12 Questions with Chris Venezia

As the CEO of ProofPilot, Chris Venezia has a track record of success with more than 18 years of strong leadership in product commercialisation, patient recruitment, marketing, and sales. He joined ProofPilot as the CEO in 2022 after serving as the Chief Commercial Officer at Citeline Connect. Venezia excels in addressing the pain points of the life sciences industry and bringing technology-driven solutions to the market. His expertise will help disrupt the clinical trial industry to improve the experience and research outcomes for all key stakeholders in the space.

What is your proudest professional accomplishment to date? While I can point to a variety of different achievements, I would have to say the work the team and I did for Operation Warp Speed was by far my proudest accomplishment. Under very difficult circumstances, and with almost no time, we delivered incredible enrolment and engagement results for some of the major COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials.

What are some of the biggest ongoing challenges in your work? It might sound cliché, but communication is the biggest challenge. In a fast-moving company with customers who move just as quickly, it can be difficult to keep everyone on the same page.

What are the most important professional skills in your work and how do you hone them? Prioritisation and empathy are the two must-have skills to develop and use day-to-day. While everything is important, it’s not humanely possible for everything to be a priority. It’s difficult to pick and choose where to spend your time, and you need to constantly run a risk/benefit analysis on everything that pops up. I mention empathy as well because when you prioritise, someone will inevitably be unhappy. Making sure you hear their concerns and see their perspectives is crucial to keeping staff motivated and goals achievable.

What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the industry right now? The convergence of operations and AI is a major challenge to overcome in the clinical trials industry. There are incredible ways to use AI in day-to-day clinical operations, but heavy regulation and fear of change management really prevent sites and patients from benefiting from innovative technology.

If you could change one thing about the pharma industry, what would it be? The fear of change management. Again, there are so many amazing technologies out there that can help everyone involved in clinical trials, but so often I hear how difficult a lift change management will be. In other industries, you don’t see this same objection. Think of all the amazing technologies you use day to day: Google Maps, Venmo, Netflix, etc. All of them have had a major change management disruption with incredible results.

In your opinion what has changed most about the industry since the start of your career? Seeing the transition of technology from being a nice-to-have to a need-to-have has been a wild journey. My first job out of college was selling pharmaceutical trend reports that we would print and ship to clinical operators, so witnessing the industry go from that to fully digital has been incredible.

What do you think pharma will look like in 15 years? 50 years? Speed to market and personalised medicine are going to increase at unprecedented levels. In 15 years, you will be able to shave a few years off of drug development by introducing AI into the process. In 50 years, drug development will be accomplished at the speed of light and the real focus will be on personalised medicine and tailoring drugs to patients’ exact needs.

What advice do you have for your pharma industry peers? Be more selfish and focus on doing what you do best: drug development/clinical trials. Sponsors mean well when they create altruistic initiatives, or try to solve operational problems that are out of their control, but the truth is that if they just stay focused on their core goals and objectives, everything else will solve itself.

What advice would you give to a young person starting out in your field? Understand early on that you are a partner, not a vendor. There are a million companies involved in the drug approval process, and they all play an important role in making it a success. Realising that you are a part of the entire life cycle of drug development and not just a vendor will help you understand not only your importance, but also your customers.

What are your hobbies? What do you do in your free time? Being a dad is my number one priority, so all of my hobbies revolve around being fully invested in my kids. This means a lot of football and baseball practices and games for my son, and piano and soccer for my daughter.

What sports do you follow and who do you root for? When you are a native New Yorker, you really only have two options: Mets/Jets/Nets, or Yankees/Giants/Knicks. I was fortunate enough to grow up watching The Captain (Derek Jeter) and the most clutch football player of all time, Eli Manning, so it was easy to be a fan of the latter...

If you could have any job other than the one you have now, what would you choose? I love my day-to-day, but I hate being stuck inside, so I would choose the total opposite and be a farmer or rancher. There is honestly nothing more satisfying than accomplishing a goal with your bare hands and being exhausted at the end of a hard day's work.

Connect with Chris Venezia on LinkedIn.