Gregory T. Simpson
Senior Vice President & Head of Marketing
Saama Technologies
Creatively Pivoting During a Pandemic
“The global pandemic changed the way business had to be conducted,” explains Suresh Katta, Founder & CEO, Saama Technologies. “Throughout challenging and uncertain times, Gregory T. Simpson has pivoted as needed to strategically create and implement daring and creative marketing campaigns that helped achieve Saama’s business goals, motivate our employees, especially our sales force, and attract and engage new and existing customers.”
For instance, Greg led the conceptualization, development, and launch of Saama’s two expert podcast series over the past year: Accelerating Clinical and Safety Signals. Debuting in August 2021, Accelerating Clinical covers the latest and greatest advances that are defining the future of clinical research. Greg identifies, recruits, and interviews the innovators who put insight into action to advance and accelerate the pace of clinical research in order to make meaningful improvements in all of our lives. Meanwhile, he launched Safety Signals in January 2022 for pharmacovigilance professionals, benefit risk managers, epidemiologists, and other patient safety stakeholders. Through Safety Signals, Greg created a forum to showcase expert perspectives from pharma leaders, academics, and scientists on the challenges, opportunities, and technologies that are shaping the future of the safety sciences.
In an innovative move designed to combat Zoom fatigue during the pandemic, Greg launched an interactive game show webinar called “Who Wants to be a Clinical Trial MillionAIre?” This live virtual interactive game show featured industry clinical experts going head-to-head on the latest AI trends in life sciences. Viewers also got a chance to test their own knowledge and leave with valuable prizes in the form of actionable takeaways.
In addition to successfully implementing the campaigns outlined above, Greg, as a member of Saama’s leadership team, was a key executive in securing a milestone $430 million strategic growth investment from a non-traditional group of investors in October 2021. Alongside global investment firm The Carlyle Group, Saama received funding from a unique life sciences industry consortium that included the corporate venture arms of major pharma companies, such as Amgen, Merck, Pfizer, and others. Saama is now working with this powerful syndicate to redefine the drug development paradigm across several therapeutic categories.
