Barbara Butkus
Rachel Homeniuk
Rachel is the Administrative Coordinator for the Corporate Alliances team at PCI. She helps track and shepherd alliance agreements through Penn and PCI systems, takes meeting minutes, and is the team calendar management queen/scheduler extraordinaire. Outside of work, she’s a big reader, tv watcher, and fan of singing with friends and long walks around the city.
Thomas Belitza, Esq.
Tom is responsible for structuring, negotiating and facilitating research agreements as part of the Corporate Contracts group in collaboration with licensing and other business development groups in PCI. After obtaining a juris doctorate from Rutgers Law School, Tom spent roughly a decade working in litigation and contract negotiation. He enjoys playing guitar, home renovation projects, and time with his kiddos.
Ginola Johnson
Ginola manages all emails received in the PCI Inbox, prepares agenda for weekly PIM meetings, prepares and handles formal documents for all PCI intellectual property. Ginola gained intellectual property experience while working at DuPont Company and a number of law firms and corporations. She enjoys teaching football, reading her Bible and spending time with her family and friends.
Lisa Wittmer
Lisa Wittmer, Ph.D. has more than 20 years’ experience and a demonstrated track record in leading development from early stages through to licensing, registration and commercialization of new therapeutics.
Throughout her career, Dr. Wittmer has held executive and senior management positions in research & development, product strategy, regulatory strategy, scientific assessment, portfolio development and operations at established and emerging, public and private companies. Dr. Wittmer has achieved clinical trial approval, marketing authorization and new indications for more than fifteen currently marketed products. Additionally, she has completed diligence of over 100 pharmaceutical or biotech products, and advised on valuation and deal/partnership structures for product/company acquisitions.
Dr. Wittmer founded Theorogen, LLC, a consulting company focused on emerging life sciences companies seeking strategic advice on their development, regulatory or partnering strategies. Previously, Dr. Wittmer was Chief Operating Officer and Director at AMO Pharma Ltd, a privately-held, start-up biopharmaceutical company focused on rare diseases; Partner at NeXeption LLC, a biopharmaceutical portfolio management company; and Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs & Compliance at Ceptaris Therapeutics, a privately-held, mid-stage biopharma company focused on treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Additionally, Dr. Wittmer was Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs and R&D Due Diligence, followed by General Manager, for the Emerging Products Business Unit at Shire Pharmaceuticals, where she led several multidisciplinary teams in developing a portfolio of early and mid-phase specialty and rare disease therapeutic candidates.
Dr. Wittmer continues to support the life-science start-up community in Pennsylvania by serving as a Mentor-in-Residence at University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Innovation and an advisor to Dreamit Ventures’ HealthTech program, which is focused on growth-stage digital health, medical device and diagnostic startups. Prior to being appointed a Howard Hughes Fellow at Duke University, Dr. Wittmer earned a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Neuropharmacology from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis; a M.S. in Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis; and a B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics from the University of Detroit.
Jim Trichon
Jim Trichon is a proven leader & problem solver with over 45 years of C-level management experience specializing in strategic planning, relationship building, reorganization issues & general management. He has major expertise in both turnaround & start-up environments. Jim founded Triam, Incorporated in 1975. As the CEO he was responsible for guiding the firm’s growth from a one-person operation to a nationally known management, consulting & business development company employing 125 full-time people in four offices with annual revenues in excess of $30M. Triam had an international client roster including publicly-held FORTUNE 500 companies, small & medium private firms & a major niche in not-for-profit institutions. Although best known in the Mid-Atlantic region for representation of healthcare, education & service clients, the company served a wide range of industries including technology & light manufacturing.
Over the years, Triam represented in excess of 60 hospitals throughout the country both notfor profit & for-profit. Jim was also the lead outside advisor for the bankruptcy reorganization of Integra Behavioral Health. For over a decade, he advised the Hospitals and Higher Education Facilities Authority of Philadelphia. Triam’s assets were sold to an investor group in December, 2007. Jim retained ownership of the company name.
Since then, he has been a fulltime independent consultant, C-suite coach, investor, & an expert legal witness. During this time, Jim has served as the CEO of two public companies & several private entities. He has also been involved in many turnaround & start-up ventures. Jim was one of the initial Mentors in Residence at Penn’s PCI Ventures. He has served as a guest lecturer at the Fox School of Business and Management & the School of Communications at
Temple University & has taught at the Continuing Executive Education Department at the University of Maryland.
Jim hold an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business, an MA degree in communications from Temple University & a BA in government from the University of Pennsylvania.
He resides in Merion Station, Montgomery County, with his wife, Stephanie Stahl. His son, Matthew, is an executive in the professional sports arena.
Sofija Jovic, PhD
Dr. Sofija Jovic is focused on applying research and digital health innovation to transform the life science and healthcare industries. As an entrepreneur and business executive, Sofija has developed a reputation for commercializing innovation and creating new market opportunities. In her role as the CEO of ProPhase, Sofija drove business success by harnessing the power of data to revolutionize how we conduct clinical development and understand and evaluate outcomes of treatment. She is passionate about helping healthcare and biopharma businesses understand the transformative potential of data in clinical development to help them grow and succeed.
Sofija has helped successful completion of many pivotal clinical programs in rare/ orphan and CNS diseases, some with Breakthrough designations, focusing on protocol design, outcome selection and optimization, and regulatory strategy.
In 2007, Sofija co-founded ProPhase, a private, for-profit New York-based global provider of pharmaceutical specialty services in behavioral data analytics in clinical trials. As the CEO, Sofija led the company from a four-person startup to a global leader in the field of clinical endpoint measurement, with over 900 expert clinicians worldwide. During her tenure, Sofija aggressively expanded and globalized the business, launching two new business lines, and building >25% profitability and sustained topline growth, leading to a successful exit to Private Equity in December 2016.
Sofija was a Managing Board Member at ProPhase and holds current Board appointments at Integrated Behavioral Health (private, for profit) where she is the Chair of the Strategy Committee, CRA Assessments (private, for profit), and Gilda’s Club of New York City (non-profit), where she is the Vice Chair. She was a Board director at Inflexxion (private, for profit) until its acquisition by IBH in May 2018. In 2016, Sofija was selected as one of top 20 executives in biopharma for the Boardroom Ready program by Women in BIO and as a National Association of Corporate Director (NACD) Board Governance Fellow.
Prior to transitioning into an executive career, Sofija served in a variety of roles, including private practice, academia, and clinical research. Sofija began her career as a clinical psychologist, professor, and researcher. She has published works in peer-reviewed journals and presented at professional and industry conferences. Sofija is the founding member of CNS Summit, serves as an advisor for Springboard Enterprises Life Science Council, and is a member of The International Society for CNS Drug Development (ISCDD), Women in BIO, and others. Sofija earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Long Island University and her MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management.
Adam Dakin
Adam serves as the Managing Director of Dreamit Health, a leading venturebacked accelerator. His career has focused on building early stage venturebacked health tech companies. Adam has held various senior management roles in sales, marketing, product development, clinical affairs, operations, and general management. He co-founded five health technology companies that have raised over $60M in early stage capital. He is also the co-founder of the PLEXUS Innovation Hub, a Philadelphia-based co-working space focused on early stage health technology companies.
Most recently, Adam served as CEO of PhotoSonix Medical, a venture-backed company he co-founded that is developing a consumer device for acne. Previously, he served as the CEO of Bioconnect Systems and X-SITE Medical
(acquired by Maquet Getinge Group).
Adam serves on the boards of PhotoSonix Medical and ActiveProtective Corp. He is the co-chair of the Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technology (PACT) medical technology advisory board and serves as a Mentor-in-Residence for PCI Ventures. Adam was awarded the PACT MedTech Leadership Award in 2014. He is a named inventor on seven U.S. patents. Adam holds a BSE from the Wharton School and an MBA from UCLA.
Ann Cunningham
Ms. Cunningham currently serves as Managing Partner of i3 Strategy Partners where she guides pharmaceutical and biotechnology executives in planning and executing successful portfolio strategies and brand launches by evaluating key business questions and developing unique strategies to unlock the full potential of each organization served.
Her experience in the pharmaceutical industry includes time served in multiple instrumental roles, including: Vice President, Neurodegenerative Disease and Psychiatry at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries; Senior Director, Global Brand Lead, Rexulti, at Otsuka America Pharmaceutical; and Senior Director, Global Brand Lead and Sales Director in multiple therapeutic areas at Eli Lilly and Company, including Psychiatry, where she led the development and execution of the Cymbalta “Depression Hurts” consumer campaign.
Ms. Cunningham holds a B.A. in Psychology from Yale University and an M.B.A. from University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
Prior to working in the pharmaceutical industry Ann served as a licensed social worker and Director of Rehabilitative Services in an Ohio correctional facility working with mentally ill inmates, including patients with schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder.
Tom Crowley
Tom Crowley is a seasoned venture/private equity investor, entrepreneur, and corporate executive whose 40+ years of diverse business experience have spanned a broad array of consumer and commercial industries, with special concentrations in digital/online media, telecommunications, computer software/services, and information systems/technologies.
Beginning his career as a marketing/operations executive and entrepreneur in cable television and consumer information services, Tom earned a reputation for anticipating consumers’ response to technological change and advised major corporations on the strategic use of digital technologies. He subsequently co-founded or helped start a series of related entrepreneurial companies and then, after 15 years, migrated into venture and private equity investing.
Tom served for 12 years at GE Capital, first as a corporate finance and business turn-around specialist before shifting his focus to private equity and venture investing. He became an early advocate of Internet investing at GE, organizing and running an in-house venture capital fund specifically for that purpose. He later merged the fund into GE Equity, where he became a managing director, overseeing telecom and IT investing, before leaving to become a founder or
managing partner for multiple private venture capital firms.
Over his career, Tom has started, invested in, advised, or acted as board member for well over 100 startup and early-stage companies. Now in “semi-retirement,” he continues to freelance as a strategic advisor, board member, and operating troubleshooter for entrepreneurial companies and serves as an entrepreneurial coach and CEO mentor as part of the PCI Ventures Mentors-in-Residence program and the Mentor Connects program sponsored by PACT and BFTP.
Tom received a BA degree in Economics from Williams College and both an MBA and MA in Mass Communications Theory from Stanford University.