OUR EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM
Syed E. Abidi, Ph.D.
Executive Chairman
John Fowler
President and CEO
Gerard Fleury
Chief Financial Officer
Stanford Benson
Chief Operating Officer
John Phillips
Vice President of Sales
Sundeep Sethia, Ph.D.
Head of R&D
Devan Patel
Vice President of Client Services
Robert M Talley
Assistant General Counsel & Assistant Secretary
Tom Pamukcoglu
Vice President of Quality
Syed E. Abidi, Ph.D.
Executive Chairman
Syed E. Abidi, Ph.D. has over 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical formulation development and is an original founding member of Pii. Dr. Abidi has extensive experience in dosage form development, including capsules, tablets, modified-release tablets, suspensions, solutions, small volume parenterals, suppositories, creams, ointments, gels, inhalation aerosols and transdermals. He also has experience with pre-approval inspection preparation and with the scale-up and launch of major pharmaceutical products (both prescription and OTC).
Prior to joining Pii, Dr. Abidi served as the Vice President of American Drug Development, Inc. from 1994 to 1995, where he was responsible for research and development activities. He also worked as the Director of Pharmaceutics at Hercon Laboratories, as a Principal Scientist for Applied Analytical, Inc., and as a Senior Scientist for Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Abidi earned his B.S. in Pharmacy from Karachi University in Pakistan in 1975, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Mississippi in 1977.
John Fowler
President and CEO
Mr. John Fowler brings more than 30 years of pharmaceutical and chemical industry experience to Pii. He most recently served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Piramal Pharma Solutions, a CDMO serving generic companies worldwide. Prior to joining Piramal, he was the Divisional CEO of the Global Fine Chemical business at Johnson Matthey. Mr. Fowler also held senior leadership roles in several business verticals at JM, including Pharmaceutical Materials and Services, Environmental Catalysts, and Technologies, among others. He has a Chemical Engineering degree from Bucknell University and an MBA from St. Joseph University.
Gerard Fleury
Chief Financial Officer
Gerard F. Fleury returns as CFO at Pii, having previously served in this role from 2017-2018. He spent the early part of his career with Deloitte’s Emerging Business and Corporate Finance Groups. Since then, he has accrued more than 30 years’ of experience as a CFO, COO or CEO of companies in a variety of industries, including biotech, biopharma manufacturing, healthcare, healthcare IT, and software.
During his career, Gerard has managed companies through various business cycles, including start-up, growth, hyper-growth, optimization, and turn-around, in companies ranging from pre-revenue to $350 million. He also has served on the Boards of Directors of life science, software, data center, and utility companies.
Gerard established and/or managed international subsidiaries China, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, The Netherlands, and the UK. He has completed numerous financing transactions, including venture capital, private equity, leasing, and commercial banking. In addition, he has experience in mergers and acquisitions, both on the buy-side and sell-side. Most recently, as CFO of Catalent, he oversaw the sale of Paragon Bioservices to Catalent for $1.2 billion. Gerard currently serves on two boards of directors, one board of advisors. In addition, he provides consulting and advisory services to various companies. He received his Bachelor of Science in Business from Towson University.
Stanford Benson
Chief Operating Officer
Stanford Benson has built a career as a successful operations executive in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry. As COO of Pii, he oversees and optimizes daily operations, playing a critical role in implementing the company’s strategic vision and goals. His leadership oversees Pii’s manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, quality control, and customer service. Before joining Pii, Stanford held leadership positions at Abbott Laboratories, Hospira, Covidien, ConvaTec, and Civicarx. He had direct responsibility for three global manufacturing facilities and nine global facilities. He has a reputation for ensuring strict adherence to on-time, high-quality performance standards and production schedules. Stanford believes strongly in Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma methodologies. He received a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering at North Carolina State University, and earned his Master Blackbelt certification in Lean Transformation and Operations Management.
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.”
Sundeep Sethia, Ph.D.
Head of R&D
Sundeep Sethia joined Pii in September 2018 as Senior Director of Pharmaceutical R&D. He has over 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Sethia formerly served as the Director of Pharmaceutical R&D at Amneal Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Amneal, he held positions of increasing responsibility at both Teva and Barr Laboratories in R&D. His expertise is in drug development across a broad range of therapeutic areas and dosage forms. He has a proven track record in generic drug development and approvals.
Dr. Sethia received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from St. John’s University, NY. He earned a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology and Pharmacy, respectively from Jadavpur University in India. He has co-authored various peer-reviewed scientific publications and patents/patent applications.
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.
Robert M Talley
Assistant General Counsel & Assistant Secretary
Robert M. Talley joined Pii in August 2022 and is Assistant General Counsel and Assistant Secretary. He has over 40 years of experience in significant corporate roles, including those related to pharmaceuticals.
Bob was previously with Johnson Matthey for 28 years, where he was last President – Corporate, General Counsel & Secretary for the North American operations, including pharmaceuticals and other advanced technologies. Before that, for some 15 years, he held senior HR positions at a leading, large steel manufacturing complex and was an employment and labor attorney with the U. S. Steel Law Department. He has been a 30+ year member of the Association of Corporate Counsel and was the president and member of the board of the Greater Philadelphia chapter.
Bob received his B.S. in Business Management from the College of New Jersey and his Juris Doctor (cum laude) from Temple University Beasley School of Law. He is a member of the bars of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and North Carolina.
Tom Pamukcoglu
Vice President of Quality
Tom Pamukcoglu has an extensive history overseeing the manufacture of sterile drugs, biologics, and vaccines in both Quality and Manufacturing roles. He brings a wealth of knowledge in aseptic processing, quality system design and implementation, and process validation to Pii. Tom previously served as Head of Quality – Sterile Solutions at ICU Medical. Prior to ICU, he held Quality leadership roles at Cognate, Lonza, AstraZeneca, Medimmune, SAFC Biosciences, and Abbott/Hospira. Tom is trained in Six Sigma, CAPA, TQM, and Lean Manufacturing, and he holds a certificate from the University of Tennessee Parenteral Drug Manufacturing program. He has a Master of Business Administration, Management from Canisius College and a Bachelor of Science in Biology/Chemistry from State University of New York at Albany.