Charles River Associates today announced the promotions of six new vice presidents. Sean Sheridan in CRA’s Intellectual Property Practice, Eddie Li, Erika Sloan, and Griff Vinton in CRA’s Life Sciences Practice, and Uğur Akgün and Vicki Mertzanidou in CRA’s Antitrust & Competition Economics Practice, have been promoted to the level of vice president.
“We are pleased to announce the promotions of these six talented leaders who not only excel in providing the depth of client service that distinguishes CRA, but also contribute to the growth of our firm and the professional development of our colleagues,” said CRA’s President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Maleh. “We appreciate their work and dedication to the firm and are proud to congratulate them on their achievements.”
“What truly distinguishes Sean Sheridan in the courtroom from other IP damages experts is his deep, real-world technology licensing experience with a broad range of technologies and collaborators, including research institutions, start-ups, and established companies,” said Daniel McGavock, Vice President and Intellectual Property Practice Leader.
“Our three new vice presidents in Life Sciences—Eddie Li, Erika Sloan, and Griff Vinton—are focused on data and the role that analytics can play in informing strategy across global life sciences industries, which is a testament to the opportunity that we see for big data in the life sciences,” said Dr. Gregory K. Bell, Vice President and Life Sciences Practice Leader.
“Our Antitrust & Competition Economics consultants, Uğur Akgün and Vicki Mertzanidou, continue to lead the way in developing innovative economic concepts and applying sophisticated economic analyses to global complex cases in merger review, antitrust, and litigation,” said Margaret Sanderson, Vice President and Antitrust & Competition Economics Practice Leader. “Both based in London, they not only dominate in their respective fields and bring comprehensive and impactful analysis to their clients, but also have proven themselves to be strong leaders for our European colleagues.”
Dr. Sean Sheridan joined CRA in 2014 and has served as an expert witness in cases brought before federal and state courts, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, the International Trade Commission, and arbitration tribunals. Dr. Sheridan has developed numerous damages analyses related to patent infringement, breach of contract, and trade secret misappropriation, including analyses quantifying lost profits, reasonable royalties, and unjust enrichment. The engagements he has worked on span a wide range of industries and products, including pharmaceuticals, recombinant therapeutic proteins, vaccines, gene editing, medical devices, diagnostics, research tools, and electronic health records, as well as many others outside of the life sciences.
Eddie Li regularly leverages various data sources, including pharmacy and medical claims, affiliations, prescriptions, and sales/marketing data to inform commercial strategy. As Head of the Analytics Center of Excellence in the Life Sciences Practice, he provides guidance and oversight for internal R&D concerning machine-learning, cloud-based data platforms, and interactive data visualization. Mr. Li leads projects specializing in patient journey, patient finding, opportunity assessment, customer segmentation, and payer analytics.
Erika Sloan supports companies in the biopharma and healthcare diagnostics spaces from early-stage development through product launch and beyond. She leads projects that inform life sciences commercial strategy by integrating insights across different data sources including claims analytics, primary research, and secondary data, with an emphasis on strategic market research. Erika has extensive experience in global qualitative and quantitative research engagements, particularly buying process and patient journey analyses, customer segmentation and targeting, and opportunity assessments. Although her work spans a broad range of therapeutic areas, her particular fields of specialization are oncology and rare diseases.
Griff Vinton has more than 20 years of data-driven, client-service experience in a broad range of therapy areas and analytic investigational techniques, with a more recent focus and interest in neuro-psych disciplines, rare diseases, and patient record databases. He develops and delivers business intelligence solutions to support improved insight visualization and overall leverage of client investments in global information resources.
Dr. Uğur Akgün specializes in applying the most advanced economic theory in merger, abuse of dominance, and dispute cases. He has substantial experience designing and implementing a wide range of theoretical models that assist clients and regulators to understand the effects of mergers and regulatory actions. In addition to cases before the European Commission, the CMA, the UK Competition Appeals Tribunal, ICSID, and the WTO, Uğur has worked on cases in EU Member States and non-EU jurisdictions. His theoretical modeling expertise has been applied in numerous industries including aerospace, broadcasting and telecommunications, chemicals, mining, retailing, and technology.
Vicki Mertzanidou is an expert in competition economics with strong empirical skills. She has managed teams of economists in multiple large-scale empirical analyses in retail and other mergers. Vicki has advised clients in many of the most important merger cases before UK and European competition authorities. She has also worked on abuse of dominance, excessive pricing, and damages cases. Her experience spans a diverse range of industries from white fuels and chemicals to commercial retail property, pharmaceuticals, mobile towers, telecoms equipment, media data provision, betting, and many fast-growing consumer goods.
