Tom Murtagh is the CEO and a founder of Clarion. He has been working with leading life science companies since 1995—helping build and deliver on growth and leadership strategies across the sector.

Tom’s experience ranges from product level strategy, where he has supported dozens of brand teams with their go-to-market strategies, to executive/board support where he has helped design corporate growth strategies as well as turnarounds.

Building off his early career training as a banker and his advanced degree work at the University of Chicago, Tom is skilled in the application of quantitative tools and analysis in support of sound strategic decision making. “Too frequently, financial tools, analyses, and metrics are viewed as belonging to the domain of the bankers and financial analysts and are underutilized as inputs to help shape rich strategic decision-making. At Clarion, we seek to infuse our projects with the discipline and insights from finance – as both a way to better understand strategies and their embedded assumptions, as well as a catalyst to help sharpen strategic thinking.”

In recent years, Tom has spent much of his time working to improve client decision-making throughout the product development process. From very early guidance to research teams to more advanced input to product development teams, Tom enjoys working collaboratively with client teams to fully realize the potential of promising science in the pursuit of life-changing therapies. Examples of Tom’s recent contributions include:

• Input and refinement to product concepts and product profiles for dozens of rare and specialty therapeutic candidates;
• Evaluation of numerous pre- and post-POC development-stage candidates for potential in-licensing
• Architecting and implementing a new product decision-making model for a leading rare disease firm
• Development of therapeutic growth strategies for firms in areas as varied as immunology, fibrosis, rare diseases, CNS, and oncology

Tom is particularly proud of Clarion’s commitment to growing and developing industry leaders within the Clarion team. “In addition to allowing us to do great work for our clients, Clarion’s training and development model allows us to help develop a cadre of potential leaders to help advance science and deliver on the promise to patients. It is encouraging to stay in touch with Clarion alumni who are now leading and shaping the industry from the front-lines. We are proud of our commitment to helping these leaders develop their strategic and organization building skill set.”

Outside of Clarion, Tom enjoys time with his family, time on the water and has a new-found passion for competitive badminton.

Tom received an M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance/Marketing from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Bart J. Lombardi, a founder and managing director of Clarion, brings over 20 years of experience in corporate and portfolio strategy, new product launches, commercialization strategy, indication prioritization, managed care strategy, and BD&L strategy. Bart has also worked with emerging biotech companies to develop commercialization and organizational scale-up strategies for the launch of their first commercial asset.

Prior to founding Clarion, Bart was a vice president of the Strategy Practice at Braun Consulting (previously Vertex Partners), where he started up and led the Chicago Strategy Practice.

Bart enjoys helping companies provide innovative therapeutics that make a significant impact on patients’ lives. He was the sponsor for Clarion’s internal PatientLink initiative that invites patients to discuss their journey with the goal of more closely linking Clarion’s client work with actual patient experiences and outcomes.

Outside the office, Bart enjoys spending time with his family, watching soccer, and running.

Bart holds an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. from Middlebury College.

Carol Kearney, a managing director with Clarion, utilizes over 20 years of industry and consulting experience to help clients address challenges and develop solutions that positively impact their business. While working on a wide range of projects over her past 14 years at Clarion, Carol particularly enjoys helping organizations to develop therapeutic area and product strategies that transcend across both the commercial and medical divisions and to design and implement innovative approaches to engaging patients and building thought leader advocacy. Additionally, Carol has played an integral role in preparing for and executing new product launches for both established and emerging biopharmaceutical organizations.

Prior to joining Clarion, Carol spent eight years working in the industry with a majority of her time focused in the area of ophthalmology. Carol’s role at Pfizer/Pharmacia as the global director of marketing focused on strategy development, market expansion, professional education and lifecycle management/phase IV planning for XalatanⓇ/XalacomⓇ. Carol also has sales and training experience in both primary care and specialty markets and has worked in a variety of global markets including Europe, Japan, Latin America and Asia Pacific.

Outside of the office, Carol enjoys traveling the country with her family and spending time with her husband watching their two children play sports.

Carol has a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Kansas.

Dominick Mastropoalo, a managing director of Clarion, has nearly 20 years of consulting experience working with clients ranging from global pharmaceutical to development-stage biotech and device companies to optimize their investments through portfolio management and planning, business development and licensing, competitive strategy, new product commercialization and launch planning, and organizational change.

Dominick has supported the commercialization of more than 15 new pharmaceutical and medical device products. Over the past five years, he has focused almost exclusively on partnering with emerging biopharma clients to commercialize their first asset, involving constructing integrated commercialization roadmaps, defining market entry and market access strategies, and designing organizational structures and scale up plans. Dominick has experience across a wide range of therapeutic categories, including CNS, dermatology, ophthalmology, oncology, pain, cardiovascular, respiratory, vaccines, and metabolic disorders.

Prior to joining Clarion, Dominick was a management consultant with Accenture, where he designed, developed, and implemented operations and change management solutions for life sciences, government, and financial services clients in North America and Europe.

Dominick takes great pride in working with emerging biopharma companies to commercialize their first asset. “It is an exciting and rewarding opportunity to become a true strategic partner with a lasting impact.”

Outside of the office, Dominick enjoys spending as much time as possible with his wife and two daughters.

Dominick has a MALD from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and graduated with honors from Villanova University.

Robert (Bobby) Moy is a managing director with Clarion. Since joining Clarion in 2004, he has built expertise in a broad range of therapeutic areas and projects—from rare to mass markets and from the earliest stages of product development through launch.

His current area of focus is in developing market expansion and business development strategies in rare disease and transplant markets as well as supporting early commercialization decisions in these areas. Bobby also has a strong interest in building strategies around novel therapeutic approaches and mechanisms of action.

Bobby’s key project types include:

• Market entry strategies
• Indication prioritization for new MOAs and platforms
• Defining product value propositions
• Product valuation assessment
• Identification of key stakeholders and decision points during patient journey

Outside the office, Bobby is a living kidney donor who previously worked as a translation coach for Haruki Murakami and can usually be found trailing his two children.

Bobby received an M.A. in Neurobiology from Harvard’s Division of Medical Sciences and received a B.A. with dual concentrations in History and Neuroscience from Oberlin College.

Dennis Chang, Ph.D. is a managing director at Clarion with a primary focus in oncology. Through 100+ projects, Dennis has led the cultivation of world-class oncology expertise within the firm, overseeing activities that keep Clarion on the cutting edge of cancer-related science, medicine, evolving policies, key trends, and biopharma best practices. This knowledge and experience is applied to help biopharma clients develop strategies for their most challenging and complex problems, such as investing in combination immunotherapy regimens or navigating the evolving economics and science of precision oncology.

Before joining Clarion, Dennis worked as an academic scientist and educator, holding positions as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Biology Department at Brandeis University and as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Wellesley College.

Dennis embraces his current focus on oncology product and portfolio strategies: “The pace of advancement in cancer science and medicine has never been faster, and the hurdles for commercial success of new oncology therapies have never been higher. Helping biopharma companies adapt and persevere—and thus bring new, better medicines to cancer patients—is incredibly demanding but immensely rewarding.”

Outside the office, Dennis enjoys drawing, writing, and conducting science experiments with his son.

Dennis received a Ph.D. from the Neurobiology Department at Harvard Medical School and a BScH in Life Sciences from Queen’s University in Canada.

Tim Barder, Ph.D. is a senior principal at Clarion. He has over 14 years of experience in the life science industry, from leading drug discovery, development, and delivery programs to advising global pharmaceutical, early-stage biotech, CDMO, and investment firm clients. Tim’s expertise and passion are in innovation strategy development, where he identifies and develops actionable recommendations in order to maximize growth by ensuring clients embark on cutting-edge science and drive towards commercially superior products and services.

Prior to joining Clarion, Tim spent 6 years at L.E.K. Consulting and Arthur D. Little, where he led the Technology & Innovation Practice in the US. Prior to his time in consulting, Tim worked as a scientist at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Merck Research Labs, and Blend Therapeutics where he led groups in pharmaceutical development focused on oncology, inflammation, and neurology.

Outside of work, Tim enjoys spending time with his family, traveling to new destinations, enjoying the outdoors, and staying fit.

Tim received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from MIT under the tutelage of Professor Stephen Buchwald and was a NIH postdoctoral fellow under the late 2008 Noble Laurate Professor Roger Tsien in the field of cancer imaging and targeting. He also received a B.S. in Chemistry from UC San Diego. Tim is a co-author on more than 25 peer-reviewed publications and patents, garnering ~6,000 citations to date.

Alyssa Trigger is a senior principal at Clarion. She has spent more than eight years in the life sciences industry with a significant focus on new product commercialization, particularly involving the launch of a company’s first asset. Alyssa leads project teams that help define integrated commercialization and organizational scale-up strategies while supporting collaboration and alignment across commercial, non-commercial, and corporate functions. In addition, Alyssa has supported opportunity assessments, Medical Affairs strategy and KOL engagement approaches, BD&L strategy, performance optimization strategies for established products and business process design. She has experience working across a range of therapeutic areas, including dermatology, aesthetics, oncology, pain, and rare diseases.

Prior to joining Clarion, Alyssa spent nearly four years developing medical devices as a research and development engineer with Johnson & Johnson.

Alyssa is excited by the expanding opportunities that building a career at Clarion provides.

“We work intimately alongside emerging companies through periods of transformational growth and evolution as they shift their focus from development to commercialization.”

Outside the office, Alyssa enjoys traveling, yoga, and DIY projects.

Alyssa holds a Master of Engineering Management degree from Duke University and graduated with a B.S. in biomedical engineering, magna cum laude, from Boston University. She is also certified as a Six Sigma Black Belt.

Natalie (German) Thovmasian, Ph.D. is a senior principal at Clarion with a key focus in oncology. Her expertise includes pipeline strategy for preclinical and clinical assets, franchise strategy in at the disease level, and portfolio prioritization at the company level. She has extensive experience working across solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, spanning a broad spectrum of MoAs including immunotherapy, cell therapy, and targeted therapy. Natalie’s favorite part about working at Clarion is the level of teamwork and camaraderie within the project teams.

Prior to Clarion, Natalie was a member of the Business Development team at Boston Children’s Hospital in the Technology and Innovation Development Office. In this role, she helped create academic-private partnerships and propel the commercialization of intellectual property.

In her free time, Natalie enjoys marathon training and hiking with her Bernese mountain dogs named Maeby and Armand.

Natalie received her Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from Harvard University with a focus on cancer cell metabolism. She received her B.S. in Biochemistry from Creighton University.

Petya Spletzer, M.B.A. is a senior principal at Clarion with more than 15 years of consulting experience in the life sciences industry. She has worked on a wide range of projects across pharmaceutical and biotech clients’ commercial and medical organizations. Petya brings significant expertise in new product marketing and commercialization across multiple therapeutic areas, including CNS, cardiovascular, metabolic disorders, musculoskeletal and autoimmune disease. She leads project teams that support product strategy development and performance optimization, while also helping elevate organizational effectiveness and facilitate cross-functional collaboration and alignment. In addition, she has supported therapeutic area strategy development, opportunity assessments, asset valuations, patient engagement capability development, business process design and optimization, new product launch planning and support for both established and emerging biopharmaceutical companies.

Prior to joining Clarion, Petya worked for Braun Consulting (formerly Vertex Partners) and Putnam Associates, strategy consulting firms focused on the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.

Outside of the office, Petya enjoys spending time with her husband and three sons, cheering for their baseball teams, and planning family trips to the beach.

Petya received her M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Middlebury College.

Ellen Edenberg, Ph.D.  is a senior principal at Clarion. She has 12+ years of experience in the life sciences, with strategy consulting expertise across a wide variety of projects ranging from early commercial projects including indication prioritization, opportunity assessments, and portfolio strategies through commercial strategy development with a key focus on helping clients build strategies to tackle commercial challenges including for novel therapeutic approaches and mechanisms of action. Her work has spanned therapeutic areas from GI, CNS, critical care, neonatology, neuromuscular disease, and radiopharmaceuticals, with a concentration in rare disease and immunology. Ellen came to Clarion as one of the first hires through the PROPEL program for advanced degree candidates and has enjoyed contributing to the continued success of that program.

Prior to joining Clarion, Ellen received a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, San Francisco, and performed post-doctoral research in biochemistry and molecular biology at the Whitehead Institute at MIT. She is the lead author in four peer-reviewed scientific papers.

Outside the office, Ellen enjoys hanging out with her kids, playing strategy-based board games, and reading.

Ellen completed her undergraduate degree at Stanford University in Biological Sciences.

Casey Thevenot, MPH is a principal at Clarion. She has over four years of experience in consulting working with early stage biotechs to large, multinational pharmaceutical companies in a variety of therapeutic areas. While Casey has worked on a wide range of projects, she specializes in helping clients develop comprehensive brand / therapeutic area strategies and design and execute tactical plans that advance the overall vision. Casey also has extensive experience with US and EU new product commercialization, including developing cross-functional launch plans, creating detailed budget models, and defining organizational scale-up plans.

Prior to joining Clarion, Casey worked as federal lobbyist at Akin Gump representing a broad range of healthcare clients, including pharmaceutical manufacturers, during ACA implementation. She also held a position in corporate strategy and government relations at CVS Health.

Outside the office, Casey loves to travel internationally, explore national parks, visit museums in her hometown of DC, cook for family and friends, and box at her local gym.

Casey received an MPH in Health Policy and Management from Yale University and a B.S. in Public Health from the University of Georgia.

Carolina Lahmann is a principal at Clarion. She has worked on a variety of projects including early stage indication and pipeline portfolio prioritization, opportunity assessments, co-positioning strategy, and medical affairs strategy. Her projects have spanned across a wide range of therapeutic areas including rare diseases, neuroscience, genetic immunodeficiencies, and reproductive medicine.

Prior to joining Clarion, Carolina received her doctorate in Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics from the University of Oxford, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. Her research focused on neuronal cellular metabolism and elucidating the anti-epileptic mechanisms of the ketogenic diet.

Outside the office, Carolina enjoys long-distance running, gardening, and traveling with her family.

Carolina completed her undergraduate in Pharmacology at University College London in the United Kingdom.

Martin Strebl-Bantillo is a principal at Clarion. He has extensive expertise in primary market research and strategy development to support new product commercialization across a range of therapeutic areas, with a focus on oncology and transplant care.

Prior to joining Clarion, Martin received his PhD in Chemistry & Chemical Biology from Harvard University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Neuroimaging at MGH/Harvard Medical School. His research focused on chemical methodology of introducing radioactive labels into small molecules, and the applications of his technology in PET-based visualization of epigenetic enzymes in the living brain.

Outside the office, Martin enjoys food, orchids, and reading about a range of topics. He loves traveling with his husband and practicing his foreign language skills on unsuspecting locals.

Martin completed his B.Sc. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from LMU Munich in his native Germany.

Daniel J. Hawkins is a founder emeritus of Clarion. Dan has over 30 years of experience in healthcare, having worked with life sciences companies ranging from global pharmaceutical companies to development stage biotech to device and diagnostic companies, as well as financial firms that invest in the industry. In addition to core life science clients, Dan has worked with health plans such as WellPoint and New York Life, provider groups such as Joslin Diabetes Center and Fallon Clinic, and retail pharmacies such as Walmart.

He has worked in functional areas from product development through sales, on issues from product acceleration to board-level M&A advice, and in therapeutic areas ranging from oncology to orthopedics, with a particular interest in diabetes, dementia and substance use disorders. In addition, Dan has deep experience in pricing, reimbursement, and product access.

Prior to founding Clarion, Dan was CEO of a respiratory medical device company. He spent his first 10 years at the consulting firm of Corporate Decisions, Inc. (now Oliver Wyman), where he was partner, co-head of the healthcare practice, and one of three elected members of the Management Committee.

Dan has an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management, and an A.B. in Economics from Princeton University. He is chair of the Joslin Leadership Council and a past board member for M|C Communications, the parent company of Pri-Med.

Jen Fennessy is the director of finance and operations at Clarion. In her role, she oversees all aspects of the financial business including financial reporting and analysis, cash management, 401k management, payroll, insurance, vendor and client management. In addition to these duties, she aids the Operations team in ensuring overall operational excellence. Jen is also a member of the Leadership Team.

Prior to her eight years at Clarion, Jen was the director of corporate consolidation at MMA Financial where she managed operational accounting, consolidation accounting, and delivery of financial reporting requirements to the company’s umbrella organization. She has twenty years of experience in accounting and financial analysis, beginning with a job in audit assurance and business advisory.

Outside of work, Jen spends time with her three children as full-time chauffeur and chef with her husband. She’s an avid reader, cheerleader for her children’s sports leagues, and wine expert.

Jen holds a B.S. in Business and Accounting from Virginia Tech.