inVentiv Health Clinical Expands and Strengthens Executive Team with Three Strategic Appointments

PRINCETON, N.J., Aug. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- inVentiv Health Clinical, a leading global supplier of drug development services, today announced the appointment of a President of Phase II-IV Development, Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Financial Officer to strengthen the leadership team overseeing significant business growth. 

The expansion of the Executive Leadership Team represents an important investment in the future of inVentiv Health Clinical, already considered a Top 5 Global CRO. Dawn Anderson joins inVentiv Clinical as President, Phase II-IV Development, Martin Birkhofer, M.D.  assumes the newly created position of Chief Medical Officer, and Richard Shimota becomes Chief Financial Officer.

The additional of the senior talent was fueled by significant new wins in all areas of the clinical business, including Early Stage, Phase II-IV and Strategic Resourcing.

"With the addition of three such seasoned executives, we are strengthening our leadership team with a Medical Officer steeped in industry knowledge, a skilled CFO with a background in project-based businesses, and a strong leader for Phase II-IV  who has deep clinical development experience," said Raymond Hill, President of inVentiv Health Clinical. "I am confident that they will help guide our organization along the successful path we've followed since the start of the year through to our next stage of growth."

Anderson, Birkhofer, and Shimota will serve on the Executive Leadership Team, reporting to Hill.

Dawn Anderson, President Phase II-IV

Anderson joins inVentiv Health Clinical with broad experience in clinical and drug development and extensive operational expertise. With more than 20 years in the clinical field across various management positions, she most recently served as Cognizant's Global Head of Clinical Operations and Transformation. While there, she built the business from start to a thriving global organization. Her experience includes leadership roles across clinical development and operations, portfolio and program management, and process optimization at pharmaceutical and biotech companies, start-ups and CROs. Prior to Cognizant, Anderson held a number of senior roles at Quintiles, including VP of Global Clinical Operations, and VP of Internal Medicine.

Martin Birkhofer, M.D., Chief Medical Officer

In the newly created role, Dr. Birkhofer, a medical oncologist by training, will oversee strategic investment in areas that expand upon inVentiv Health Clinical's world-class capabilities. He will advise the business on industry trends and issues and build relationships with Chief Medical Officers and senior executives within client organizations.

A 19-year veteran of Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dr. Birkhofer most recently served as Vice President, Business Development, leading global search, evaluation, and diligence for worldwide business development. Dr. Birkhofer previously managed Global Medical Affairs for oncology. He led the development team responsible for the U.S. registration, launch and life cycle management of Erbitux^® in colorectal cancer, as well as head and neck tumors. Earlier in his career, he was responsible for the BMS Oncology Clinical Research team in Europe and the Clinical Pharmacology team supporting  the oncology, immunology and anti-infective pipeline.

Richard Shimota, Chief Financial Officer

Shimota's unique combination of financial acumen and deep experience in project management for the engineering and construction sector business will be invaluable to inVentiv Health Clinical which also works on a project basis.

Shimota brings nearly 30 years of professional experience in operational finance roles of increasing  responsibility to inVentiv Health Clinical.  Most recently, he served as CFO of Shaw Power, a division of The Shaw Group, Inc.

About inVentiv Health Clinical

inVentiv Health Clinical is a leading provider of global drug development services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, generic drug, and medical device companies, offering therapeutically specialized capabilities for Phase I-IV clinical development, bioanalytical services, and strategic resourcing from a single clinical professional to an entire functional team.  With 7,000 passionate employees operating in 70 countries, inVentiv Health Clinical works to accelerate high quality drug development programs of all sizes around the world.  http://www.inVentivHealthClinical.com

About inVentiv Health
inVentiv Health, Inc. is a leading global provider of best-in-class clinical, commercial and consulting services to companies seeking to accelerate performance. inVentiv offers convergent services that deliver extraordinary outcomes to clients whose goal is improving human life. In 40 countries around the world, inVentiv's 13,000 employees help clients rapidly transform promising ideas into commercial reality. inVentiv clients include more than 550 pharmaceutical, biotech and life sciences companies, as well as companies that now see health as part of their mission. inVentiv Health, Inc. is privately owned by inVentiv Group Holdings, Inc., an organization sponsored by affiliates of Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P., Liberty Lane Partners and members of the inVentiv management team. For more information, visit http://www.inVentivHealth.com.   

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks that may cause our performance to differ materially. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views about future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. We wish to caution readers that certain important factors may have affected and could in the future affect our actual results and could cause actual results to differ significantly from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. Such factors include, without limitation: the impact of our substantial level of indebtedness on our ability to generate sufficient cash to fulfill our obligations under our existing debt instruments or our ability to incur additional indebtedness; the impact of customer project delays and cancellations and our ability to sufficiently increase our revenues and manage expenses and capital expenditures to permit us to fund our operations; the impact of the consummation of any future acquisitions; the impact of any change in our ratings and the ratings of our debt securities on our relationships with customers, vendors and other third parties;  the impact of any additional leverage we may incur on our ratings and the ratings of our debt securities; our ability to continue to comply with the covenants and terms of our senior secured credit facilities and to access sufficient capital under our credit agreement or from other sources of debt or equity financing to fund our operations; the impact of any default by any of our credit providers; our ability to accurately forecast costs to be incurred in providing services under fixed price contracts; our ability to accurately forecast insurance claims within our self- insured programs; the potential impact of pricing pressures on pharmaceutical manufacturers from future healthcare reform initiatives or from changes in the reimbursement policies of third-party payers; our ability to grow our existing client relationships, obtain new clients and cross-sell our services; the potential impact of financial, economic, political and other risks, including interest rate and exchange rate risks, related to conducting business internationally; our ability to successfully operate new lines of business; our ability to manage our infrastructure and resources to support our growth; our ability to successfully identify new businesses to acquire, conclude acquisition negotiations and integrate the acquired businesses into our operation, and achieve the resulting synergies; the resolution of purchase price adjustment disputes in connection with our recent acquisitions and related impacts; any disruptions, impairments, or malfunctions affecting software as well as excessive costs or delays that may adversely impact our continued investment in and development of software; the potential impact of government regulation on us and on our client base; our ability to comply with all applicable laws as well as our ability to successfully adapt to any changes in applicable laws on a timely and cost effective basis; our ability to recruit, motivate and retain qualified personnel, including sales representatives; the possibility that client agreements will be terminated or not renewed; any potential impairment of goodwill or intangible assets; consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry; changes in trends in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries or in pharmaceutical outsourcing, including initiatives by our clients to perform services we offer internally; our ability to convert backlog into revenue; the potential liability associated with injury to clinical trial participants; the actual impact of the adoption of certain accounting standards; and our ability to maintain technological advantages in a variety of functional areas, including sales force automation, electronic claims surveillance and patient compliance. Holders of our debt instruments are referred to reports provided to investors from time to time and the offering memoranda provided in connection with the issuance of our notes for further discussion of these risks and other factors.

SOURCE inVentiv Health, Inc.