Your Trusted Global Partner for Pharma | Biotech | CGT

Crystal Mersh is the founder, president, and CEO of QxP. She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Fairmont State University and has spent 25 years in the pharma industry in senior level positions with companies such as Novartis, Mylan, Sanofi, and Allergan. Her experience at these companies led her to create a revolutionary approach to consulting, delivering long-term transformational change in the pharma industry with the founding of QxP in 2012.  Crystal also has extensive experience in remediation, consent decree management, warning letter resolution, and continuous improvement for quality systems, workflows, and operations. She has led QxP in numerous, global engagements, specializing in regenerative medicine and immunotherapies, and has committed QxP to influencing regulatory and industry standards in the pharma industry while setting the platinum standard in life sciences education. The development and launch of Virtuosi are a key part of Crystal’s vision for leading-edge pharma education.

Email: cmersh@qualityexecutivepartners.com

Brian Duncan is the chief operating officer for QxP, providing operating oversight for all global consulting engagements. Brian graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy and then completed his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Since 2014, he has held various executive leadership positions, including senior vice president of global sales and deployment for Virtuosi. He is a seasoned leader, having held numerous senior and executive positions within the pharma industry. Brian has also worked with dozens of global pharma companies developing, deploying, and managing various strategic programs. These programs focus on remediation, mergers and acquisitions, site expansions, global standards alignment, education, and local capability enhancements. In addition, he has developed and led the daily execution of six successful warning letter and consent decree programs. All programs resulted in full resolution within record time (typically 12 months or less) with results that were sustained for several years at the local, regional, and global levels.

Email: bduncan@qualityexecutivepartners.com

Nicole Monachino is the chief legal officer and Head of business operations for QxP. She graduated from Hiram College with a bachelor’s degree in management and received her juris doctorate at the University of Notre Dame Law School. Nicole is a results-oriented business executive and attorney and a trusted advisor to cross-functional teams that drive strategic corporate initiatives. Combining this diverse experience, Nicole excels in identifying creative solutions to complex problems in all aspects of GxP remediation, pharmaceutical development, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. She navigates the complex legal and business framework of the pharma industry for QxP and is recognized for building strong relationships with senior business leaders, during times of ambiguity and crisis.

Email: nmonachino@qualityexecutivepartners.com

Uriel Kusiatin is the chief financial officer for QxP.  He holds a bachelor of science degree from the Technical University of Denmark as well as an MBA in strategy and finance from the Wharton School. Uriel has more than 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry as a C-level executive and management consultant to both small startups and large pharma organizations. He has advised senior executive teams, multiple board of directors, and investors on business strategy, commercialization, operational execution, and financial management. Over the past 8 years, Uriel has been CFO and CEO for a venture-backed liquid biopsy company focused on breast cancer detection and other women’s cancers.  He led the company through $50 million in capital raises, a sale to a private equity firm, and, most recently, the sale to a publicly traded molecular diagnostics company.

Email: ukusiatin@qualityexecutivepartners.com

Robin Mersh is the senior vice president of Sales for QxP. He graduated from Queen Mary University of London with a bachelor’s degree in history and politics and is an accomplished senior sales executive with over 20 years of success selling advanced technologies, including virtual reality, broadband, cloud, data centers and e-business. His sales focus is on the flagship product, Virtuosi — virtual reality education for the pharma industry in manufacturing operations and biotech.  Robin is an expert in strategic leadership, management, sales, channel and partner management, and cultivating client relationships. He is also able to identify opportunities for facilitating growth within an organization and securing positive results.

Email: rmersh@qualityexecutivepartners.com

Kathy Meyer is the vice president of program management for QxP. She graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a degree in molecular, cellular, and development biology and completed her master’s in business with an emphasis in technology management. Kathy joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1993 and has held several executive leadership roles in the fields of quality, compliance, manufacturing, supply chain, program management, and business development. In addition, she has supported and managed regulatory inspections and remediation programs and also successfully implemented multimillion-dollar projects and launch preparation strategies to improve time to delivery for patients. At QxP, Kathy serves as editor and program manager for Virtuosi. She has been recognized as a "Rising Star" by the Healthcare Business Women’s Association.

Email: kmeyer@qualityexecutivepartners.com

Christine Feaster has been a pharmaceutical executive focused on quality manufacturing and new manufacturing modalities to ensure access and affordability of life saving medicine and treatments around the world. With 30 years experience in leadership roles in Quality, Quality Control and Analytical Methods development, Christine has worked for top 50 pharmaceutical companies and start-ups in creating robust quality systems that have withstood international inspections successfully. Working for USP for 11 years, Christine has had executive roles of increasing responsibility starting in Quality, Global Public Health and then transitioning her career into the Commercial side of the business. Through executive education at Wharton School of Business, Christine helped to create the Marketing/Science structure of program units, and then leading 2 of the units (Dietary Supplements (including USP Verification) and the largest unit, Small Molecules, before becoming the Head of Global Operations for the organization. Now with QxP, Christine has as her responsibilities head of Marketing, Company Strategy and Operations for both business units, Virtuosi and Consulting.

Email: cfeaster@qualityexecutivepartners.com

Elizabeth Thomae has a 25+ year career spanning drug development and compliance consulting.  Her leadership and expertise span multiple organizational practice areas including regulatory affairs and strategic compliance consulting, integrated product development consulting, clinical research services, clinical trial regulatory services, commercialization and market access and reimbursement.  Throughout her career, Elizabeth has been a compelling leader of business development and other cross-functional teams, including extensive experience in solution design and implementation as well as in fulfilling Executive Sponsor roles and managing stakeholder relations.

Prior to joining QxP, Elizabeth worked with Cornerstone Research for 1 year, Ropes & Gray Law Firm for 4 years, Parexel Consulting for 23 years and RQM+ Consulting for 2 years, with roles of increasing responsibilities and leadership.  Prior to leading Business Development teams at Parexel, Elizabeth established and developed the Business Operations function at Parexel Consulting with responsibilities including financial management, business development and project management.  Collaborating with her clients, she created and led several “first-of-its-kind” strategic and operational partnerships in the industry within the US and globally.  

Elizabeth is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross, with a degree in Economics as we all as post-graduate studies at Harvard University Extension School in Chemistry, Environmental Sciences, Public Finance, and Project Management.   She lives in Boulder, Colorado where she takes full advantage of the outdoors and is an avid runner, mountain biker, and skier.  In addition to her professional passion, she shares an equal passion in being an active member of her community.  She was most recently recognized as a “2023 Community Hero” by the American Red Cross for her efforts to save lives and homes during the Marshall Fires and her sustaining efforts to help her community heal and recover.

Email: ethomae@qualityexecutivepartners.com

Leslie Prince Rudolph has over 25 years of experience in global pharmaceutical operations leadership. Her expertise spans multiple aspects of the business including Operations Management, Quality, Strategy, Operational Excellence, Education and Training, Program Management, and Supply Chain. Throughout her career, Leslie has developed and delivered significant improvement programs and managed business transformations with a focus on operations and business processes, people capabilities and culture.

Leslie worked with Eli Lilly and Company for 15 years, and then with Novartis/Sandoz for 11 years, with roles of increasing responsibilities across all areas of pharmaceutical manufacturing. She had significant change leadership roles in Indiana, Puerto Rico, Colorado, Austria, and in
Corporate roles supporting sites across the globe. Prior to her current role of VP – Engagement Operations at QxP, Leslie worked with QxP as a Project and Program Management Lead, partnering with leading global biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to implement significant improvements and optimize change management.

Leslie is a graduate of MIT, with an MS in Engineering, and an MBA from the Sloan School of Management and was a fellow in the Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program. She remains active in the MIT LGO program as mentor, Alumni Board member and past President, and Alumni Representative on the Operating Committee.

She now lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband James, 18-year-old son Max, and her dog Dude, where they all take full advantage of hiking, biking, and skiing in the Rocky Mountains.

Email: lrudolph@qualityexecutivepartners.com

Robert (Bob) Ferer is the vice president of consulting operations at QxP. A graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Bob is an engineering chemist and has more than 29 years of direct pharma experience with the design, build, startup, and management of facilities, specializing in aseptic manufacturing. His operational experience covers all aspects of pharma operations, from receipt of raw materials through inspection, final packaging, and shipping of finished products. In addition to operations expertise, Bob has been instrumental in multiple projects related to new facility design and startup. This includes developing and executing project master plans, schedules, and budgets, performing hands-on validation, design review, and equipment startup, and commissioning. He provides high-level consultation to clients on regulatory and compliance issues related to operations, engineering, and facility design for US and EU markets.

Email: bferer@qualityexecutivepartners.com

Tyler DeWitt has a wealth of experience creating scientific education programs, especially for adult learners. Tyler earned a Ph.D. in Microbiology from MIT, where his research focused on understanding ways in which bacteria can become resistant to antibiotic drugs.Much of Tyler's work is focused on using video and new technologies for teaching and learning. Tyler is the creator of one of the most popular science education channels on YouTube, and he partnered with Google to build a virtual reality experience that teaches cellular biology. He has given a TED Talk, which has been viewed over a million times, that focuses on how to explain complex technical information in ways that are engaging, accessible, and entertaining. Tyler is a frequent keynote speaker at science communication and science education conferences around the world. His work has been featured on NPR and in The New York Times.Tyler has worked with QxP since 2015, helping to create high-quality educational programs for clients around the world. In addition to contributing technical content, Tyler provides guidance to ensure that information is presented in ways that will be most appropriate and engaging for adult learners. For Virtuosi, in addition to his technical work behind the scenes, Tyler is also featured as an on-camera host.

Email: tdewitt@qualityexecutivepartners.com

Vanessa Figueroa, Pharmaceutical Microbiologist and Consulting Partner, has almost 20 years combined experience in Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology and Medical Device industries. Vanessa has expertise in sterility assurance, environmental and utilities monitoring programs and quality control laboratory management. Her consulting experiences have spanned both domestic and international large pharmaceutical companies, applying both US and global regulatory standards of quality. Her current role as Executive Director of Microbiology for QxP is focused on the development of Virtuosi, an innovative and revolutionary education and training product for the pharmaceutical industry. Vanessa has a Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology from State University of New York at New Paltz and a Master’s degree in Molecular Biology and Microbiology from San Jose State University. She is an active and publishing member of several professional organizations, such as the Parenteral Drug Association, American Society of Microbiology and Association for Women in Science.

Email: vfigueroa@qualityexecutivepartners.com