Leadership

Bernard Sweeney, Vice President

 

In October 2009, Bernard Sweeney joined Premier Research to oversee the Medical Device Division. Bernard’s experience includes more than 20 years in medical device research and development, during which time he has supervised clinical trials leading to the market approval of more than 20 new products He joined the company from the British Standards Institute (BSi) where he had been the Director of Healthcare responsible for developing a network of global regulatory approvals units providing market access for medical device companies across the world. Prior to his time at BSi, Bernard held positions at both government agencies and medical devices manufacturers including Medilink East Midlands and Femcare Nikomed Group where he was the CEO. He received an MBA from The Open University of Manchester

 

 

Erdmann Zippel, Executive Director Europe

 

As Executive Director Europe, Erdmann Zippel is overseeing and managing the European operational activities.
After 12 years as a RN in the hospital intensive care and anesthesia field he started his career in the industry in 2001 working for Datex Ohmeda, Biotronik and LMA.
He joined D-TARGET in 2006. Erdmann has extensive experience in the medical device field, especially in Cardiology / CRM and Anesthesia.

 

 

Vytis Jusevicius, Project Director

 

Vytis is line managing and supporting the team of Project Managers and the start up department, having joined the team in 2006.
He started his career in clinical trials joining Quintiles as a CRA in Lithuania in 2005 coming from the field of pharmaceutical production and distribution industry. The main therapeutic areas Vytis Jusevicius is working in medical device trials are: Cardiovascular, Neurovascular Orthopaedics and Spinal Implants. He has also experience in the studies of gynaecological, faecal incontinence and active implantable devices. 
Vytis has graduated at Kaunas University of Medicine in 1988 with a degree in pharmacy and received MBA from Kaunas University of Technologies.

 

 

Sarah Zanon, MS Eng, US Lead Sr. Project Manager

 

Sarah joined D-TARGET in May 2010. In her current position inside the organization, Sarah is supervising and supporting the US clinical operations, line managing US project managers.
She has special experience in cardiovascular medical devices. Since the beginning of her career, she has been involved in the clinical development and regulatory approval of class III medical devices.
Prior to her employment at D-TARGET, she worked with two worldwide first-rank medical device companies, Edwards Lifesciences and Sorin Group.
Sarah has a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Politecnico of Milan in Italy.

 

 

Dr. Sunita Ahir, Regulatory Affairs Manager

 

Dr Sunita Ahir advises and supports medical device companies on the CE marking process, Authorized Representation in the EU and compliance issues. 
Sunita has extensive experience in the medical device field having worked for the British Standards Institute (BSi) Healthcare division as a technical expert where she reviewed Class IIb and Class III submissions for CE marking.  Her other responsibilities included technical auditing, ISO 13485 and  project management for  many companies in the medical device field. 
Sunita has a Master`s degree from Cranfield University and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University College London in the UK.   

 

 

Dr. Hua Gong, Executive Director of Medical Diagnostics

 

Hua is an Executive Director overseeing the IVD projects at D-TARGET.  Prior to joining Premier Research, Hua was the Associate Director, Medical Diagnostics at Prometheus Therapeutics & Diagnostics. There she was responsible for leading the development and commercialization of multiple diagnostics products including companion diagnostics in collaboration with Pharmaceutical companies. Additionally, she worked at Pfizer for 10 years in a variety of positions of increasing responsibility. During that time, she successfully managed multiple projects and made significant contribution in bringing a drug to the market. Hua received her MD degree from An Hui Medical University in China and her PhD in cancer biology in US.