American Pharmacists Month

John W. Holaday, Ph.D. is Chairman, Founder and CEO of DisposeRx, Inc. Previously was co-founder of QRxPharma Limited (QRX-ASX), Medicis Pharmaceuticals (MRX-NYSE), EntreMed (ENMD-NASDAQ) and MaxCyte (MXCT.L) holding various positions as CEO and Chairman. Dr. Holaday serves on the Board of Directors of Exosis, Pixspan and CytImmune Sciences. He obtained his BS and MS from the University of Alabama, and his PhD from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. He is a Fellow in the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (FACNP) and a Fellow in Critical Care Medicine (FCCM). Dr. Holaday has served as officer and director of many professional and philanthropic organizations and societies. Prior experience included service at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research as a Captain, US Army, and later as head of the Neuropharmacology Dept. Dr. Holaday was Adj. Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University, and serves as Adj. Professor of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He has raised over $500M for his various companies. Dr. Holaday has received numerous honors and awards, including being named to the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2006 Hall of Fame. He holds over 90 patents and has published over 230 scientific articles and five books.

William Simpson (President) is a team-oriented business leader with a distinguished entrepreneurial career. As Director of Sales and Business Development of a global mission critical enterprise healthcare IT solutions company, Mr. Simpson was responsible for the company’s information and strategic planning requirements. When co-founding an integrated payment and records healthcare system, he developed the first financial services healthcare fiscal intermediary payment compliance tool in the nation. As Director of Business Development for a mobile patient/provider communications company with a focus on Chronic Care Management/MACRA and patient communication, Mr. Simpson was responsible for the company’s funding rounds, strategic relationships and product development, integrating new products with partnerships. As a senior company leader Simpson spearheading the patient value team where he oversaw future patient value product developments. Simpson is excited to bring his entrepreneurial passion and adaptive business style of blending relationship management with bottom-line day-to-day activities to the DisposeRx, Inc. team.

Ben Donaldson (Senior Vice President of Government Relations) has a distinguished career in management and sales. He started working with Queen City Bank Shares where he managed over 100 accounts, 200 branch managers and over 200 market presidents. His strengths were Customer Service Management and Customer Acquisitions. He eventually earned his spot as Senior Vice President of Banking Operations and Acquisitions where he researched and secured 165 new banks with 290 branches in the Eastern United States. Ben became the Kentucky Banking Association President and later the Head Delegate and Officer of the National Banking Association where he played a key role in Washington D.C. where he was responsible for getting three major Banking bills passed. After a 22 year tenure in the banking industry, Ben joined Wealthbridge Connect as Vice President of Sales laying the base for a successful career in sales and Sales Management. Ben later joined Crown Services in Lexington, Kentucky, developed the company's new Equine Staffing Division which has expanded into nine states and has made over $17 million dollars for the company. Ben worked his way up to Vice President of National accounts for Crown Services where he managed a $126 million dollar sales portfolio and developed sales procedures and best practices for the company.

Dennis Wiggins, MBA and Esq. (Board of Directors) is a serial entrepreneur who has built, bought, or sold over 18 companies in his professional career. As CEO, he built his first company with five associates from Wharton Business School, creating the largest residential real estate database company in the country. He has since built and run companies in high tech, manufacturing, retail and IT. His strongest skill is being able to quickly evaluate the financial metrics of a company to maximize its operations and as a skilled salesman who has successfully built motivated, professional sales teams. Wiggins graduated from Tufts University summa cum laude in Economics, received his MBA in Finance and Marketing from The Wharton School/U of Pennsylvania, and his JD degree from Georgetown University and is a member of the Washington, DC Bar.

Marcus Schestopol (Chief Engineer of Science and Technology) is a pharmaceutical development chemical engineer with over 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical CMC product development, process scale-up, formulations and biodegradable polymer development. He has directed all phases of pharmaceutical development from laboratory feasibility studies of NCE development to commercialization of drug products. Marcus currently advises on CMC strategies to support FDA filings including IND, NDA, BLA and post approval supplements in establishing practical plans that incorporate current process designs along with future improvements to deliver data and process packages in accordance with current health authority thinking. During his career he was named on several patents ranging from novel chemical synthetic pathways to device design. Marcus received his Chemistry degree from Emory University and his Chemical Engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Robert Verscharen (Executive Vice President of Commercial Development) has been a consultant to various segments of the pharmaceutical industry since 2006. Prior to retirement, he was Vice President of Pharmaceutical Purchasing and Specialty programs at the Eckerd Corporation. Bob has a broad view of the requirements needed to operate retail, nursing homes, and mail order purchasing. Over his forty-year career, he has developed relationships with decision makers across the spectrum of pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies and related operations. In 2004, Bob received the Harold W. Pratt Award, the chain drug industry's highest honor.

Denis Connaghan (Chief Operating Officer) brings experience in building and transitioning businesses through strong leadership and focus on customers, revenue and profit while ensuring scalability in US and international markets.  Additionally, Mr. Connaghan has significant Board & C-Level experience with substantial commercialization experience across industry sectors including Healthcare, Life Sciences, Insurance and Information Technology.

David Casarett MD MA (Chief Medical Officer) is a palliative care physician and health services researcher whose work focuses on improving systems of care for people with serious, life-threatening illnesses. Dr. Casarett is the author of more than 100 articles in journals including JAMA and The New England Journal of Medicine, and his writing has appeared in print and online in Salon, Esquire, Discover, Newsweek, the New York Times, and Wired. He is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor given by the US government to researchers in the early stages of their careers.

Ann Hamlin (Director of Training and Science) has a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry and a Master's Degree in Forensic Chemistry. She retired after 30 years at the North Carolina State Crime Laboratory where she finished her last nine years as the Forensic Scientist Manager of the Drug Chemistry Section. All thirty years were served in the Drug Chemistry section both as an analytical chemist and Special Agent of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. During her career she has proven success in project management, strong team management background and extensive experience in recruitment, selection and retention of employees. She has extensive experience communicating with the Criminal Justice Community as well as the North Carolina General Assembly. For over ten years she has advised the North Carolina General Assembly on matters related to controlled substances including, but not limited to, the current Opioid Epidemic in North Carolina. She is now serving as Director of Training and Scientific Support for DisposeRx.

Melissa Masters (Regional Executive Sales Manager/Trainer) started her career in the mortgage industry with Bank One Mortgage but as a young wife and mother decided to start her own cleaning business, which she ran very successfully for 12 years. She enjoyed the life-long relationships she built with her clients as well as the "work/life balance" that self-employment provides a young family. Melissa joined the Brownsburg Police Department in Brownsburg, Indiana as a reserve police officer and enjoyed serving the community in that challenging environment for three years and learned a lot about community policing and community affairs. She joined Crown Staffing Services where she found her true niche in Sales and Customer Service. She surpassed the corporate stretch-goal for sales representatives of $1M annual revenue several times for six years, averaging $3M annually which often positioned her as the top sales representative for the company. Melissa brings a special kind of drive and energy to Dispose RX with great emphasis on customer service and looks forward to contributing to the company's success.

Kevin Jennings (Director of Manufacturing, President of IBR), President of IBR Packaging has extensive manufacturing experience, along with expertise in branding and marketing areas. Kevin will be overseeing the manufacturing and packaging of all Dispose RX products at the IBR Packaging facility. IBR Packaging is a state of the art cGMP facility, specializing in flexible packaging and is located in Carrollton, Texas.

Dick Domann (Chair, Pharmacy Advisory Board) began his pharmaceutical career in 1980 as a sales representative with McNeil Pharmaceuticals. In 1983 he moved on to GlaxoSmithKline where he filled roles of increasing responsibility in sales, marketing, state and federal government, trade relations and corporate operations. In 2010 Dick left GSK to take a position as Vice President of Business Development and Sales for the Kerr Drug retail pharmacy chain based in North Carolina. He centered his efforts on the growth and development of Kerr’s specialty pharmacy business as well as their long term care pharmacy operations. Dick has consulted with numerous companies in the pharmaceutical industry in areas ranging from big pharma sales and marketing, channel management services and retail pharmacy distribution. Dick has recently retired from the position of Vice President, Pharmacy Services for TrialCard, Inc. a technology enabled RTP based pharmaceutical industry services company.

George Riedl (Advisory Board Member) is an innovative Senior Retail Healthcare Executive with 35 years of experience leading pharmacy, managed care, merchandising and marketing teams. His operational strategies have helped companies enhance customer service, reduce costs, improve efficiencies and grow revenue across the healthcare, retail and pharmaceutical industries. Most recently, George was President of Pharmacy, Health & Wellness for Walmart US, the world’s largest retailer boasting 2.3 million associates worldwide, 260 million customers served weekly, and $500 billion in annual revenue. As the leader of Walmart’s Health & Wellness operation, George had full P&L responsibility of over 4,600 retail pharmacies, centralized specialty pharmacy, pharmacy mail service operations, 2,700 retail vision centers, and Walmart’s retail health clinic operations. George also oversaw procurement of over $16 billion of brand, generic and specialty pharmaceuticals, managed care sales & contracting, clinical services & quality and healthcare strategy & transformation.

Previously, George spent 27 years at Walgreens, the leading retail pharmacy chain with more than 9,000+ stores and 250,000 employees. Throughout his tenure, George has served in a variety of leadership roles including Vice President of Purchasing, Executive Vice President of Merchandising & Marketing and Senior Vice President of Pharmacy Innovation & Purchasing.