Roshawn Blunt has more than 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries.  She began her pharmaceutical career at The Boston Consulting Group, working primarily on cases in the healthcare industry.  She transitioned out of consulting and into positions on both the manufacturer and the provider sides of the industry.  Roshawn then returned to consulting when she founded 1798 Consultants.  Her leadership has helped multiple companies achieve first-in-industry market access milestones, such as new technology add-on payments for an oral product and a positive national coverage determination for an off-label therapy.

Roshawn held a variety of strategic reimbursement and commercialization positions of increasing importance at Amgen, including involvement in the payor marketing for Aranesp, development of the Medicare local strategy and policy analysis across the Amgen portfolio for the payor field teams, and acting as global government affairs director in the Washington, D.C., office for the oncology franchise.

Roshawn was the first global director of health economics and reimbursement for the Biosense Webster franchise within Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson company.  Roshawn's team was responsible for developing the global value propositions and for managing all health technology assessments for 20 countries.  Through alliance development initiatives and a comprehensive publication strategy in the United States, the company achieved national coverage in advance of FDA approval of the therapy.

Prior to starting 1798 Consultants, Roshawn was vice president of strategy, planning, and communication at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital.  As a hospital administrator, Roshawn was responsible for developing the plans of action needed to grow the hospitals' revenue base.  She was responsible for physician relations and practice acquisitions, marketing and public relations, payor contract negotiations, and overall strategy for key business lines including radiology, oncology, and cardiology.

Roshawn graduated from Princeton University, where she received her A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Policy.  She earned her M.B.A. from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Paloma comes to 1798 Consultants with an extensive legal background, having been a practicing attorney for twenty years.  With a breadth of experience from litigating in courtrooms to speaking at town hall meetings, Paloma's passion for the United States Constitution is evident throughout her work.  Areas of particular emphasis include the foundations and applications of civil liberties, such as the privacy of patient medical records. 

Paloma is a recent author of a major White Paper on the impending Office of Civil Rights HIPAA compliance audits that is being touted as "seminal" in the field.

Paloma also teaches in the field of American politics at the Rochester Institute of Technology. 

Paloma's undergraduate studies in political science and economic theory were undertaken at Wheaton College (MA), where she received her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude.  Paloma was elected by her college faculty to Phi Beta Kappa, an academic honor given to less than 1% of college graduates nationwide.  Paloma earned her Juris Doctor at SUNY Buffalo, and was admitted to practice law in New York in 1992.

Liz joined 1798 Consultants after spending 17 years in the healthcare industry at a variety of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as a healthcare consulting company.

Liz was Director of Commercial Information and Sales Operations at Genentech. In this role, she led a team that provided sales, marketing, and reimbursement reporting and analysis to the commercial organization. She and her team supported multiple product launches, brand-performance reporting across products, and the development of new capabilities to support expanded commercial reporting and analytics.

Prior to joining Genentech, Liz worked at Amgen in a variety of roles in marketing, information management, and sales operations and analysis. In Sales Operations, she led a team that supported sales reporting and analysis, customer targeting and segmentation, incentive compensation, sales force sizing and structure, and sales force automation.  She also led the definition and implementation of launch tactics to support the launch of Aranesp® (darbepoetin alpha). In marketing, Liz drove the development of the Aranesp 3-year brand plan and lifecycle plan, developed and implemented a new patient-based forecast model, identified key brand-performance indicators and metrics to measure brand performance, and led the implementation of a medical-information call center.

Prior to her work at Amgen, Liz spent more than 7 years at Muro Pharmaceutical in several positions. Her last position at Muro was head of sales and marketing operations and analysis.

Liz received her B.S. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She also received a certificate in executive development from the Kellogg School of Management.

Matthew is a business development professional with ten years of experience in sales, marketing, and client relations.

Prior to joining 1798 Consultants, Matthew was responsible for new account acquisition, marketing communications and strategy, public relations, and existing client management at The Aequitas Group, a biopharmaceutical reimbursement and commercialization consultancy.

In addition, Matthew was the lead developer for the World Hospital Monitor strategic initiative. Leveraging this experience, Matthew provides a unique perspective on the development of the healthcare industry in the United States and competing global alternatives.

Prior to joining The Aequitas Group, Matthew co-founded Medical Tourism Solutions, a medical tourism intermediary offering affordable surgical care overseas. In this role, he cultivated relationships with surgeons, hospitals, government agencies, and logistical support personnel to deliver high-quality medical and support services to international clients.

Matthew completed his M.B.A. at the University of California, San Diego, Rady School of Management. He received his B.A. in economics from Willamette University.

 Kurt Hartman is a results-driven healthcare industry executive with a notable track record for building and leading corporate divisions-principally legal operations, compliance, and market access.  Prior to joining 1798 Consultants, Kurt held executive leadership positions at Optimer Pharmaceuticals, including as general counsel, chief compliance officer, corporate secretary, and senior vice president, market access.

Before he joined Optimer, Kurt demonstrated success in devising strategic programs to increase access and value, decrease costs, and maximize profitability at biopharmaceutical companies, including Eisai as the executive director of value and access, at Roche Laboratories as the director of patient reimbursement support and assistance, at Boehringer-Ingelheim as an associate director in managed markets focusing on pricing and contracting, and at Amgen, where he helped lead nephrology national account sales.  Kurt began his career as a contract analyst with Kaiser Permanente.

Kurt earned his J.D. at Pepperdine University School of Law and holds a B.A. in anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles. 

Bill Hershfield joined 1798 Consultants after spending 22 years at Novartis, Amgen, and Allergan in functions that ranged from selling pharmaceuticals to developing access strategies for biologics and devices.  Most recently, Bill was the director of medical benefit marketing at Allergan.  In this role, he led a team that created strategy, tactics, and tools to support optimal policy language in the Allergan injectable and medical device portfolio.  Bill and his team supported both payor and provider reimbursement initiatives, multiple product and label expansion launches, brand planning, and competitive strategies.  Additionally, Bill worked directly with the state government affairs team, the healthcare policy team, and external employer consultants to expand coverage.

Prior to joining Allergan, Bill worked at Amgen as a Medicare account specialist, a payor marketing manager with the Medicare team, and finally as the director of value access for the Aranesp oncology franchise.  Bill led the efforts with global health economics to shore up the Aranesp value proposition to mitigate the erythropoiesis-stimulating agent market decline and coauthored two abstracts on the role of supportive care in "The Working Cancer Patient."  Bill initiated and led the rebranding and automation efforts of the Amgen reimbursement support services for the current offering.  Preceding Amgen, Bill had a distinguished sales career at Novartis that included launching Apligraf and laying the groundwork for its commercialization in the Latin American market.

Bill received his B.S. from Colorado State University.  Bill also received a certificate in executive development from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Janyce brings strong experience in policy and program implementation.  Janyce spent 4 years at Amgen,  specialized in policy analysis, reimbursement training, and landscape analysis for new product launches, followed by 6 years in reimbursement and patient assistance hotline management.  Currently, Janyce has been busy identifying practical impacts of healthcare reform policy and action steps for biotech/pharma  as well as hospital and large systems. 

Prior to healthcare, Janyce served as a Senior Policy Analyst in public administration, where she managed legislative activity, inter-governmental relations and innovation projects.  Her work has resulted in model programs.  Several of these programs garnered state, national and international awards and are still in use today.

Janyce graduated magna cum laude from California Lutheran University, with distinguished department honors.  She is a certified PMP and utilizes project management approaches to identify and implement broad policy initiatives. 

As a part-time consultant, Jim brings over 20 years of pharmaceutical experience with Amgen with the last ten years evaluating different aspects of reimbursement, payment policy, pricing and contracting, and patient assistance.  For the past three years, as Director of Pricing and Contracting, Jim focused on Sarbannes-Oaxley (SOX) compliance for discount accruals and estimating the impacts of Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) individually by product and collectively for all government pricing programs.  He also participated in government price reporting and forecasting of ASP for Amgen.
 
In addition, Jim was previously President of The Safety Net Foundation and the ENcourage Foundation, two Amgen sponsored free drug foundations, from 2006 through 2008.  In this role, Jim re-engineered the business process while improving patient care and realizing significant operational savings.
 
Jim is currently a board member of the local chapter of The Wellness Community, a cancer support organization that provides services to patients, care givers, family members and children.
 
Jim has a Ph.D. in Mineral Economics from the Colorado School of Mines, a MBA in Statistics and Operations Research from University of Denver, and a BA from the University of Rochester in Economics and Statistics.

Mary Roberts is a strategic commercial leader skilled at growing brand profitability and leading successful sales, marketing and access initiatives in the healthcare industry.

Mary has fifteen years of experience in developing comprehensive reimbursement strategies and tactics across multiple therapeutic areas and settings of care to drive sales at launch and throughout a product's lifecycle. In fact, she has led or held a position of authority and responsibility for the development of seven product launch strategies across Oncology, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Osteoporosis, Chronic Kidney Disease, Metabolic Disease, and Epilepsy.

At Eisai, Inc., Mary held various positions including Northeast Regional Business Director for the Neurology Sales team. She began her career at Eisai within the Managed Markets group as the Director of Market Access and Reimbursement Services, where she had management oversight for Eisai's Patient Assistance Programs, Reimbursement Hotline Support Programs, Drug Replacement Programs, and Co-Pay Support Programs. She was also responsible for leading a team of National Account Reimbursement Managers (NARMs) which support patient access by providing field based reimbursement support for Medicare Contractors, State Medicaid agencies, State Societies and private payors.

Prior to Eisai, Mary worked as a Reimbursement Manager at Roche and as a Managed Markets Consultant at Campbell Alliance Group, Inc. She has also held several reimbursement operations positions at Biogen in Cambridge, MA.

Mary holds a Master of Public Health in Health Services from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Boston College.

Himanish Ghosh is a life science professional with over 10 years of experience in life science research and analytics.  Throughout his consulting career, Himanish has garnered experience across oncology, hematology, and inflammatory, cardiovascular, metabolic, anti-infective, neurological and orphan disease states.  He has successfully facilitated strategic and tactical engagements involving financial modeling, public policy application (such as new technology add-on payments), data analytics, launch readiness, and competitive mapping and monitoring. Himanish has supported a breadth of project scopes, including U.S. and ex-U.S. market access assessment initiatives, commercial opportunity assessments, and payor key opinion leader market research.

Prior to joining 1798 Consultants, Himanish was a competitive intelligence analyst with Pennside Partners in Zurich, Switzerland.  Himanish also worked at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, where he provided consulting support on how to increase efficiency by automating data analysis.  In addition, he gained exposure to intellectual property licensing at the technology transfer office of the University of California, San Diego.

Himanish holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Zurich and an M.S. in molecular biology along with a B.Sc. in biotechnology from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. 

Kimberly York is a medical writer and editor with fifteen years of experience developing deliverables for several of America's most admired bio-pharmaceutical companies, including Actavis, Amgen, Amylin, Eisai Pharmaceuticals, Gilead Sciences and Pfizer.  Kimberly has built a diverse portfolio of work that consists of managed markets, marketing, sales training and physician education materials.  Prior to working for 1798 Consultants, she worked in Commercial Operations at Santarus, where she managed the Legal-Medical-Regulatory review process for the copy approval of all external communications and worked closely with Marketing in the drafting and editing of deliverables to support the company's thought-leader Speaker's Bureau. Kimberly also worked for Merck as a Professional Sales Representative in Los Angeles, where she called on cardiologists, internists, and gastroenterologists and helped launch several blockbuster drugs during her tenure.

Kimberly has forged long-term collaborative relationships with hospital Pharmacy Directors, major medical plan Pharmacy Directors, former Medicare Directors and physician thought leaders and has conducted hundreds of market research interviews to help inform client's launch and pricing decisions. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Emory University and a Master's degree in English from the University of California at Riverside.

Ignacio Ruelas is a market access professional with 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.  During his time at 1798 Consultants, Ignacio has supported clients in a variety of initiatives, including new product launches across multiple disease states including oncology, ophthalmology, HIV, HCV, and psoriasis.  In his capacity at 1798 Consultants, Ignacio has developed expertise focused on the development of solutions for complex access and reimbursement problems for both pharmacy and medical benefit drugs.

Prior to joining 1798 Consultants, Ignacio acquired extensive pharmaceutical experience in operations, procurement, and supply chain management in different roles at Novartis and Valeant Pharmaceuticals.  Working closely with commercial teams, Ignacio was responsible for ensuring timely availability of products in the Latin America region and for supporting the launch of new products from a supply standpoint.  Ignacio also oversaw the procurement process of public infrastructure projects for the city of Auckland in New Zealand, where he gained experience in the public sector.

Ignacio has a B.A. in industrial engineering from La Salle University in Mexico City and completed his M.B.A. at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, Arizona. 

MBA, Fordham University | B.S., Pharmacy, Rutgers College of Pharmacy

Ilias has more than 17 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He has deep expertise in the areas of patient services, patient assistance programs, commercial strategy, pricing, contracting, risk management, and pharmacy operations.

Ilias has worked for a number of pharmaceutical manufacturers, focusing his career in managed markets and market access. Most recently, he worked at Novartis, where he was the Head of Patient Services Strategy, responsible for developing the patient support programs for all of Novartis' complex specialty products. Previously, he was the Director of Operations for patient services at Novartis, responsible for all vendors, budgets, and patient services program execution for all Novartis specialty products.

Ilias has also held senior roles on the pricing team at Forest Labs, in trade/channel strategy at Schering Plough, and at Roche on the acute care contracting team and in the patient reimbursement support and assistance department.

Ilias is a licensed pharmacist in the state of New Jersey and, prior to his career in the pharmaceutical industry, worked for over 10 years as a pharmacist, interacting directly with patients, healthcare providers, and third-party insurance organizations in the retail setting at Pathmark Pharmacy, a supermarket pharmacy chain with stores located across the Northeast. Ilias also worked at Medco, a large national Pharmacy Benefit Manager ("PBM"), in its mail-order pharmacy as a staff pharmacist.

Brett Olson is a business development professional and strategic partner with a varied mix of client service and pharmaceutical sales experience.

Brett brings nearly 14 years of pharmaceutical industry knowledge to the 1798 Consultants team, most recently transitioning from his role as director of business development at TrialCard.  While at TrialCard, he specialized in the design, implementation, and execution of patient affordability, market access, patient assistance, adherence, analytics, and virtual engagement programs.  He worked with a variety of manufacturers and products at various stages of their life cycle, from launch to loss of exclusivity.

Prior to Brett's time at TrialCard, he spent 8 years with AstraZeneca in positions of increasing responsibility as a sales representative both in the primary care and specialty care CNS settings.  Additionally, his experience includes sales and marketing roles with organizations including the Beasley Broadcast Group, Sports America, and McDonald's Corporation.

Brett received his B.S. in business administration with a concentration in marketing from East Carolina University.

Kaleb Kalinowski joined 1798 Consultants after completing his graduate studies.  As a member of the 1798 team, Kaleb centers his work on pharmaceutical product launch strategy, sales and marketing strategy, and market research.  In addition, Kaleb has utilized his experience in regulatory affairs and data analytics to contribute to 1798 Consultants' work on pricing and contracting.

Before joining 1798 Consultants, Kaleb served as project leader for the University of California, San Diego, Corporate Affiliates Program, where he worked to improve university-industry research partnerships.

Kaleb also worked in the office of U.S. Senator Al Franken, where he initiated and led a project on the impact of healthcare reform on more than 130,000 households and businesses and utilized a variety of quantitative and qualitative techniques to obtain relevant data on multiple statewide constituencies.  He also had a role with the University of Minnesota Law School as a data analyst.

Kaleb earned his master's degree from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied the neurobiological basis of human political behavior.  He completed doctoral-level coursework in statistics and cognitive psychology.  Kaleb attained his B.A. at the University of Minnesota.

Carlos Meier is a project and financial management professional with 11 years of experience across multiple disciplines, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, quality management systems, clinical research, and logistics.

Prior to joining 1798 Consultants, Carlos was a successful entrepreneur, running Ambos America, a consulting firm focused on market entry, distribution management, just-in-time inventory, and reimbursement strategies for medical device companies in Latin America.

Before starting Ambos America, Carlos led an international project in which an innovative wireless fetal heart-rate monitor was introduced in a resource-poor environment.  The successful project required strong relations with government officials, hospitals, physicians, midwives, and corporate partners throughout Mexico.

Carlos completed his M.A. in health economics at the University of California, San Diego.  He received his B.S. in business from Iowa State University.

Brad Schwarck has more than 15 years of experience working in the healthcare reimbursement sector, including insight and knowledge in such industry areas as reimbursement, appeals, market access, Medicare navigation, new technology, coding, education, marketing materials development, specialty drugs analysis, and complex insurance navigation.  He has authored numerous reimbursement and coding instructional resources for specialty pharmaceuticals and procedures.

Previously, Brad spent a decade working within the Mayo Clinic Department of Finance across all specialties, contributing to projects and process improvements of upwards of $40 million in yearly revenue enhancement.  His expertise was often deployed to numerous departments to assist with new technology access and in rare disease reimbursement cases and to find solutions to advanced, complex insurance situations for national and worldwide payors.  For these efforts, Brad was awarded the Mayo Clinic Individual Award for Excellence in 2009.

Brad also served as a healthcare reimbursement specialist at Essentia Health, where he provided reimbursement streamlining solutions, preauthorization, coding, copay assistance, and collections expertise to multisite cancer and infusion centers.  In this role, he supported the departments of medical oncology, radiation oncology, rheumatology, and neurology.

Brad holds a master's degree in healthcare administration from Des Moines University.  He also earned a certificate in long-term-care administration, is a certified professional coder, and completed his healthcare administration practicum training with Mayo Clinic Health System medical oncology and Golden Living Centers.

Prior to beginning his career as a business analyst in healthcare policy and pharmaceutical market access strategy, Cody Chapple worked in the financial industry at Altegris Financial, a wealth management firm and mutual fund provider with $5 billion in assets under management.  While at Altegris, Cody worked as a research assistant developing econometric models, performing quantitative financial analysis, and examining investment risk across different financial markets.

As a business analyst at 1798 Consultants, Cody has been able to apply the quantitative analysis skills and modeling expertise developed during his time in the financial industry. Cody has since expanded his skills to include the development of new product launch strategies, creation of product demand and price forecasting, and assistance in the coordination for pharmaceutical manufacturers of market access strategies for novel, biosimilar, and generic drugs for all disease states.

Cody graduated with honors from the University of San Diego and holds a B.A. in economics.

Holly Dembinski joined 1798 Consultants as a business analyst while obtaining her doctorate in chemistry with a specialty in biological physics, focusing on macromolecules implicated in the development and progression of complex disease states including cancer and HIV/AIDS.

Since joining 1798 Consultants, Holly has been able to apply scientific rigor to a variety of project developments, patient and provider assistance program designs, market access strategies, and tactical developments across a wide variety of disease states in different benefit designs and primary market research with providers and payors.

Prior to receiving her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, Holly received her B.S. in biology from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington.

Lan Tran is a results-driven management leader with over 5 years of diverse healthcare experience. 

Prior to joining 1798 Consultants, Lan spent most of her career in hospital quality assurance and readmissions and worked with The Joint Commission and the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission.  She piloted and established a successful bedside medication delivery program that lowered readmission rates for an inner-city hospital by 12% in a 6-month period.  Through this experience, she cultivated a unique understanding of hospital dynamics and regulations. 

Lan was also a project manager for Entra Health's medical devices and telehealth platform.  She developed and executed project plans for international clinical trials for top 10 pharmaceutical clients. 

Lan received her B.S. in health services administration with both hospital and business concentrations from James Madison University. 

Maoyi Lai is a data-driven life science professional with extensive experience in biomedical research and business analytics spanning the full continuum of therapeutic development-from bench to bed. 

Prior to joining 1798 Consultants, Maoyi completed postdoctoral training at the Scripps Research Institute, with studies in oncology, immunology, and antibody- and microRNA-based therapeutics.  He focused on translating genetic and experimental information into insights for therapeutic opportunities.

At 1798 Consultants, Maoyi has developed expertise focused on applying his data skills to practical applications of commercial analyses through customized financial models.

Maoyi also serves as ad hoc reviewer for peer-reviewed scientific journals including Molecules, PLoS One, BioMed Research International, and Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry.

Maoyi has a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences with a focus on molecular pharmacology and experimental therapeutics from the Mayo Clinic and a B.A. in biological sciences from Peking University.