The BHBIA are delighted to introduce our speakers and hosts for this event, please read their profiles below:

Joel Jitell - Head of Global Operations | Day One Strategy

LinkedIn: Joel Jitell

Joel is Global Head of Operations at Day One Strategy and has over two decades of experience in market research, with most of that time spent in project management, operations and business transformation.

Intrinsically linked to how we can be the best people at work is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and this is one of his passions. Not all efficiencies come from technological advancements; if we feel valued for who we are, supported by our team and comfortable at work, we perform better. Joel has been a member of the D, E & I committee since it was first set up in 2022.

Bridget Pumfrey - Partner | BPR Pharma

LinkedIn: Bridget Pumfrey

Bridget started her career in healthcare business intelligence in the 1990s. Returning to London after several years living in Paris she started out in the research world doing translation and analysis for ISIS research and quickly realised that healthcare research was the place for her. She held director positions at Martin Hamblin GfK and Double Helix and in 2011 she decided to step away from management meetings and get closer to research. She co-founded BPR PHARMA with Matt Brooks with the aim of delivering excellent healthcare research with simplicity and clarity. 13 years and many projects later BPR PHARMA still maintains these founding values.

Bridget has been a BHBIA member for over 25 years and remains passionate about the industry. This year she felt it was time to give something back and believing strongly in the importance of putting D E &I at the centre of what we do she joined the D E & I committee.

Jeanette Kaye - Global Deputy Managing Director | HRW

LinkedIn: Jeanette Kaye

Jeanette's business background gave her the springboard for a career in market research. After many years focusing on pharma MR, her ideal opportunity arose with HRW in 2005, where she could get involved in the wider healthcare market, enjoy forming strong strategic partnerships with her clients and stoking her passion for developing people. Jeanette's driving force is ensuring HRW's work represents true behaviours and attitudes of stakeholders in the healthcare market, and she loves finding the "golden nuggets" of insights that make our research shine. Dermatology is Jeanette's therapy area of interest and she now heads up Organisational Health for HRW. Outside of work, she loves spending time with family, friends, and her animals (2 dogs and a cat); supporting her beloved Liverpool football club; cooking, reading and walking.

Asha Varma - Research Executive | HRW

LinkedIn: Asha Varma

Asha joined the HRW Manhattan office after obtaining a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Chicago. During her time at university, Asha worked as a research assistant for multiple public health research projects, which sparked her interest in healthcare and research, and lead her to join the HRW team. She is particularly interested in oncology research and is a member of our oncology team, HRW ORBIT. Asha also has strong experience across a range of quantitative methodologies and is passionate about inclusive screening and survey design. Outside of work, Asha loves to explore the outdoors and enjoys running, hiking, and skiing. She also enjoys traveling and exploring new restaurants in NYC.

Ranj Hayre - Just Worldwide | Just Worldwide

LinkedIn: Ranj Hayre

Ranj has over 10 years experience in the market research and spanning operational roles and account management. An experienced project manager and consultant who loves to engage with clients.  She has a proven track record of working on engagements across the healthcare industry, partnering with agencies as well as big pharma companies. Ranj is a member of the BHBIA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.

Angela Lamacraft - Diversity Champion | Institute of Acoustics

LinkedIn: Angela Lamacraft

Angela is a Senior Consultant at Sustainable Acoustics, specialising in environmental and industrial acoustics within the retail, commercial and residential sectors. She is also a Fellow and Council Member of the Institute of Acoustics where she is the organisation's Diversity Champion.

She states that some of the most interesting projects she has worked on include prediction of vibration from mining activities; noise from a hydropower scheme in the river Thames; and large mixed-use developments in challenging environments.

Angela is passionate about helping the Institute of Acoustics stay relevant to members, believing that we all benefit from the unique ideas that a diverse active membership brings. She Chairs the IOA Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, which she created three years ago. The working group has provided guidance for improving EDI in the IOA on several matters, including for membership data collection and the conduct of meetings. It has also raised awareness of underrepresented groups, such as gender and neurodiversity.

Neena Modi - Professor of Neonatal Medicine | Imperial College London

Imperial.ac.uk: Neena Modi

Neena Modi is Professor of Neonatal Medicine at Imperial College London and Consultant in Neonatal Medicine at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust.

Neena is a Fellow and member of Council of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the immediate past-president of the British Medical Association. She heads the multidisciplinary Neonatal Medicine Research Group, and the National Neonatal Research Database, a UK Information Asset, at the Neonatal Data Analysis Unit, at Imperial. She is the lead for the "Pregnancy and Prematurity" theme of the Imperial Biomedical Research Centre.

Neena is an advocate for child health and well-being, and youth enfranchisement, and a campaigner for the retention of the National Health Service as a primarily publicly funded, publicly delivered healthcare system.

Max Wheel - Chief Operating Officer | SIA

LinkedIn: Max Wheel

Max has spent over 30 years in international business and project finance, having worked in the US, Spain, Denmark and Latin America. His background is in Economics (University of Leeds) and for the last 6 years he has worked with Ralph and colleagues on developing health data analytics solutions with colleagues from pharma, engineering, physics and business.

The aim is to assist in identifying problem areas in healthcare which can be addressed by better use of data including early diagnosis, patient flows, major disease prevalence e.g. cancer and diabetes. 

The main focus has been in the NHS, however the SIA also works with pharma companies in identifying areas of interest relating to specific therapeutics with the aim of improving outcomes.

Stuart Boyce - Chief Information Office | SIA

Managing Director (MD) of S&B & Chief Information Officer (CIO) SIA in Healthcare. As a specialist in Business Intelligence (BI) and data engineering in healthcare, I have over 15 years’ experience using both open and secure datasets to provide bespoke BI models and visualisations to inform decision making and transformation.

 Most recently we have been working on projects with Imperial College London’s Neonatal Unit on the National Neonatal Research Database, Suffolk and North East Essex ICS on Quality of Life, The British Society for Heart Failure on their 25*25 initiative, Cancer Services Performance with the East of England amongst others. In addition, my R&D team and that of the SIA, have been working on Medicines optimisation, Early Diagnosis in Diabetes, Early Diagnosis in Cancer, Cancer Waiting Times Performance, Learning Difficulties, Mental Health, Eating Disorders and Anxiety and Depression Disorders.

Karen Westaway - Chief Executive Officer | ValueBase

LinkedIn: Karen Westaway

Karen has a heritage in Market Access that stretches back over 25 years and is currently the founder and CEO at ValueBase Healthcare.

Previously Karen was CEO and a founding member of WG Consulting where she built a European and Global Healthcare Team and was instrumental in shaping Healthcare Access approaches that are widely recognized today.

The speakers supporting BHBIA Member Events do so in order to promote Thought Leadership, discussion, debate and innovation for the benefit of the Business Insights community. They also do this on a voluntary basis for which the BHBIA is very grateful.

The BHBIA would also like to thank Simon Barnes - DE&I Committee Chair, and Natasha Patel - DE&I Committee Secretary for their time and support with curating the panel and discussion for this event.