News Banner

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT TEAM

John Phillips

John Phillips

Vice President of Sales

Devan Patel, Director, Project Management

Devan Patel

Vice President of Client Services

Susan Wiggins

Susan Wiggins

Senior Business Development Director, Supporting BD Operations Functions & BD Vice President

Cindy Koonce

Cindy Koonce

Director of Business Development, Mid Atlantic

Jacqueline Towell_2023

Jacqueline Towell

Director of Business Development, Americas West and Asia Territories

Cindy Strauss

Cindy Strauss

Director of Business Development

John Phillips

John Phillips
Vice President of Sales

Mr. John Phillips brings a wealth of almost 30 years of life sciences and pharmaceutical executive business leadership to his role of Vice President of Sales at Pii. Before joining Pii, he served on the executive management team of Bio-Duro as Vice President of Business Development. Mr. Phillips played a key role in engaging with customers to evaluate their business needs. He also spent several years working at Patheon and Thermo Fisher as the Senior Director of Business Development Americas-East, where he made addressing customer requests central to his responsibilities. Additionally, he has held leadership positions at Sharp, Aptuit, and Micron Technologies, Inc. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Widener University. He describes himself as “an organizational leader and empowering mentor committed to driving customer excellence.”

Devan Patel, Director, Project Management

Devan Patel
Vice President of Client Services

Devan Patel, who joined Pii in 2012, is Vice President of Client Services where oversees Pii’s Business Operations functions. He previously served as Pii’s Senior Director, Project Management since 2012. In that role, Devan played a key role in Pii’s development and commercial programs for orals and injectables. With his leadership, Pii has built a world-class Project Management Organization (PMO) consistently characterized by superb customer experience. Over the years, Devan has used his knowledge and technical skills to play a vital role for the Operations team, managing key initiatives for the Parenteral/Sterile business unit, including managing the overall scheduling and planning of all Aseptic Operations. His collaborative style when working with cross-functional teams across Pii’s business units and ability to anticipate problems before they occur as raised the role of project management to an artform. Devan delivers a positive, outcomes-focused experience for our client-partners, from initial contact through successful completion of each project.

Devan earned his Bachelors in Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics from the University of Maryland and a M.B.A. from Johns Hopkins University.

Susan Wiggins

Susan Wiggins
Senior Business Development Director, Supporting BD Operations Functions & BD Vice President

Susan Wiggins, RPh, is Director of Business Development Marketing at Pharmaceutics International Inc. (Pii). She previously served as Senior Director of Business Development at Pii for 13 years. Prior to working at Pii, Ms. Wiggins worked for Shire Labs and AAI, focusing on building and maintaining customer relationships. Before entering pharmaceutical sales, she worked for retail pharmacies, including Eckerd Drugs. Ms. Wiggins earned her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Pharmacy in 1978.

Cindy Koonce

Cindy Koonce
Director of Business Development, Mid Atlantic

As Director of Business Development, Cindy Koonce makes it her priority to establish key relationships and business strategies with Pii’s customers to provide a vertically integrated set of solutions for assisting with their pharmaceutical development programs. Her global experience in business development, key account management, and pharmaceutical Know-How is an asset to Pii’s customers. Cindy honed her industry experience in the CDMO space, and healthcare overall, while working as a Global Account Manager in previous years, working with key customers in the US and EU to help drive projects to completion. As the crucial liaison between the customer and company, collaborating with the scientific and management teams, Cindy ensured a one-stop service solution to meet the outsourcing needs of pharmaceutical and biotech companies. She earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Jacqueline Towell_2023

Jacqueline Towell
Director of Business Development, Americas West and Asia Territories

Ms. Jacqueline Towell joins Pii as the Director of Business Development, Americas West and Asia Territories. She has more than 11 years of experience in the CDMO space providing technical solutions for oral solid dose and parenteral drugs from pre-formulation through commercialization. She deploys a client-centric and strategic mindset approach in developing and managing relationships and providing solutions that meet the outsourcing needs of her customers in the pharmaceutical and biotech space. Before joining Pii, Ms. Towell worked at several leading CDMOs. She spent more than three years within the Pharma Services division of ThermoFisher Scientific, starting in sales for Drug Product Services in the Southern California Territory, before moving to Strategic Accounts in April 2021. In that role, she had various responsibilities driving new business growth, contract negotiations, bundled commercial programs, and process improvement initiatives. Prior to joining ThermoFisher, she worked for Alcami Corp. and Nitto Avecia Pharma Services, supporting both drug substance and drug product services. Prior to Avecia, she spent three years at EXOVA Inc., a contract analytical testing laboratory, supporting analytical testing services for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Ms. Towell earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management from the University of California, Long Beach.

Cindy Strauss

Cindy Strauss
Director of Business Development

As Director of Business Development, Cindy Strauss has direct interaction with all of Pii’s clients – both new and existing. She comes to Pii with a wealth of pharmaceutical industry experience, including Sterile Fill/Finish and Oral Formulations. She was Director of Business Development at both CoreRx, Inc. and Siegfried, Irvine. At both CDMOs she focused her time on new contract development opportunities and account management of pharmaceutical clients, including large pharma, mid-size, and start-up biotech companies. She provided her clients an end-to-end solution, from pre-formulation through commercialization. Ms. Strauss was also an Account Executive of Women Health Care for Johnson and Johnson and a Sales Representative for Bristol Myers Squibb. Ms. Strauss describes herself as being ‘client-centric,’ viewing herself as an extension of a client’s team. Her goal is to establish client relationships that will ultimately make a significant impact on the quality of life of patients and their families. Outside of work, Ms. Strauss’ passion for helping others is evident in the volunteering she does for several organizations, including Special Olympics, HoopStars, and Night to Shine. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from California State University, Fullerton, and participated in Masters Curriculum in Industrial Organizational Psychology at Chapman University.

Talk to a Pii Project Ambassador