4C Associates adds four experts to life sciences wing

4C Associates has bolstered its life sciences practice with the additions of four senior professionals. Rob Aitchison and Michael Gaynord arrive as directors, while Lowri McIntosh and Máire McPoland have been named as senior managers.

Speaking on the news, Nick Muir, Managing Partner for life sciences at 4C Associates stated, “4C is serious about life sciences, and our clients expect serious thought leadership and experience, not just enthusiastic consultants. I’m thrilled to have Rob, Michael, Lowri and Máire joining our team. They are deeply passionate about this industry and ready to challenge existing ways of working to deliver value for our clients.”

Even as Covid-19 vaccine news dominates the news, and the pandemic continues to impact supply chains in the life sciences sector, several pre-pandemic industry fundamentals remain unchanged. The broader return on investment in life sciences research and development continues to experience strong headwinds, which is creating a natural focus from executives on cost management and the role of outsourcing in supporting the enterprise.

4C is an international procurement and supply chain consultancy. As clients turn to consultants for help facing these challenges, the four hires will help 4C aid its partners right across the value chain.

Rob Aitchison has spent two decades in business, outsourcing and procurement related positions in the pharmaceuticals industry. Most recently he worked advising clinical leadership on outsourcing strategy for a rapidly growing Belgian biotech company, including its China trials strategy, while prior to this was the Head of Outsourcing & Contracts for a Japanese pharmaceutical company. Aitchison is also highly active within the Pharmaceutical Contracts Management Group (PCMG), the industry body for outsourcing and procurement professionals.

Michael Gaynord is also joining 4C as Director. A medical doctor with degrees in both law and biotechnology, he has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 21 years and has operations and business development experience in clinical research organisations. He recently managed Roche’s Clinical Services outsourcing portfolio encompassing a wide range of topics from Patient Recruitment & Retention, large CRO partnerships and critical Central Laboratory and Flow Cytometry services.

Lowri McIntosh joins 4C from Huma, a healthcare technology company, where she was Chief of Staff to the CEO. Prior to Huma, McIntosh was a Strategy and Operations consultant at Deloitte where she delivered a number of digital and operational improvement programmes for major global pharmaceutical clients. These included automating through RPA the heavily regulated Adverse Events reporting process for AstraZeneca, and digitising the $2 billionn outsourcing of clinical trials spend for a global top pharmaceutical company.

Máire McPoland similarly arrives as a Senior Manager at 4C. A CIPS qualified procurement professional with 20 years of experience across consulting and internal procurement roles, time with Proxima and Accenture has seen her work across a range of industries including life sciences. She has led projects covering operating model design; strategic sourcing planning; procure to pay transformation across policies; process and platform implementation; process design; and operational delivery.