The Technologists Brian Longo CRM Trailblazer A true trailblazer in developing flexible, customizable customer relationship marketing, Brian Longo is one of the key individuals behind Veeva’s commercial suite for the life sciences, including Veeva CRM, the multitenant cloud technology solution that is changing the way the life-sciences industry manages customer relationships. Indeed, Mr. Longo has ignited a movement toward flexible cloud-based technologies that are totally aligned to customers’ needs. His work toward helping companies become more customer-centric started with CRM, then expanded to regulated content management, and now to customer mastering applications. The goal is to provide a complete view of the customer, deliver the right compliant content, and ensure orchestrated execution across all customer touchpoints. He has enacted what many view as a radical customer engagement model that ensures Veeva’s product development team is always proactively listening and responding to customer needs on any scale around the world. Mr. Longo was Veeva’s 10th employee, and has since made an indelible mark on the company’s products, people, and customers. Early in his career as a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, he was focused on supporting the implementation of various technology solutions across many different areas, including CRM, clinical and medical affairs for top 10 pharma companies. He took careful note of what worked and what didn’t. Later at Siebel he quickly became the solution expert for the company’s on-demand CRM product, and his goal was to create a CRM product that could be flexible, easily customizable, and address what the customer actually wanted. At that time the technology to build such a system was only in its infancy, so he tabled the concept. Less than two years later, Veeva started operations and recruited Mr. Longo as its very first product manager, offering him the opportunity to develop a totally new type of solution. The challenge at Veeva was to reinvent CRM for the life-sciences industry. The philosophy was to bring the easy-to-use, Web-based consumer models, and cloud technology to life-sciences companies. Mr. Longo and his colleagues pushed to answer questions such as: if we started from a blank slate, how would we design this process?; what can we do to add value to our ultimate user?; and what can we do that has never been done before? What resulted was a revolutionary product that is helping life-sciences companies transform they way they engage with the customer. Most importantly, they focused on developing a solution with the flexibility to allow Veeva the ability to continually improve the product, and deliver it via the cloud so customers can instantly take advantage of new innovations as they become available. This is in stark contrast to typical software that requires lengthy and difficult upgrades. “The ongoing process of answering these questions and then asking the questions again was and still is the most challenging assignment of my career," he says. Working at Veeva is a breath of fresh air, Mr. Longo says, adding that the culture is unlike any he has experienced before. That’s because everyone is passionate about what they do and they are consistently trying to do the right thing for the customer. As a leader, Mr. Longo says motivation needs to be tailored to the individual and revised on a frequent basis. Motivational drivers vary from person to person and shift over time as the individual’s personal and professional situations evolve. He works hard to get to know the individuals on his team and, in doing so, learn what motivates each team member. “Once I understand the drivers, it’s simply a matter of opening opportunities for those individuals that are aligned with their motivations," he says. Title: General Manager, Commercial Products Company: Veeva Systems Education: BS, Pennsylvania State University Family: Wife, Mindy; daughter Mackenzie, 3; son, Grayson, 1 Hobbies: Sports, cooking, reading, movies, house remodeling Bucket List: Write a book; skydiving Social Media: Andrea McGonigle Driving Innovation Through the Power of Technology As managing director of Microsoft’s U.S. life-sciences team, Andrea McGonigle is driving innovation through the power of technology, specifically the power of collaborative software, devices, and cloud services. Ms. McGonigle is focused on helping companies collaborate internally and externally in a compliant manner, optimize physician directed pharmaceutical sales, and spur innovation management. With a particular knack for patient engagement and understanding the compliant cloud environment in healthcare, Ms. McGonigle helps provide the tools and platforms that support these areas both for patients and in the commercial practices of pharmaceutical companies, as well as across the healthcare ecosystem. She is a leading author on the Microsoft in Health blog, where she frequently writes about trends in health IT and innovative work in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, and regularly comments on these topics in the media. She also produces the company’s daily paper The Microsoft Life Science Daily, which focuses on technology and life sciences, and serves as an industry thought leader in the social media space, engaging with her 1,200-plus Twitter followers on a daily basis. Born to lead, as the oldest of five girls, Ms. McGonigle grew up taking charge, making decisions, and leading by example. She believes in dreaming big, and once that dream has been reached, dreaming bigger. It’s something she tells her children all the time. Staff love working with Ms. McGonigle. In an annual internal survey on employee understanding of Microsoft’s strategic direction, the company’s team collaboration efforts to address customer needs, as well as direct feedback and input on management, Ms. McGonigle received the highest poll results of any manager within the Microsoft Health & Life Sciences team for the second year in a row. Even more remarkable, her overall results represented a 3% improvement from last year, receiving feedback from her employees that her team collaboration, flexibility, and contributions to her team’s success is outstanding. Microsoft partners and customers have provided similar feedback, including the CEOs of some of the biggest organizations in the business. Creating a culture of trust and teamwork, Ms. McGonigle leads by example and takes great interest in the career development of her direct reports. She rewards and acknowledges great work and always tries to tie any actions back to the team’s mission for the company and the industry. She also surrounds herself and her team with people who are passionate about the industry. Ms. McGonigle is incredibly passionate about Microsoft, her team, and the opportunity to re-imagine the way the life-sciences industry uses technology to directly improve business outcomes. That passion is evident in everything she does. She truly believes that leading healthcare and life-sciences companies aligned with a strategic technology partners are the key players to changing the game in this space. “It does not matter if it is collaboration, compliance, the cloud or clinical trials, technology is the enabler and I feel strongly that Microsoft can make a difference in this space and I can make an impact," she says. Her greatest challenges are balancing her passion and the priorities of the day because there are so many opportunities for improvement, but it’s not possible to have an answer for every problem. To make an impact, she talks to many people in the industry in all segments of the business, gets a well-rounded view of the issues and pains, but then reminds herself of the need to prioritize, prioritize, and prioritize and look at where Microsoft can make an impact. She works hard to make the change happen. One of Ms. McGonigle’s greatest passions is career development, especially for women in life sciences and technology and engaging young talent in the business. She is a founding member of the Executive Council for Women in Healthcare & Life Sciences (WIHLS), which provides mentors for women at all levels. One of her next goals is to establish the organization as a place to encourage women to join the science and technology field. “I have a vested interest in seeing it flourish and build a sense of community through mentoring," she says. “I am excited to be a part of an organization being built from the ground up." She credits her mentors, Barry Peters and Ellyn Foltz for their support and guidance throughout her career. She is a board member of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, an active member on the Westgate Hills Civic Association, and on the technology committee at St. Pius School. A leader, a visionary, a mentor, a co-worker, as well as a mother, a sister, a wife, and friend, Ms. McGonigle tries to remember she is all those things and not to over identify herself as one of them. “No matter what role I am doing, I try to be in the moment, and focus on doing that one role very well," she says. She credits her parents with being her greatest inspiration for their courage to leave everything they had known in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for their children’s sake, and for raising five girls who are all strong professional accomplished women. “I strive to do better for them, and in turn raise the bar for my sisters, my children, and my nieces and nephews to do even better." Leader. Decisive. Andrea McGonigle creates a culture of trust and teamwork, leads by example, and takes great interest in the career ­development of any of her direct reports. Title: Managing Director, Life Sciences Company: Microsoft Education: BS, University of Phoenix Family: Husband, Anthony; children, Haley, 11, Patrick, 7 Hobbies: Kids sports every season from soccer to baseball and softball, technology, redecorating, and remodeling houses Bucket List: Write a book called Mother’s Day based on her mother’s life; meet Oprah Winfrey Tweet at: @andreawork Social Media: Andrew Burns Ahead of the Social Media Curve The staff at WorldOne is frustrated. They read articles every day saying the pharma industry is “behind the social media curve" yet, every day, they are working on creative projects that incorporate social media into everything they offer pharma clients. And that is because their Executive VP, Global Head of Interactive and Corporate Development Andrew Burns is way ahead of the social media curve. An insider’s insider when it comes to the intersection of healthcare and technology-focused marketing platforms, Mr. Burns puts himself in the doctors’ and clients’ shoes to better determine what their needs might be and how WorldOne can fill them. This thought process has led to industry firsts such as FastResponse Market Intelligence and Competitive Education, which includes a proprietary social health game that derives crowd-sourced intelligence from global healthcare professionals. Mr. Burns joined WorldOne in 2011 and in a very short time created an array of incredible services that have gained immediate traction, while building a strong interactive team. According to the staff, WorldOne is changing the game for the pharmaceutical industry now and for years to come, and that is all due to Mr. Burns’s exceptional vision and leadership. This past year, WorldOne acquired Sermo, and Mr. Burns immediately recognized the true value of Sermo as a means of facilitating the physician decision journey and improving patient care globally. Instrumental in successfully merging the two companies in two completely separate locations, the two companies now work seamlessly as one, all in less than one year. This accomplishment alone inspires his employees to work harder and smarter for him. Mr. Burns brought forth an immediate impact on the Sermo footprint through overseeing the assimilation of the WorldOne and Sermo physician networks that will triple the size of the Sermo community to more than 385,000 U.S. physicians during 2013. While facilitating the substantial community growth, Mr. Burns also worked tirelessly to secure funding that will directly support Sermo’s global expansion. The combination of these two milestones, coupled with pioneering innovative new engagement and intelligence channels have made WorldOne a truly impactful healthcare organization and one that is poised to change the landscape of global physician collaboration in the future. Previous to joining WorldOne, Mr. Burns had a successful career at Epocrates where, among other things, he spearheaded its relationship with Apple, to create one of the first five applications — and the first medical app — to be launched and presented by Steve Jobs with the introduction of the App Store. This was one of Mr. Burns’ career highlights, he says, particularly because Mr. Jobs, whose emphasis was always on both focus and simplicity, has been an inspiration to him. Mr. Burns credits another role model for providing inspiration, humanitarian Paul Farmer, for his selfless, innovative way of bringing dignity in health to countries in need. He would in fact like to be a managing director of a philanthropic organization, some day, where he would have the means and resources to bring about real change for those in need. His favorite charity is All Saints’ Episcopal Day School Mission for Haiti, which is supported by his children’s school through a partnership with a school in Gascogne, Haiti. The mission is to support the school and its students, together with the congregation of the supporting Episcopalian church. “My eldest son and I have traveled to Gascogne as school ambassadors and we were able to truly understand the importance of our school’s work in Haiti," Mr. Burns says. “While we have already changed the lives of many in the Gascogne community, there is much work to be done." Mr. Burns’ inspirational leadership and business background are balanced by a solid understanding of leadership, marketing strategy, and execution. His approach to leading his teams is a mixture of his ability to develop a strategic sales team and plan that integrates all aspects of the marketing mix and aligns to product positioning for clients. As hard as he works, Mr. Burns puts family first, and encourages his team to also achieve a positive work-life balance. “I try to make it to every one of my children’s games, and to make time to play with them every weekend. I also encourage those in our company to find a work-life balance that allows them to enjoy their lives outside of work." Mr. Burns is viewed as a thoughtful and exceptional leader who brings a wealth of experience to the company along with a clear vision for how technology will improve and upend the healthcare industry. Creative. Passionate. Andrew Burns’ exceptional vision and leadership is changing the game for pharma today and for the future. Title: Executive VP, Global Head of Interactive and Corporate Development Company: WorldOne Inc. Education: BA, University of Western Ontario; MBA, Eller School of Business, University of ­Arizona Family: Married, 3 children Hobbies: Running, golfing, travelling Bucket List: Experience the World Cup, and all of its various activities, in a venue outside of North America; hike Machu Picchu, Peru; sail to the Galapagos Islands Social Media: Ken Rapp A Technology Evangelist Throughout his career, Ken Rapp, senior VP and managing director, analytical, development, quality, and manufacturing segment at Accelrys, has evangelized the need for better technology solutions to close the gap between pharmaceutical development and bringing innovative drugs and therapeutics to market. Recognizing that there is a critical chasm between the research and development of pharmaceuticals and QA/QC and manufacturing, he is committed to delivering informatics that streamline the process and fostering an industry dialogue on the overall challenges. Working with all of the key players involved with pharmaceutical innovation in the manufacturing space, Mr. Rapp has facilitated a paradigm shift in the industry value chain to help bring drugs to market better, faster, cheaper, and within compliance. Mr. Rapp’s career to date is a testament not just to his education and experience but also to his determination to fight life-threatening health issues. While still in high school, Mr. Rapp lost his mother to cancer. It was during those early years of his life when he decided to pursue a career that would allow him to find answers to help others survive and thrive in the face of deadly diseases. Later after earning a degree in mechanical engineering, he started working at a robotics company, which was looking to improve drug discovery. “I started on the shop floor and eventually ended up doing CAD in the early 1980s," he says. “This is when I fell in love with software; I could write a few lines of code and it would show up for the user to experience." Recognizing the need to improve the entire development process, from discovery through manufacturing, he founded VelQuest — the quest for velocity — to help make the process better, faster, and cheaper. He was living the entrepreneur’s dream while at VelQuest. It was also at this time that he observed the rapid changes taking place in technology and science and that new approaches to discovering medicine as a result of the human genome project, robotics, and high-throughput screening had the potential to improve disease treatment. He also understood the limitations these advances would have if R&D and manufacturing processes were not also improved. Mr. Rapp managed the growth of the VelQuest’s product portfolio from a single product to a suite of integrated procedure execution workflow and instrument/IT systems interfaces. Instead of resting on his success, he recognized the opportunity to solve another critical market need by selling the company to Accelrys and, with the support and retention of his entire team, to accomplish what was previously impossible because of siloed technology solutions. Now at Accelrys, Mr. Rapp is traveling the world to speak with customers and actually understand what their current and future needs are. He recently spearheaded the launch of the Accelrys Process Management and Compliance Suite, which is designed specifically to enhance product and process insight, facilitate collaboration, and streamline product development from research through late-stage quality control and manufacturing. Mr. Rapp also helped drive another acquisition for Accelrys that promises to deliver on the company’s aspirations to help its customers better manage their scientific innovation management lifecycles. The acquisition of Aegis Analytical expands Accelrys’ portfolio with enterprise manufacturing process intelligence capabilities that provide organizations with insights into their product life-cycle processes. Mr. Rapp’s career is punctuated by many highlights, including several technology patents, but he says one particularly poignant moment occurred a few years ago, when he and his team had the incredible opportunity to see how the work they were doing impacted one of their own. “Using our products, a customer was able to get a new cancer drug through approvals and to market faster," he says. “At the same time, the father of one of our employees was on a separate therapeutic for cancer that stopped working. Our employee’s father was switched onto our client’s drug as soon as it was approved by the FDA, which extended his life significantly. This was an unbelievable accomplishment for the entire team — to accelerate getting a product to the market that saved one of our employee’s family members." Mr. Rapp’s leadership is an inspiration to others. His ability to identify the strengths and talents of others has created environments where a variety of people can succeed. He builds strong teams based on individuals’ motivational factors and puts people together to complement each other, enabling employees to be the definition of a team. “You can’t motivate people and you can’t manage people," Mr. Rapp says. “You need to create a common vision and a culture that will enable people to really want to grow and perform at their own pace. I’m the straw that mixes the drink." Ken Rapp has a true passion to bring life-changing drugs to market and he approaches challenges from an analytical point of view. Title: Senior VP and Managing Director — Analytical, ­Development, Quality, and Manufacturing Segment Company: Accelrys Education: BS, Mechanical Engineering, Northeastern ­University Family: Married, two sons Hobbies: Vocalist and lead guitar in South Street Band; ­waterskiing; cross-country skiing; mountain biking Associations: Volunteer, Youth Club Baseball and ­Basketball Upton-Mendon; Volunteer Boy Scouts of ­America Upton Troop 132, Leadership Development ­Chairman; Youth Mentor with BSA Social Media: Neil de Crescenzo Bringing IT to the Personalized Medicine Equation As an industry expert and respected speaker, Neil de Crescenzo, senior VP and general manager for Oracle Health Sciences Global Business Unit, has presented at conferences all over the world. He never thought, however, that he would be on the same speaking docket as former President Bill Clinton. But at the 2011 Prix Galien Awards, not only was he on the same agenda, but his presentation directly followed President Clinton’s. This has become one of the most memorable and most unusual moments of his 20-plus year career. Described by colleagues as the driving force behind multiple leading-edge initiatives to support the advancement of personalized medicine through IT innovation, Mr. de Crescenzo is responsible for managing Oracle’s solution groups; strategic planning; product development; and sales, service, and support for Oracle’s industry solutions sold into the healthcare and life-sciences markets worldwide. Mr. de Crescenzo brings many years of operational and IT leadership to his role stemming from healthcare operations at multiple medical centers and a major health insurer. Mr. de Crescenzo is inspired every day by having a meaningful role in establishing a healthcare system that is predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory both locally and worldwide. His No. 1 goal is to make personalized medicine possible from a technology point of view. Dramatic decreases in the cost of genome sequencing as well as global and regional policy developments have paved the way for realizing important gains in the quest for personalized medicine. He hopes to help solve the technology piece of the puzzle. Personalized medicine requires the ability to manage, integrate, analyze, and leverage genomic, clinical, financial, claims, and other biomedical information from across the healthcare enterprise and from external sources. Understanding this link, Mr. de Crescenzo and the Oracle team’s vision has resulted in two ground-breaking solutions — Oracle Health Sciences Translational Research Center (TRC) in 2011 and Oracle Health Sciences Network (HSN) in 2012. Oracle Health Sciences Translational Research Center is a comprehensive platform that normalizes, aggregates, controls, and analyzes diverse clinical and molecular data needed to support the complete biomarker lifecycle. The Oracle Health Sciences Network is a portfolio of integrated, cloud-based applications that enable healthcare providers and research institutions to collaborate more efficiently with life-sciences organizations using de-identified healthcare information. Mr. de Crescenzo is gratified to see how the solutions the Oracle team has developed are changing the way human health can be improved worldwide. He is highly collaborative. During development of these Oracle products, the team worked closely with numerous development partners, including Merck, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Moffitt Cancer Center, and Mayo Clinic. He and the team played a key role in ensuring adoption of the TRC solution by institutions, such as MD Anderson Cancer Center, which will use the software to support the center’s renowned Moon Shots Program, an unprecedented effort to dramatically accelerate the pace of converting scientific discoveries into clinical advances that reduce cancer deaths. In addition, he is further advancing Oracle’s vision for serving the health-sciences industry by orchestrating key acquisitions in the life-sciences and healthcare space. Mr. de Crescenzo says the most difficult hurdle for the industry today is simultaneously advancing innovation and productivity while facing significant challenges in reimbursement and new demands from individuals, families, and patients for improved safety and value-based healthcare. He looks forward to a time when the industry can fully engage patients in their own health and provide targeted interventions to help them. And he wants to be involved in the process to achieve this goal. Neil de Crescenzo is driving the industry toward a healthcare system that is ­predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory. Title: Senior VP and General Manager Company: Oracle Corp. Education: BA, Political Science, Yale University; MBA, High Technology, Northeastern University; Executive Education, Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School Family: Wife, three daughters Hobbies: Sailing Associations: Personalized Medicine Coalition Dr. Sharon Presnell Cutting-Edge Science Sharon Presnell, Ph.D., chief technology officer and executive VP of R&D at Organovo, has a pretty cool job. The regenerative medicine company is using cutting-edge 3-D printing technology using human cells as ink to create living, 3-D human tissues for drug discovery and therapy. Organovo already has bioprinted blood vessels, lung tissue, liver, muscle, and bone and is partnered with leading academic institutes such as Oregon Health Sciences University to re-create human tumors. Its bioprinter is the only commercial technology able to create 3-D living tissue samples composed only of living human cells. Dr. Presnell and her team recently demonstrated the world’s first fully cellular 3-D liver tissue, showing that this unique tissue more closely represents in vivo form and function compared with classic 2-D models. Today, these bioprinted tissues will be used to improve drug discovery and development, and eventually they could be used in therapies as surgical grafts to help patients recover organ functions. That’s heady, futuristic stuff. “I feel very passionately that we have a huge opportunity," she says. “In my mind, it’s not even an opportunity — it’s an obligation to bring the technology forward." According to her colleagues, Dr. Presnell is as down to earth as they come. Her passion is not just for science, but also for people. She leaves her ego at the door every day, and looks for opportunities to lend a helping hand, while driving major innovation in medicine. Wherever she works, she brings this attitude with her, and changes the landscape of the company and the trajectory of many of the people who work with and for her. She has transformed Organovo by focusing its efforts on using a product-driven approach that includes exploratory, developmental, and manufacturing ideologies. She helped shape the future of the once small, young company into a leader in the field of bioprinting. Her in-depth understanding of the life-sciences field and keen foresight regarding emerging business trends in the industry have helped the company grow in a tough economic environment. “I want to see this company that I love put products on the market that transform the world of drug discovery and regenerative medicine," she says. “I’m focused on making Organovo commercially successful. Scientifically it rocks. And I want to see its scientific innovation converted into real value for shareholders." Through her guidance, the company was successful in not only generating SBIR funding, but also establishing and maintaining corporate relationships. Dr. Presnell has played a significant role in the establishment and execution of collaborations with multiple pharma partners, including United Therapeutics, which are driving toward potentially revolutionary therapies, including pulmonary therapies. She has led the R&D team to advance the 3-D bioprinting technology rapidly to the point where opportunities exist in the short term to offer powerful alternatives to animal models for the pre-clinical testing of drugs and potential tissues for direct surgical therapy. The company has already partnered with pharma, including Pfizer, to develop custom 3-D human models of disease that can be used to test new drugs. These milestones helped to establish the company and supported the raising of additional capital. “I am one of those really fortunate people who has found a career doing something that I love to do," she says. “When I go into work every day it doesn’t feel like a j.o.b.; I’m doing something I am passionate about." Several colleagues have pointed to the same story as an example of her enduring compassion. Last year, even though she no longer worked with former employer Tengion, she was so concerned for her former colleagues who were laid off that she ran an ad in the Sunday business section of the Winston-Salem Journal, highlighting their skills and asking potential employers to get in touch with her for more information. This ad got Dr. Presnell some press, as the Winston-Salem Journal wrote an article about the scientist with a “kind heart." Dr. Presnell says it’s all just a part of who she is, the yin and yang of being a creative, passionate scientist who also loves people. “I think that there is an art to managing and leading people, and there’s an art to evolving technology," she says. It’s all part of a day’s work for the small town girl who grew up in a tobacco farming family and got her start thanks to some serious mentoring from her first job at a local veterinarian clinic. From her work there, she attended North Carolina State on a pre-veterinary medicine scholarship. “These vets took me under their wing and said ‘you are going to college, child," she recalls. “This was a big deal for me. Even though I didn’t ultimately take that career path, it led me to an area that I feel passionate about." Other coaching instrumental to her leadership style came from former colleague Mary Meyer at Becton Dickinson. “Mary taught me that you can accomplish anything in the world as long as you don’t care who gets the credit for it," Dr. Presnell says. “If your goal is to make a technology or a company successful all the other things will come in the natural course of time." Passionate. Innovative. On the cutting edge of regenerative medicine and 3D bioprinting technology, Dr. Sharon Presnell keeps her focus on people. Title: Chief Technology Officer and Executive VP, R&D Company: Organovo Inc. Education: BS, Biology, Microbiology, Genetics, North ­Carolina State University; Ph.D., Experimental and ­Molecular Pathology, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine Family: Husband, Michael; daughter, 13 Hobbies: Astral photography, hiking, going to the beach, being outside Bucket List: Become an angel investor, start a ­company or charitable organization from the ground up Associations: ATHENA (American Society of ­Nephrology), the American Society of Investigative Pathology, Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Tweet at: @PresnellSharon Social Media: Dr. Satwik Seshasai A Technology Visionary curious. creative. Satwik Seshasai, Ph.D., is having a significant impact on the technology roadmap at leading pharmaceutical and life-sciences companies throughout the world. As chief technology officer at NextDocs, Dr. Seshasai is one of the thought leaders responsible for developing and realizing the company’s technology vision. As a result of his leadership, NextDocs is delivering an innovative software solution that helps pharmaceutical and life-sciences companies get their products to market faster and at a lower cost. Dr. Seshasai has been instrumental in positioning the company as one of Inc. Magazine’s fastest-growing technology companies for three years running and Microsoft’s Life Sciences Partner of the Year also for three years running. “Knowing that the technology we are building is going to directly impact the speed and quality with which patients are going to receive medicines the need to stay healthy is very motivating," he says. “We speak a lot about technology enabling the cost side of the healthcare system, but the real solution to healthcare is to continue to develop treatments that improve health." Dr. Seshasai says going forward personalized medicine and personalized care will be industry breakthroughs and it’s technology that will enable individuals to seek and receive the care they need in much more targeted methods than ever before. Following some very good career advice, Dr. Seshasai focuses outside in. “Essentially, this means decide on the impact you want to have, select which organization is best suited to deliver that impact, and then pick the particular role you would like to play." Before joining NextDocs, Dr. Seshasai was a program director of software development at IBM. In almost a decade with IBM, he held senior technical and management roles focused on the growth of early-stage products in the cloud computing, enterprise social, and document management space. While at IBM, Dr. Seshasai experienced one of his biggest career highlights to date, which was launching what is now IBM SmartCloud for Social Business and helping define the field of enterprise social. He counts himself lucky to have had two mentors while at IBM: Irving Wladawsky-Berger, who helped create the Internet division at IBM, and Manoj Saxena, who runs the Watson group at IBM — both of whom are game changers in every sense of the word. Committed to paying it forward, Dr. Seshasai is a mentor and philanthropist. This passionate and forward-thinking leader engages other thought leaders to help strengthen communities. For the last few years, Dr. Seshasai has helped with the planning of the Indian Cultural Center of South Jersey. He has been a constant volunteer in helping with design and program development, especially for children’s programs. “Giving back is important at every phase of your career because most mentorship discussions are really two-way and help you connect with others and continue to learn," he says. Dr. Seshasai is also giving back to the community in other ways. He mentors at the Dreamit Ventures startup accelerator, and is one of the principal organizers behind the Philly Enterprise Hackathon event. The contest is being put together by a group of entrepreneurs, developers, venture capitalists, and enterprise companies who believe that Philadelphia is the natural place to build an enterprise software company. The goal is to connect software developers with enterprise companies to tackle big problems, such as curing cancer, or making water available to every human on the planet. Title: Chief Technology Officer company name: NextDocs Corp. education: BS and MEng, Computer Science, MS and Ph.D., Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Family: Wife, Rebecca; daughter, Talia, 3; son on the way Hobbies: “Dadurdays" with his daughter, ­canoeing, politics, biking Awards/Honors: Selected, three years of IBM Leadership Excellence Program and Member of IBM Technical Resources; Buyer’s Choice Award, Enterprise 2.0 conference, 2009 — for LotusLive; Top 20 Under 40, South Jersey Biz Magazine Social Media: Dr. Satwik Seshasai is responsible for developing the technology vision for one of the fastest-growing and innovative software ­companies in the nation. Andrew Burns WorldOne Neil de Crescenzo Oracle Health Sciences Brian Longo Veeva Andrea McGonigle Microsoft Sharon Presnell Organovo Ken Rapp Accelrys Satwik Seshasai NextDocs

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