Engagement Manager

Christina Markunas

Christina Markunas an engagement manager with over a decade of experience in life sciences.

Recent engagements have included commercial assessment, go-to-market strategy, BD strategy and asset prioritization, and partner search projects. Christina has worked in oncology and dermatology therapeutic areas, with significant experience in the CNS and digital health space.

Christina completed a postdoctoral fellowship in epidemiology at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and was a research scholar in computational biology at Duke University. Prior to joining Triangle Insights Group, Christina was an epidemiologist at RTI International and co-investigator on several NIH-funded grants. During her academic career, Christina published over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, as well as presented at national conferences.

Engagement Manager

Parker Guse

Since joining Triangle Insights in 2014, Parker has developed expertise in market access and pricing, corporate strategy, and due diligence.

His recent consulting engagements have included market access and reimbursement for a branded dermatology product and a commercial assessment for a dual-affinity monoclonal antibody for the treatment of AML. Overall, his project experience spans a wide range of therapeutic areas. His educational background includes economics, finance, and chemistry.

Engagement Manager

Sarah Jims

Sarah Jims has over a decade of experience in the life sciences industry within academic research, industry settings, and consulting.

Recent engagements have included portfolio strategy, commercial assessment, commercialization strategy, and launch readiness, spanning a variety of therapeutic areas and modalities including gene therapy, rare disease, neurology, and women’s health.

Previously, Sarah worked in a gene therapy laboratory where she co-authored peer-reviewed publications and spoke at national conferences regarding gene therapy vector biology, therapeutic optimization, and therapeutic strategies for a variety of disease states.

Principal

Megan Thomas

Megan Thomas is a principal at Triangle Insights Group. Prior to joining Triangle Insights, she spent several years in academic research at the Center for Developmental Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Megan’s previous work experience includes sports and entertainment consulting, grassroots public health ventures, and multidisciplinary research. Her recent consulting engagements include product and portfolio level commercial assessments, commercial launch planning, corporate and R&D strategy, and IDN strategy. Her project experience spans across a variety of therapeutic areas including infectious disease, orphan diseases, CNS conditions, oncology, and pain management.

Megan holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of North Carolina where she was a Morehead-Cain Scholar.

Principal

Ryan Coe

Ryan Coe is a principal with experience across a wide range of therapeutic areas and service offerings. Previous engagements have included portfolio analysis, competitive assessment, partnering support, product identification and assessment, and forecasting for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostic companies. This work has been applied to a number of therapeutic areas including oncology, anti-infectives, diabetes, orphan diseases, and biosimilars.

Prior to joining Triangle Insights, Ryan worked in academic research laboratories, where he collaborated with several diagnostic start-up companies. He has published peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and has given presentations at national and international conferences.

Ryan completed a fellowship in Bioengineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Washington, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. He received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Founding Partner

Barrett Rankin

Barrett Rankin has led a wide spectrum of strategic engagements for life science industry clients, ranging from large multinational firms to venture-backed start-ups. Barrett’s previous management consulting positions were with Campbell Alliance and Boston Healthcare Associates. He also has client-side commercial experience from Grifols Therapeutics.

Barrett has significant experience with commercial assessments, transaction diligence, pricing/reimbursement, and launch strategy. He has broad therapeutic area experience and has completed a lot of recent work in orphan disease, dermatology, and oncology.

Barrett received his M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia. He has been a lecturer at several life science industry conferences.

Founding Partner

Ben Bonifant

Ben Bonifant is an experienced consultant to leaders of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations, and to decision-makers at large private equity funds. Prior to the founding of Triangle Insights Group, Ben was the leader of the Business Development Practice at Campbell Alliance and a partner in the Strategy practice at Oliver Wyman (formerly Mercer Management Consulting/Strategic Planning Associates).

Ben has been a management consultant for more than 20 years. His perspectives on developments in the life sciences market are frequently published in industry and strategy journals. Recent bylined articles have appeared in Pharmaceutical Executive, InVivo, Nature Biotech, RPM Report, and Scrip. In addition, Ben’s case studies on the pharmaceutical industry have been used in graduate business programs.

Ben is also a member of the Life Sciences Executive Committee of the Licensing Executive Society. He has also been a member of the program committee for the BIO International Convention. Ben has been a guest lecturer at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, and industry conferences in the US, Europe, and Canada.

Ben earned an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. from Duke University.

Founding Partner

Christopher Apolito

Chris Apolito has over twenty years of pharmaceutical and strategy consulting experience, with positions in discovery research, business development, and management consulting. His previous employers include GlaxoSmithKline, Becton Dickinson, AVOS Life Sciences, and Campbell Alliance.

While at GlaxoSmithKline, Chris’s scientific accomplishments led to multiple patent authorships and peer-reviewed publications. In business development roles, Chris was responsible for corporate strategy and reviewing in-licensing and out-licensing opportunities. For the last fifteen years, Chris has led consulting engagements focused on corporate strategy, R&D portfolio strategy, and commercial assessments across the life science sector

Chris earned an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School as a member of Beta Gamma Sigma academic honor society. He has an M.S. from the University of Buffalo and a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Rochester.

Founding Partner

Gautam Aggarwal

Gautam has thirteen years of pharmaceutical and consulting experience and focuses on providing strategic guidance to clients within life sciences organizations. His previous employers have included GlaxoSmithKline, Boston Consulting Group, and Campbell Alliance.

His recent engagements have involved commercial assessment, indication prioritization, white-space strategy, commercial model design and in-licensing/out-licensing support. Gautam has provided strategic advice to a wide range of clients, spanning Top-5 pharmaceutical manufacturers, emerging biotechnology manufacturers, biopharmaceutical investors, and service providers to biopharmaceutical companies. He has spoken at several industry conferences (LES, CED, EBD, BIO-Windhover, CHLA, Banff Venture Forum) and has published a peer-reviewed article on deal-timing.

Gautam received his M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke. He holds an M.S. and a B.S. in Bio-Statistics from UNC-Chapel Hill.