1. Women In BIO
Chicago Chapter
Women’s History Month
Questions? Contact us at Chicago@womeninbio.org
Event Sponsors
Confessions of the Clinical Minds
Thursday, March 19, 2015
5:30 p.m. @ Astellas
1 Astellas Way, Northbrook, IL 60654

2. she was vice president of clinical operations at MedGenesis Therapeutix Inc. in British Columbia, Canada, and
prior to that vice president of clinical operations at NeoPharm developing unique therapies targeting primary
brain cancer, other cancers, and Parkinson’s disease. During her career, Ms. Grahn has also held various senior
level positions at Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., Searle and Abbott developing drugs for HIV,
asthma, diabetes and chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. During her career, Ms. Grahn has authored and
co-authored over 15 peer reviewed publications of clinical trial results.
Amy Grahn, MS
Senior Vice President, Clinical Development and Operations
Horizon Pharma, Inc.
Amy Grahn has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience spanning
pre-clinical research to commercial roles, with a primary focus on clinical
development and operations. She has been responsible for the clinical portion of the
New Drug Applications (NDAs) for two recently approved drugs, DUEXIS®
(ibuprofen/famotidine) for OA and RA, and RAYOS® (delayed-release prednisone)
for a variety of indications primarily focused in rheumatologic diseases. She has lead
clinical trials teams for many registration trials both Ex-US and US based. Previously
Gillian Hodkinson
Vice President, Clinical Operations, AbbVie Inc.
Gill is a 35 year veteran of Abbott/AbbVie and an immigrant in the USA from the UK,
which makes her, by her own admission, an “Ancient Alien” in the USA!
A Pharmacist by training, she gained her Pharmacy degree from Nottingham
University in the UK where she specialized in Drug Development, Medicinal
Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences. She completed her pre-Registration
training Residency in Abbott and retail Pharmacy and was hired into a Formulation
development role in Abbott Queenborough England after completion of her
Residency. Although she has worked in the R&D environment for her whole career, she has held multiple different
roles but always kept a focus on improving the way we do business and she has a passion for continuous
improvement and operational excellence. About a third of her career was spent in the clinical supply arena, a
third in drug development and clinical development operations project management and the remaining third in a
variety of roles focused on either building or “fixing” organizations: R&D Operations, Outsourcing, Process
Improvement, Project Office, Centralization of Development Operations, Quality Assurance and now Clinical
Operations. Gill is a big believer in Teamwork and loves to collaborate across the organization to take full
advantage of diverse skill sets and opinions – a particular mission in AbbVie for Gill is to “Bureaucracy-bust” and
simplify given the complex world we live in today.
Beverly Paperiello
Executive Director, Clinical Programming/Clinical Science, Astellas Pharma
Global Development
Beverly has over 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Throughout
her professional career, she has held many key roles in the top pharmaceutical
companies. Some these roles include: Clinical Program Scientist at Pfizer and
Director of the Clinical Program Management for Abbott where she served for over
seven years. Currently, Beverly is the Global Head of the Clinical Program
Management department at Astellas Pharma. Beverly graduated with a Bachelor of
Science degree in health administration from Northern Illinois University.

3. Melynda Geurts
Vice President of Operations, DAC Patient Recruitment Services
Imperial Company
Melynda Geurts' career has focused on advancing education within the healthcare
industry for the past 23 years. Since 1998, Melynda has shifted her focus on
educating the public about participating in clinical trials through global programs.
She currently serves as the Vice President of Operations for DAC Patient
Recruitment Services, an Imperial Company. Melynda is responsible for the
strategic growth of the organization and integral in ensuring DAC as a leader within
the patient recruitment and retention niche. Melynda is invited often to present and
train worldwide at industry conferences and has contributed to the industry's overall body of literature through
her writing contributions. In 2008, she was recognized by PharmaVoice as 100 Most Inspiring People in Life
Sciences.
Teresa Raich, PhD
Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs, Abbott Diagnostics
Dr. Terry Raich joined Abbott Diagnostics in May, 2014, and brings over 20 years
of experience leading strategic initiatives and driving global projects as well as
developing, managing, launching and supporting multiple in vitro diagnostic
products in the medical device industry. At Abbott, she is responsible for
managing and executing the global regulatory strategy for the Immunoassay and
Clinical Chemistry product life cycle franchise including the ARCHITECT and the
next-generation ICQ systems. Prior to Abbott, she was Vice-President of Global
Clinical, Regulatory and Scientific Affairs for Nanosphere, Inc.; Director of Assay
Product Development at HandyLab/BD Diagnostics and Director of Medical &
Scientific Affairs at Roche Diagnostics. Dr. Raich received her Ph.D. in
Microbiology from Colorado State University and her B.S. in Veterinary Sciences from West Virginia
University. She completed an AAM/CPEP-approved Postdoctoral Training Fellowship in Medical and Public
Health Laboratory Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She received a MBA from
Indiana Wesleyan University focusing on organizational leadership and management.
Nancy Sacco, PhD
Executive Director, Astellas Global Development Strategic Operations
In her current role at Astellas, Nancy has executive leadership and management
responsibilities in the Astellas global and medical organization functions
including Process Improvement/Standards Management, Training Design and
Deployment, LMS Technology and Management and Divisional Integration. In
addition, Nancy is the Astellas representative on the AVOCA Executive
Directors Board and on the Transcelerate Biopharmaceutics Operating
Committee. She is also the Chair of the Global Medical and Development
Information Strategy Steering Committee and a member of the Development
Leadership Team and Synopsis/Protocol review and approval committees.
Nancy has been a leader in the pharmaceutical industry for over 20 years. Prior to joining Astellas 6 years
ago, she was the Global Head of Clinical Operations at Takeda and Head of Clinical Research Operations
Pfizer-Michigan overseeing clinical trials spanning more than 5 therapeutic areas. Nancy completed her
doctorate at the West Virginia School of Medicine in Anatomy/Cell Biology and a post-doctoral fellowship at
Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in Physiology.

4. SNAPSHOT – PAST & UPCOMING EVENTS
Upcoming Events – details forthcoming
April 30, 2015 – Biosimilars Panel
May 2015 – Mentoring Panel Part 1: Mentoring Entrepreneurs and Start Ups
June 2015 – Mentoring Panel Part 2: Mentoring and Sponsorship in Big Pharma
June 15-18, 2015 – BIO convention, Philadelphia- WIB National and 12 WIB chapters
July 2015 – TBD
August 2015 – Symphony in the Park Metro Mix and Mingle Networking Event
September 2015 – “Dolphin Tank” – Entrepreneurial Pitch Session
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