Speakers

Bret Connor

Chief Executive Officer, Model N

Bret Connor joined Model N in January 2025 as Chief Executive Officer. Prior to Model N, Bret served as the Chief Operating Officer at athenahealth, a $2.4B SaaS platform for medical practices. During his tenure at athenahealth, Bret helped take the company private, executed strategic M&A, recapitalized the company with a $17B valuation, and achieved a #1 NPS ranking.

Prior to athenahealth, Bret was an executive at VMware, where he led their Professional Services business in the Americas. In addition to his technology leadership roles, Bret was a consulting leader at McKinsey & Company, specializing in high-tech business transformations. He also held roles at Goldman Sachs, Commerzbank AG, and Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett.

Bret received his BA in Economics at the University of Chicago and earned his MBA at Harvard Business School. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife and daughter. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Perkins School for the Blind.

Suresh Kannan

Chief Product Officer, Model N

Suresh joins Model N with over 25 years of combined experience in product development, product management and general management. He is an accomplished executive with deep engineering expertise but is also well rounded with experience managing professional services, customer support and sales. Suresh brings a unique depth of knowledge in the life sciences software space and is adept at managing product portfolios at varying levels of technical maturity.

Suresh began his career at IBM before his time at Oracle in progressive software development leadership roles. He then led Engineering and Product Management at DecisionView prior to its acquisition by IMS Health. As VP of Product Development at IMS Health, Suresh was responsible for a growing technology product set and built solutions around drug trial protocol, cost forecasting, pricing and optimization of the entire clinical development process while scaling his team to hundreds of employees globally. During this time, Suresh has led multiple acquisitions and played a key role in the merger of IMS and Quintiles. In 2017, Suresh moved into a GM role at the rebranded entity, IQVIA, where he created and led the Content Management Solutions business across product management, engineering, product marketing, professional services, sales and support.

Jeff Albright

Director Product Management, Model N

Jeff is Director of Product Management for Model N’s Life Sciences Commercial Solutions. In this role, Jeff is responsible for driving product direction in support of pharma commercial products, including Payer Management, Validata and related sub-modules, new commercial products, and related product analytics. Prior to joining Model N nearly 9 years ago, Jeff spent 20 years at Merck & Co., Inc. where he spent a majority of his tenure in positions of increasing responsibility within their contract operations team, ultimately leading the Health Plan/PBM team for many years. Jeff has been an active NCPDP member for 18 years and has authored and driven many data standard changes within the Manufacturer Rebates workgroup and participated in a cross-manufacturer effort along with CMS advocating for manufacturer data needs related to the original Coverage Gap program in 2011.

Kristan Almquist

Principal Education Consultant, Model N

Kristan joined Model N in early 2016 and is a Principal Education Consultant and Trainer at Model N. Prior to her current role, she was Sr. Business Consultant. Kristan has vast experience in Pharma, Life Sciences and Medical Device industries and has worked directly with customers and strategic partners through all phases of the implementation lifecycle while providing a dependable link between business users, key stakeholders, strategic partners, and project management regarding software functionality throughout the development cycle. As a trainer in Ed Svcs, Kristan is the primary lead for Powered by FLEX training engagements for clients in both live settings and blended approaches for learning. In addition to being a hands-on trainer, she also creates and develops training curriculums and learning paths for customers who utilize our Learning Library.

Anna Arellano

Product Manager, Model N

Donald Barlow

Principal Solutions Consultant, Model N

Abhishek Batla

Director, Product Management, Model N

Jenn Channel

Director Education & Ngage, Model N

Jenn Channel is a Director of Education focused on the new In-app guidance tool, Ngage. She has been with Model N for 23 years, where she has been part of many teams such as Professional Services, Product Management & Sales.

Hari Supraja Devarasetty

Product Manager, Model N

Jackie Dondero

Education Consultant, Model N

With a decade of experience in education and curriculum development, Jackie Dondero transitioned into the corporate world by joining Model N’s Education Services as an Education Consultant. Upon joining the Education Services team, Jackie immersed themselves in all things Validata, delivering stellar training to customers and becoming a subject matter expert in the span of a few months. Jackie played a pivotal role in updating existing materials, and creating new training and activities for Validata’s Fall ‘23 release along with the various submodules. In developing the Validata certification, Jackie utilized their extensive experience of creating various forms of assessments across a broad range of subjects to ensure a well rounded and robust learning experience for all participants.

Tony George

Assoc. Director Product Management, Model N

Tony has been with Model N since 2008 and is now the Associate Director, Product Management managing the Flex GP/DRM application. Prior to his current role, he was a member of the Model N’s Regulatory practice within the Center of Excellence (COE) and has led multiple implementations of Model N for some of the biggest pharma and MedTech manufacturers.

Prabhu Gorikapudi

Sr. Director Cloud Product & Portfolio Mgmt, Model N

Michael Grosberg

VP Product Management, Model N

Michael Grosberg is the Vice President of Product Management at Model N, responsible for life sciences products across Model N’s portfolio. Michael joined Model N as part of the acquisition of Deloitte’s Pricing and Contracting Solutions business in 2021 and continues to lead a team focused on regulatory compliance, revenue management and analytics for pharmaceutical and Medtech manufacturers. A data scientist and a policy wonk, Michael views the highly complex spaces of pharmaceutical revenue management, market access, and government pricing through the underlying data, pursuing accessibility and quality that drive commercial insights. His 20-year career spans roles in public policy, analytics, systems implementation and change management. He has broad expertise in financial performance management and led development and implementation of pharmaceutical gross-to-net applications for multiple top-tier manufacturers. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and a Master of Public Management degree with highest distinction from the Heinz School, both at Carnegie Mellon University.

Chetan Sharma Gumudavelli

Sr. Product Manager, Model N

As a Senior Product Manager, I bring a unique mix of technical expertise and strategic vision to the table. My journey began at Model N, with Engineering and then transitioning into Product Management, I found my true passion in designing solutions that bridge the gap between technology and business needs. Specializing in life-sciences commercial : Provider and Payer modules, I understand complex market dynamics that involves contract management , Payer and Provider – Rebate management , Pricing , Master Data Management , Sales – Chargebacks , Pricing – Compliance and transforming them into actionable product strategies. I’ve led product development and cross-functional teams to deliver impactful solutions that drive revenue growth and customer satisfaction.

Kaberi Guha

Sr. Product Manager, Model N

Ankur Gupta

Sr. Director, Product Management, Model N

Ankur Gupta is Senior Director of product management for Model N High Tech products. Ankur is a seasoned product management leader, with total 19 years of experience in driving growth of enterprise SaaS bases Revenue Management products at Model N (9 years) and Cloud Management product suite at Oracle (6 years). In his current role at Model N, he focusses on strategy, planning and execution of Revenue Cloud and Intelligence Cloud product suite.

Bernard Gutierrez

VP Global Solution Consulting, Model N

Bernard has been at Model N for over 13 years, and is currently the Vice President of Global Solutions Consulting at Model N. He and his team works closely with Model N customers and prospects to understand their business requirements and map Model N’s value proposition to their business. Prior to joining Model N, Bernard worked in leadership roles at JDA Software, Signal Demand, DemandTec and Blue Martini software. Bernard has a BS in Mathematics and Computer Sciences from Santa Clara University.

Casey Hibbs

Sr. Director, Data Strategy, Model N

Kowshik Kota

Sr. Product Manager, Model N

Manish Kumar

Sr. Director, Product Management, Model N

An industry veteran with over twenty years of experience, Manish is currently responsible for Product Management of Revenue Management, Platform and Intelligence Cloud solutions. In addition, Manish is involved in product roadmap, strategy, development, sales enablement, and all go-to market related activities for Model N’s Commercial offerings.

Michelle LaBonte

Consultant, Model N

Maria Lesny

Assoc. Director State Price Transparency Mgmt, Model N

Maria serves as an Associate Director within Model N’s Business Services division, where she specializes in offering reporting assistance and proficiency to Pharmaceutical Manufacturers regarding state price transparency. With a rich background spanning over two decades in the pharmaceutical sector, Maria brings a wealth of experience in various areas including customer service, collections, reverse distribution, deduction management, compliance, and state price transparency. Her key responsibilities include providing guidance and supervision to ensure clients adhere to transparency reporting regulations, along with integrating and delivering managed services effectively.

Carl Lonsdale

Sr. Solutions Consultant, Model N

Carl is an 9 year vet in the Life Sciences space, with a prior background as a developer in the finance space, he focuses on all things around data, analytics, and reporting. He helps customers build, configure, and trouble shoot data and reports, and loves to talk about all the new and exciting ways reporting can improve your business!

Ryan Maizel

Sr. Director Advisory Svcs, Model N

Hemant Makhija

VP, Product Marketing, Model N

Jesse Mendelsohn

SVP Professional Services, Model N

Jesse Mendelsohn has been with Model N since 2005 and is the Sr. Vice President of Model N’s Center of Excellence (COE) where he manages all of Model N’s business and technical analysts in the United States. In his former position as the regulatory lead, he was in charge of best practices, implementation methodology, and support of all regulatory applications including Government Pricing, Medicaid, FSS Compliance, and Discount Reallocation. Having been a part of nearly every regulatory implementation, he has deep experience in the regulatory industry and speaks regularly at national conferences on issues of regulatory compliance. Mendelsohn holds a B.S. in Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.S. in Information Management and Systems from UC Berkeley.

Brian McCartney

VP Strategic Innovation & Policy, McKesson

Brian has responsibility to proactively monitor drug pricing reform issues – including legislative, regulatory and administrative actions at the federal and state level – that could impact strategic and business outcomes for McKesson and their customers, partners and other industry stakeholders in the U.S. pharmaceutical value chain. In addition, Brian assesses financial implications for McKesson, and develops strategies and operational solutions to manage risk and drive business value, harnessing the breadth and depth of enterprise assets and capabilities. Brian has been with McKesson for a little over a year and has close to 20 years of pharmaceutical manufacturer experience in government pricing and policy at J&J, Endo Pharmaceuticals and most recently at AstraZeneca. Brian is a subject matter expert in government price reporting that gives him a deep understanding of the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain, including 340B, buy and bill and diverse payer segments.

John Michael O’Brien, PharmD, MPH

President & CEO, National Pharmaceutical Council

John M. O’Brien, PharmD, MPH, is the president and chief executive officer of the National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC), which sponsors and participates in research on the appropriate use of pharmaceuticals and the clinical and economic value of pharmaceutical innovation. Dr. O’Brien’s broad experience spans the private sector, academia and government. Prior to NPC, Dr. O’Brien was senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and deputy assistant secretary of planning and evaluation (health policy). He also has held senior policy positions in the life sciences and managed care industries, including at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and served as a health policy fellow in the U.S. Senate. Dr. O’Brien earned his doctorate in pharmacy at Nova Southeastern University and his master’s degree in public health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Malcolm Penn

Founder & CEO, Future Horizons

Malcolm Penn has over 60 years of experience in the semiconductor and electronics industry, covering all aspects, including business development, management, manufacturing, marketing, and design. He is the founder and CEO of Future Horizons, a leading global semiconductor industry consultancy with a combined 260 years of industry expertise. Founded in 1989, Future Horizons provides a comprehensive range of strategic, Board-level industry and investment advisory services. The company prides itself on its integrity, rigorous methodology, and commitment to delivering accurate and actionable insights. Before establishing Future Horizons, Mr. Penn served as Vice President and Director of European Operations for Gartner Dataquest, where he led the establishment of its European research division. Earlier in his career, he was Manager of Component Engineering for ITT Europe and held various operations and marketing management roles within the global ITT Semiconductor Group.

Donal Ryan

Assoc. Director Product Management, Model N

Currently Donal is Associate Director in Product Management for Model N’s suite of Channel Data Management solutions, with a key commitment to product innovation and 25+ years of experience working for technology and software companies helping manufacturers optimize their supply chain, procurement, and revenue management processes.

John Schiavone

Principal Solutions Consultant, Model N

John Schiavone is a Solution Engineer with 17 years of experience with Model N and over 25 years of experience in the Life Science industry providing technology solutions to business objectives. John has implemented Revenue Management projects for several of the top Pharmaceutical and Med Tech companies and he brings in depth knowledge of contracting, pricing, quoting, rebates, chargebacks, compliance, master data management as well as reporting and analytics. John is currently on the sales team to help customers with their challenges, find solutions to their problems and educate them on the value of Model N Revenue Execution, especially to the Med Tech community.

John D. Shakow

Partner, King & Spalding

John Shakow focuses on complex regulatory, commercial, investigation, and litigation issues related to pharmaceutical government pricing and price reporting. A Chambers-ranked partner in King & Spalding’s FDA and Life Sciences practice and co-chair of the firm’s Life Sciences & Healthcare Industry Group, John represents pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturers in every facet of government drug payor program compliance and liability mitigation.  He has counseled manufacturer clients on their rights and obligations under the Medicaid, 340B, Medicare, Federal Supply Schedule, and TRICARE programs for over 25 years.

Nishant Shekhar

Associate Director, Product Management, Model N

Product Manager for Government Cloud (or Regulatory) suite of products, with specific focus on GP, DRM and FSS. Over the span of 12 years, I’ve shipped many enhancements to the product (both Powered by N and Flex platforms) to make sure our customers stay compliant with regulations and derive the greatest value from the product.

Todd Shytle

VP Medtech Named Accounts, Model N

Dina Simon

Director of Education Services, Model N

Dina Simon is a Director of Education Services responsible for all training for Powered by N Life Science products. She has been with Model N for 15 years, working with pharma and medtech customers of all sizes from across the globe. She manages a team of instructors providing self-paced online and live instructor-led training classes. Session types include out of the box vs. customized, train-the-trainer, delta and refresher training, and the audiences range from project team to end user.

Stephen Smith

Director Solutions Consulting, Model N

Steve is a Principal Solutions Consultant at Model N and has been with Model N since 1999. He works with customers to understand their Revenue Management challenges and maps them to Model N solutions.

Ivy Sun

Assoc. Director Business Svcs, Model N

Ben Wilson

Sr. Director, Go-To-Market Technologies Lead, Model N

Peter Zimmermann

Sr. Director of Global Customer Success - EMEA, Model N

Peter has worked with the Model N solutions for the past 8 years, assisting with international implementations, advising on best practices and driving customer success.