CURES WITHIN REACH - Key Persons
Barbara Goodman leads Cures Within Reach and its mission to drive more treatments to more patients more quickly through repurposing research. She joined in 2017 to help expand the reach and influence of CWR in both the philanthropic and commercial spaces, as well as to foster organizational growth and financial sustainability. Barbara is helping the organization develop new partnerships and expand current relationships with donors, sponsors, partners, industry, government, Board members and other volunteer leaders, to further our mission.
Barbara has nearly 25 years of international business and healthcare / biomedical / life sciences sector business experience, focused on planning and implementation of strategic growth initiatives at both for-profit and not-for-profit corporations. She joined CWR after leading iBIO Institute's PROPEL Center for nearly 10 years, where she led programs to increase the number and success rate of early-stage life sciences companies in Illinois, and supported iBIO's international activities.
Barbara previously worked in corporate strategy and business development at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (now the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab), Cardinal Health Medical Products & Services Division, and Chesapeake Corporation. Barbara earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from the University of Minnesota and a Master's of Business Administration from Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Scientific Affairs With
Clare Thibodeaux, PhD is the Vice President, Scientific Affairs with Cures Within Reach and has nearly 20 years of scientific research and philanthropic experience. Clare joined the Cures Within Reach team in November 2015, collaborating with a variety of repurposing stakeholders to catalyze repurposing research opportunities. Clare engages with key opinion leaders, research institution partners, industry representatives and patient advocates from any disease areas globally to identify, centralize and vet clinical repurposing research for funding. She is responsible for leading new scientific initiatives at Cures Within Reach, managing Cures Within Reach's scientific grant outreach and review process, leading the Science Advisory Board and developing patient education events. Clare also serves on the Advisory Board for the Critical Path Institute's CURE Drug Repurposing Collaboratory. She has led various committees and boards through her previous volunteer work with the American Cancer Society. Clare has advocated with state and federal elected officials concerning cancer related issues and educated the general public through community outreach.
Prior to her involvement in the biomedical field, Clare was a market research professional. She holds a PhD in Tumor Biology from Georgetown University and an MBA from George Mason University.
Job Titles:
- SVP, Chief Compliance Officer, Horizon Therapeutics
Biography
David Styler has 15+ years of experience in the life sciences industry specializing in ethics & compliance issues at both the national and global level. Before joining Horizon, David held senior leadership positions in ethics & compliance functions at Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Abbott Laboratories where he helped globalize those functions in order to stay compliant with the various laws, rules and regulations across the globe. His extensive focus on how industry interacts with healthcare professionals, government officials, and the communities at large helps companies successfully operate within the ever dynamic healthcare environment at the state, federal and global level. Prior to joining the private sector, David spent over 13 years as a state and federal prosecutor in Chicago.
David received his JD from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago. In his free time, David volunteers at PADS of Lake County and as a Mentor for Catholic Charities. He lives in Libertyville, Illinois with his wife Peg.
In 1998, Goldman Philanthropic Partners (GPP), a private operating foundation, was founded to accelerate the discovery of new treatments to improve the quality of life for people with catastrophic diseases. Dr. Bruce Bloom, currently the Chief Collaboration Officer of Healx, became Executive Director of Goldman Philanthropic Partnerships (GPP) in 2002. In 2005, Partnership for Cures was established as a 501(c)(3) public charity to carry on the GPP mission, and in 2009, we narrowed our focus to repurposing research, with Bruce as President & Chief Science Officer of our newly-focused nonprofit.
Job Titles:
- SVP, Head of R & D, Plasma - Derived Therapies Business Unit, Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Biography
Kristina Allikmets has been working for Takeda Pharmaceuticals for over eight years, holding various leadership roles in the Global R&D organization, currently leading the R&D organization in the Plasma-Derived Therapies Business unit. She has broad experience in clinical drug development and taking compounds through registration process in different therapy areas. Previously in Takeda, she served as a "chief executive" of a "spin-in" company within Takeda Global R&D, to take one of Takeda's compounds through experimental phase of development following a new working model. She was also instrumental in establishing Takeda R&D Patient Outreach team and led it for several years, building the strategy and processes for how to engage patients during drug development and to ensure that the innovative medicines could make a meaningful difference to patients' lives in the communities we serve around the world. Before joining Takeda, Kristina worked for eight years for Nycomed Pharma, where she served as a Chief Medical Officer for several years. Kristina has an MD and PhD from University of Tartu, Estonia, she's trained as cardiologist and internal medicine specialist and worked in academic clinical medicine for almost 15 years before joining pharmaceutical industry. She has strong international experience, having lived and worked in different European countries (Estonia, Russia, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland), she moved to the US in 2015 and is currently based in Boston, MA.
Job Titles:
- Secretary / Kiran Consortium Group LLC
Biography
Lucy Mancini Newell, MBA, FHIMSS, is Managing Partner of The Kiran Consortium Group LLC. Ms. Mancini Newell is an Information Technology professional with experience in clinical operations, application vendors (ambulatory and inpatient settings), systems integrators and management consulting. One of the hallmarks of her professional success is effective communication of ideas, trends and issues on behalf of her clients while delivering results in a timely, effective manner. Her experience includes work in complex environments as well as project turnarounds. She was previously a Practice Leader of Information Technology Strategic Planning and System Selections, mentoring colleagues, working in collaborative and high impact teams, and actively contributing to an employer-based Thought Leadership Group and professional societies such as the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) and Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA). She actively contributes to healthcare industry publications (over 20), presentations (over 40) and blogs on many timely topics.
Margaret A. Christie is a partner with the law firm of Golan Christie Taglia LLP. Prior to her affiliation with Golan Christie Taglia LLP, she spent a number of years working at large law firms, including Rudnick & Wolfe (now, DLA Piper), where she was also a partner. Ms. Christie started her own firm and eventually merged her practice with several other firms including the predecessor to her current firm in 1995. Her areas of practice include commercial real estate, finance and general business law.
Ms. Christie is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University (B.A., Economics, summa cum laude) and Northwestern University School of Law, where Ms. Christie served as Executive Editor of the Law Review. She is a member of the American Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Association. She is a member of the Advisory Board for the John Marshall Law School Center for Real Estate Law. Margaret and her husband share their home with three pugs.
Job Titles:
- Treasurer
- Leader in PwC 's Strategic Technologies
Matt is a leader in PwC's Strategic Technologies practice and takes an innovation-led approach to his clients when delivering their strategic technology transformation initiatives. His 19+ years working at the intersection of technology and pharma R&D have provided his clients with pragmatic technology solutions to improve the way therapies are developed. Matt is a champion for the evolution of pharma R&D organizations' move from established to emerging technologies and the impact to the relationships, engagement and productivity that the move has on the IT and business functions. Specifically, Matt has led scientific and operational analytics initiatives as well implemented digital technologies within Clinical Development, Regulatory Operations and Pharmacovigilance. These experiences have been informed by the analytics and digital projects that Matt has led in other industries (e.g. financial services, retail, high tech).
Job Titles:
- CEO and Managing Director of IllinoisVENTURES
Biography
Nancy Sullivan serves as the CEO and Managing Director of IllinoisVENTURES, LLC. With over 15 years of experience in the commercialization and entrepreneurial sector, Nancy leads the IllinoisVENTURES, LLC investment portfolio. Ms. Sullivan oversees $75 million + in assets under management. She is responsible for overall fund operations including serving as the main point of contact for limited partner base and the investment management of leading portfolio companies. Nancy promotes the development of new companies commercializing complex technologies by assisting the companies in obtaining venture capital funding, recruiting management talent and obtaining necessary business services. She serves on the boards of two Chicago based startups, Personify and Diagnostic Photonics. Nancy earned her MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and a Master's in Biotechnology, from Northwestern. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Loyola University
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board at the Susan Duncan Children 's Center
- SVP, Strategy and Business Development, Fujifilm Pharmaceuticals
Biography
Nick Manusos is a 35 year life science industry veteran with extensive cross functional experience in the areas of business development, sales, manufacturing and operations. Nick has held multiple senior executive positions including head business development at Baxter Healthcare and previously Takeda Pharmaceuticals International where, in his last role, he led the Transition Office for the integration of Takeda's $13.7 billion dollar acquisition of Nycomed. Earlier, Nick was also Takeda's most senior Business Development executive outside Japan, leading the company's efforts in M&A, licensing and alliance management. Today, Nick is Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development for FujiFilm's pharmaceutical and regenerative medicine divisions. In addition to larger company success, Nick has also played key roles in start-ups including successful exits and series financings. Nick began his career at Abbott Laboratories where he held various business and operations management positions of increasing responsibility including head of business development at TAP Pharmaceuticals.
Nick earned a bachelor's degree of business administration in operations management from the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater and a master's degree in business administration at the Kellogg School of Management.
Nick has been a member of the board at the Susan Duncan Children's Center since 2014. He and his wife Lauren reside in the city of Chicago.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director of Armour Life Sciences
- Managing Director, Armour Life Sciences Previous Roles Include SVP at Horizon Therapeutics
Biography
Mr. Metz is the Managing Director of Armour Life Sciences. Before starting Armour, Metz was at Horizon Therapeutics for 10 years, including the SVP global business operations and general manager Europe. He was responsible for the administration of global business operations and corporate external affairs. Mr. Metz has over 27 years of commercial, external affairs, finance, corporate administration and operations experience in both small and large pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations. Prior to joining Horizon Pharma, Mr. Metz's most recent position was vice president, commercial operations for IDM Pharma who manufactured MEPACT® for pediatric osteosarcoma. Prior to joining IDM Pharma, Mr. Metz led commercial operations for NeoPharm, a public rare disease oncology biotechnology company with a phase 3 compound for glioblastoma multiforme. For nearly 13 years, Mr. Metz worked in areas of increasing responsibility at Searle and Pharmacia focusing on product introductions on several products, including Celebrex®, Arthrotec®, Daypro® and Detrol LA®. Mr. Metz has also held sales and marketing positions at Medpointe Pharma and Reliable Biopharmaceuticals. Mr. Metz has a bachelor's degree in management/economics with a minor in political science from Marietta College in Marietta, OH.
Steve Braun has more than 30 years of service as a Wealth Management Advisor with Northwestern Mutual - Chicago. Steve is passionate in his pursuit to help his clients retire. He has earned numerous awards throughout his career and is past chairperson for NM's Annual Meeting and the past president of NM's Financial Representative Association.
Steve is active in community supporting The City of Hope and the Marty Hennessy, Jr. Tennis Foundation. He brings his understanding of philanthropy and financing planning to support Cures Within Reach. Steve resides in Highland Park.