Dr. Rebecca Taha, waterworksAI

Rebecca Taha, PhD, MBA, CEO & Founder of waterworksAI, is a strategic leader in the life sciences industry. With a deep understanding of both scientific research and business operations, Dr. Taha guides waterworksAI in the delivery of innovative, technology-based solutions that address critical challenges in drug development. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, she has a proven track record of delivering impactful solutions. Prior to founding waterworksAI, Dr. Taha served small, medium, and large pharma and biotech organizations in the strategic development and implementation of their clinical development programs. Dr. Taha received her MS and PhD from the University of Kentucky in Statistics and Gerontology, respectively, and her MBA from the Kelley School of Business.

Dr. Jingjing Ye, BeiGene

Dr. Jingjing Ye is an executive director and currently leads a global team, Data Science and Digital Innovations (DSDI), with Global Statistics and Data Sciences (GSDS) in BeiGene. She has over 17 years’ experience in pharmaceutical industry and US FDA, with focus in cancer drug discovery and development. Her statistical and regulatory experience expands full spectrum on patients’ treatment journey from diagnosis, treatment, to living with the condition. She is very active in statistical communities in US and between US and China DIA communities, including leading several cross-disciplinary and cross-company working groups. She received her PhD degree in statistics from University of California, Davis and BS in applied mathematics from Peking University.

Dr. Kun Chen, University of Connecticut

Kun Chen is a Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Connecticut (UConn) and a Research Fellow at the Center for Population Health, UConn Health Center. He has been a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) since 2022 and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) since 2016. His research mainly focuses on large-scale multivariate statistical learning, statistical machine learning, and healthcare analytics. He has extensive interdisciplinary research experience in several fields, including ecology, biology, agriculture, and population health. Dr. Chen has graduated with over ten PhDs and received Recognition for Teaching Excellence at UConn multiple times. He has also been active in professional services. In particular, he was a core member in establishing the New England Statistical Society (NESS) in 2017 and served as its secretary until 2021. Currently, he serves as the Program Chair for the ASA Section on Statistical Computing and Vice-President for the ASA Connecticut Chapter.

Dr. Chen received his B.Econ. in Finance and Dual B.S. in Computer Science & Technology from the University of Science & Technology of China in 2003, M.S. in Statistics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2007, and Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Iowa in 2011. Before joining UConn, he was on the faculty of Kansas State University from 2011 to 2013.

Dr. Pritibha Singh, Novartis

With 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry, Pritibha focuses on solving complex global business challenges by integrating analytics, development strategy, and stakeholder alignment to deliver outcomes. Pritibha’s Statistics and Program Management leadership in cross-functional teams has driven insights, operational efficiency, and sustainable growth.

Leveraging her unique blend of psychology, statistics, and business expertise, I translate intricate data-driven insights into impactful strategies. Her sustainability doctoral research on decentralized clinical trials at ETH Zurich reflects her commitment to innovation and human-centric solutions. Passionate about driving strategic transformation, she fosters collaboration, inspires change, and delivers results in dynamic, high-stakes environments. She has an MBA from the University of St Gallen (Switzerland) and from the University of Auckland (New Zealand), her MSc in Medical Statistics, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Statistics, and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Statistics.

Dr. Joan Buenconsejo, BMS

Dr. Joan Buenconsejo is the Vice President and head of Cardiovascular and Neuroscience Biostatistics at Bristol-Myers Squibb. In addition to leading a team of talented statisticians who support the development of innovative therapies for patients with CV and neurological diseases, she is also co-leading a BMS-wide workstream that aims to foster trial design innovation and optimization. Dr. Buenconsejo has over 20 years of drug development experience, having worked at the Food and Drug Administration and AstraZeneca before joining BMS. While she calls statistics as her “bread and butter” skillset, she is also passionate about applying novel tools and technology to generate insights, simplify workflows, and reduce patient burden in clinical research. She is also an advocate of using innovative trial designs to accelerate the development of promising new therapies. Dr. Buenconsejo holds a Ph.D. and an MPH in Biostatistics from Yale University.

Numan Karim, AbbVie

Numan Karim is an Associate Director of Data Science & Analytics at AbbVie. He has 8 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with a focus on enabling analytics capabilities across Clinical Development, with an emphasis on Patient Safety analytics.

Numan's current work involves developing fit-for-purpose analytics platforms for healthcare professionals and scientists to easily navigate, interrogate, and survey complex clinical data to ensure patient safety and the safety of AbbVie drugs. Combining visual analytics, statistics, and modern data engineering tactics, he has deployed multiple data science products at scale, enabling patient safety insights and surveillance in an automated, self-service manner. Numan is passionate about data science leadership and the intersection of analytics, technology, and medicine.

Numan received a B.S. in Statistics & Integrative Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2016, and received a M.S. in Applied Data Science from the University of Chicago in 2020.

Dr. Wei Zhong, BioNTech

Wei Zhong is a Senior Director of Biostatistics at BioNTech SE and providing strategic guidance into oncology drug development and regulatory plan. He has over 12 years’ in-depth experience in phase I-IV clinical trials with the focus on oncology and CNS in big pharma companies including Genentech, Takeda and Pfizer. Wei is a recognized expert in innovative trial designs, Bayesian methodology, and pharmacometrics, with a solid publication record (30+ papers). Wei is playing an active role in scientific community and professional society as Conference Organizer, Session Chair and Invited Speaker in national statistical conferences. He is currently the VP of New England Statistical Society to lead NextGen Committee to support the next generation of statisticians and data scientists. Wei received his PhD in biostatistics and MS in pharmacometrics from University of Minnesota and BS in biotechnology from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Sofia Fleyshman, Merck

Sofia Fleyshman is a Principal Scientist in Clinical Safety Statistics at Merck supporting. She has over 14 years of experience in pharmaceutical and medical devices industries in small, mid-size, and large pharma companies and CRO. Her current interests are in exploring how AI can be used to streamline pharmaceutical work. Sofia received her MS and BS in Mathematics with Concentration in Statistics from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Philp He, Daiichi Sankyo

Philip He is Head of Statistical Strategy, Innovation and Safety at Daiichi Sankyo. He has extensive experiences in pharmaceutical industry. Philip received his PhD in biostatistics from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. His current role focuses on developing and implementing statistical and data science solutions for drug development including innovative study designs, safety methodology and data science.

Chenchen Wang, Amgen

Chenchen Wang is a Principal Data Scientist at Amgen. She has 4 years’ experience in pharmaceutical industry, with focus in developing predictive models for site selection and building AI platforms to support clinical research. Chenchen received her PhD in Computational Materials Science from University of Connecticut and MS in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology. Her current work focuses on harnessing AI to optimize clinical trials and streamline research processes.

Ping Li, FDA

Ping Li is a statistical analyst in the Division of Analytics and Informatics (DAI), Office of Biostatistics (OB) at CDER/FDA. Her primary duty is to support statistical reviews of IND/NDA/BLA applications in collaboration with all Divisions of Biometrics in OB. She co-leads the DAI Bayesian Working Group and is a member of the OB’s Missing Data Working Group and Subgroup Analysis Working Group. Additionally, she has been involved with the standardization of programs for data analysis, a project supporting computational and programming needs, and strengthening efforts to standardize processes across OB divisions. She received her MS in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from Georgetown University.

Rebecca Vislay-Wade, Moderna

Rebecca Vislay-Wade, PhD is a Senior Principal Data Scientist at Moderna, where she leads a team of scientists developing AI applications for clinical operations, regulatory science, and pharmacovigilance. Prior to Moderna, she worked as Senior Research Data Scientist at Highmark Health. Rebecca holds a PhD in biochemistry from Harvard University and did postdoctoral work in neuroscience at the NIH and Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. She currently lives in the Boston area with her family.

Dr. Zhan(Harold) Ye, Pfizer

Dr. Zhan(Harold) Ye is currently the associate director of non-clinical biostatistician at Pfizer Inc. for Digital Genomics Precision Medicine Statistics. He received his PhD in Mathematics, focusing on statistical genetics from Michigan Technological University, and then worked as senior biostatistician for Marshfield Clinical Research Foundation before joining Pfizer in 2017.