MERIT Executive Spotlight is a series featuring executive team members introducing themselves and explaining why they chose to work in the clinical trials industry and at MERIT.
What is your background?
By training, I’m a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist and have a Ph.D. in ocular angiogenesis. I have been in the ophthalmic drug and device development world for nearly 30 years, serving as a vision scientist and clinical trialist. My roles have included various leadership/CXO capacities at companies ranging from large Strategics to small startups, as well as a global full-service CRO. Consequently, I’ve had the privilege of overseeing all stages of asset development—from securing IP and lead candidate identification to IND enablement, through all phases of clinical development including global registration trials.
What is your role at MERIT?
I work closely with MERIT’s Sponsors to advance their clinical programs by matching MERIT’s endpoint offerings with their unique trial designs. My background gives me a unique understanding of a Sponsor’s development journey and what is needed to successfully drive that program forward into the market for the benefit of patients with unmet needs. I’m able to make experience-based recommendations about what clinical trial design and execution plan will serve a Sponsor’s novel asset. In partnership with our deep bench of Medical and Scientific Affairs leaders, MERIT can offer insights into which combination of our morphologic and visual function endpoints will best support the Sponsor’s specific target product profile and market indication.
What do you like about working at MERIT?
First and foremost, it is MERIT’s people. It’s a fantastic group: smart, competent, and inspiring. Secondly, I appreciate the privilege of helping with so many different drug and device programs, any of which could translate into helping millions of people with devastating ocular diseases see better and/or longer. Thirdly, I get to experience some really cool science in the making, and I’ve always been a science geek.
As a notable bonus, I treasure the full-circle nature of my history with MERIT. I trained as a graduate student with Dr. Ron Danis, MERIT’s Chief Scientific Officer. Plus, I was the development head for the Sponsor that funded MERIT’s first clinical trial.
What do you do in your spare time?
My priorities are faith, family (including 5 children and 3 grandchildren), and friends. My wife and I enjoy hot yoga and exploring new wines. We live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area on what I like to call a Texas “ranchette” that includes two handfuls of registered Texas Longhorn cattle, two retired goats that enjoy competitive eating, one cow dog, one cow cat, two hamsters, and a beta fish. My wife is a practicing endocrinologist, so we’re incredibly busy. But we’re very grateful for our crazy, often chaotic life.
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