leadership
team
Meet the leaders who help guide our mission and redefine what's possible.
Michael Stomberg brings a wealth of organizational design and strategic leadership experience to ProPharma. He has held the role of CEO within multiple companies including several in the biopharmaceutical, healthcare, technology, and energy industries.
After founding his first company at age 26, an IT consulting company focused on technology solutions for the life sciences industry, he quickly expanded the company into the go-to consulting and human capital solutions provider to emerging life science companies. Following a successful exit, Michael launched The Planet Group in 2009, a leading global provider of specialized consulting services and outsourced human capital solutions focused on the life sciences, energy, and technology sectors.
As CEO, Michael led The Planet Group to record organic growth and global expansion while also leading the company through the launch of four new business lines and the acquisition of multiple firms. He also led the M&A activities when in May 2021, The Planet Group merged with ProPharma. Michael assumed the role of ProPharma’s CEO in September 2021.
Known for continually innovating and scaling businesses for the betterment of employees and clients alike, Michael is dedicated to quality, high-level subject matter expertise, operational efficiency, customized solutions, and world-class customer service.
His expertise includes organizational design & development, leadership development, streamlining operations, technology integration, and global business strategy. Michael holds a Bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University and an MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management.
Jason DeGoes brings over 25 years of industry experience and leadership to his role as President of ProPharma. Through his prior role as COO of ProPharma, Jason empowered comprehensive solutions in support of improving patient health and safety. Over his career, Jason has demonstrated his ability to lead global patient service operations of more than 2000 professionals and his forte for implementing Specialty Pharmacy services in the global marketplace. Jason has held roles such as Senior Vice President Global Patient Solutions, and Vice President of Market Strategy and Development for large healthcare organizations including Teva Pharmaceuticals, Medco Health Solutions, Vion Pharmaceuticals, and Alpha Therapeutic Corporation. He has also served as a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry in both North America and Europe.
Jason completed his undergraduate studies in History and Political Science at Rhode Island College, and he has served as a member of several patient outcome-related committees within PhRMA, EFPIA, and Medicines for Europe.
As ProPharma’s CFO, Karl is responsible for leading the company’s finance functional areas, including financial planning and analysis, accounting, and treasury operations. As a member of ProPharma’s Executive Leadership Team, Karl is also responsible for driving ProPharma’s strategic business initiatives and accelerated growth plans.
With over 20 years of progressive finance leadership experience within the Pharma Services and Drug Development industry, Karl has held a number of executive leadership positions with leading life sciences organizations, where he successfully drove global scale through process improvement and implementation, systems integration, and strategy development. He also supported transformative organic and inorganic growth while instituting financial disciplines and operational excellence across the broader enterprise. Before entering the life sciences industry, Karl began his career working for a leading accounting firm, serving clients throughout the United States and internationally.
A life-long learner, Karl earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of North Carolina – Wilmington in Wilmington, NC and a Master of Science in Accounting from East Carolina University in Greenville, NC.
As Chief Operating Officer at ProPharma, Carolyn Durham is responsible for the global operations of the company. Carolyn brings over 19 years of operational excellence to ProPharma and has a deep knowledge of multi-level organizational structures, having helped lead both Fortune 500 companies and startups to success. Her experience and leadership have been focused on developing and driving operational efficiencies on a global scale, providing strategies and incentives to accelerate revenue growth and implementing technology-driven business services.
During her career, she has overseen the integration activities of six M&As and worked closely with private equity firms and investors. She’s an expert at scaling businesses, evaluating, modifying and streamlining processes and standardizing procedures.
Carolyn was previously COO at The Planet Group, a global workforce solutions and professional services organization with which ProPharma merged in May 2021. Throughout her career her experience has encompassed sales, recruitment, business development, commercial operations and project management – primarily focused in the life sciences sector. Prior to Planet, she was with Delta Pharma, which was acquired by Randstad Life Sciences and Kelly Services.
Carolyn has a Bachelor’s degree in communication and culture with a minor in business and sociology from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN.
Bryan Katz joined ProPharma in 2022 as Chief Strategy Officer / Head of Corporate Development. In his role, Bryan provides leadership and oversight for the organization’s strategic planning endeavors, emphasizing future-focused solutions development and M&A initiatives. Bryan’s leadership and guidance in these areas ensures ProPharma remains at the forefront of industry innovation and growth.
Throughout his distinguished career, Bryan has held a number of progressive leadership roles with world-class organizations, including Abbott, PwC, Quintiles, and Syneos Health, where he served as Senior Vice President of Global Solution Development.
Known as a positive and impactful disruptor, Bryan is recognized for his ambition and visionary insights, driving transformative change throughout organizations and across the broader life sciences industry. Bryan’s contributions have left lasting impacts within healthcare, pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic, and Contract Research Organizations (CRO) sectors. In acknowledgement of his exceptional expertise and contributions, Bryan was honored in PM360’s ELITE 100 in 2020.
Committed to improving the health and safety of patients worldwide, Bryan is frequently invited to share his extensive knowledge at speaking events, serve as an expert panelist at symposiums and seminars, and contribute commentary and interviews to esteemed publications.
Joe Donnici joined ProPharma in August 2019 as Chief Information Officer and has over 20 years of IT and Leadership experience working globally in the Pharma services industry
As Vice President of Core IT at Quintiles, he successfully led enterprise deployments, managed business critical 24 X 7 operations departments, and designed and structured the IT organization to enable the company to scale effectively. Joe was ultimately responsible for Clinical, Corporate, and Commercial IT solutions as well as IT Operations, IT Security, and Service Management with a team of more than 500 employees and contractors globally
Joe also spent four years at Asahi Kasei Pharma America where he was responsible for IT Clinical and Patient Recruitment Solutions. While there, Joe developed and deployed a mobile-based solution for investigators and further improved insight and analysis capabilities by leveraging clinical data, patient screening data, and investigator data
Joe earned his BS in Business Administration and Computer Science from the University of Kansas.
Rachel Bias cultivates a workplace our colleagues can be proud of. She manages all aspects of the firm’s HR strategy and provides HR leadership to the company through the development and implementation of human resources policies, programs, and best practices.
With over 15 years of experience in Human Resources management, Rachel has held various leadership positions in both the private and public sectors. She provides knowledge in global legal compliance, employee benefits, employee relations, employment practices and procedures, employee communications, and she spearheads employee events and moral.
Rachel has a BA. in Business Administration from Campbell University and is a member of SHRM. She has presented a variety of employee development, recruiting, and retention seminars and served on multiple panels for many organizations and groups, including the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, and the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.
Sara Sorrentino has 15 years of experience blended between academic research, B2B sales, and spent the last ten years focused on business development and account management within the life sciences industry, specifically focused on the global outsourcing and CRO space.
As ProPharma’s EVP of Global Business Development, Sara partners with pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device clients to tackle complex challenges with innovative, creative, and efficient solutions. She also serves as a Subject Matter Expert in the areas of Clinical Research. Previously, Sara was a Senior Vice President of Treximo, a global consulting services provider to the life science industry. ProPharma merged with Treximo’s parent company, The Planet Group in May 2021.
Sara has expertise managing the full lifecycle of client development and expert knowledge in global outsourcing, vendor management, full-service, FSP, and blended service offerings across various functional areas and service lines. Sara specializes in developing flexible and consultative models for all of our client’s needs. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a minor in Communications from DePaul University in Chicago.
Tim Bauwens serves as the Senior Advisor to the CEO with responsibility for overseeing ProPharma’s high level strategic and financial initiatives and projects. Prior to his current role as Senior Advisor to the CEO, Tim served as ProPharma’s Chief Financial Officer.
Previously, he was CFO of The Planet Group, a leading global provider of specialized consulting services, and outsourced human capital solutions to the Life Sciences, Energy / Engineering and Technology sectors with which ProPharma merged in May 2021. Tim co-founded Planet in 2009 and helped lead it to become one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. He also was instrumental in scaling the organization and expanding its capabilities globally. During his tenure, Tim oversaw unprecedented organic growth as well as the financial, legal and compliance aspects of seven acquisitions in three years
Tim has over 30 years of corporate accounting and finance experience, having spent the early part of his career focused on mergers, acquisitions, and the subsequent integration of acquired companies, mostly in the service and utilities sectors. His depth of knowledge has helped the organizations he’s led continually partner with the right private equity firms and investors. Before founding The Planet Group, Tim spent several years in the professional services and life science industries working with publicly traded and privately held companies with an emphasis on accelerated topline growth, improved cash flow, integrating legacy systems, and maximizing return on investment. Earlier in his career he was a Controller at Exelon and CFO of Delta Pharma.
Matthew Weinberg leads Regulatory Sciences, focusing on client management, client satisfaction and strategic growth. The group helps clients clear regulatory hurdles as they develop and market drugs, biologics, and medical devices.
As CEO of The Weinberg Group, until its acquisition by ProPharma in 2019, Matthew was responsible for the growth and success of the firm – driving strategic expansion plans, acquisitions, and personnel development. He led the firm in its expansion into non-US markets and into aligned market segments such as GxP auditing.
Matthew created and chaired Building STEPS, a non-profit organization providing inner city children an opportunity to go to college and explore career opportunities in science. He has served on numerous Jewish community boards and is a fellow of the Wexner Heritage Foundation.
He has a BS and MS, Industrial Administration from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie-Mellon University. Matthew spends his spare time training for and completing triathlons and traveling with his family, who still love him even though he never got them a dog.
With over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry Jim Kolbet helps clients overcome challenges
In 2003, Jim became the second full-time employee of ProPharma where he assumed a diverse array of responsibilities ranging from accounting, project management, sales, and marketing
In 2017 he led ProPharma’s Compliance and Quality Assurance business units to achieving the goal of unifying all service offerings to enhance the value delivered to our clients
Jim has since focused on building ProPharma’s Life Science Consulting global team which focuses on supporting client needs in the areas of Program and Project Management, Technology Transfers, and CMO outsourcing
Jim earned both his BS in Biology and MBA from the Iowa State University.
Matt Dube is a seasoned IT/IS leader with extensive operations, services, and business development expertise garnered over the past 20+ years across a broad range of pharmaceutical and life science sectors. Leveraging a fantastic mix of vendor software and R&D Informatics service provider expertise. Matt joined ProPharma to drive the growth and expansion of the R&D Technology Solutions practice. He has broad experience in developing strategic technological solutions in order to solve scientific problems in both large and small pharma and biotech organizations. Paired with a charismatic leadership style and a goal-oriented philosophy, Matt has built successful and technologically forward-thinking departments at each of the organizations he’s been a part of. Matt’s focus is to build out a world class R&D Technology organization that will provide cross value to all of ProPharma’s current and future clients ranging from preclinical systems through data science solutions.
Matt has his Master’s in Clinical Lab Science from UMass, and his BS in Microbiology and worked in a number of research positions early in his career, prior to focusing full time on IT and Informatics solutions in BioTech and Pharma.
Kevin Wysocki has 19 years of experience delivering projects for the pharmaceutical/biotechnology/medical device industries and leading consulting organizations. He began his consulting career in 2002 while working for a niche management consulting firm setting up PMOs and leading large change initiatives for some of the world’s most well-known bio/pharmaceuticals. It was during those engagements that he began developing strong leadership and organizational development skills. In 2011, Kevin assumed more of a leadership and management role with the consulting firm, in addition to the client delivery role. As one of the firm’s leaders, he assumed a diverse array of responsibilities ranging from client delivery, business development, marketing, and organizational development.
Most recently, Kevin has focused on building and integrating Treximo, a global consulting and outsourcing company focused on small/mid-sized bio/pharmaceuticals and medical device and diagnostic companies that became the Clinical Research Solutions arm of ProPharma in September 2021. Under Kevin’s leadership, Treximo became known within the life sciences industry for their exceptional customer service and functional experts who delivered services ranging from remediation and validation/qualification to a full suite of clinical research solutions and project and program management.
With ProPharma, Kevin will lead the Clinical Research Solutions Service Line with a primary focus of delivering a full suite of clinical consulting and outsourcing services.
He earned his BS in Biology from Truman State University and an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
As the Global President, Pharmacovigilance for ProPharma, Laura is responsible for leading the strategic management, planning, and execution of the Pharmacovigilance and Drug Safety function within the organization.
Laura brings over 20 years of safety and pharmacovigilance experience, with a focus on operations, strategy, and management. Laura most recently served as Vice President of Safety Management for Synteract (now Syneos Health), a leading full service CRO. In that role, Laura was responsible for commercial and operational leadership, cross-functional and cross-service business plan execution at the strategic and tactical levels, and supporting the integration of the organization following Synteract’s acquisition by Syneos Health. Prior to Synteract, Laura spent time at Quintiles and Health Information Alliance, and was a Primary Nurse practicing in Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant for eleven years. Laura holds a BS in Nursing from Duke University.
With ProPharma, Laura will provide leadership and expert consultation on the design, development, and implementation of process and programs related to Global Pharmacovigilance.
Rajul has worked more than 17 years within the Pharmaceutical industry at various global leadership positions within Medical Information, Pharmacovigilance, Technology, and Program Management functions.
Prior to becoming President of Medical Information at ProPharma, Rajul was Head of North America Medical Information operations at IQVIA in United States, overseeing a large customer portfolio and managing a large global team. In this role, she managed significant expansion of Medical Information business and global footprint. Previously, she led Technology Solutions group at IQVIA which enabled implementation of innovative technology & automation solutions for Medical Information and Pharmacovigilance.
Before joining IQVIA, Rajul held several leadership roles in Business Development, Consulting and Business Analysis functions with a focus on Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals at IBM, Cognizant and Infosys BPM.
Rajul has an MBA with specialization in Operations Management and Information Systems from XLRI Jamshedpur, India. In addition, she has a graduate degree in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering from SGSITS Indore, India. Rajul holds several industry certifications such as PMP, Medical Affairs Competency Certificate (ACMA), GCP Expert accreditation, Executive Data Science Specialization (Johns Hopkins University), CBAP (Business Analysis) and FAHM (Fellow, Academy of Healthcare Management).
Kristin Ortlieb has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry leading medical information contact centers and quality assurance organizations. Innovative and results-driven, Kristin’s passion is designing, implementing, and continually enhancing best-in-class Quality Management Systems for Medical Information and Pharmacovigilance services, which she has done for former employers and in past consulting work.
Across the span of her career, Kristin has held numerous senior leadership roles in Quality Assurance (QA), including Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) QA and contact center management for companies such as Diligent Health Solutions, Radius Health, and Ashfield Healthcare. Kristin has extensive experience hosting and managing 60+ regulatory audits.
Prior to joining ProPharma, Kristin served as Senior Vice President, Quality & Compliance for Diligent Health Solutions, where she developed and implemented the Quality Management System, with a focus on contact center process improvement and regulatory compliance.
Kristin has a degree in Communications from Penn State University. She is Lean Six Sigma certified.
Carl Barker is Vice President Finance, Europe at ProPharma and has worked in the Pharmaceutical services industry for the past 7 years.
Carl provides the leadership and control of the Finance functions across Europe.
Prior to taking this position Carl was Group Finance Director of Diamond Pharma Services which was acquired by ProPharma in March 2021 a process which he project managed. In this role as Group Finance Director he was responsible for providing financial reporting directly to the board of Directors and Senior Management, identifying and measuring of KPI’s. As part of his role Carl provided leadership to the supporting structures of the business including business administration support, IT infrastructure and processes and outsourced vendor management.
Carl provided the financial control for the group to maintain stability and develop the supporting structure for a growing organization that continued to expand both its physical presence across Europe and staffing numbers.
Prior to joining Diamond Carl held similar positions within the retail sector, with over 17 years industry experience operating within SME’s.
Craig brings a unique blend of Bio/pharma and CRO Talent Acquisition, Executive Search and Agency recruitment experience. With extensive experience in building global talent acquisition infrastructure, optimizing and enhancing operational recruitment and hiring processes, Craig is skilled at creating a cohesive, collaborative and inclusive team environment.
Craig’s 20+ years Life Sciences leadership experience includes leading the Jazz Pharmaceuticals Global TA partner team, the Quintiles (IQVIA) North American Clinical TA team and serving as U.S. Managing Director for Executive Search firm, Sharpstream Life Sciences. Earlier in his career, Craig led Global TA for Art Technology Group (ATG) a 1500 person CRM Software developer and services organization.
Craig received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism, from the State University of New York, at Plattsburgh.
Zosya has over 15 years of diverse marketing experience across Fortune300 companies, CPG industry, fast-moving startups, and in the Life Sciences industry, formerly spear-heading digital capabilities and social media for PRA Health Sciences (Now Icon plc). Zosya has extensive experience building marketing campaigns and digital capabilities from the ground up and laying the foundational practices to launch high-performing, best-in-class teams. Prior roles include Senior Director of Digital Marketing, Global Head of US Social Media, and Director of Marketing across global companies.
Zosya is responsible for ProPharma’s Global Marketing Department and oversees both internal and external communications, strategic marketing, branding and marketing operations for the organization.
Zosya earned her bachelor’s degree from Fordham University in New York City.
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News & Insights
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ProPharma Announces the Appointment of Vicki Gashwiler as Vice President of Clinical Operations, Medical Technology
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