Employers and Pharma: What’s New Under the Sun

Josh Golden has over 18 years of experience as a strategic consultant within the health care industry. He brings to bear a keen understanding of the entire pharmacy benefits supply chain to help his clients optimize financial and healthcare outcomes for the populations that they cover. Josh is recognized as a thought leader in the pharmacy benefits arena, and is frequently called upon for speaking engagements and media inquiries at a national level.

As an Area Senior Vice President at Solid Benefit Guidance (a division of Arthur J. Gallagher), he is responsible for the successful delivery of a wide range of pharmacy consulting solutions to Fortune 500 employers, government entities, labor unions, and other benefit plan sponsors. Josh has extensive expertise in the areas of vendor procurement, contract negotiation, benchmarking, audit, and plan design consultation.

Before joining Solid Benefit Guidance in 2016, Josh was the Practice Leader of the Employer Consulting Segment of Pharmaceutical Strategies Group, LLC.  Prior to that role, Josh served as a Senior Pharmacy Consultant with Aon Hewitt. He has also served as a Pharmacy Specialist Consultant with Mercer Human Resource Consulting and a Benefits Analyst with Buck Consultants.  His clients have included some of the largest and most complex employers in the country.  Josh has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.

Dr. Robert Popovian is Vice-President, US Government Relations at Pfizer Inc. For the past 2 decades, Dr. Popovian has published and presented extensively on the impact of biopharmaceuticals and health policies on health care costs and clinical outcomes, including authorship in clinical and healthcare delivery journals and published expert source in Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Hill, Pink Sheet and Bloomberg News amongst many others. He also writes a regularly published column in Morning Consult regarding health policy and economic issues relevant to the biopharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Popovian completed his Doctorate in Pharmacy and Masters of Science in Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy degrees at the University of Southern California with honors.  

Jon Martin is the Executive Director leading US Payer Marketing for Hospital and Specialty Franchises and serves as the US Commercial lead for portfolio of biosimilar products from Merck.  Prior to this position, Jon was the Director of Payer Marketing within Merck's Hospital Specialty Business Unit, where he led the access efforts for several recent launch brands in several anti-infective categories.  In years prior, Jon led the US access strategy for oncology, respiratory and ophthalmology franchises which also included several launches.   Overall, Jon has spent the last 8 years at Merck in market access related positions gaining deep experiences related to payer and channel dynamics. Jon has a Bachelor’s degree from Georgia Institute of Technology with a master’s degree in business from Augusta State University.  Jon continues to be involved in many internal task forces focused on strategy development, process improvement, and innovation, and has received numerous awards for his leadership and customer focus. Jon lives in Audubon, Pennsylvania with his wife, Sheri, and their two children, Zack and Nick.

As Executive Director Global Value Access and Policy for Amgen’s Biosimilars Business Unit, Chad Pettit develops global market access launch strategy for Amgen’s portfolio of 10 biosimilar medicines and leads out across the biopharmaceutical industry on biosimilar policy matters, in a new and rapidly growing segment of the industry and growth business for Amgen. With his global perspective, Chad is recognized as an expert on biosimilar commercialization and market access for biosimilars and the policy measures required to facilitate cost savings to patients and the health care system over the long-run for these promising medicines. 

Chad’s nearly 20 year of experience at Amgen has included service as the Amgen board member of the US Biosimilars Forum industry trade group, and a career focus on pricing, market access, and policy crossing all global regions in a broad range of roles in the US and Europe.

Chad received his MBA from the University of California Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management, and holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California Davis. In his spare time, he provides leadership and service within the community, and enjoys the outdoors and spending time with his wife Amy and four children.

James is a Vice President in EY’s Life Sciences practice with more than 10+ years of experience in life sciences and healthcare sectors.

Prior to joining EY, James was a Director with Navigant Consulting, a management consulting firm, where he supported global pharmaceutical companies with commercial, medical, and R&D strategies aligned to portfolio and franchise capabilities, organizational design, M&A and licensing to commercial growth, and therapeutic area strategies to prioritize internal programs and inform external activities.

He led teams that supported global clients with direct experience in US, EU, Asia, Africa, and South America.

Most recently he worked with a European Oncology and Rare Disease Franchise to re-design the organizational structure and ways of working to enable 4x franchise growth in 5 years.

Mr. Squires is a benefits attorney with over 20 years of experience.  Currently he oversees all benefit plans and programs at Corning Incorporated for over 16,000 employees and retirees.  Mr. Squires has a focus on benefits strategy, design, implementation and administration as well as cost and risk mitigation.  Prior to joining Corning, he was the Northeast Compensation and Benefits leader for Grant Thornton, located in New York City and a Senior Manager in the Performance and Rewards Practice at Ernst & Young located in Mclean, VA, Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio.  Mr. Squires began his career as an Associate Attorney in the Employee Benefits Department at the law firm of Ulmer & Berne  in Cleveland Ohio.

Mr. Squires received his BA from Syracuse University in 1993 and his JD from Case Western Reserve University in 1996. He is admitted to the practice law in New York and Ohio.

Drew is a high-performing veteran of the healthcare industry with entrepreneurial instincts. After 10 years in sales leadership and training roles within Johnson & Johnson, he joined Michael Rea at Rx Savings Solutions, bringing his passionate, fearless and competitive energy to the fledgling enterprise. Once a sales force of one, Drew now oversees the commercial side of our business and is responsible for meeting aggressive client growth and revenue goals. More than anything, he wants to put our solution into the hands of every health plan member in the country. His optimism and leadership might just make it happen.

Dr. Sean Karbowicz is the Founder and General Manager of MedSavvy. From dispensing medications in retail and hospital pharmacies to implementing health plan pharmacy benefit programs, he has seen the benefits and burdens of medication therapy. He is a passionate innovator in pharmacy. Throughout his career, Dr. Karbowicz has worked to champion best practices that evaluate scientific evidence to predict the performance of medications. This work has been used by health plans across the country to identify which medications work best for people. Dr. Karbowicz founded MedSavvy because he saw an opportunity to put this powerful information in the hands of patients and providers. He understood that presenting this information in a way that is easy to use could help reduce the hassles of getting the best medication at the lowest possible cost. He describes himself as a 'ruthless advocate for patients, so they can understand the benefits, risks and costs of treatments with eyes wide open' and is always looking to empower health care consumers. Dr. Karbowicz received his Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, his Doctor of Pharmacy degree jointly from Oregon State University and Oregon Health and Science University, and he completed a residency in Drug Information at Oregon Health and Science University.

Matias Arias-Duval is director of health & wellness benefits and total rewards at Colgate-Palmolive Company where he is responsible for the development and implementation of the strategic direction of the company’s health and welfare benefits programs.

He began his career at Colgate-Palmolive Company in 1998 as a project leader in the global information technology group. In 2006 he joined the global HR service organization as a global benefit consultant responsible for the design, coordination and delivery of the Company’s benefits programs in the US and Puerto Rico. In 2011, his role expanded to also be responsible for the annual budget administration, employee communications, regulatory compliance, vendor management and analytics.  

He earned his System Engineer degree from the Universidad Abierta Interamericana in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Andrew is accountable for managing the Anthem’s National Account Business Segment within IngenioRx.  His team works closely with the medical account teams, consultants, and clients to analyze pharmacy trend, conduct client reviews, and provide proactive recommendations for pharmacy cost-of-care programs, clinical programs, and benefit designs. In addition to existing clients, his team also focuses on growing new pharmacy clients within the Anthem National Account Business Segment.

Andrew came to Anthem in 2019 with more than 23 years of experience in the pharmacy benefit management and managed health care sectors. Prior to joining Anthem he was a Senior Advisor to Optimity Advisors, a global boutique health care consulting firm.

Prior to his role with Optimity Advisors, Andrew was the Vice President and General Manager for the Medicare Business Segment for five years at Medica, an independent Midwest Health Plan. There he had accountability for a $1B product line, including growing and improving their Medicare Part D offerings.    

Previously, Andrew spent twelve years at Medco Health Solutions in three leadership roles. The first was leading the team which supported Uniprise, the National Account segment for UnitedHealth Group. The second was growing Medicare Part D revenue through their National PDP, employer solutions and health plans delegated solutions. Lastly, he provided leadership around corporate strategy in the face of the Affordable Care Act.   

Andrew is a Board Member of the Alzheimer’s Association Minnesota/North Dakota Chapter and is a frequent educator and speaker on the topic of healthy living for your brain and body.

Mark Godwin, PharmD received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Mercer University College of Pharmacy located in Atlanta, GA. He joined the clinical pharmacy team at UnitedHealthcare Employer and Individual in August 2011.  Dr. Godwin has over 20 years of experience in the area of specialty pharmacy practice with a focus on providing pharmacy care to patients with HIV and Hepatitis C, as well as those patients who have undergone an organ transplant or are being treated for cancer. In addition to his PharmD, Mark is credentialed as an HIV Pharmacist (AAHIVP) by the American Academy of HIV Medicine and is a Certified Specialty Pharmacist as credentialed by the Specialty Pharmacy Certification Board.

Mark leads the clinical team supporting specialty pharmacy programs which includes clinical support services, evaluation of clinical studies, analysis of plan-specific clinical programs and initiatives, recommendations for cost containment opportunities and analysis of plan performance related to specialty medications. He works collaboratively with BriovaRx, the OptumRx specialty pharmacy, around specialty program development, member experience and outcomes.

Michael brings over 32 years’ experience in benefits and business insurance brokerage and consulting. He is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College and started his career with the brokerage firm Johnson & Higgins/Marsh & McLennan serving in local, regional and national roles in Los Angeles, Newport Beach, San Francisco and New York.

In 2000, Mike was promoted to run the Middle Market benefits and property casualty in Europe and the Middle East based in London. In this role, he was exposed to a range of national healthcare structures and gained invaluable expertise in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of these systems. In 2003, Mike relocated back to New York and accepted a role as global practice leader with Mercer, a division of Marsh. In 2005, he accepted an offer from United Healthcare to become President of Key Accounts for the US and was ultimately promoted to become CEO of the Northeast region, UHC’s largest retail region.

In 2008, Mike left United to join USI as a corporate EVP responsible for the US Benefits practice. Having stepped back into consulting with USI in 2013, Mike focuses now on providing advice to a range of mid-sized and larger stakeholders and employers in the Northeast.

Mike is a published author having released two novels since 2010. He is a monthly writer for Leaders Edge magazine, a columnist for the New Canaan News Review and a contributing writer to THCB.com. He is a frequent speaker and humorous pundit opining on issues relating to health reform, employee benefits and business insurance related issues. He is a tireless advocate for micro finance, children’s health and public health improvement. He serves on a variety of for profit and nonprofit boards. He is married with three children and lives in New Canaan, CT.

Marco Diaz is Senior Vice President, Global Head of Benefits for News Corp. He is responsible for setting the overarching US benefits strategy in conjunction with the various business divisions with oversight to UK and Australian operations as well. Benefits include a broad suite of Health & Welfare plans, retirement plans such as defined contribution, defined benefit and non-qualified.

Prior to News Corp, Marco worked for Thomson Reuters 2000 where he oversaw the Americas benefits function.

Bob Herman is a health care reporter at Axios. He covers the intersection of health care and business — which includes the hospital, health insurance, employer, physician, pharmaceutical and medical device industries. He has been with Axios since December 2016. Previously, he was a reporter and Midwest bureau chief at Modern Healthcare. He graduated in 2009 from Butler University in Indianapolis with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.