Leadership

Thomas S. Wardle, MS, MBA

Interim CEO

Mr. Wardle has 26 years of progressive and diverse leadership responsibility in pharmaceutical R&D and healthcare, with 19 years in the clinical contract research industry. He has held several senior management positions in rapid growth, entrepreneurial companies, including leadership of business development, operations, project management, and financial management.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Wardle was responsible for the management of California Clinical Trials, a large multi-specialty clinical trial investigator site with locations in California and London, England. While there, he was responsible for supervising more than 300 clinical trials in the CNS, Endocrinology, Cardiovascular, and Infectious Disease therapeutic areas. Mr. Wardle holds a BS in Exercise Physiology from Brigham Young University, an MS in Kinesiology from UCLA, and an MBA from Rutgers University.
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Keith Fern, M.B.A.

CFO

Keith Fern began his financial career with Bank of America Securities in Los Angeles. As vice president of corporate and investment banking, Mr. Fern oversaw a $1.5 billion portfolio, originating, structuring and executing all capital market and corporate bank loan transactions.

After moving to Austin, Mr. Fern took over as chief financial officer for Partnerware Technologies, Inc., a channel management enterprise software company, where he raised $41 million in venture capital, acquired and integrated a competitor, and helped grow the company from 18 to 102 employees. Mr. Fern then served as CFO of ProTier, a virtualization software company, where he helped orchestrate a sale of the company to Surgient Networks. He then established the Austin office of M&N Trading, a Chicago–based trading firm specializing in yield curve trading (U.S. Treasury Futures) and Eurodollars. Mr. Fern joined CEDRA as CFO in 2007. He is responsible for all financial, legal and human resource functions for the firm.

Keith Fern earned his B.S. in history from the University of Texas in 1989 and an M.B.A. from the same institution in 1992.
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Sherilyn Adcock, R.Ph., Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Prior to joining CEDRA Corporation in 2001, Sherilyn Adcock had been the senior director of clinical site operations for SCIREX Corporation in Austin. In addition, she held posts as vice president of the clinical research center and director of business development at Phoenix International Life Sciences; director of clinical research and business development at HealthQuest Therapy and Research Institute; a senior project director for the Biomedical Research Group; and a principal investigator and assistant director of project management at Pharmaco International.

She began her career as a pharmacist and clinical instructor in pharmacy and was the pharmacy services supervisor at Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler, Texas. Dr. Adcock earned her B.S. in pharmacy, an M.S. in health science, and a Ph.D. specializing in community health, all from the University of Texas at Austin.

In addition to her licensure by the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, Dr. Adcock is certified in basic cardiac life support and sterile products preparation. She is a member of the American Association of HealthCare Pharmacists, the Drug Information Association, and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.
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Mark T. Leibowitz, M.D.

Medical Director

In a relatively short career of less than 20 years, Dr. Mark Leibowitz has amassed an amazing amount of experience as principal investigator (PI) or investigator on more than 200 pharmaceutical research studies. Prior to joining CEDRA in 2007, Dr. Leibowitz had been Director of Early Drug Development for California Clinical Trials.

Dr. Leibowitz has particular expertise in psychotic, affective and anxiety disorders, Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease, in addition to over 50 clinical pharmacology studies in healthy young and elderly normal subjects.

Dr. Leibowitz was also PI or investigator in many specialized patient studies including obesity, migraine, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, ADHD, gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, hypertension, HIV, and multiple sclerosis. He conducted studies in specialized populations including multiple ethnobridging studies involving comparisons of Caucasian and Japanese populations.

Dr. Leibowitz received his M.D. at Albert Einstein Medical School of Yeshiva University in New York and did his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Texas Affiliated Hospitals in Houston.
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Barbara Newberry, M.T. (ASCP)

Vice President of Clinical Research Operations

After graduating with a B.S. in chemistry with honors from Texas A&M in 1979, Barbara Newberry went back to school to earn a B.A. in medical technology with honors from the University of Texas School of Allied Health Science Center in Dallas the following year. She was certified as a medical technologist by the American Society of Clinical Pathologists in 1980.

With dual degrees, she began her career with McKenna Memorial Hospital in New Braunfels, Texas, as a general lab technologist, rising through the ranks to become laboratory supervisor and finally microbiology supervisor. She also held management positions at Southwest Oncology Associates, P.A., Pharmaco International, SAM Clinical Research Center and Central Texas Health Research.

Immediately prior to joining CEDRA, Ms. Newberry was the director of clinical operations for HealthQuest Research in Austin. She joined CEDRA as director of clinical operations in 2001, and was named vice president of clinical research operations in 2004.
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Steve E. Unger, Ph.D.

Vice President / Laboratory Director

Dr. Unger held the position of Senior Director in the areas of bioanalytical chemistry and drug metabolism at Wyeth (now Pfizer), where he managed scientists who performed high through-put bioanalysis in support of a number of drug candidates. Before joining Wyeth, Dr. Unger held a number of leadership positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) from 2001 until 2008. While at BMS, Dr. Unger supervised and managed a team of scientists performing LC/MS bioanalysis that supported preclinical and clinical projects in addition to being responsible for the transfer of analytical methodology to various CROs. Prior to joining BMS, Dr. Unger held positions as Sr. Director in bioanalysis at DuPont Pharma from 1996 to 2001 and Section Head in drug metabolism at Glaxo from 1988 to 1996. Dr. Unger started his pharma career at Squibb in 1982.
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Mark Ramminger

Vice President of Information Technology

Mark Ramminger began his career in Information Technology with Radian International where he worked as a database developer and administrator on the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) used by Radian’s analytical laboratory operation to track samples, as well as import, manage and report analytical data. After Radian merged with URS Corporation he became an IT manager and was responsible for the technical side of a multi-year project to consolidate the company’s accounting systems. He also managed the network and helpdesk staff for the Austin data center. Mr. Ramminger also served as the Regional IT Manager for the Central Region (Texas). This involved coordinating corporate IT activities for Austin, Houston, Dallas/FW and San Antonio offices.

Since joining CEDRA in 2002, Mr. Ramminger has been responsible for the administration, security, and operation of computer systems, servers, storage, local and wide area networks, mission-critical clinical and laboratory systems, e-mail and the corporate Web sites. He also manages the development of database applications within the organization and directs Part 11 compliance initiatives.

Mr. Ramminger earned his B.S. in Information Science from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas. He received the CEDRA Corporate Achievement Award in 2006.
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Emilio Córdova, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Vice President, Business Development

After completing his post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University in 1996, Dr. Córdova joined Bioanalytical Systems, Inc. (BASi) as a sales manager. He was continually promoted at BASi, holding the postistions of international and Midwest regional sales manager, business development manager, business development director, and ultimately vice president of business development. During his tenure at BASi, sales, revenues and territories grew significantly for the firm. By the time he joined CEDRA in 2008, Dr. Córdova was responsible for leading and managing a focused CRO services business development team with annual revenuesof over $42 million.

Dr. Córdova earned a B.S. in chemistry from Drew University and a M.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Miami, where he was a Patricia R. Harris Graduate Fellow. He was also a NIH Postdoctoral Minority Fellow at Harvard, doing research in materials science, biochemistry and analytical chemistry. In 2006, Dr. Córdova earned a M.B.A. from Purdue University, where he was also inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society.

Dr. Córdova is a Degrees of Change Founding Trustee with the Hispanic Scholarship Consortium, and a past board member of Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and Purdue Latino Alumni Organization (PLAO).
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Michele Malone, B.S. 

Director of Laboratory Operations

As director of laboratory operations, Ms. Malone is responsible for all bioanalytical functions including sample control, method development and validation of analytical methods, sample analysis, data documentation and final report compilation. She also oversees the instrumentation and training programs ensuring GLP requirements are met in all areas.

After earning her B.S. in biological sciences with a minor in chemistry cum laude from the University of Houston, Ms. Malone joined the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston as a research assistant, quickly rising to become senior research assistant at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. In 1995, she joined CEDRA Corporation as a research associate, holding posts as associate scientist, group leader, QA senior auditor and QA manager on her way to being named director of laboratory operations. Ms. Malone established systems and guidelines for maintaining an effective GLP program at CEDRA, insuring compliance with regulations through monitoring, inspecting and auditing studies.

She was the recipient of CEDRA’s Corporate Achievement Award in 2003 and CEDRA’s Buttkicker Award in 2000. Ms. Malone is a former director of KIDS Hope and a board member of First Foundations.
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William Nowatzke, Ph.D.

Director of Ligand Binding Assay Laboratory

Prior to joining CEDRA Corporation in 2008, Dr. Nowatzke held several positions preparing him for the position. He had been associate director of immunopharmacology for BioMimetic Therapeutics, a senior pharmacokinetic and drug metabolism scientist at Amgen, Inc., and assistant laboratory director of the Regulatory Compliant Laboratory for LINCO Diagnostics, Inc.

He has published extensively on ligand binding studies, including numerous articles in Clinical Chemistry, the Journal of Biological Chemistry; Endocrinology, The Journal of Pediatric Hematology Oncology and many others. His work has also been published in abstract publications, including the National Biotechnology Conference and the AAPS Annual Meeting.

Dr. Nowatzke earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Indiana University at Bloomington in 1997.
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