Our Team

Mitch has worked for 20 years in multiple industries and with a focus in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and military planning. He is experienced in business case development for novel therapeutics, market forecasting, valuation, disease area strategy, portfolio planning, business development assessment and operations. Therapeutic areas include oncology, immune-oncology, immunology and infectious disease. Prior to establishing First Principles Advisory Group in 2009, Mitch was a management consultant at Mars and Company, PIRA Energy Group, and BSA, Inc. Mitch has a CFA, an MBA from UCLA Anderson and a BA from Dartmouth College.

Rick has fifteen years of experience in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. He has extensive drug development and business case evaluation experience while working at Genentech for 11 years, primarily as a project team leader for Avastin, Tarceva, and Raptiva. Experience includes leadership at all stages of drug development, regulatory approval, and launch. He has worked across various therapeutic areas, including oncology and immunology. He holds a JD from the University of Colorado, an MBA from Santa Clara, and a BS in Chemistry from UC Berkeley.

Florence Bouvier spent over 22 years working in the Biologics and Pharmaceutical Industry, in well-established companies including BioMérieux, Janssen Pharma and AstraZeneca/MedImmune. She has built expertise in various domains, such as Marketing, Market Research, Sales, KOL management, Alliance Management on local markets (France) and International (US-based). Her marketing experience covers Marketed Products with line extension or Product Launch and Global Product and Portfolio Strategy. Her therapeutic areas of expertise include Hemato-Oncology (more than 12 years), Infectiology, Anesthesiology, with the last 3 years spent on Immuno-Oncology, a highly promising approach in oncology developing at a very fast pace.

Mike has more than 15 years of experience in biopharma commercialization and business development on both the industry side (Actelion, NeurogesX, Acologix) and the consulting side (ZS Associates). He has experience in commercial strategy, market research, forecasting, launch planning, and reimbursement planning for a range of programs from in-line to pre-IND. He has worked for First Principles Advisory Group since 2013, and he has assisted companies ranging from Fortune 100 Big Pharmas to private biotechs across a wide range of therapeutic areas (including ultra-orphan CNS, pain (acute and neuropathic), cardiology, immunology, asthma/ COPD, nephrology, oncology, neurodegenerative disease, and gastroenterology). Mike has a BS from MIT and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

Susan has extensive biopharmaceutical commercialization experience built upon her strong analytical, strategic and leadership skills. She has a proven track record in a range of roles spanning therapeutic area and modality (from primary care chronic medications to specialty biologics), product lifecycle (pre-clinical, early clinical, pre-launch/launch and in-line), and geography (US and Global). Prior to joining First Principles Advisory Group, her prior experience includes 20 years at AstraZeneca / MedImmune and in various marketing, policy, and business analysis roles, and 5 years at Merck in commercial and product management roles. She holds a BA in Mathematics from the University of Virginia, and an MBA from Wharton at the U. of Pennsylvania.

Ben is a consultant and investment banking professional with expertise in a range of industries, including several years supporting the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. He has deep corporate finance transactional experience, a focus on data and model driven decision making, and presentation design, building, and delivery to large audiences. Ben has a BA from Claremont McKenna College.

Rosie Buckley is management consultant and business development lead with First Principles Advisory. She has significant experience in life sciences with more than a decade working with and within companies focused on life science laboratory and research technology, pharmaceuticals, ventures, as well as a digital health start-up. She was a Senior Director in business and market planning with Life Technologies (formerly Applied Biosystems). Previously she was a Principal with Booz Allen Hamilton where she spent over seven years helping global Fortune 500 companies solve high priority strategic challenges. Rosie enjoys using her consulting skills to support great causes such as the Northern California Cancer Project and the Stanford Business School Alumni Consulting Team. She earned a BS in Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Washington and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School.

Stephen has 18+ years of experience in life sciences research and strategy consulting experience. Stephen earned a PhD at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill before going to the University of California San Francisco for an American Cancer Society sponsored postdoctoral fellowship. Following his postdoctoral work, Stephen transitioned to management consulting with ~3.5 years experience at ClearView Healthcare Partners prior to joining First Principles. Stephen has deep subject matter expertise in oncology, immunology/inflammation, pulmonology, and infectious disease along with experience in leading consulting engagements related to due diligence, opportunity assessment, indication prioritization, revenue forecasting, competitive intelligence, etc.

Diana has seven years biotech industry experience in business development, corporate development, strategic planning, and alliance management roles at Genentech and Perlegen. Her work includes: technical opportunity assessment including TPP development, competitive landscape, and revenue forecast development; cross-portfolio NPV and risk analyses for management reporting and executive presentations and long-range forecast and all primary market research for Pulmozyme brand. Diana has a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley, and a BS in Molecular and Cell Biology from Yale University.

Russel is a seasoned analyst with extensive experience distilling large datasets into decision-ready analysis. With First Principles Russel applies this skill most often for market and competitive intelligence, project management, and software development. He drives consultant deliverables ranging from competitive landscape to market evaluation and market research to client-tailored databases and data visualization. Russel has a BS in Enology with a concentration in Managerial Economics from the University of California at Davis.

Avery has degrees in mathematics and philosophy where he focused on the structures behind math, logic and language. Avery works with First Principles on data visualization using a wide variety of tools. In a past life, he worked professionally in the culinary arts and as a touring musician for 15 years. He continues to write music and tour when his schedule permits. He is currently studying functional programming, a subject he hopes will be of use in his current work.

Matteo is a freelance consultant with 4+ years of combined life sciences strategy consulting and research experience. He leverages his quantitative skills to build projections framed by his subject matter expertise in the oncology, immunology/inflammation, and GI disease areas. Prior to working with FPA, Matteo was employed at ClearView Healthcare Partners working on clinical development strategy, BD asset evaluation, and opportunity assessment engagements. He conducted genomic research at the Yale Systems Biology Institute and coordinated clinical trials at Yale School of Medicine before transitioning to consulting. Matteo has a B.S. from Yale University, is currently pursuing an M.S. in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Amsterdam, and will be matriculating to Yale School of Medicine in 2023 as an MD candidate.

Lindsey has 2 years of experience in biopharma consulting and business strategy and analytics. Before coming to First Principles where she graduated from our internship program, she completed an internship in Global Oncology at Daiichi Sankyo. Her previous experience is focused in oncology market research and product launch. She has a Masters in Biomedical Science from the School of Medicine at the University of South Carolina and a BS in Honors Biology from Southeastern University.

Sanjana has one year of experience in life sciences strategy consulting conducting commercial opportunity assessments at Triangle Insights Group in a range of therapeutic areas, including nephrology, rheumatology, and dermatology. She has previously worked with C-suite and senior management at organizations across the spectrum, from clinical-stage biotech firms to commercial-stage pharmaceutical companies. Her prior work involved in-depth market and competitive landscape assessments, primary market research (community physicians, KOLs, patients, payers), and revenue forecasting. Sanjana earned a PhD in stem cell biology from the University of Southern California and BAs in biochemistry and physiology from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Ben has 11+ years of research experience in structural biology, through which he has become an expert in molecular interactions and large data-set analysis. Ben earned his PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. Under the guidance of Professor Eva Nogales, Ben’s doctoral work focused on the structural characterization of various important plant and human enzymes through cryo-electron microscopy. Ben has a BA in French Studies and a BS in Biology with a Biochemistry concentration from Duke University.