Tony Caldwell of Snell & Wilmer, Brandy Flores of Pfizer, Renée Galá of Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Shannon Groppenbacher of Johnson & Johnson, and Nathan Trembath of Bristol Myers Squibb, join the Arizona Bioindustry Association leadership team.
The AZBio Board of Directors elected five community leaders to serve 3-year terms on the AZBio Board at its meeting on November 17, 2022. The meeting was held at the headquarters at GlobalMed in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Meet the newest members of AZBio’s leadership team
Tony Caldwell is an Associate at Snell & Wilmer. He helps clients navigate complex issues related to law and technology. His day-to-day practice focuses on corporate, technology and life sciences transactions and contracting matters, with an emphasis on licensing, manufacturing and supply chain, clinical trials, data use, cybersecurity, and mergers and acquisitions. Tony advises biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics companies with commercial contracting and clinical matters, and he is a member of the firm’s Life Science and Medical Technology Industry Group. He has a comprehensive understanding of the legal needs of the life sciences industry, including its regulatory framework, risks and opportunities, rapidly changing technologies, and competitive landscape. He has extensive experience negotiating pre-clinical and clinical trial agreements, material transfer agreements, and domestic and international supply chain agreements. He has also represented several life sciences companies in connection with M&A transactions and IPOs.
Brandy Flores is Senior Manager for Alliance Development in U.S. Policy and Government Relations at Pfizer, covering Arizona, California, and Nevada. In this policy advocacy role, Mrs. Flores engages health care stakeholders, including patient, provider, multicultural, business, and community organizations, in support of Pfizer’s state and federal legislative, policy, and business priorities. Prior to joining Pfizer, Mrs. Flores worked in external affairs at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and in science education and public affairs at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). She is a Flinn-Brown Fellow at the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership at the Flinn Foundation, is a member of the Arizona State Board of Cosmetology, and previously served as chair of the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission.
Renée Galá is a strategic executive, advisor and board member with a passion for life sciences. Her 25 years of professional experience spans finance, strategy, corporate/business development and leadership development, primarily within the healthcare industry. She has a proven ability to drive results within large and small companies by building and developing high-performance teams, aligning and driving corporate strategy, solving complex problems, empowering leaders and establishing transparent partnerships with investors and other stakeholders. Renée’s multi-disciplinary experience in private and public life sciences companies enables her to advise and partner with executive teams and boards to construct and execute financial and operational strategies in support of global business objectives. Since 2020, Renée has served as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Jazz Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: JAZZ), a global, fully integrated biopharmaceutical company with over $3 billion in annual revenues. At Jazz, she oversees the corporate strategy, finance, corporate development, investor relations and transformation functions. In this role, she oversaw the $7.2 billion acquisition of GW Pharmaceuticals, more than $6 billion in financings, the strategic repositioning of the company and the conception and launch of “Vision 2025” (a longer-term strategic framework for Jazz, announced externally in early 2022).
Shannon Groppenbacher is the Healthcare Policy & Advocacy Director for Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico, as part of the Strategic Customer Group within Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Systems. In this role, Shannon supports the Johnson & Johnson North America Pharmaceutical sector, Janssen, with a specific focus on raising awareness and engaging internal and external partners on the changing healthcare environment and various policy issues. She primarily works with Provider Groups, Patient Advocacy organizations and key stakeholders to ensure access to care and treatment. The health policy team collaborates with Johnson & Johnson state and federal affairs teams on various issues. Shannon has been with Johnson & Johnson for the past 23 years and has spent most of her career in the Pharmaceutical industry.
Nathan Trembath serves as the general manager of the Bristol Myers Squibb manufacturing facility in Phoenix. In his role, Nathan is responsible for leading all operations, functions and performance of the 280,000 square foot facility to deliver therapies for pancreatic, non-small cell lung and breast cancers. Nathan is overseeing the expansion of the existing facility in Phoenix that will transform the site to play a key role in delivering sterile biologic drug product to patients globally. Nathan previously served as the general manager at the Bristol Myers Squibb manufacturing facility in Syracuse. As a leader with over 20 years of experience in global pharmaceutical and medical device laboratory, quality and operations, Nathan’s diverse expertise includes non-sterile, aseptic and terminal sterilization; vaccine and biologics and device manufacturing. He has led complex manufacturing operational turnarounds and operations excellence deployment. Nathan brings outside-of-the-thinking, technical acumen and high-accountability execution to develop a highly skilled and engaged workforce committed to safety and quality. Prior to joining Bristol Myers Squibb, Nathan oversaw best practices architecture for Quality, Manufacturing and Technical Operations at Merck where he led the adoption of industry 4.0 mindsets for strategic manufacturing facilities expansions in a $7B capital portfolio. His career spans leadership roles for Smith & Nephew, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline in the U.S., Italy and Australia.
About the AZBio Board of Directors
In accordance with the Arizona Bioindustry Association, Inc. bylaws, AZBio Board Members represent the association’s members and are elected by the board to 3-year terms in accordance with AZBio’s Nominating and Governance process.
The 2023 AZBio Board currently includes leaders from AZBio Member Organizations including Acacia Consulting,
Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc., Aesthetics Biomedical, Arizona Commerce Authority, Avantor, Inc. (VWR), AZAdvances, Barrow Neurological Institute, BD, BMS, Celerity Biosciences, City of Phoenix, Cord Blood Registry (CBR)/Cooper Surgical, Critical Path Institute, Exact Sciences Corporation, EY, Flinn Foundation, Blue Stone Venture Partners, HonorHealth, Janssen/J&J, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Knobbe Martens, Langham Logistics, Mayo Clinic, Medtronic, Pfizer, Procopio, Regenesis Biomedical, Inc., Roche Tissue Diagnostics, Snell & Wilmer, Sonora Quest Laboratories, Symple Surgical, Inc., Translational Genomics Research Institute, an affiliate of City of Hope (TGen), The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, and The BIO5 Institute at the University of Arizona.
“The AZBio Board supports our vision of Arizona becoming a top-ten life science state and our mission to support our members as they make this vision a reality,” shared Joan Koerber-Walker who serves as AZBio President & CEO and as a member of the AZBio Board. “We are deeply grateful for the leadership, commitment and support our AZBio Board members provide to our community.”