Optimizing Strategy through a Business-Centric R&D Structure

Jennifer Kyle, Founder and CEO at Condor Software
Thomas Cunningham, Assistant Controller at Merck
Mark Lynch, Sr. Director, Global Technical Accounting Service & Policy at Johnson & Johnson

Optimizing Strategy through a Business-Centric R&D Structure

Funding arrangements to be considered for R&D programs and accounting implications that coincide

Optimizing strategy efforts with careful considerations for budgeting and project selection

Speakers

Jennifer Kyle

Jennifer Kyle is the Founder and CEO of Condor Software. A former auditor, Controller, and CPA, Jennifer is on a mission to help biotech companies with their financial processes and provide them with better tools for clinical accruals & forecasting.

Jennifer began her career in accounting as a CPA and auditor for Ernst & Young before transitioning into finance and operations leadership at biotech organizations. She personally solved clinical financial management problems at several biotech organizations and was deeply impacted by family and loved ones at the intersection of life, death, and clinical trials. This inspired her to partner with a CTO to build software that empowers biotech teams to bring more life-saving therapies to market without being held back by billions of dollars lost in obscure data and financial processes.

What keeps Jennifer focused and driven is the promise she made to her father during his extra year of life an immunotherapy gave him for his NSCLC and the promise she gave to a dear friend, Steven, who was able to give life to his daughter, Ainsley, because of a clinical trial. Jennifer works long and hard alongside accountants, finance, clinical, and service providers to help these patients survive and kick cancer. As her father would always say, "where there's a will, there's a way." This is for him, Steven, and everyone out there who beat cancer or is fighting hard to survive.

Jennifer is a licensed CPA in California and resides in San Diego. She graduated from University of South Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with an emphasis in Economics.

Tom Cunningham

Tom Cunningham is SVP, Corporate Accounting and External Reporting at Merck & Co., Inc. His job responsibilities include Accounting Standards, Restructuring Accounting, External Reporting and Business Development Accounting Support. Tom has been at Merck for over 30 years with various technical accounting and consolidation accounting responsibilities and has been in his current role for 22 years.

Prior to joining Merck in 1993, Tom was a Senior Audit Manager with Deloitte and Touche. He graduated from Notre Dame in 1985 with a B.S. in Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Mark Lynch

Mark Lynch is a Senior Finance Director within Johnson & Johnson’s Global Technical Accounting Advisory Services and Policy Group (GTAAS). Mark focuses on various transactions within all sectors and regions of Johnson & Johnson globally that include Mergers and Acquisitions, Licensing, R&D arrangements, divestitures and advises business development and M&A finance teams on accounting implications of various other types of proposed transactions.

Mark also supports and advises Johnson & Johnson affiliates on other accounting and compliance matters in such areas such as Revenue Recognition, Financial Instruments, Hedging, equity accounting, consolidation, and currency. Mark has been with Johnson & Johnson for over 30 years in a variety of roles mostly in the pharmaceutical sector and is a graduate of LaSalle University, holds an MBA in Finance from Temple University, and is a licensed Pennsylvania CPA / CGMA.