Leadership Team
Instem’s international management team is a strong, effective and flexible group that understands and is committed to the values and vision of our business. Our team is entrepreneurial in spirit and possesses strong go-to-market skills providing leadership in Product Development, Marketing and Sales along with proven experience in Strategic Partnering and M&A activities. The team represents over 200 years of rich and relevant experience that has allowed us to become international leaders in all of our core markets.
Most of the team has been with Instem for more than a decade and have helped shape the markets we operate in from working side by side with clients, regulators and key industry trade groups.
Phil Reason*
Chief Executive Officer
Phil has been leading Instem as CEO since 1995, working closely with the Instem Board, investors, management, clients, partners and staff to grow the business from a single product line with fifteen clients to serving hundreds of customers as the global market leader across a wide area of life sciences R&D. Passionate about Instem’s ability to support clients in introducing transformational approaches for life changing therapies, Phil has been a vocal advocate of long-term partnerships, innovative organic growth, geographic expansion and the acquisitive consolidation of the fragmented IT supplier community. Under Phil’s leadership Instem has completed the strategic acquisition of 7 companies, has opened new offices in the US, UK, China, and India and has completed a UK-based IPO in 2010.
Gordon Baxter BSc, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
A pharmacologist, Gordon has held several senior discovery positions in major pharmaceutical companies and was a founding entrepreneur of the CRO, Pharmagene plc. and held positions of Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Operating Officer. He was also a founder of the UK-based healthcare intelligence company, BioWisdom Ltd which was acquired by Instem in 2011. He has a track record of innovation in drug discovery and has contributed to the development of several marketed drugs. He is an advocate of Translational Informatics; using data gathered from research, development and medical practice to generate new therapeutic insights. Gordon is on the Board of the R&D information technology group, the Pistoia Alliance.
Vince D’Angelo
Vice President, Global Quality Assurance
Vince is responsible for Instem’s ISO9001 certification and oversees quality at all Instem office locations around the world for all product lines. Vince has been with Instem since 1988 having had roles in software development and computer systems validation. He has developed processes that have successfully passed inspection by regulatory bodies and has been at the forefront in the use of automated test tools to provide regression testing and qualification evidence.
Vince is a Fellow of the Research Quality Association (RQA), an active member of the Society of Quality Assurance (SQA) and regularly gives presentations at their annual conferences and is the past Chair of the SQA Computer Validation, Information technology, Compliance (CVIC) specialty section which currently has members from many of today’s leading Pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations.
Nigel Goldsmith*
Chief Financial Officer
Nigel joined Instem in November of 2011 and possesses a wealth of experience in senior financial roles at both public and private companies within the life sciences industry. Prior to Instem, Nigel was Finance Director for 3 years at the AIM listed, pharmaceutical and medical devices company, IS Pharma plc. He also held the position of CFO for 7 years at Almedica International Inc., a privately held supplier of clinical trial materials to the global pharmaceutical and biotech markets and 2 years as European Controller for the sales and marketing division of laboratory equipment manufacturer, Life Sciences International plc. Prior to entering industry, Nigel spent over 9 years at KPMG and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.
Mick Davison
Vice President, Software Development
Mick leads a highly skilled, multidisciplinary software development group based across various locations in Europe, North America and India. He is responsible for setting and driving the strategy for software architecture, development, security, testing and certification, while also ensuring the continued delivery of high quality product offerings across all of Instem’s markets.
Drawing on his extensive technical skills and leadership qualities, Mick has established a harmonized software development group comprising in-house and outsourced resources, which encompasses Software Development, Software Test, Database Administration, Build & Release, Architecture and Validation.
Since joining Instem in February 2017, Mick has helped to develop a compelling technical vision, providing clear leadership and direction in the development and delivery of functionally rich, high quality, secure software applications for Instem’s worldwide customer base.
Jerry Hacker
Senior Vice President, Global Sales
Jerry joined Instem in 2016 and is responsible for managing a strong, global sales team to help maximize Instem’s market share around the world, while also opening up new market segments.
Jerry’s formidable solution-oriented sales leadership skills, combined with his passion for excellence and his drive for continuous improvement, have helped Instem to develop new geographic and vertical markets and drive revenue growth, while greatly increasing productivity and performance of the sales team. Jerry has held several executive-level leadership roles within health & life sciences over the past 25 years, where he has successfully built and led high performing software and consulting services sales teams and partner programs. Prior to joining Instem, Jerry was SVP Worldwide Sales at LabVantage Solutions, where he helped drive record revenue growth for their Laboratory Information Management Systems.
Paul Bradley
Vice President, Data Science Solutions
Paul is an experienced scientist and innovator with more than 25 years of academic and commercial sector experience. Paul joined Instem in 2011 following the acquisition of BioWisdom and prior to this was based at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge. Paul has a wide range of experience, including late stage drug development, bioinformatics, big data analytics and developing and commercializing scientific software. Paul has been instrumental in the establishment of Instem’s scientific solutions group, and has led the development of our technology-enabled service for Target Safety Assessment. Paul heads up a highly-skilled team of life scientists and technologists, and is committed to delivering innovative data science solutions and building long-lasting client relationships.
*Board member
Adrian Gare
Vice President, Corporate Development
Supporting Instem’s strategy to identify suitable acquisition and partnership opportunities to help consolidate and empower the R&D IT community, Adrian is responsible for sourcing and transacting key strategic projects around the world. Adrian’s accomplishments include Instem’s acquisitions of BioWisdom, Logos Technologies and Perceptive Instruments and he is involved in collaborative licensing agreements and joint ventures. Adrian is a qualified chartered accountant with over 15 years of experience in corporate finance and M&A activities and has a proven track record of success with a Top-10 firm of accountants.
Gregor Grant
Executive Vice President, Preclinical Solutions
Gregor is an experienced leader with a proven track record of success in developing customer relationships and delivering IT solutions for the Life Sciences Industry. Gregor is passionate about ensuring the exceptional client experience and his team provides development, deployment and support services to Instem’s Preclinical Solutions clients around the world, including products from the acquisition of Perceptive Instruments in 2013. Gregor joined Instem through an acquisition of Apoloco in 1996, a smaller competitor specializing in pathology solutions. For over 20 years Gregor has been instrumental in helping create both a successful software product, and building a reputation for high quality and service within a passionate and demanding user community.
Mike Harwood
Executive Vice President, Regulatory eStudy Solutions
Mike joined Instem in 1999 through the acquisition of Fraser Williams Data Systems where he was a Director overseeing Client Services. While most of Mike’s more recent experience has been in the deployment of regulatory preclinical solutions, since 1977 he has worked on applications across the R&D continuum from early stage chemical databases to late stage clinical trials systems. Mike joined the SEND standard development team back in 2003 providing key input and was pivotal in bringing the first commercial SEND software solution to market in 2005. Mike now leads a team of industry experts supporting the most comprehensive and widely deployed set of tools and services for SEND in today’s global marketplace.
Gary Mitchell
Vice President, Global Marketing
Gary leads an international team responsible for the development of programs that help generate demand for Instem’s software solutions and services. He helps create and carry out our strategic growth plans by positioning and promoting Instem as the global leader of technologies that empower mission critical R&D programs to introduce better drugs, therapies & products more quickly. For more than 20 years Gary has held key management positions where he has developed high-impact B2B marketing programs & processes and is well versed in strategic market planning, new product branding and launches. Prior to joining Instem in May of 2004, Gary was a Senior Marketing Specialist with Dun & Bradstreet focused on creating and executing business development and go-to-market programs for its B2B Sales & Marketing products.
Gwen Aston
Senior Vice President, Instem Clinical
Gwen joined Instem in 2014 after having worked in the clinical space for 30 years. She has a wealth of experience in clinical pharmacology and clinical research, along with a proven eSource system deployment track record. Gwen’s extensive experience includes running a number of Phase I sites and clinics for large pharmaceutical and contract research organizations, as well as smaller independent sites. Gwen has additionally managed successful global implementation projects and is well respected throughout commercial industry and within regulatory agencies.
Gwen heads up Instem Clinical, Instem’s early phase clinical study management business, which has been at the forefront of early phase clinical trials for over a decade. Prior to joining Instem, Gwen was Senior Director & General Manager of Clinical Pharmacology at ICON Development Solutions.
MaryBeth Thompson
Chief Operating Officer
MaryBeth has over 18 years’ life sciences industry experience, with a primary focus in Regulatory Affairs and Operations. She is a proven leader in developing and optimizing outsourcing services businesses and has a strong track record in customer facing leadership.
In her role as COO, MaryBeth oversees strategy, planning, development and management of Instem’s Global Operations team to meet client demand, while driving Instem’s commitment to delivering an exceptional client experience. At Instem, MaryBeth has been instrumental in delivering key process improvements, implementing best-in-class solutions, raising quality and improving operations department productivity.
Prior to joining Instem in 2017, MaryBeth was VP Global Regulatory Services at life sciences consulting firm PARAXEL International, where she established and grew a 30-person regulatory outsourcing consultancy into a full global practice of 300 staff.
Eve Leconte
Head of People Services
As Head of People Services, Eve oversees all strategic and operational people-based activity across Instem’s global locations. Eve is responsible for driving organizational performance and business results by optimizing employee engagement and effectiveness, leadership development, performance management, employee development and talent acquisition.
Eve has over 15 years’ Human Resources experience, predominantly in fast growing organizations in a variety of sectors including agrochemical, medical device and IT. She has extensive experience of helping organizations to achieve their corporate goals by delivering the strategic and operational visions of HR both nationally and internationally. Eve is well versed in Trade Union liaison, including successful negotiation of numerous complex agreements. Prior to joining Instem, Eve founded her own HR consultancy, helping start-up companies to create HR departments to support their growth aspirations.