Meet the Brains

Lynda Berne began her career as a critical care nurse and a clinical instructor at Northwestern University Medical Center in Chicago.

She began her pharmaceutical career with Bristol-Myers Squibb in sales, and progressed through a number of commercial roles of increasing responsibility, including marketing research, marketing, and managed care sales.

Lynda led the team that launched Tequin (gatifloxacin) for BMS, a launch that set a new prescription record for its drug class and was voted the most successful launch of 2000 by a leading market research company.

Lynda’s last two positions at BMS were Vice President, Managed Care Sales and Vice President, Infectious Disease Marketing, where she managed a $600-million business unit.

After BMS, Lynda accepted a position at Abbott International, a $6 billion division at Abbott Laboratories focused on the international marketplace. Lynda led a $1 billion cardiovascular and hospital business unit consisting of products for anesthesia, heart failure, thrombosis, hypertension, and renal failure.

At Abbott, Lynda was instrumental in building a $350-million outpatient CV franchise consisting of Tarka and other key products, as well as a commercialization plan for Zemplar, a product for patients with renal failure and secondary hyperparathyroidism.

Most recently, Lynda headed up a $200-million gastroenterology/nephrology US franchise at Shire. She played a pivotal role in both building an alliance partnership with Abbott―strengthening the position of Shire in the nephrology market―and in building an alliance partnership with Solvay in the gastroenterology area.

Lynda has a BS in Nursing from Indiana University, an MS in Nursing from DePaul University, and an MBA with a major in Marketing from Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Jody Brown brings extensive experience in medical marketing and communications to Flaum Communications. She is well-versed in numerous therapeutic areas, including diabetes, benign prostatic hyperplasia, overactive bladder, inflammatory bowel disease, hypertension, insomnia, osteoarthritis, and allergies.

Jody began her career in health care marketing at Robert A. Becker Euro RSCG. She then moved within the Euro RSCG Life organization to its medical education division, Genecom, where she honed her marketing and medical communication skills for more than 10 years. At Genecom, Jody successfully launched numerous brands and was also instrumental in developing market expansion strategies for established brands.

Prior to joining Flaum Communications, she was Co-CEO of Fission Communications, a leading medical education agency. At Fission, Jody not only provided her clients with strategic and tactical support, but also managed the agency’s business operations.

At Flaum Communications, Jody combines her marketing skills and business acumen to help her clients develop transformational and actionable ideas to drive brand growth.

Jody graduated from Tufts University with a major in classical studies and a minor in mathematics.

MaryAnn Capritti brings the highest level of experience in pharmaceutical marketing and sales to her role as Strategic Consultant. Having worked on both the corporate and advertising agency sides of the industry has helped her develop an especially broad strategic perspective.

Beginning her career at Bristol-Myers Squibb, she rose through a variety of sales and marketing positions to become Vice President of Cardiovascular Marketing, the company's major franchise. Her responsibilities included Pravachol, Monopril, Avapro, Plavix, and Glucophage. MaryAnn was then tapped by Johnson & Johnson to oversee the launch of Aciphex. In J&J’s Janssen Pharmaceutical division, she managed the primary care sales and marketing franchise which included GI, pain, mycology, and allergy products.

On the agency side of the business, MaryAnn has served as Executive Vice President, Managing Partner for the Adient division of CommonHealth and as CEO of Euro RSCG Life Chelsea.

MaryAnn holds a BS in finance and marketing from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Colleen Doyle brings over 20 years of experience as an innovator in medical education to her role at Flaum Partners. Her career began at the first company dedicated solely to medical education, KPR InforMedia. In addition to creating educational programs in a variety of therapeutic categories, Colleen worked closely with a principal client to build and launch an endosurgery company in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In 1992, Colleen joined Genecom, the medical education and marketing communications arm of Robert A. Becker. Rising to the role of President, Colleen supervised both general operations and the strategic development and creative implementation of client programs.

Having seen the evolution of medical education communications guidance over the last decade, Colleen possesses a keen understanding of today’s medical education environment, and is able to conceptualize pristine educational programs that raise awareness of given diseases in full compliance with the various guidelines.

Colleen holds a BA degree from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Sander Flaum is CEO of Flaum Partners, Inc., a consultancy of strategic leaders focused on transformational thinking for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Additionally, Sander is Adjunct Professor of Management at the Fordham Graduate School of Business, where he founded and chairs the Fordham University Leadership Forum. Sander also serves on the boards of Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University, Fordham Graduate School of Business, Monterey Institute of International Studies, and Eagle Pharmaceuticals.

Prior to launching Flaum Partners in 2004, Sander was Chairman and CEO of Robert A. Becker Euro RSCG. At Becker, Sander led a global team of marketing and advertising strategists who introduced and administered six $2 billion-plus health care brands. Becker was also privileged to serve 7 of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies, plus an array of innovative biopharma organizations. Med Ad News named both Becker as its “Agency of the Year” and Sander as its “Man of the Year” in 2002.

Previous to Becker, Sander worked for 18 years at Lederle Laboratories, which merged into Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in 1994. From 1974-1982, in his capacity as Marketing Director of ethical and biologic products, Sander was responsible for the introduction of most of the Lederle prescription and biologic products. In all, he has directed 70 product launches and restagings.

Sander has authored over 70 articles on marketing, management, and leadership. He writes a monthly column on leadership for Pharmaceutical Executive magazine and MWorld. A featured speaker on a wide-range of subjects, including “The Future of the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Impact on Your Health Care,” “Invitation To Innovate: Unleashing Your Competitive Edge,” and “Apprenticeship to Leadership,” Sander’s speaking credits span the New York Society of Security Analysts, The National Medicare Prescription Drug Congress, The American Management Association, The National Managed Health Care Congress, The Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Group Annual Meeting, and numerous domestic and international marketing conferences.

Sander recently completed his first book, co-authored with his son Jonathon, The 100–Mile Walk: A Father and Son on a Quest to Find the Essence of Leadership (AMACOM 2006). The authors were awarded the Hazan-Polsky Prize for outstanding business books in 2006. He was also honored in 2008 with the Professional Achievement award from The Ohio State University Alumni Association.

Sander received his undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University and earned his MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University, magna cum laude.

Pamela Pinta has worked in pharmaceutical advertising for 20 years in both the professional and consumer arenas. She has launched numerous products, from blockbuster brands like Valtrex for genital herpes, to smaller, more specialty products like Stalevo for Parkinson’s disease. Pamela launched the global patient initiative for Enbrel in all indications and also led the team for Wyeth’s blockbuster antidepressant Effexor XR, which subsequently exceeded $3.5 billion in sales worldwide in 2008.

Pamela is an established, passionate leader with the unique ability to manage large teams successfully, by maintaining harmony among all departments and producing outstanding work. She has won the respect of clients, who trust her vision and rely on her judgment. As Managing Director at Euro RSCG Life Chelsea, Pamela was responsible for running the day-to-day business of the agency, whose clients included Wyeth (Protonix, Effexor XR, Zosyn, Enbrel, Prevnar 13, Pristiq), the Shire ulcerative colitis franchise (Lialda, Pentasa), the EMD Serono HIV franchise (Serostim; a new HIV product), Sepracor (Lunesta), Endo (Voltaren Gel HCP/DTP), Savient (Krystexxa), and Eisai (a neuroscience product). She also led the charge on creative business ideas and new business efforts while at Chelsea.

Her experience encompasses therapeutic categories such as hepatitis C, cardiovascular disease, oncology, immunology, osteoarthritis, cough/cold, respiratory disease, erectile dysfunction, and infection. Pamela came to Euro from KPR, where she managed US and global business for several cosmeceutical products from Collagen Corporation, including Zyderm and Zyplast collagen implants, the launch of the SoftForm facial implant, and the development of Refinity Medical Skin Solutions—a line of alpha hydroxy acid products sold directly to dermatologists.

Pamela attended Lynchburg College in Virginia, where she received a BA in marketing.

Nan Hutchinson is a dynamic executive with extensive experience in operating profitable biopharmaceutical businesses domestically and globally. She has a proven record in building commercial pharmaceutical product portfolios for both large and small enterprises, and is recognized as a strategic thinker with solid business acumen, leadership, and the marketing prowess to consistently deliver best-in-class performance. Nan has 25 years of business experience in the health care sector spanning all aspects of commercialization, including marketing, business development, sales leadership, and marketing research.

Nan’s previous experience includes several positions of increasing responsibility at Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb. At Bristol-Myers Squibb she was Senior Vice President, US Operations and then Vice President, Global Marketing. Nan managed a $2-billion multiasset portfolio and had worldwide P&L responsibility in the Global group. She chaired the cross-functional, multinational team responsible for the resource allocation, commercial development and registration strategy leading to the successful global commercialization of an important antibiotic brand. She also led the team responsible for the launch of Abilify, a potential blockbuster antipsychotic. She was a member of the operating committees for the US Primary Care Group and the North American Medicines Group. She led the team through a major restructuring and gained extensive experience in acquisitions and divestitures. In addition, she conceptualized and championed the formation of new business units, resulting in significantly increased profits at BMS and a $200-million incremental sales gain at J&J. Her sales and marketing expertise has won several recognition awards at J&J, including Marketer of the Year, Sustained Excellence, and J&J achievement awards.

Nan has been asked to speak in a variety of forums on pharmaceutical commercialization strategy, most recently at BIO 2008 on a subject entitled, “What, When, Why, and How: Acquiring the Capabilities to Support your Commercialization Strategy.” She is active on several philanthropic and academic boards, currently serving as a Director on the Canadian Diabetes Association Board, the advisory board to the business school at Acadia University (a top undergraduate school in Canada), and the board of trustees for the Mercer County Planned Parenthood Association in New Jersey. She is also a member of the Healthcare Business Women’s Association, the New Jersey Biotechnology Association, and the National Association of Corporate Directors.

A native of Nova Scotia, Canada, Nan has an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Mount Allison University and an MBA from Boston University.

Cary Lemkowitz brings a uniquely rounded perspective to his role as Strategic Partner at Flaum Partners. On the consumer side, Cary has served as Vice Chairman/Creative Director of Young & Rubicam New York and EVP/Managing Director Creative at Amiratti Puris Lintas. In health care, he’s been Global Chief Creative Officer of Euro RSCG Life and EVP/Chief Creative Officer of Robert A. Becker.

Combining health care and consumer assignments, Cary has worked on everything from Hepatitis-C to Hallmark – over 160 brands in virtually every category. As the first creative director on the Andersen Consulting (now Accènture) account, he helped create the category of Professional Services advertising. He introduced the Advil brand and wrote the enduring theme line, “Advanced Medicine for Pain.” Through extensive work on Procter & Gamble accounts, he learned the discipline of strategic thinking early in his career. This range of experience has given him a singular ability to identify insights and create ideas that resonate with consumers and physicians alike.

Cary is the author of An Audience of Cowards – The Simple Secret to Public Speaking. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in theatre from Hunter College in New York City.

An industry veteran with deep experience on both sides of the pharmaceutical marketing industry, Jeff offers his clients strategic, action-oriented solutions to the challenges they face daily. His marketing experience spans a wide range of therapeutic categories, including cardiovascular, CNS, pain management, antivirals, antiepileptics, transplant immunology, and blood and plasma delivery systems.

Jeff began as a senior hospital sales representative for Ayerst Laboratories (now Wyeth Pharmaceuticals) and went on to become product manager for some of Ayerst’s top brands.

During his career, Jeff has helped launch and restage more than 10 pharmaceutical brands. These include the launch of Inderide LA and Effexor for Wyeth-Ayerst, as well as the launch of Wellbutrin and relaunches of Retrovir and Lanoxin for Burroughs Wellcome & Co., Buspar for Bristol-Myers Squibb, Lovenox for Aventis, and most recently, Pexeva and Stavzor for Noven Pharmaceuticals.

Prior to his joining the Flaum Communications team as Senior Account Director, Jeff held leadership positions at a number of advertising and medical education companies. He was SVP, Director of Operations at Euro RSCG Life Becker, and also served as Group VP, Director of Client Services in the company’s Technological Solutions division. He served as Director of Business Development and Strategy at Harrison Wilson Associates, and VP of Client Services at Quintiles Medical Communications.

Jeff earned a BA degree in biology and microbiology from the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Jeff and his wife reside in Suffern, New York where they enjoy gardening and preparing great food for family and friends.

Prior to launching her strategic consulting career, Deidre Philipson was a SVP Account Group Supervisor at Ogilvy Healthworld. She began her career on the direct response consumer side at Young & Rubicam New York and soon discovered her passion for the health care arena.

Deidre has worked for nearly 20 years in both professional marketing and medical education capacities for several leading New York and New Jersey agencies. Her extensive commercial and strategic experience includes new product launches and new indications for numerous blockbuster and specialty drugs, the launch of specialty sales forces, product and portfolio development, and lifecycle planning, as well as joint venture operations and management. Working closely with clients such as Abbott, Janssen, Medicis, Merck, Novartis, Ortho-McNeil, Ovation, Pfizer, and Sanofi, Deidre’s broad category experience includes CNS, dermatology, pain, psychiatry, and vaccines.

Deidre holds a BS in marketing and writing from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.

Lauren has over 20 years of pharmaceutical sales and marketing experience. In her latest role, Lauren served as the Vice President of Commercial Development at Altus Pharmaceuticals, a pre-commercial biotechnology company. In this role, she was responsible for all aspects of commercial development, including development of all platforms and processes. Prior to Altus, Lauren spent 18 years at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, where she held sales and marketing positions of increasing responsibility. Her marketing accomplishments include four successful product launches, global branding and positioning, pipeline product development, co-promotion leadership, and leadership of the US respiratory franchise. On the sales side, Lauren led the eastern zone sales organization with responsibility for over 1,000 individuals, including regional directors, sales managers, hospital, and specialty and primary care sales representatives. The zone generated approximately $2 billion in sales revenue annually.

Lauren’s category experience includes Asthma and COPD, BPH, Parkinson’s disease, rheumatic diseases, and pancreatic disease.

Lauren has a BBA with a concentration in Marketing from Hofstra University

Terry Wachalter’s portfolio of experience uniquely qualifies her to help pharmaceutical clients achieve the best possible return on investment. She served as Executive Vice President/Director of Global Operations for Euro RSCG Life and Executive Vice President/Operations and CFO for Robert A. Becker Euro RSCG. At Becker, she supervised the finance, human resources, IT, facilities, production, traffic, CAD, and editorial functions.

Terry has been a pioneer in client-agency partnership building. In 1997, she developed and executed a unique risk-sharing agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb, which was used for the firm's HIV drugs and the Tequin brand. In 1998, she foresaw – ahead of the competition – that clients would establish in-house marketing services departments to purchase advertising agency services. As a result, Terry was able to partner with Wyeth to create an innovative, collaborative fee arrangement that helped solidify the client-agency partnership. In addition, Terry played an invaluable role managing the facilities and human resources issues resulting from the network consolidation that produced Euro RSCG Life Becker. In fact, her work was instrumental in enabling Euro RSCG Life Becker to be named “Agency of the Year” in 2002 by Med Ad News.

Recipient of an honorary degree from Fordham University, Terry has been quoted in various media, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. She was featured in an MSNBC segment on how to retain “A+ people.”

Cari Weisberg brings enormous experience and an unusually broad perspective to guide her clients to winning strategies and inventive executions.

Throughout her career, Cari has developed and identified innovative marketing solutions that have driven brand success across a multitude of therapeutic categories. As Executive Vice President, Executive Creative Director of FCB Healthcare, Cari helped brand and launch such blockbuster products as Vioxx, Fosamax, Zocor, and Combivir. Cari was instrumental in the agency’s success as it grew into a “Top 10 Healthcare Agency,” working with clients such as Merck, GSK, Aventis, Abbott, Roche, Johnson & Johnson, and Organon.

Prior to joining Flaum Partners, Cari served as President of FEI Women’s Health, leading the team that turned a one-product manufacturing facility into a marketing company with exclusive rights to the ParaGard IUD.

All that experience has left Cari with an uncanny ability to cut to the chase. She immediately sees what needs to be done strategically and how to execute it – the perfect skill set for the streamlined approach that Flaum clients cherish. Cari holds a BS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.