Founders
The founders of Scisive Consulting have dedicated their professional and management consulting careers to serving the medical and life sciences industries. The four founders have served medical businesses for a combined total of over 60 years as consultants and over 30 years in the medical industry. Having worked together for years at The Wilkerson Group, the principals share a common history, command of proven methodologies, and core values. Over the years, the founders have predicted and driven numerous game-changing strategic initiatives that are now part of the medical business landscape:
- The emergence and growth of the specialty pharmaceutical sector
- The emergence of molecular diagnostics
- Bridging Big Pharma’s loss of exclusivity chasm
- The expansion of Japanese pharmaceutical companies into North America and Europe
- Financing of first and second generation biopharmaceutical companies
- The emergence of commercial home health care
For over 25 years, Bob Easton has been recognized as a world-wide leader in healthcare business consulting. He has built and led two top firms, beginning with the founding of The Wilkerson Group in 1985. He has led hundreds of market development and strategic advisory assignments for clients, including large and specialty pharmaceutical companies, early-stage through publicly-traded biopharmaceutical companies, and diagnostics businesses. He has influenced the decision-making of numerous healthcare professionals and supported hundreds of client executives in Australia, Japan, Canada, U.S., Europe, and Israel.
Mary Koto has 24 years of healthcare experience in both operating companies and management consulting. She has worked for medical device, biopharmaceuticals, and in vitro diagnostics companies principally in the areas of Marketing, Strategic Planning, and Operations. Ms. Koto led the creation of LMA North America as Vice President and a Board member, where she launched a series of novel anesthesia devices and established them as a standard of care. She has also held senior management positions at Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Gensia Sicor, and Accumetrics. Dr. Koto worked at the San Francisco office of The Wilkerson Group, starting as consultant and later leading project teams and acting as office head.
Frank Russo has over 25 years’ experience in strategic advisory and financial advisory consulting, the last 15 years focused on healthcare clients and on companies that serve the healthcare industry. Assignments have encompassed organizational and corporate development, business strategy, and mergers and acquisitions. His focus on healthcare began when he joined The Wilkerson Group (TWG) where, as Managing Director, he served as Chief Operating Officer and led corporate development assignments for clients. After negotiating the sale of TWG to the IBM Corporation, Mr. Russo served as a Principal Financial Advisor in IBM’s Corporate Development Department, where he led the sale of several non-strategic assets. Earlier in his career, Frank held senior management positions in the investment banking departments of Prudential Securities and The First Boston Corporation.
Catharine Staughton has a wide range of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries gained over 25 years’ working in healthcare consulting, banking, and industry. Her expertise in financial analysis and product forecasting were acquired as an equity analyst at Robert Fleming Securities in London. She also worked in business development for vaccines and other therapeutic categories at Medeva and in corporate development at the cancer company Antisoma, where she was responsible for identifying and evaluating both product and corporate acquisition opportunities. Ms. Staughton was the first European employee of The Wilkerson Group’s London office, where she worked on numerous client assignments including writing expert letters for listings on the London Stock Exchange and AIM.
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