studies from Phases I-III she has been instrumental in developing the Fortrea Veeva CDMS library. She is passionate about building solutions and capabilities to optimize clinical data management processes

With a background in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hayley joined GSK in 2013 and commenced working in the Australian Clinical Research team in site monitoring. Over the last 10 years Hayley has taken on various roles, most recently in the Global Centralised Monitoring Team that is responsible for Risk Based Quality Management (RbQM) implementation. She has a passion for ensuring the RbQM is at the centre of trial design and monitoring strategies and enjoys working closely with responsible teams to develop their understanding of RbQM principals and overcome the challenges along the journey.

Alison is the associate director for medical affairs and medical operations for Gilead ANZ. She has 9 years experience in a variety of roles in medical affairs across multiple therapeutic areas and three pharmaceutical companies. She has managed medical teams before, during and after lockdowns and has extensive experience adapting remote meetings to suit health care professionals’ needs and preferences.

Kate is an innovative, engaging and decisive commercial leader, who is passionate about healthcare. She’s valued for expertise in corporate level strategy and translating strategic objectives into actionable plans. Kate combines strengths across digital, data and analytics and a creative flair to lead solutions that are customer centric and competitive in the market place. Throughout her career, she has operated across the full product lifecycle, working at local operating level in Australia, Japan and the UK and globally across Asia Pacific, Emerging Markets and Europe. Experienced in building high performing result-oriented teams, she is known for role modelling best practice and leading change.

My name is Roneel Deo and currently the Technology Leader for Janssen ANZ. I have been in the Life Science and Pharmaceutical industry for nearly 17yrs and have held various informatics roles throughout my career. I am a purpose driven leader trying to making a difference through technology and innovation. With my time at Janssen, I have worked mainly in the Omni-Channel and digital transformation space bringing in key innovations for our customers and patients. Love to travel, play a bit of sports(soccer & squash) and spend time with my two little ones.

Amit is a strategic, engaging, and energetic Medical Affairs professional with a strong entrepreneurship mindset. He has significant Medical Affairs digital experience across a broad range of projects, including big data analysis, project management, business planning, digital coaching and onboarding. He is the developer and founder of the 3P – Pharmaceutical Pipeline Products app (iOS and Android) that provides curated and up to date information on pipeline products. Also, he is the omnichannel lead and an executive committee member of MAPA (Medical Affairs Professionals of Australasia) since 2021.

Lauren is a registered pharmacist with almost a decade of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Lauren has worked as an MSL across several therapeutic areas in immunology and is now a senior medical manager, driving local medical strategy and leading a team of MSLs.

Experienced Medical Affairs Director with a demonstrated history of working in the pharmaceuticals industry and clinical roles. Skilled in Pharmaceutical Medicine, Oncology and Haematology. Strong professional with a MMedSc focused in Pharmaceutical Medicine from UNSW Australia. Currently working towards DrPH which focuses on the the role of Medical Affairs in the Quality use of Medicine (QUM) – President of MAPA

Paul has an extensive background as a Country Medical Director in both Australia and South Africa, holding key positions at Regional and Global levels. Notably, he led Medical Excellence for APAC and oversees the medical team’s Execution and Impact globally. Paul’s expertise extends beyond his roles, as he actively contributes to the medical affairs community through leadership positions in professional associations. Working in diverse cultural settings and managing teams of various sizes, Paul’s success in launching products and establishing strong KOL networks in multiple therapeutic areas demonstrates his strategic planning capabilities.

Luke is a seasoned professional in the life science industry with a track record in delivering outcomes through customer centricity. With his deep understanding of brand and content strategies, he has successfully developed impactful marketing campaigns that resonate with specialty audiences. Luke excels in stakeholder engagement and change management, collaborating with internal and external partners to drive meaningful interactions and results. His passion for storytelling enables him to craft compelling narratives that connect healthcare solutions with real-life experiences, fostering trust and empathy. Luke has recently completed a deep dive of CLM utilisation at Novartis and is keen to share some of his learnings.

With over 17 years of diverse experience across industries, and a decade of impactful contributions to the Pharmaceuticals sector. His career journey with great companies like PwC, Ey and Abbvie has been marked by driving innovation in Data analytics, Consultancy, and FP&A. In his current role with Novartis as Data and insights lead, Peter is passionate about transforming raw data into strategic gold with a strong drive and belief that Data analytics has the power to help Australian patients live better and longer lives.

Senthil is a seasoned Data Management professional with ~20 years of Clinical research experience across various facets of Biometrics business.

Sujitha is a Platform Architect – Clinical Systems at Novotech responsible for Vault solutions implemented at Novotech. She works closely with the business stakeholders in her role and responsible for the system stabilization and innovation projects. Sujitha has completed her MBA in Human Resource. She has 15+ years of experience in the Life science Services, CRO, and Information Technology industry and had the benefit of playing different roles in Technical Consulting, Professional Services, Customer Training, Project Management, and Customer management. She is Veeva Vault white belt certified. A staunch believer in “Change brings Opportunity’.

Nick Harknett is the APAC VP Sales for ON24. He is responsible for leading the sales strategy across Asia Pacific. The common thread through Nick’s career is the foundational data sitting under innovative technology platforms. Having specialised within Martech, he has brought his sales expertise to brands like Experian, Adthena and now ON24, a platform that has been a force behind the ‘always-on’ marketing economy.

Erfan joined the South Western Sydney Local Health District in 2022 as Clinical Trials Manager for the Research Directorate, Clinical Trials Support Unit. In this role, Erfan is responsible for supporting clinical trial activities in South Western Sydney leading to improved patient access to clinical trials. Erfan has a diverse background in various scientific research and clinical trials working in hospitals. He has extensive experience in clinical trial management roles including Regulatory, Site Start Up, Project Management, Service Provision, Data Management, Biostatistics, Medical Services and Operations. Erfan has worked in the research and clinical trials industry for close to 10 years and is extremely passionate in bringing innovation and development of clinical trials in the Australian healthcare system. His principle is that clinical trials are crucial in improving health outcomes for patient populations. His current role as Clinical Trials Manager of the Clinical Trials Support Unit puts Erfan in a position to consult and support clinical trial groups and investigators in delivering quality clinical trials services to the South Western Sydney populations.

My name is Kellie Lantry and I have been working as a Quality Assurance professional in the pharmaceutical product development industry for almost 20 years. I’m proud to say 10 of those years have been based in Australian owned CROs. I’m currently working as Quality Assurance Manager at Southern Star Research, where I manage a team of quality professionals to effectively administer the company’s QMS and provide compliance support to our clients, vendors and personnel. I have held this position for the past 6 years. I’m passionate about leveraging technology to facilitate efficiency and compliance in research, development and production of new drugs and devices. I have a keen interest in both the preclinical and clinical development of cell and gene therapy products and the regulatory challenges in this therapeutic area. I feel privileged to have worked as a QA professional in that unique area of product development.

Anthony is the Solution Consultant for Veeva’s commercial suite and is focused on the Australia & New Zealand region. His primary responsibility is to work closely with prospects and customers to help them understand how our products & services can help their organisations. Anthony is our regional subject matter expert for our sales planning & strategy tool, Align. So please feel free to reach out to him if you have any questions on this or any other commercial product.

Anu has a background of over 20 years of experience in the Life Sciences industry. She’s worked closely with all business processes from end to end of the Life Sciences industry and is well versed with the GMP, GCP and Regulations governing the Pharmaceutical Industries. Anu has been with Veeva for 3 years, previously managing Customer Success and is currently a Solution Consultant for R&D and Quality based in Sydney.

Bel joined Veeva’s Commercial Content Business Consulting practice in 2023 after demonstrating three years of success with Vault PromoMats and Vault Medical customers as the Customer Success Manager for APAC. Bel’s deep understanding of product knowledge, customer pain points and 17 years in sales/marketing positions her as the subject matter expert for all things commercial content, including DAM and modular content. Bel is passionate about quality customer experiences and delivering with excellence.

Daniel joined Veeva as a Principal in its Business Consulting practice in 2021, having held leadership roles in the Biopharma sector for over 20 years at JNJ, Novartis, AbbVie and Amgen. His industry experience includes strategy development, 20+ product launches across Asia, US and Europe as well as numerous business & digital transformation initiatives. Daniel is an advocate for equipping clients with the capabilities to succeed in the evolving pharma market, placing HCPs & patients at the centre of commercial & medical strategy, and using unique insights, data and analytics to create market leading solutions.

In his role as VP Commercial Strategy Asia Pacific, David is responsible for helping clients optimise their Veeva investment. He brings over 20 years experience consulting and working in the Life Sciences industry. Before joining Veeva, David was the founder and managing director of Vedere Group, an organisation focusing on strategic sales & marketing, CRM solutions, commercial effectiveness, and performance management dashboards and reporting. After Vedere Group was acquired by IMS in 2013, David headed up the IMS Health Commercial Effectiveness and Technology & Services team for ANZ and Asia Pacific. Prior to starting his own company, David was Global Head of Commercial Excellence for Boehringer Ingelheim, responsible for Product Launch Excellence, Sales & Marketing Performance Reporting & KPIs, Customer Segmentation & Targeting initiatives and Global CRM Implementation.

As Vice President of Asia Vault Clinical Data, Eunho is responsible for customer engagement, market adoption, product direction, and strategic alliances with the applications under Vault Clinical Data including EDC, CDB, RTSM, and ePRO across Asia. Prior to Veeva, he spent the last five years at Medidata expanding their APAC consulting business in the areas of improving clinical trial processes, optimizing clinical IT systems and infrastructures, and delivering the value of clinical cloud applications. When working within pharmaceutical companies and CROs, Eunho has worked in various roles from clinical operations to conducting and managing clinical trials.

As a Product Expert for CRM, Jelson is responsible for aligning Veeva’s product vision and roadmap with his customers. Working closely with customers he captures product feedback and use cases which feed into the development of Veeva’s product roadmap. In addition to Core CRM, Jelson is also focused on MyInsights enabling customers derive maximum value of their Veeva products. Before commencing his role at Veeva in 2022, he held various roles across Commercial Operations, Marketing, Operational Excellence, and Trade Operations over a 15 year career in the pharmaceutical industry in Australia.

Johnson is an Associate Consultant in the Commercial Professional Services team. Throughout his time at Veeva, Johnson has been responsible for implementing, maintaining and improving both Veeva CRM and PromoMats solutions.

LaiTeng is the Program Manager for Veeva’s Content Partners in APAC. With a strong focus on fostering seamless content partnerships, LaiTeng guides agencies throughout the entire content journey, enabling successful support for customers. With a background in efficiently executing projects and adhering to stringent operational standards from her time in agency, LaiTeng’s expertise drives impactful content experiences and optimized content strategies for diverse audiences across the APAC region, elevating customer engagement and content excellence.

Lin is Director of Commercial Analytics in Asia. She leads the Analytics practice for the region and uses Veeva’s unique data to support Customers in Omni-Channel and Commercial Excellence. She has degrees in statistics and business analytics and has published internationally on Healthcare data in Asia. Prior to Veeva, she led Analytics functions globally at Zuellig Pharma then at Google.

Mori started at Veeva as Solution Consultant (Pre-Sales) for R&D products before moving into R&D sales management in 2020 followed by leading the Japan R&D and quality team. He is now managing the Asia Vault Product Expert team which covers both commercial, R&D and quality products. Product Expert team is a branch of the product organization focusing on customer interaction to ensure customer success and product excellence by fostering tighter connection between Veeva product team and our customers.

As a Director, Vault R&D and Quality Product Expert, APAC and China, Myungsoon builds and leads the Product Expert team in APAC and China focusing on product communication, customer education and effective adoption throughout the region. Her team provides an integral front-line link to customers showcasing Veeva’s industry driven solutions. She joined Veeva in December 2019 as the first R&D CSM in APAC focusing on customer success with the Veeva product suite and leading a CSM team in Asia. Prior to Veeva, she had 13 years of experience in the life science industry managing clinical operations and overseeing service projects. She has held various roles in the clinical operation industry. At Novartis as a PM, she led the first phase I oncology trial to pass FDA approval in Korea and later went on to spend 5 years at Medidata leading implementations as a senior project manager where she introduced cloud solutions in APAC.

As a CDMS Consultant, Naoto is mainly responsible for study builds and training of Vault EDC. Naoto started his career as a statistical programmer for a CRO in Japan. Throughout his journey, Naoto has worn multiple hats such as SDTM programmer, EDC designer, and dedicated trainer for other EDC builders. Leveraging his past experiences and his knowledge of EDC data utilisation downstream, he guides clients towards the most effective and optimised EDC designs.

Pradeep is the Sales Leader and Senior Account Partner for Veeva covering the ANZ/ASEAN region. He has over 15 years experience in the life science industry having worked both in the USA and Australia wearing multiple hats in consulting, strategy and sales. Pradeep has been working closely with most of the key players in the Australian Clinical Trials market and has been a trusted partner to many of Veeva customers in the region for many years.

Prashant brings a wealth of experience to Veeva, with an impressive tenure of almost a decade in the company. At Veeva, Prashant is driven by a relentless pursuit of innovation and speed. He consistently strives to push boundaries and spearhead new ideas, recognizing that these elements are crucial in propelling the company, and customers forward

Rachel is a Solution Consultant covering both Vault Clinical Operations Suite and Vault CDMS. Together with Strategy, she supports the Account Partners to bring industry and product expertise to APAC customers to help them find the right solution. Rachel has worked in the Clinical Trials industry for four years at Eli Lilly and IQVIA. Rachel joined Veeva in 2020 and has been part of the Solution Consulting team since then.

Shannon’s key role is to be responsible for the engagement of APAC stakeholders, to align Veeva’s product vision and roadmap with them, and to ensure that Veeva delivers the best solutions for the APAC region. As part of the Commercial Cloud APAC team, she seeks to understand the nuances of each country and work together with the various Veevans to analyze customer requirements and ensure important needs with solid use cases will be reflected in Veeva’s product roadmap eventually. Amongst the commercial cloud products, Shannon has a focus on Events Management across APAC and how customers are utilising Events Management to fulfill their various needs. Before joining Veeva in 2022, Shannon had spent 6 years in the healthcare industry managing digital software and medical technology projects.

Sumanth Kambhammettu leads Commercial Strategy for the Asia Pacific region. In his role, he is responsible for evangelising & driving growth of Veeva’s solution suite across commercial cloud, data & business consulting by refining the GTM strategy, product messaging & positioning to enhance patient & HCP experience. He brings nearly 15 years of experience in delivering customer-centric solutions for pharmaceutical & life science companies, healthcare institutions, public health agencies, medical technology and digital health companies in Asia. In his most recent role, Sumanth led a healthcare robotics business for a Singapore based SME where he worked extensively with the local healthcare innovation ecosystem in Singapore. Prior to that, he spent nearly 10 years as a management consultant in Southeast Asia advising leading global/regional pharma, biotech, MedTech & public sector clients in the areas of commercial strategy, go-to-market strategy and digital transformation

Sumi is currently working as a Clinical Strategy who is responsible for identifying the needs of the APAC region's clinical operations market, formulating growth plans, and delivering product value messages to customers for clinical operations products at Veeva Systems. Prior to joining Veeva, she accumulated monitoring and clinical project management skills at CRO and multinational pharmaceutical companies for over 13 years.

Sushant is a Principal at Veeva Business Consulting. He has been helping commercial pharma teams in Asia with omnichannel strategy & operating model, market segmentation, go-to-market planning, and analytics to drive business growth. Prior to Veeva, Sushant worked as a strategy consultant at ZS, and Trinity Life Sciences. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science engineering, and an MBA in marketing.

As a CRM Product Expert, Yi Ching (YC) works closely with customers in APAC to enable them to be successful in using Veeva’s Commercial CRM suite of products. She achieves this by sharing the latest product innovations, best practices and understanding her customer’s business needs / problems. She holds customer success close to her heart and enjoys collaborating with customers and internal teams to that end.

Yusuke Nakazawa started his career at a domestic medical equipment manufacturer as a system implementation specializing in operating rooms. He joined a Scandinavian EDC vendor in 2012, working in the Professional Services department. After that, he took charge of the Business Development department and later served as the General Manager of the Japan branch. Yusuke joined Veeva as Senior Product Expert in June 2023 and is responsible for CDMS products in Asia.