Speakers

Peter Gassner is the visionary behind Veeva, one of the world’s most successful and innovative cloud software companies. He pioneered the industry cloud category when he founded Veeva in 2007 with the belief that vertical cloud software would be the next wave of cloud innovation. Today, Veeva helps more than 600 life sciences companies bring new medicines and treatments to patients faster. Peter serves on the board of directors of Veeva Systems, Guidewire Software, and Zoom Video Communications.

Arno Sosna is responsible for the strategic direction of all Veeva CRM products. Arno and his team ensure that Veeva delivers best-in-class products for managing customer engagement across all online and offline channels, with a focus on streamlined usability, rich functionality, and end-to-end customer success. He also represents Veeva as chief technology officer of Align Biopharma, an industry standards group dedicated to improving how healthcare providers engage life sciences companies.

Pooja Ojala recently joined Veeva in April of this year, assuming responsibility as the head of Commercial Content Strategy. She has been working within the Life Sciences space for over 20 years transforming commercial and digital organizations to establish & evolving their content business. Prior to joining Veeva, she worked at Cognizant leading their Global Content practice and spent 16 years at Accenture as the head of NA Content Services within Accenture Interactive. She resides in Philadelphia with her husband and two daughters and is an avid Penn State fan.

Paul Shawah is responsible for commercial product strategy at Veeva including customer engagement, market adoption and direction, and strategic alliances. Paul has nearly 20 years in product management, marketing, and sales leadership for enterprise software companies serving the life sciences industry. Before Veeva, Paul ran the life sciences industry business at SAP with responsibility for product strategy and business development for SAP solutions globally. Prior to SAP, Paul ran product marketing and sales for Proscape, the then leader in closed loop marketing (CLM). Paul is widely recognized as an early pioneer and evangelist in closed loop marketing and is credited with selling and implementing some of the industry’s earliest CLM deployments. Paul began his enterprise software career as one of the early product managers for Siebel Pharma helping to create the product that became the on premise market leader in pharmaceutical CRM. Paul received his MBA from the Harvard Business School and his bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from Bucknell University.

Claus Zieler is President of International Markets at Astellas, a region covering Latin America, Middle East and Africa, Russia/CIS, South Korea and South East/South Asia with a hub in Singapore. Claus has 30 years of Commercial, HQ and General Management experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to Astellas, he served as Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific at Bayer and held roles of increasing responsibility across several geographies in Europe, the US, Latin America and Japan. Claus holds a Bachelor of Arts in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, a Master of Science in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and an MBA from INSEAD.

Dr. Kaleem Khan is a consultant Dermatologist, practicing in Mumbai for over a decade. Dr. Kaleem is attached to Wockhardt Hospital in South Mumbai and at Surya Children’s Hospital, Santacruz as a Pediatric Dermatologist. Dr. Kaleem completed his fellowship in Advanced Medical Dermatology in Toronto, Canada. He has also worked at the National Skin Centre, Singapore. He has 13 publications in indexed journals and has co-authored 2 chapters. Dr. Kaleem’s areas of special interest include Pediatric Dermatology, Atopic Dermatitis, Psoriasis, Acne and Skin Physiology.

Dr Nikita is a Clinician-Scientist and a medical oncologist who spent half of her academic time in lab oncology research, pursuing a PhD in Molecular Oncology. Dr Nikita’s areas of clinical interest include multiple myeloma, geriatric oncology and supportive care in cancer, most importantly chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.

Dr. Vishal Indla completed his MD and DNB in psychiatry from the prestigious Central government Institute, NIMHANS Bengaluru. He was awarded the Silver Jubilee Award and the gold medal for being the topper in the MD Psychiatry exam at NIMHANS in 2005. He received the World Psychiatric Association Fellowship Award for the year 2007 at Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Vishal is currently the Director of ICGC, Indlas Child Guidance Clinics with branches in Mumbai, Vizag and Vijayawada, which are exclusive speciality clinics for child and adolescent wellness. He is also the Director of Indlas VIMHANS hospital, a Post graduate DNB teaching institution, at Vijayawada. He was also the Principal Investigator in many Phase II and Phase III Research trials in Psychiatry, dealing with Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Major Depressive Disorders, Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Disorders. Dr. Vishal served as the associate editor of Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine and Indian Journal of Biological Psychiatry. He is the past president of the Andhra Pradesh (South Indian State) Psychiatric Society (2017-18). He has many research publications in international medical journals. He has been invited to numerous psychiatric conferences and PG CME’s as guest faculty. He received the coveted 12th Teacher’s Young Achievers Club recognition award in the year 2013 at Mumbai. He has conducted numerous workshops in schools and colleges for students and their parents on various aspects of child development and motivation. He has written numerous articles on promoting mental health in various news papers and magazines and also regularly featured in television on various aspects of mental health.

Amy is an experienced pharmaceutical industry professional with over 13 years’ experience in medical communications and medical education. Amy started her career in the US as a research scientist, completed a PhD at the University of Michigan and postdoctoral fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the field of developmental biology. Moving to Australia, Amy completed an honours degree in visual communication at the University of Australia, Sydney. A passionate people leader, science communicator and lifelong learner, Amy is currently the medical education lead at Amgen Australia.

Riaz is currently learning & performance lead, JAPAC at Amgen. Riaz has over 16 years’ experience in bio-pharmaceutical industry gained across UK, Australia and Asia Pac region and launched 6 antivirals in HIV & HCV. Riaz is passionate about field medical engagement and capability building and strongly believes biggest asset of any organisation is its people.

Alan qualified in medicine in 1984 from the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Alan has trained as a family doctor and worked in and around Glasgow for 14 years. Alan joined Novo Nordisk in 1998, becoming their UK Medical Director in 2001 and after leadership positions with both BioMarin Europe and AstraZeneca, he joined Astellas as their UK Medical Director in 2009 before moving to a regional European role in 2014. In late 2016 Alan relocated to Singapore to become VP and Head of Medical Affairs for Asia-Pacific and most recently his territories have expanded to also include Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Russia and Turkey in his new role of Vice President and Head of Medical Affairs for International Markets and Greater China.

Deepak has an experience of 2 decades in pharma world across geographies and different therapeutic area’s which include Diabetes, Oncology, Critical Care and Cardiology. Deepak has been a part of international and national assignments in Sales & Marketing across US, EU & Asia. Deepak has spent most of the time in new product launch workstreams and product centricity innovation. Deepak’s key interest areas are Sales force Capabilities & Excellence, New Product Launch, Digital Ecosystem around the Rep and Patient Centricity to bring innovation in hands of the end customer. Deepak is currently working as Director Commercial Excellence and Market Access.

Throughout Siân’s 15+ years within the pharmaceutical industry in medical and commercial roles, she has developed a passion for medical strategy, leadership and people development; in particular building capabilities within teams through leading, coaching and training field medical. Siân’s current role focuses on empowering MSLs to achieve excellence by adding value to both external and internal stakeholders. Siân has been a member of the Executive Committee for the Australian Pharmaceutical Professionals Association for the last 4 years, promoting excellence in pharmaceutical medicine through professional development, networking and advocacy. Siân is an experienced speaker and trainer at international and local meetings. Siân is a qualified pharmacist (GB) and has certifications in pharmacy practice, professional and advanced coaching certifications, a MBA from Warwick Business School and a Masters of Pharmacy from Cardiff University. Siân is currently studying a Masters of Science in Coaching Psychology at the University of Sydney.

James is a brand manager, Respiratory. He started with AZ Singapore in Sept 2017 as Sales Manager. Under his leadership, he led the successful return to growth for the Respiratory portfolio where he was recognised as Asia Area Ambassador (Sales Manager) for two years straight. He is part of the Singapore Respiratory team that won the 2019 Respiratory International Award for delivering positive growth for the portfolio. As a brand manager, James has led multiple digital initiatives such as global & local webinars, VAEs, EDMs, SESs and banner ads on third party platforms. Most notable among his digital launches is the #BeattheAsthmaBlues social media campaign and an omni-channel marketing of the “Break Over Reliance” of SABA microsite. In line with GINA 2020, this aims to help both local doctors and patients improve asthma awareness and combat over-reliance of blue inhaler.

Deepak is an experienced Commercial Excellence leader with professional experience in USA, India and APAC markets both as a Consultant and as an industry executive. He is passionate about data-driven Marketing, Sales Force Effectives, Customer Experience and Digital Transformation. In his experience with Bayer, Abbott and during his consulting experience with ZS Associates, Deepak has led and implemented several transformational initiatives in Go-to-Market Strategy, Sales Effectiveness, Marketing Planning, Digital transformation and Artificial Intelligence. Deepak believes that more than technology and platforms, it is the focus on communication, influencing and building narratives using the power of data that will help prepare organisations towards sustainable change.

Andy has been a veteran technologist in the life science, FMCG industry for the last 15+ years. Andy currently manages Bayer’s CRM & BI platform in ANZ and has been involved in the digital transformation project at a global and local level.

Rakesh is a Commercial leader with successful record of making measurable difference to the Commercial Operations. More than 20 years of experience spread over direct selling, Sales Management, Sales Force Excellence / Sales Training, Multi-Channel / Digital Marketing and Marketing Excellence enables Rakesh to quickly spot and leverage opportunities. For last 14 years, Rakesh has been in international roles across Europe and Asia-Pacific countries with leading pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Allergan and Boehringer Ingelheim. Currently, Rakesh is based in Singapore with Boehringer Ingelheim regional office as Head of Commercial Operations.

Rakesh is an avid learner who believes that best way to learn is to share your own learning while learning from others, always happy to connect with people.

A pharmacist with over 12 years’ experience as a healthcare marketer, Amit has worked across multiple marketing disciplines in major MNCs like GlaxoSmithKline, Merck Serono, and Boehringer Ingelheim. With a strong focus and passion for implementing progressive digital models, his skills have aided businesses to meet their objectives. Some of his projects as a multichannel expert have received several accolades and are seen today as a “best practice”. As a guest lecturer in a management institute and digital mentor to his peers and co-workers, Amit loves sharing his knowledge and passion with like minds.

Julie has worked at BMS for over 10 years, in many positions throughout the Sales and Marketing functions, currently Julie is the Systems Administrator, which includes building and aligning the Veeva backend elements to accommodate the front end delivery across multiple brands and teams, and the training of the field force in their customer engagement systems. Julie has been involved with Veeva since BMS implemented the system, with experience in the deployment of several Veeva platforms such as Network, CRM, Events and Align.

A sales leader with extensive experience across two sectors that is Pharmaceuticals and Utilities. Paul demonstrated a track record of successfully leading and supporting high performing sales teams in complex and highly regulated sales environments to achieve strong revenue growth. Paul is excited by new challenges and fresh opportunities and he is passionate about developing teams and driving strong sales, marketing and operational alignment to enable teams to deliver on organisational objectives.

Edwin is a healthcare business leader who specialises in marketing & sales for infant nutrition.

Zainab has a diversified experience of over 18 years in various commercial roles i.e. marketing & sales, business development, corporate strategy, pricing, market access , launching new assets and corporate crisis management. Zainab has handled a broad range of therapy areas within Pharma and Vaccines and worked in regional (Intercon/APAC/Middle east Africa) and multiple in-country senior roles demonstrating resilience which results in a cross functional matrix structure. Zainab is results driven, with a high learning agility and ability to work very comfortably across cultures and geographic boundaries. Zainab has had a progressive/ fast paced management career. Zainab has done her MBA with gold medal in consumer behavior. Zainab is a fitness enthusiast with running and cycling as her passion. Zainab loves travelling, doing volunteering work, spending time with her 2 young kids.

Murat has 17+ years of local and regional multi-faceted leadership experience in big pharma which includes marketing, market access, launch readiness and commercial operations. Murat has launched 9 brands in 20+ countries across Middle East, Turkey and Africa. Spearheading sales force effectiveness & multichannel marketing operations in Emerging Markets, Murat has led 150+ colleagues across Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Turkey, Russia & CIS, Pakistan, India and Southeast Asia. Murat is an industrial engineer with master’s degree in Engineering Business Management. Outside of work, Murat is an avid scuba diver and middle-distance runner.

Dr. Somnath Datta currently heads Commercial Excellence at Janssen India that includes Digital, Sales and Marketing Excellence, Learning & Development and Market Intelligence. Dr. Somnath is spearheading the digital transformation and L&D metamorphosis at Janssen India. Dr. Somnath is a medical doctor and his previous experiences include clinical research, pharma marketing & sales, analytics consulting and professional wedding photography.

Dr. Rachana Acharya is currently heading the Dermatology Business of Janssen India, a part of Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Rachana is diversified healthcare professional with 15 years plus experience across various functions from medical affairs, business development & strategy to sales and marketing across multiple therapy segments including dermatology, oncology, cardiology. Dr. Rachana drives her energy by bringing innovation with focus on execution excellence and shares a strong interest on evolving digital landscape impacting healthcare ecosystem.

Jessica Purcell is the Head of Medical Excellence and Governance for Asia Pacific at Takeda and is based in Singapore. Jessica has a passion for Medical Affairs and has worked in the space for over 7 years including as an MSL, Medical Advisor and Country Medical Lead in Australia covering a broad range of disease areas. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry Jessica was a Medical Researcher and completed a doctorate in immunology and vaccine development. Jessica is currently enrolled in an executive MBA and therefore spends her spare time studying.

Caroline has worked in the APAC region for over 8 years in the field of digital and multichannel strategy in life sciences. Caroline is a seasoned professional with more than 15 years of combined experience in pharmaceutical sales, medical marketing, and consulting.

Pierre joined SpotMe in 2001 and became CEO in 2016. In 2004, after a research position on distributed algorithms at NTT Japan, Pierre returned to SpotMe and led the pivot from proprietary hardware to SaaS, making SpotMe the leading event app and virtual event platform. Pierre holds an MSc in communication systems from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and is also a graduate of INSEAD. Pierre enjoys sky running and ski mountaineering in the Swiss Alps.

As President of Veeva Asia, Doug is responsible for all aspects of Veeva’s business across the region. Doug has spent 25 years in the IT industry, including 17 years living and working in Asia. Before joining Veeva Systems, Doug spent 7 years at Netezza where he launched and grew the Asia business to over 150 customers. Doug is adept at helping customers in Asia understand and leverage leading global IT solutions. Prior to his time at Netezza, Doug worked at Siebel Systems, NCR and several smaller start-ups. Doug received his MBA from the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley, and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Oregon State University.

As General Manager, Asia Pacific, Alex is responsible for all of Veeva’s operations in the region including sales, marketing and professional services. He has 18 years experience working in the Enterprise Software industry, with 10 years in senior leadership roles. Prior to working at Veeva, Alex was the Big Data and Master Data Management Growth Market Unit Leader in IBM’s Software Group. Alex came to IBM as part of the acquisition of Initiate Systems, a leading Master Data Management solution provider. Alex’s role as the VP, Asia Pacific at Initiate saw him successfully build the business in the region from $0 to $15 million annual turnover in a 5 year period. Prior to Initiate, Alex held a number of executive roles with the Content Management pioneer Vignette. Alex holds a B.A. with Joint Honor’s in Politics and Philosophy from University of Wales, Swansea.

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.

As CRM Strategy Director for Asia, Stephen is responsible for ownership of the strategy and direction for Veeva’s CRM product suite, including core multichannel capabilities as well as the Events Management, Align and Engage products. Stephen has been in several roles during Veeva’s growth in the Asia Pacific region, including most recently, Solution Consulting Director APAC. Stephen has worked in enterprise software since 1998, in both consulting and technical sales roles. He spent 5 years at PeopleSoft working in the UK, New Zealand and Australia. He first started working with salesforce.com in 2006, and provided early technical consulting on it’s product capabilities in UK and Australia. In 2010 Stephen joined Veeva as the first employee in the APAC region. Stephen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Auckland University.

Shafi is responsible for leading Veeva’s Business Consulting Practice in APAC with a focus on supporting our customers’ commercial strategies through the design and delivery of solutions for the core business issues faced in today’s market. Veeva’s Business Consulting services include: Commercial Content, Field Optimization, Digital Engagement, Go-to-Market Strategy, Insights and Analytics, Customer Experience Design.

As Vice President of Product Management for Vault Asia, Joe is responsible for the definition and prioritisation of the APJ roadmap for most Veeva Vault Products. For the past two decades, Joe has worked extensively with Asia to help penetrate new markets, open new business opportunities, and developing cloud based solutions tailored to meet the needs of each country. At Veeva Joe helps to guide our regional PM team in defining product needs, establishing strong relationships with our customers, and helping to bridge communications between our customers in Asia and our global teams. Joe is bilingual in English and Japanese. His passion at Veeva is to help build strong customer relationships between the various regions and the US Headquarters so that we continue to meet our customers regional needs.

Cindy is the Director of CRM Product Management and has been with Veeva for more than 8 years. With a computer science background and many years of previous IT experience in biotech, she enjoys working in the intersection between tech and pharma at Veeva Systems. Cindy’s team is responsible for core CRM functionality, including Account Management, Call Reporting, Call Scheduling, Call Sampling, Key Account Management, Medical, and more. Cindy’s prior responsibilities at Veeva include owning the product design for CLM, MC Vault Integrations, Engage for Portals, CoBrowse, and Engage Meetings.

As 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.

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 Senior Director, OpenData APAC, Cassandra is responsible for the strategy and direction of OpenData in the region. Cassandra brings over 20 years of experience in business technology across both government and private sectors. Her proven business and marketing experience has helped organisations drive growth and change through data and technology enablement, product development and professional services engagements to a combination of ASX, government and international clients.

Callum Hawes is responsible for leading Veeva’s Global Medical Content Strategy – helping customers to optimise the management of their scientific content, and transform their medical information business processes and technology. Over the last 5 years Callum has occupied a number of roles across Veeva’s Commercial and Medical Content business having initially joined from Zinc Ahead, where he was responsible for customer insights.

Huw has been at Veeva for just over 3 years and works exclusively within the Digital Asset Management space helping customers to move the needle on their digital objectives. Prior to working at Veeva, Huw worked as a consultant and project manager helping customers such as Novartis, Johnson and Johnson and HSBC implement global marketing technology solutions.

Rahul implemented Veeva CRM, Commercial Content, and Data products for Life Sciences as a consultant with a focus on end-to-end multichannel strategy. Now, Rahul ensures that all Veeva customers in APAC get the most out of their investment by leading the Customer Success Management team in APAC.

As Product Manager, OpenData AU, Vineet is responsible for definition and prioritisation of the roadmap for Veeva OpenData in Australia and ensuring its adoption by closely working with Customers. Vineet brings over 15 years of experience in driving change and adoption of solutions that assist payers, providers and life sciences organisations in delivering patient centred care. Vineet’s proven project and change management experience has helped organisations in realising the benefits of healthCare technology.

As customer success manager for a number of clients in the APAC region, Deepa ensures that clients understand the value proposition that various Veeva modules offer and are able to leverage them to their maximum. Her primary responsibility is to ensure that Veeva is well adopted by users. She also keeps clients abreast of best practise and release education through one to one sessions.

Andrew leads the talented ANZ and Korea Commercial Professional Services team in addition to implementing commercial content solutions for our APAC customers. Working in the content management space for 15 years, Andrew has a proven track-record transforming approval and management processes for commercial content in both Rx and OTC.

As Service Engagement Manager for a large number of clients in the APAC region, Adrien help customers transform their vision in an actionable project plan. One of his key focus is to make sure that customers continue to drive innovation with Veeva Managed Services, our post implementation ongoing consultancy service. Adrien has been helping customers implement CRM solutions for more than 10 years and joined Veeva 4 years ago.

As a senior consultant in Veeva for almost 5 years, Noel has been involved in the delivery of many Veeva CRM rollouts – from smaller essentials CRM to large global implementations. Noel currently leads the innovation of Veeva CRM MyInsights in APAC – to empower field users with easy to use, actionable reports and visualisations. Noel has deep experience in many of the CRM modules including key account management, order management, and multichannel, and has expertise in the technical space such as system architecture, customisations and integrations. Prior to Veeva, Noel was in professional Services at IBM’s salesforce.com arm for several years. Prior to IBM, Noel was part of a product team at Oracle to design, build, and support product releases.

Prashant has been with Veeva for 6 years, and has been working with cloud computing CRM for almost 10 years. As a principal consultant, Prashant has his hands in several areas, such as project delivery, multi country architecture and working with customers as a trusted advisor and architect. His primary responsibility is to deliver success to all projects he is assigned, be it local, regional or global. He also works closely with other functional teams such as customer success and solution consulting. Innovation and speed are his key drivers in Veeva.

As customer success manager for customers in the APAC region, Jayanti ensures that clients understand the value proposition that various Veeva modules offer and are able to leverage them to their maximum potential. Jayanti’s primary responsibility is to ensure that Veeva is well adopted by users. Jayanti also keeps clients abreast of best practise and release education through one to one sessions, webinars and newsletters.

As a Solution Consultant, Irina is responsible for identifying business requirements and providing best practices for commercial content through tailored demonstrations. As the subject matter expert on medical content and inquiry management, she works closely with customers, ensuring they have consistent and compliant medical communications across all channels and geographies.

Pam has been with Veeva for close to 3 years, as a consultant Pam is experienced in project delivery, coordinating BAU support and working with customers as a trusted advisor. Pam’s primary responsibility is to deliver success to projects she is assigned. Pam also works closely with other functional teams such as managed services, customer success and content partner programs.

As Program Manager for Veeva’s Content Partners in APAC, LaiTeng supports agencies who are part of the program to ensure that they can successfully support commercial and medical customers across the entire content journey. Prior to joining Veeva this year, LaiTeng worked at MIMS MedComms for 4 years, supporting the client services team to ensure effective and efficient execution of projects and adherence to the company’s standard of operations.