Co-Founders of the Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety (ACRES) today announced appointment of its senior management team for global operations and systems development, a major milestone in its efforts to reshape the world of global clinical research, patterned after the collaborative nature of the international air transport system and leveraging the expertise of biomedical experts world-wide.
ACRES President and Co-Founder, Greg Koski, former director of the Office for Human Research protections at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, along with Co-Founders Beat Widler, managing partner at Widler and Schiemann (Zug, Switzerland) and former global head of quality for Hoffmann-La Roche, and Andrew Olmsted, Vice President at Research Dataware of Cambridge, MA announced the creation of the ACRES Executive Office as the organization implements a formal management structure.
Since its incorporation as a non-profit organization early this year, ACRES has been operating with the leadership of an executive subcommittee of the ACRES Global Steering Committee that convened in Copenhagen in March 2012.
"These are important steps forward for ACRES", said Koski. "The personal commitments of such outstanding individuals to this effort speak to the importance and timeliness of the ACRES initiative and will position the organization well to meet the challenges ahead."
Several members of the executive subcommittee will assume formal leadership roles:
Honorio Silva, president of the Inter-American Foundation for Clinical Research, formerly vice-president for Science and Medical Professional Development at Pfizer, will play a critical integrating role as Vice-President for Professionalism and System Development.
ACRES co-founders Andrew Olmsted and Beat Widler will assume roles as Vice-President for Informatics and Vice-President for Quality Management, respectively.
Brian Edwards, principal consultant at UK-based NDA Regulatory Science, Ltd, becomes Vice-President for Safety and Pharmacovigilance.
These appointments provide leadership for critical operating domains of ACRES.
Koski continues as ACRES President and Chief Executive Officer and Matt Whalen, principal at life-sciences consulting firm IMPACT LLC, steps in as ACRES Chief Operating Officer. The new ACRES Executive Office will also be home to General Counsel Dennis La Croix, formerly Vice-president, Legal at Genzyme.
With the Executive Office in place, ACRES’ Founders also indicated there will soon be an announcement of a Board of Directors. The Board will include internationally-recognized and respected individuals who are visionary champions for innovation and integration in clinical research.
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Leveraging global expertise to create a connected world of clinical research that is safer, better, faster
ACRES is a private, non-profit, multi-sector organization aligning ethical principles and good business practices to address critical challenges facing the drug and device development in a socially responsible manner.
ACRES is developing site-accreditation standards, safety, and quality initiatives as well as one to build a global technology network to support the biomedical R&D system and its oversight. Through standardization of policies and procedures, regulatory simplification, professionalism and information technology, this system enhances safety, quality and efficiency while reducing the cost and time required to deliver new medical products and better health to the people of the world.
In these efforts, ACRES works collaboratively with initiatives of other organizations and industry to maximize impact and avoid duplication.
The Alliance for Care & Research Excellence & Safety (ACRES) is a non-profit alliance for professionals and patients in every sector of the healthcare and life sciences enterprises. ACRES seeks to ally health and science worldwide using a systems approach. Together, we can build an effective health science system for patients everywhere.
For more information about ACRES, visit acresglobal.net.
