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Management Profiles
Bala Venkataraman, CEO
William Campbell, VP, CFO
Connie Swanson, VP, Sales and Marketing
Virinder Nohria, Chief Medical Officer
Dan Gunderson, Director of Sales
Patricia Conary, Director of Marketing, OTC Division
Jai Wall, Director of Marketing,
Rx Division
Bala Venkataraman
was previously Chief Operating Officer (2002- 2003), Chief Financial
Officer (1999- 2002), VP Business Development, Strategic Planning
and Operations (1998 -2000) at First Horizon Pharmaceutical Corporation.
Bala was responsible for growing the company from an operating loss
and sales of approximately $5M, to, at its peak, an operating profit
of approximately $14M and sales of approximately $115M in 5 years.
In addition, Bala was responsible for in-licensing or acquiring
over 15 drugs, commercializing 8 products, concluding 5 co-promotion
agreements, and developing the company’s product pipeline
through partnerships with contract manufacturers, research organizations
and drug development companies. He successfully took the company
public and raised in excess of $500M in debt and equity capital,
and built the company employee base from approximately 70 people
to approximately 300 people. Bala’s previous experiences includes:
venture capitalist in managing specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology
investments for EJ Financial (Neopharm, First Horizon Pharmaceutical,
ProtoMed), product management at Schering-Plough (oncology drug
Intron®A), Licensing and New Business Start-up, at the University
of Pennsylvania Center for Technology Transfer, Marketing Manager
at Curative Technologies Inc. (marketing of wound care services
and launch of autologous growth factor Procuren®), Technical
Sales Representative for Millipore Corporation (purification equipment
to pharmaceutical companies), Senior Research Chemist at Scios Inc.
(cardiovascular and inflammation product development). Bala has
an M.S. degree in Organic Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University
and an M.B.A. degree from the Wharton School of Business. Bala has
several research publications, holds three patents and has several
patent applications pending. He is a member of the Licensing Executives
Society.
William (Bill) Campbell was
previously Controller (1998 - 2003), Treasurer (1999 - 2003) and
VP of Administration (2002 - 2003) at First Horizon Pharmaceutical
Corporation. At First Horizon, Bill was responsible for all aspects
of the finance function, including inventory management, budgeting,
managing the cash flow, product acquisition, debt and equity financing,
operationalizing the sales force and managing human resources. Bill
was critical in making the company profitable and successfully sustaining
the profits, completing a successful IPO with
limited equity financing prior to the IPO, helping raise
over $350M in equity and $150M in debt, managing over 50 operating
agreements, managing 12 manufacturers and over 40 product SKUs, and
operating the company under high leverages. Prior to joining First
Horizon, from 1995 to 1998, Bill was the Controller/Chief Financial
Officer of Dialysis America, Inc. and was responsible for the successful
and profitable sale of the company to Fresinius. He was the Associate
Administrator/Chief Financial Officer of Stringfellow Memorial Hospital
from 1993 to 1995, and from 1989 to 1993, was the Director of
Budgets, Costs and Reimbursement at Grady Memorial Hospital. His
prior professional experience also includes a number of for-profit
and not-for-profit consulting, big four public accounting, governmental
auditing and internal audit positions. Bill is a Certified Public
Accountant.
He received a B.A. degree in Accounting from Walsh College
of Accountancy and Business Administration, and an M.B.A. degree
in Accounting from Kennesaw State College.
Connie Swansonwas previously Senior
Director of Marketing (1999 - 2001) and National
Sales Trainer (1996 - 1999) at First Horizon Pharmaceutical
Corporation. Connie was responsible for hiring,
training, deploying and successfully leading
a significant majority of the First Horizon sales
force and sales management during several sales
force expansions prior to 2001. In addition, as
head of Marketing, Connie launched several of
First Horizon’s key brands including Ponstel® (Women’s Health), Zebutal® (Tension
Headache), Nitrolingual Pumpspray® (Cardiology),
Robinul® (Gastroenterology) and Tanafed® (Pediatric) while leading a team of product managers.
Connie was also instrumental in the selection
and acquisition of three of First Horizon’s
key products, Robinul®, Ponstel® and Nitrolingual® Pumpspray. She was the Company’s top
producing sales representative and district manager
during its formative years (1993 - 1995). Connie
earned a B.S. degree in Chemistry from North Georgia
College and State University and worked as a pharmacy
technician while obtaining her degree.
Virinder Nohria was previously the Chief Medical Officer
of Xcel Pharmaceutical (2004-2005) and Chief Medical Officer of
DevCo Pharmaceutical (1999-2003). He was a Senior Research Physician
for UCB Pharma and Global Physician, Neurology Division, for Eli
Lilly and Company. Dr. Nohria was responsible for the development
and approval of Keppra® and Permax®. He was also part of
the team that was responsible for the development and approval of
Zyprexa®. Dr Nohria has eight years of clinical practice in
the area of pediatric neurology in both the United Kingdom and the
United States. Dr. Nohria was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
and Neurology at University of Virginia and is currently an Assistant
Professor at the Emory School of Medicine. He earned his medical
degree at Cambridge University and his Ph.D. at Leeds University.
Dan Gunderson was previously Regional Account Manager (2002-2003),
District Manager (1998-2002), Managed Care Director (1997-1998)
and National Field Sales Trainer (1997) at First Horizon Pharmaceutical
Corporation. At First Horizon, Dan was most recently responsible
for all Managed Care Accounts and Medicaid contracts for the Midwest
and Southeast. Throughout Dan’s tenure other responsibilities
included classroom and field training of new representatives, starting
the Managed Care Department, managing districts in the West, Southwest,
Midwest and Southeast. First Horizon expanded its sales force 6
times during Dan’s Sales Management tenure. Prior
to joining First Horizon, Dan was employed by Central Pharmaceuticals/Schwarz
Pharma AG (1990-1996). Dan started in the pharmaceutical industry
with Central as a Territory Manager. Other positions held were District
Supervisor, Managed Care Coordinator and District Manager. Dan is
a current active member of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy.
He holds a BS degree in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse
with an emphasis in Management.
Patricia Conary was previously at UCB, Inc. in Marketing Research and Brand Management , working in therapeutic areas including biologics (CIMZIA™), dermatology (Olux™ and Luxiq™), CNS (FROVA™)and ADHD (Metadate CD™). As President of PS Communications, Inc., a marketing consultation firm, her clients included Allergan, Kimberly-Clark, CIBA/Novartis, Santen Pharmaceuticals, and the American Cancer Society. She spent 6 years at CIBA Vision, and as the Group Director of Marketing she was responsible for the launch of CIBA’s first contact lenses (CIBASoft® and CIBAThin®) their first lens care product, and the first cosmetic soft contact lens marketed directly to consumers (SoftColors®) which achieved $50 million in sales the first year. She also spent 5 years with Bausch & Lomb, Inc. in ophthalmic sales. Patty has a B.A. in Economics from the State University of NY at Geneseo.
Jai Wall was previously Senior Product
Manager, Gastroenterology (2003 – 2007),
Corporate Development Advisor (2001 - 2002) and
Senior Manager, Contracting and Sales Services
(1999 – 2000) at Solvay Pharmaceuticals,
Inc.. As Product Manager at Solvay, Jai was responsible
for leading the sales and marketing team which
halted, then reversed the declining sales trend
of Creon® Minimicrospheres®, leading to doubled sales in three years.
In addition, while expatriated to Belgium, Jai
worked with the Executive Committee of Solvay
S.A. on corporate strategy issues including M&A
projects and long term planning. Prior to Solvay,
Jai was with Abbott Laboratories, Inc. (1990 –
1999), Glaxo, Inc. (1989) and ZS Associates (1984
– 1987) in a variety of positions including
Strategic Pricing, Sales Representative, Market
Research Intern and Sales Analyst. Jai has a degree
in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University
and a M.B.A from Duke University.
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