When Paula and Lisa first met each other as two top female executives competing for the same multi-million dollar contract, they viewed each other as fierce competitors. Years later, they realized they had more in common than they first thought. Over the years, Paula and Lisa learned the value of complementing instead of competing. In the process, both women recognized how embracing the success of other women can in fact, propel one’s own career.
Paula B. Stafford, Managing Director
With more than 35 years of experience in biopharmaceutical services and consulting, Paula Brown Stafford helped build the contract research organization (CRO) industry and the preeminent CRO in the industry, Quintiles. Her career at Quintiles culminated in serving for five years as president of clinical development, Quintiles largest business segment. She is currently managing director of Habergeon and chief executive officer and chairman of Novan, a North Carolina-based pharmaceutical company. Paula co-authored Remember Who YOU Are: Achieve Success. Create Balance. Experience Fulfillment. with Lisa T. Grimes.
While at Quintiles, Paula was a member of the Executive Committee, the Technology
Investment Committee, and a Board observer in addition to founding Quintiles Enterprise Data Council in 2007 and Quintiles Women Inspired Network in 2010. After retiring from Quintiles in 2015, Paula has focused on Board work and leadership development and was appointed to Adjunct Professor in the Public Health Leadership Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Paula is currently a Board member of Novan, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVN), Alliance for Multispecialty Research, and the General Alumni Association at UNC-Chapel Hill. She served as a member of the UNC-CH Gillings Public Health Foundation Board, the Health Decisions Board of Directors, CDISC (Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium) Board of Directors and was previously an Independent Director for Bio-Imaging Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: BITI and later BIOC).
In 2022, Paula was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Triangle Business Journal. For her outstanding contributions to healthcare and pharmaceutical development, Paula was honored with a Distinguished Alumna Award from her alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in 2016. Paula was invited in July 2014 to provide expert testimony in the U.S. Congressional hearing on the topic of modernizing clinical trials: “21st Century Cures,” a bill later approved by the House of Representatives in 2015. She was named in 2012 as one of the 10 top women in biotech by FierceBiotech.
Paula holds a bachelor of science and a Master of Public Health, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a specialization in Biostatistics. She and her husband have two adult children.
Lisa T. Grimes, Managing Director
Lisa is currently managing director of Habergeon, and President and CEO of PurThread Technologies, an antimicrobial textile company. Lisa co-authored Remember Who YOU Are: Achieve Success. Create Balance. Experience Fulfillment. with Paula Brown Stafford. Lisa also serves as managing director of Lead Wholly (www.leadwholly.com), an executive peer group experience that encourages women to lead with their whole selves.
As an entrepreneur, Lisa began her career with PPDI, where she helped to establish one of the world’s largest contract research organizations (CRO), as an early member of its executive management team leading global business development. Lisa then became President and CEO of InSite Clinical Trials (a site management organization), leading that company’s transition to a full-service CRO and ultimately, its sale to United Healthcare. Since that time, Lisa has served as start-up or interim CEO to other companies, including Invitrox (therapeutic assay company) and AcSentient (specialty ophthalmology company), for which she negotiated its sale to ISTA.
Lisa’s broad life science industry experience includes positions with multinational organizations such as GlaxoSmithKline. She also spent ten years serving on the Executive Advisory Group of the pharmaceutical consulting firm Campbell Alliance (now Syneos) and its subsidiary, the Pharmaceutical Institute.
Active in her community, Lisa serves on numerous boards, including Fill Your Bucket List Foundation, Lighthouse Ministries and Knowing God Ministries. She is a past board member for the Caring Community Foundation and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Pharmacy Foundation. Lisa is an award-winning interior designer who also has experience launching consumer services franchises. She was an inaugural recipient of the Triangle Business Journal’s Women in Business award.
Lisa holds a BS in Pharmacy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She and her husband have two adult sons and a beautiful daughter-in-law.