Management
Taylor J. Crouch
Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Crouch has 25 years of drug development and commercialization experience spanning large pharmaceutical companies, biotech, and the CRO industry. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President Operations and President International at Ligand Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: LGND), with responsibilities for new business development, technical operations (manufacturing, clinical and commercial drug supply, CMC) as well as international sales, clinical research, and regulatory affairs. Prior to Ligand, he was President and COO of Discovery Partners, a large drug discovery services and technology provider. Earlier in his career he was CEO of Variagenics (a leading pharmacogenomics company), SVP Marketing and Sales at Parexel (a global CRO), and he held international management positions in new product development and commercialization at Pfizer and Schering Plough. Mr. Crouch previously served on the board of Bruker Biosciences (Nasdaq: BRKR), a major provider of analytical instrumentation to the life sciences industry. Mr. Crouch has a BSE in chemical engineering, cum laude, from Princeton University and an MBA in international marketing and finance from the University of Chicago.
Lori Edge
Chief Administrative Officer
Lori Edge has twenty five years of experience in the clinical research industry. After eleven years as a clinical research coordinator she was a CRA, and subsequently moved into site management with a continued focus on quality data collection and maximizing clinical operations efficiency. Her prior positions have included Director of Quality Assurance, Executive Administrator, and Vice President of Clinical Operations.
In her most recent position as Vice President of Clinical Operations with CCT, Lori was responsible for all operational aspects of the San Diego site including oversight of the management teams for clinical staffing, patient recruitment and marketing, quality management, personnel and facilities. She was also the lead for project start up and project management/recruitment for the Phase 2-4 division which included the San Diego site as well as two sites in Los Angeles. As a member of the division’s BD team, Lori also played a critical role in finding studies and conducting the feasibility analysis to narrow project selection to those that best suited each site in terms of recruitment potential and profitability.
William O'Riordan, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Medical Division
Dr. William O’Riordan, Chairman of the Board and Chief Medical Officer, founded eStudySite in 1999 along with twelve healthcare providers with whom he’d performed research for over ten years. Dr. O’Riordan has been involved in emergency medicine for more than thirty years at St. Francis Medical Center and Paradise Valley Hospital. His academic appointments include Harbor General Hospital–UCLA Medical Center and UCSD. His nineteen years of clinical investigation has been performed at Paradise Valley Hospital and Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center.
As Principal Investigator, he has directed over 70 studies including cSSSI, Stroke, Acute Myocardial Infarction, Unstable Angina, Sepsis, Septic Shock, Hospital & Community Acquired Pneumonia, Hepatitis C, Atrial Fibrillation, Congestive Heart Failure, Hyponatremia, Complicated Appendicitis, UTI/Pyleonephritis, Occluded Central Venous Access Devices, genomic studies and more. He has served as Chief of Staff at Paradise Valley Hospital and President of the American College of Emergency Physicians in California.
Dr. O’Riordan has also served on numerous advisory adjudication committees including AstraZeneca, Basilea Pharmaceutica, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Hoechst Marion Roussel among others. He is an examiner for the American Board of Emergency Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Dr. O’Riordan earned his medical degree from the University of Kansas Medical School and is licensed in Kansas and California.
Lew Schwartz
Corporate Controller
Lew Schwartz began managing Accounting & Finance as the Corporate Controller for eStudySite in February 2007, bringing with him 14 years of small business accounting experience. With cost efficiency and maximum effectiveness as his main objectives, he has increased the timeliness, accuracy and efficiency of financial reporting several times over.
Raised in San Diego, Lew earned degrees from the University of Washington in Seattle concentrating in Accounting and Economics. He has done accounting in a variety of industries from professional baseball and soccer to commercial landscaping.
Kimera Hobbs, PHR
Director, Human Resources
Kimera Hobbs began with eStudySite as the Director of Human Resources in November 2007. Kimera is native to San Diego and has worked as an HR professional for the past 14 years; with Spherion Corporation, ADCS Inc. and most recently as a Senior Consultant with Henderson Recruiting Group.
Kimera holds a PHR (Professional of Human Resources) designation from the Human Resource Certification Institute, attended UCSD’s Revelle College and received her Bachelors Degree in Business from Excelsior College. She has extensive hands-on experience in day-to-day HR business operations, as well as strategic planning and organizational development. Her experience includes corporate communications, business development, public speaking, training, coaching and project management.
She has supplied planning and operational support for business activities in the US, South America & Europe. She is a member of The Society for Human Resource Management, the San Diego Employer Association, the North County Personnel Association and the Association for Training & Development.