Commercial operations readiness for biopharma,
before the permanent team is in place.
Senior Fractional · Interim · Advisory Commercial Operations Leadership
Who I Am
Computer engineer by training, with a minor in engineering science and mathematics. A decade in corporate finance, FP&A, and investor relations — including writing earnings call scripts, supporting roadshows, and traveling with the C-suite to JPMorgan and other investor conferences. Commercial FP&A leadership across the VIVITROL relaunch and the ARISTADA launch at Alkermes. A year carrying a bag in specialty sales. Director of Sales Operations at AMAG through the VYLEESI launch — running in parallel with the harmonization of three acquired products. Then commercial operations leadership across three launch builds from blank canvas: AVEO/FOTIVDA, Zevra/MIPLYFFA, and Alkeus/ALK-001.
The career arc is the proof. Each step added a dimension that the next required.
computer engineering → corporate finance → commercial FP&A → investor relations → field sales → sales operations → commercial operations
Commercial operations work is a finance problem dressed up as a commercial problem — and the underlying infrastructure is a systems problem. Translating launch strategy into operating expense, FTE timing, and executable systems the board can defend requires someone who has done all three. The engineering foundation shows up in every CDE architecture and forecasting model. The FP&A fluency shows up in every budget conversation. The IR experience shows up in every board-ready document.
I built Arborpointe Partners because emerging biopharma deserves the same rigor in commercial operations planning that clinical and CMC plans already get — and patients only benefit from therapies that actually launch well.
The Commercial Readiness Gap
Clinical and CMC plans get built with rigor — costed, sequenced, defensible. Commercial operations is sketched: “we’ll build a team, we’ll launch, we’ll figure it out.” That gap costs companies three ways: boards lose confidence in commercial readiness, capital gets misallocated, and the future commercial team inherits chaos instead of an inheritable foundation.
Three Engagement Contexts
Three moments in a biopharma’s commercial life require senior operations leadership before — or alongside — a permanent VP/SVP hire:
Phase 2 data in hand or imminent. Board pressure on commercial readiness. No CCO yet, or a new CCO scoping the build. The classic Arborpointe engagement — leading commercial operations setup from blank canvas, or scoping the build for an incoming team.
Post-M&A harmonization, or a strategic review of an existing commercial operations function. Multiple products, systems, or field forces to integrate — or an existing architecture that needs assessment ahead of a second product, an expansion, or board scrutiny. The commercial engine has to keep running while the work happens.
CEO with BD/Corp Dev background. Exploring strategic alternatives, partnership, or acquisition. The board needs commercial defensibility for diligence — a story that survives bottoms-up acquirer review, not a strategy deck.
When You Need This
Five buyer states that benefit from senior commercial operations leadership before — or alongside — a permanent senior hire:
What I Lead
Adjacent Fluencies
These are the commercial and financial capabilities I have personally led or carried out in prior roles — not theoretical, not coordinated through someone else. They show up in every commercial operations engagement, and they explain why the work doesn’t fragment when it crosses functional lines.
A year carrying a bag in specialty sales. Supported sales team builds alongside commercial leadership — territory design, deployment planning, and IC governance.
Campaign measurement, content workflow governance, vendor management, and ROI analytics. Not marketing strategy — the operating system that runs underneath it.
Payer data integration, channel reporting, GTN operations, and specialty distributor analytics. Not payer negotiation — the data and reporting backbone behind it.
Curriculum scoping, vendor selection, certification frameworks, and program governance across sales, market access, and patient services.
Detailed Gantt charts, cross-functional sequencing, milestone governance, and risk register management. The discipline that keeps every launch on the rails.
Commercial FP&A leadership across the VIVITROL relaunch and ARISTADA launch at Alkermes. AOP/LRP, scenario planning, and the budget discipline that survives board diligence.
Earnings call script authorship, roadshow support, and C-suite travel to JPMorgan and other investor conferences. The board-ready communication discipline that every CFO recognizes.
Computer engineering with a minor in engineering science and mathematics. The systems-thinking foundation that shows up in every CDE architecture, every forecasting model, and every data integration.
Every engagement is scoped honestly. When the work extends beyond commercial operations and its adjacencies, I bring in the right partner rather than overclaim.
Track Record
Most engagements below were firsts — first launch, first commercial ops build, first data environment from a blank canvas. That is where the work is hardest, the decisions matter most, and the experience is most relevant to what you are building.
Therapeutic Areas
Direct hands-on experience across oncology, rare disease, neurology, women’s health, and specialty — with particular depth in rare disease and first-in-class launches.
How I Work
Each tier flows into the next. Engagements are fractional, interim, or advisory — the format follows the work.
How to Engage
A 30-minute conversation — no slides, no pitch — focused on where the company is, what's been built, and where the commercial readiness gaps actually sit. If there's a fit, a scoping conversation follows. If there isn't, an honest "here's who I'd point you to instead."