Dr. David Williams to Keynote 2017 ASAP BioPharma Conference Focused on Accelerating and Fine-Tuning Collaboration in Life Sciences and Healthcare
CANTON, Mass. (PRWEB) June 29, 2017 -- The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP), the world’s leading professional association dedicated to the practice of alliance management, partnering, and collaboration, announced the theme and programming for the 2017 ASAP BioPharma Conference Sept. 13-15, “Accelerating Life Science Collaborations: Better Partnering, Better Outcomes,” to be held at the Royal Sonesta Boston, Cambridge, Mass. This year’s conference theme delves into maximizing the value of partnering in life sciences.
“Partnering has been essential to long-term asset development in the life sciences for decades. This has never been more apparent than it is today, especially across the expanded partnering network of the healthcare ecosystem,” commented ASAP President and CEO Michael Leonetti, CSAP. “Patient-centric healthcare, personalized medicine, and new technologies teamed together in the healthcare system are creating new ways to leverage important innovations, which lead to positive outcomes for patients. This year, the ASAP BioPharma Conference will bring together the world’s leading practitioners and experts on partnering in the life sciences to share their perspectives on innovating in this highly complex ecosystem.”
Wednesday morning, Sept. 13, begins with a series of professional development workshops focused on enhancing participants’ alliance management capabilities. . The full conference program kicks off later in the afternoon with a keynote address by Dr. David Williams will take place at 5 p.m. Dr. Williams is chief scientific officer and senior vice president for research, Boston Children's Hospital, and president of the Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. His research laboratory has been the recipient of continuous funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for 31 years, since 1986.
“Williams is an exceptional leader who has fostered a collaborative portfolio of successful partnerships at Boston Children's, making it one of the best children's hospital systems in the U.S. today. He has extensive clinical and research experience having investigated, co-investigated, or sponsored extensive clinical trials in the area of gene therapy for blood, immunodeficiency, and neurological genetic diseases,” said Leonetti. “Looking at what BCH has accomplished through its partnership efforts, it is clear Dr. Williams understands and has achieved extensive accomplishments through business and scientific collaboration in healthcare. We are privileged to have him as a keynote speaker—and his talk should be a great way to kick off a great conference program.”
Williams’s basic research focuses on hematopoietic stem cell biology, including genetic diseases of the blood and, more specifically, molecular and biochemical analysis of the interaction between hematopoietic stem cells and the bone marrow supporting environment. He is a leader in research teaching, having trained over 45 fellows and post-doctoral fellows and numerous residents and medical students in his laboratory. The previous president of the International Society of Hematology, Williams was ASH Councilor for four years, served as an officer for three years, and became president of ASH in 2014-2015. He was editor-in-chief of Molecular Therapy from 2004-2009, and co-founder of the Transatlantic Gene Therapy Consortium and the North American Pediatric Aplastic Anemia Consortium. His owns multiple patents, including one for IL-11 (Neumega) and another for the use of fibronectin in gene transfer (Retronectin).
The 2017 ASAP BioPharma Conference aims to:
• Challenge and broaden strategic horizons through engaging sessions led by industry leaders sharing insights and drivers of success in their companies
• Build and reinforce foundational alliance management skills essential to success in any collaboration, whether short- or long-term
• Tap into the latest skills and case studies to manage new opportunities in cross-industry, academic, and go-to-market alliances
• Develop the strategic vision to empower partnering success across the entire life sciences or healthcare organization
Supporting that goal are the practical, developmental workshops to provide attendees with concrete skills and techniques for their alliance management toolbox. A CA-AM certification exam prep workshop is also available. Among this year’s workshop offerings:
• Alliance Management 101, led by Eli Lilly and Company’s David Thompson, CA-AM, Gary Butkus, CA-AM, and Jeff Hurley, CA-AM
• Overcoming Obstacles and Conflict that Affect High-Performance Alliance Teams, led by Xerox Worldwide’s Candido Arreche, CA-AM
• Strategic Decision Making & Negotiations: Learnings from Game Theory and Alliance Management Practice, led by Merck KGaA’s Harm-Jan Borgeld, CSAP, and Stefanie Schubert, SRH University Heidelberg
• Next Generation Alliance Management, Lean and Agile, led by Equipro International’s Lynda McDermott, CA-AM
On Thursday, Sept. 14, attendees will start the morning with a plenary address followed by two days of sessions from two tracks: “Emerging Collaboration Models for Better Partnering” and “Advancing Partner Programs for Better Outcomes.” The conference ends midday on Friday, Sept. 15.
The sessions will include a wide range of topics and choices, providing attendees with cutting-edge partnering practices, collaboration models, and alliance management frameworks and tools specifically used in the biopharma and life sciences arena. Among this year’s sessions offerings:
• Reading Between the Lines: Living in Contract White Space, led by Christine Carberry, CSAP, chief operating officer at Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, and Brian O'Shaughnessy, president, Licensing Executives Society USA & Canada, and partner, Dinsmore & Shohl. This session probes how to navigate the white space between what the contract contemplates and the real-world developments in the alliance.
• The Biopharma Channel: Leveraging Practices from the High-Tech World to Drive Success, led by Jan Twombly, CSAP, president, The Rhythm of Business. This session includes a composite case study that examines how to take a hands-off transactional relationship and make a greater outcome for all through collaboration—while preserving the economics of a channel or outsourced business model.
• Aligning the Organization around External Innovation and a Partner-Centric Operating Model, led by Gray Hulick, CA-AM, senior director, global alliance management, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and Stu Kliman, CA-AM, partner at Vantage Partners. The presenters will share Takeda’s partner-centric operating model, how they are aligning the organization around a new way of operating, and the status of implementation efforts.
• Why Keep the Good News to Yourself? Internal Partnerships for External Promotion: How to Work with Your PR/Communications Lead, led by Lori McLaughlin, corporate communications director at Anthem, Inc., and Brooke Paige, CSAP, staff vice president, marketing, communications and alliance management, and chief of staff at HealthCore, Inc. In this practical session, learn how to position the importance of your collaborations and highlight the alliance management function internally and externally.
Additionally, attendees can participate in interactive sessions such as the ASAP Aquarium, where thought leaders and senior-level partnering executives plumb the depths of exploring questions that have significant impact on how alliance professionals are accelerating life science collaborations. This year’s conference will also include dynamic peer-to-peer learning roundtable sessions where some of the real-time, hot conference topics are brought into a discussion with your peers and colleagues to explore the subjects that matter most to you. For a complete list and descriptions of the sessions, go to http://www.asapbiopharma.org/17/bio17sessions.html.
About ASAP
The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP) is the only professional association dedicated to elevating and promoting the profession of alliance management, partnerships, and collaboration. Founded in 1998, the organization provides professional development, networking, and resources for cultivating the skills and toolsets needed to manage successful business partnerships. ASAP’s professional certifications include the Certificate of Achievement-Alliance Management (CA-AM) and Certified Strategic Alliance Professional (CSAP). Active global members include Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Capgemini, Cisco, Citrix, Covance, Eli Lilly and Company, HealthCore, Huawei, IBM, INC Research, Janssen—Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, JDA, Merck, Microsoft, Mission Pharmacal, NetApp, Novartis, Plantronics, Salesforce, Sanofi, SAS, Schneider Electric, Takeda, The Warren Company, and Xerox. A complete list of global members is available at http://www.strategic-alliances.org.
John DeWitt, JW DeWitt Business Communications, http://www.jwdewitt.com, +1 (978) 544-1866, [email protected]
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