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Session 201
Fostering Organizational Excellence in Alliance Management: The Upsher-Smith Vision Brought to Life
An organization-wide alliance management initiative takes time and effort to establish and requires the support of c-suite members in order to flourish. With the backing of his executive team, Rusty Field, president and CEO of Upsher-Smith Laboratories, LLC challenged his team to establish a collaboration-enhancing mindset at Upsher-Smith that aims to strengthen the company's global partnerships and to enhance programs that are critical to the company's growth. Improving the success of these partnerships was and continues to be imperative for Upsher-Smith. With Field's organizational vision for alliance management and alignment across the organization, he provides his executive support that allowed the team to establish and grow a company-wide commitment to creating and capitalizing on synergies with key partners.
This hour-long presentation will be led by Field who will offer insights into Upsher-Smith's alliance management initiative and an executive perspective on the values that were critical to earning his executive support and engagement.
Immediately following Field's comments, a panel of Upsher-Smith team members will contribute details about bringing the company's Executive team vision for alliance management excellence to life.
- The cross-functional panel will reveal alliance management perspectives from their drug development, quality, supply chain and commercial teams and will share key initiatives that helped drive an alliance management mindset across the company.
- This diverse group of leaders will discuss their experiences on the company's alliance management journey, including what contributed to their success, what has been challenging, and what lies ahead.
If you are looking to establish an Alliance Management discipline within your bio/pharma organization, this session will help you gain critical insight on how to establish a strategic alliance mindset in your organization.
Speakers:
Blake Boston
Manager, Procurement & Sourcing
Upsher-Smith Laboratories, LLC
As Manager of Procurement & Sourcing, Blake Boston leads the Upsher-Smith corporate procurement team.
Blake's team is responsible for sourcing multiple commodities, including active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), excipients, packaging components and MRO supplies. Blake also manages supplier performance and global supply chain risks to ensure effective product flow to meet customer demand. Prior to joining Upsher-Smith, Blake held a variety of procurement and sourcing positions with Perrigo, Target Corporation, and Delta Air Lines.
Blake earned his bachelor's degree in International Business from the University of Georgia.
Rusty Field
President & CEO
Upsher-Smith Laboratories, LLC
As President and Chief Executive Officer, Rusty Field is responsible for the strategic direction, operating performance and growth of Upsher-Smith Laboratories. He is driven by an unwavering commitment to the company vision of helping improve the health and lives of patients through high-quality products.
Rusty joined Upsher-Smith in 2014 after five years with United Healthcare and 20 years with Ameriprise Financial, where he held senior executive sales, marketing and general management positions.
Rusty is also a member of the company's Board of Directors, along with senior executives from Sawai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., which acquired Upsher-Smith in 2017.
Rusty holds a B.A. in Economics from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Gary Mackinnon ASQ CQIA, CQPA, CQA, CPGP, and CMQ/OE
Director External Quality
Upsher-Smith Laboratories, LLC
Mike McBride, CA-AM
Vice President, Partner Relations
Upsher-Smith Laboratories, LLC
As VP, Partner Relations, Mike McBride leads Upsher-Smith Laboratories' efforts to grow its relationships across key customers, associations, suppliers and business partners, and to support product development, acquisition, launch and trade objectives.
During his 30+-year tenure at Upsher-Smith, Mike helped establish teams in Consumer Products, Managed Markets and Institutional Sales, and helped shape the vision for the company's Partner Relations efforts. Mike's primary focus today is to better align Upsher-Smith's business objectives with the initiatives of its partners. Mike also represents his company on a variety of industry boards, councils and committees with several pharmaceutical industry associations.
Mike holds a B.A. in Mass Communications from the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse.
Jarrod Midboe, PMP, CCRC
Director, Clinical Affairs and Vendor/Alliance Management
Upsher-Smith Laboratories, LLC
As Director of Clinical Affairs and Vendor/Alliance Management at Upsher-Smith, Jarrod challenges boundaries to develop results-oriented relationships. He thrives in situations that require a creative approach to building synergy with alliance partners.
Jarrod has more than 20 years' experience navigating high value partnerships and driving clinical and contract development, as well as manufacturing programs, to successful completion.
Jarrod has held leadership roles at contract research organizations including PRA, Charles River Laboratories/Northwest Kinetics, PRACS and West Coast Clinical Trials. Prior to joining Upsher-Smith in 2014, he served as Committee Chair for the Association of Clinical Research Professionals' (ACRP) Certified Clinical Research Coordinator Exam.
Jarrod holds a B.S. in Biology from Bemidji State University in Minnesota.