As more and more biotech and pharma companies enter alliances to fill pipelines and move R&D forward, they face a decision about when to pull the trigger on forming an explicit alliance management function. For those that follow the path toward more formalized alliance management, many more decisions must be made, not the least of which is defining the responsibilities of this new function and the appropriate structure. Our speakers will address the challenges they faced and the approaches taken by their respective companies.

Topics will include:
• The most appropriate time to create an alliance function based on deal flow, deal size, deal volume, deal complexity, organizational competencies, organizational structure, maturity;
• How to align the organization around the alliance function’s structure, roles, and responsibilities;
• Corporate competencies and background that are needed for building successful alliances
• Career paths for alliance managers;
• Tracking and managing issues;
• Managing the entire lifecycle of the alliance

Panelists

Mike Leonetti
Mike Leonetti is Head of Health Care Partnerships for Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals and has over 20 years of experience in a variety of leadership capacities in developing highly visible Health care alliances.  As a long time employee with Boehringer Ingelheim, Mike has led multiple commercial functions including: Health Care Partnerships, Government Affairs, and the Managed Care/Trade Relations Team. In these positions, Mike has focused on building alliances and strategic partnerships which have helped Boehringer Ingelheim grow to a top 14 worldwide, pharmaceutical manufacturer. During his tenure in these positions, BI has enjoyed success ranking it among the fastest growing US pharmaceutical manufacturers. Mike leads a dedicated team of Alliance management directors who work with key partners such as Abbott Labs, Pfizer, Astellas, Ventiv Health and other key pharmaceutical and patient focused partners.

Mike currently serves as Chair of the Global Board for (ASAP) Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals and is chair of the Biopharmaceutical council within ASAP. He is Past Chair of the (NPC) National Pharmaceutical Council, State Audiences Section, and Past Board member of (NEHI) New England Health Institute.

Stephen Potter
Stephen W. Potter is Senior Vice President, Corporate and Business Development at Genzyme and is based in the company’s headquarters in Cambridge, MA.  Mr. Potter leads a team that is responsible for providing strategic and business analysis as well as transaction and partnering support to Genzyme’s business units,  science organization, and corporate initiatives.  Recent transactions include the acquisition of Bone Care International, AnorMED and the gene therapy assets of Avigen, Inc., as well as the RenaMed, Macrogenics and AGTC collaborations.

Prior to Genzyme, Mr. Potter held multiple roles at DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware.  From 1997 to 1999, he was Vice President, Strategic Planning for DuPont’s Life Sciences.  In late 1999, he became Sr. Vice President, Business Development for DuPont’s Pharmaceutical subsidiary.  Before joining DuPont, Mr. Potter was a Principal at Booz, Allen & Hamilton based in Chicago with a primary focus on the Life Science industries.

Mr. Potter graduated from Harvard Business School in 1989 with an MBA in general management.  He earned a BS in Economics from the University of Massachusetts in 1979.

Michelle Gordon-Savenor
Michelle Gordon-Savenor is a leading alliance manager with strong experience leading alliances for large-scale biopharma collaboration efforts. Currently, she is the Director of Alliance Management at Genstruct, Inc. Prior to Genstruct, Ms. Gordon-Savenor was an alliance manager for Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where she managed multi-year alliances with Monsanto and Aventis. At Millennium, she also held positions as a technical specialist and research associate. During her tenure at Millennium, Ms. Gordon-Savenor was a visiting scholar at the Whitehead Institute for Biological Research as part of the Affymetrix, BMS and Millennium Consortium. She began her career as a research technician in molecular biology at Beth Israel Hospital and subsequently as a research assistant at the New England Medical Center.

Ms. Gordon-Savenor has been a speaker at industry events and has had papers published in Molecular Pharmacology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and the Journal of Immunology. She earned her A.B. degree in biology and English from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and was a visiting student at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management.

Rob Yeaton
Rob Yeaton is the founder and Principal of Clockwork Consulting, a contingency search firm specializing in the Biotech/Pharmaceutical industry. Clockwork Consulting has been serving the Greater Boston area in Life Sciences recruitment since 2001. Areas of focus include Discovery Research, Development, Program/Alliance Management, Quality/Regulatory, Clinical, and Manufacturing disciplines. Prior to founding Clockwork, Rob served as a Senior Recruiter for Sapient Corporation, where he was responsible for staffing their Sydney, Australia office. Early in his recruiting career he spent 5 years at Source Engineering, which later became Kforce. Rob holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

Jeremy Ahouse
Jeremy Ahouse, Ph.D., works as a senior Alliance Manager focusing on development projects for ImmunoGen, Inc. As the key liaison for ImmunoGen's alliances with Genentech and Centocor, he manages cross-functional and cross-company teams from late stage research through clinical trials. Before joining ImmunoGen, he served as Millennium Pharmaceutical's Alliance Director for a broad technology alliance with Aventis Pharmaceuticals, worked with Reify, a biotechnology startup, Vantage Partners’ Technology group, and in software development (Lotus and Apple). He has particular interests in multi-party agreements. Jeremy received his Ph.D. in biophysics and cellular immunology from Brandeis University and was a Howard Hughes post-doctoral fellow at University of Wisconsin in developmental genetics. He sits on the board of the New England ASAP chapter as the Bio-Pharma Council liaison and is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution.

Moderator

Stuart Kliman
Stuart Kliman is a founder and Partner of Vantage Partners, one of the world’s leading negotiation and relationship management consultancies.  Stuart works with his clients to help them maximize the business value realized from important relationships.  Stuart heads Vantage’s Biopharma practice area and consults to Fortune 500 companies across industries.  Recent projects range from helping business development groups build and implement standard alliance negotiation processes, to working with sales organizations to improve key customer relationship management strategies.

Stuart is a frequent speaker and writer on issues of negotiation and relationship management.  He is a co-author of Vantage’s recently published new study on Alliance Management and he has written numerous articles including “Customers Are from Mars, Suppliers Are from Venus” and “Mending Broken Business to Business Relationships.”  In addition to his work at Vantage Partners, Stuart has taught at the Harvard Program on Negotiation.

Stuart is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and Harvard Law School and is a member of the Maryland Bar.

Location

Hult International Business School
Room: EF Building, on the 5th floor
One Education Street, Cambridge, MA 02141
Please bring an ID to enter the building.

Directions to Hult
Hult International Business School is located on the banks of the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, accessible by subway (the T) or by car. A short walk along the river from MIT, the school is located directly across from Boston’s Museum of Science (see http://www.hult.edu/master/about/howto.asp).
There is parking at the Museum of Science across the street and at Museum Towers next door

Register Now: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=140755