Chris Benko has twenty years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including implementing the operating model for the translational medicine functions of Merck Research Labs. He subsequently held executive roles spanning the company’s research and commercial divisions, as well as positions at the corporate level as head of global talent management. Chris launched Koneksa as an entrepreneur in residence with Merck’s corporate venture capital fund before establishing Koneksa as an independent company.

Elena Izmailova, Ph.D., leads scientific oversight of strategy and project work at Koneksa. Elena has 25 years of experience in academic and industry research. Her academic appointments include Massey Cancer Center, Children’s Hospital (Boston), Harvard Medical School, and MIT. She worked in various R&D roles at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Elena is a co-founder of the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) and a member of the Editorial Board of Clinical and Translational Science Journal (ASCPT). Elena has a PhD in Biology; her main scientific interest is clinical biomarker development and validation.

Robert Ellis, Ph.D., leads Koneksa’s data sciences team. Robert works with an internal team of algorithm developers, data scientists, and statisticians focused on algorithm development, validation activities, and the development of next-generation digital measures. Robert has a Ph.D. in geophysics and more than ten years of experience in enterprise-technology leadership at the SVP/CTO level.

Vik Shah spearheads Koneksa’s growth strategy. He has more than twenty years of experience in healthcare IT. Before joining Koneksa, Vik served as a key member of the Medidata executive team, growing the company from fewer than thirty employees through its IPO and fueling its expansion as a leading global clinical trial software platform.

Matt Cantor supports all aspects of study execution at Koneksa. His team engages closely with study sponsors, CRO partners, and investigator sites from initial planning through database lock. Matt holds an MBA from Columbia and worked as a pharmaceutical industry consultant with Deloitte before co-founding Koneksa.

Paula Barrios Sanchez supports people and culture strategy at Koneksa. Paula has more than fifteen years of HR Director experience as a strategic human resources partner and talent consultant across diverse industries and geographies. She holds master’s degrees in human resources management and organizational psychology. Prior to joining Koneksa, Paula founded the consulting practice Positive Human Factor.

Gol Ophir is responsible for creating new strategic relationships at Koneksa. Gol brings more than twenty years of experience at some of the world’s leading financial institutions, where he managed global technology teams and operations. He has previously served as a divisional COO, a Chief Information Risk Officer at JPMC, and a divisional Chief Risk Officer at Citizens Bank. Prior to joining Koneksa, Gol created and managed innovative relationships for new revenue opportunities, helping to build business development capabilities at both Merck and at Morgan Stanley.

Brittny Adams leads Koneksa’s finance team. Throughout her career, she has worked with companies to navigate complex finance and accounting transactions as well as build scalable finance solutions. Prior to joining Koneksa, she served on the leadership team at TrialSpark, Inc. where she led the company’s finance and accounting department. Before TrialSpark, she spent more than ten years at Deloitte serving public and emerging growth clients. During her tenure there, she worked for the U.S. CEO on firm projects related to global strategy, culture and talent, and corporate citizenship. She is a licensed CPA in New York.

As Head of Commercial at Koneska, Joe brings over 30 years of experience in sales and operations management concentrated in clinical development technology for the biopharmaceutical industry.  Joe’s passion for the industry is deeply rooted as a result of personal and family health crisis related to oncology and rare disease. Joe leads all global sales, marketing and channel partnership activities focused on providing unique, value-based Software-as-a-Service digital biomarker capabilities to our clients and partners.

Prior to joining Koneska, Joe was Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Customer Officer at SHYFT Analytics, and prior to that, Joe spent over 13 years at Medidata Solutions holding a variety of leadership roles within the operations and commercial organizations where his last role was SVP, Commercial Operations.  Prior to Medidata, Joe held several long-term roles of increasing responsibilities at several software and consulting firms including Business Objects, I-Many and JGI.

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