The Civica Rx Team

Ned McCoy is Civica’s President and CEO. He has been with the company since its 2018 launch and most recently served as Chief Operating Officer where he was responsible for commercial operations, research and development, manufacturing/supply chain and business development.  Prior to this role, Ned was the Chief Business Development Officer, responsible for developing and signing long term supply partnerships to prevent drug shortages and establish fair pricing.

Jay Benson has 30 years of experience within the biopharmaceutical industry, including clinical and commercial manufacturing, global strategy development, and tech transfer and commercialization of new therapies. Prior to joining Civica, Jay was with Thermo Fisher Scientific, most recently serving as the Vice President of Global Operations for the Clinical Diagnostics Division and prior to that he held the role of Vice President/General Manager North America Operations, Biologics.

Prior to joining Thermo Fisher, Jay spent four years with Takeda, leading multiple Biologics Drug Substance manufacturing facilities in the Boston area. He also spent eleven years with Bayer Pharmaceuticals in multiple roles supporting Biologics technical operations and strategy development in Berkeley, CA.

Eamon Fitzmaurice joins us most recently from Novartis Gene Therapies (previously named AveXis) and from vaccine companies Seqirus, Novartis Vaccines and pharmaceutical company Merck earlier in his career.

At Novartis Gene Therapies, Eamon served as Controller, Global Technical Operations shortly after joining the company as Plant Controller in 2018. Prior to working to working at Novartis Gene therapies, Eamon was Plant Manager for two years at an Oral Solid Dosage facility for Purdue Pharma. Eamon previously worked at Novartis Vaccines and led the US/Global vaccine finance organization through the sale of Novartis Vaccines to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), including through the deal closure and integration with CSL. Prior to Novartis Vaccines, Eamon spent 23yrs with Merck in roles in both Finance and Operations (Production & Operational Excellence).

With more than 25 years of experience in corporate communications and public relations agency environments, Debbi’s experience includes communications leadership roles in biopharma/healthcare, high tech, energy, government and hunger relief.

Most recently in biopharma with Alexion, Amgen, Novartis Vaccines (now GSK), and Shire (now Takeda), Debbi’s focus has been on partnering to define company missions, media relations, corporate responsibility, employee communications, crisis and issues management, M&A communications, social media and brand creative. She has received award-winning recognition for her leadership of communications/change campaigns that helped companies solve business challenges and deliver improved and sustained results.

Russell Gall serves on the executive leadership team of Civica Rx as Chief Manufacturing and Supply Chain Officer. Prior to Civica, Russ was actively involved in consulting throughout the pharmaceutical and medical device industry. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors of Hamlin Scientific.

As an Operations Executive with over 30 years in senior operations leadership roles in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, Russ has had direct responsibilities for over 21 different global manufacturing sites. This has included controlled (Schedule 1-5) injectable drugs, radio-pharmaceuticals, potent compounds, cephalosporins, lyophilized products, specialty chemicals/active pharmaceutical ingredients, an extensive array of drug delivery systems, medical devices, all types of sterilization technologies, and all forms of molding and assembly operations. Russ’ functional responsibilities have included all aspects of Manufacturing, Quality, Research & Development, Supply Chain, Engineering, Maintenance, Finance, Human Resources, EH&S, Information Systems, Operational Excellence, and Contract Manufacturing.

Scott Gochnour is a pharmaceutical industry leader serving on the executive leadership team with Civica Rx as the Chief Research and Development Officer. He brings extensive experience in developing and optimizing product performance and providing technical, quality and regulatory leadership to introduce quality products to market.

Prior to his position at Civica Rx, he was the Senior Vice President for Global Generic Research and Development (R&D) for Teva Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Additionally, he has held similar R&D leadership positions with Allergan, Actavis, Watson Pharmaceuticals and TheraTech for over 30 years in various research, product development, process engineering and management positions in R&D and production operations.

Gina Guinasso has joined as the President of CivicaScript and is tasked with extending the successful Civica Rx model to the outpatient setting in order to dramatically lower the cost of select high-cost generic medications for individuals and families across the country.

Most recently Gina was the Senior Vice President of Commercial and Medicare Formulary Contracting Strategy at OptumRx, a UnitedHealth Group company.  In this capacity, she led the day-to-day rebate negotiations for all internal and external pharmacy benefit management clients across all lines of business including commercial, Medicare part D, managed Medicaid, and fee for service Medicaid.  Gina’s team was responsible for formulary strategy development and execution of manufacturer agreements for both pharmacy and medical benefit products and oversaw both traditional rebate and value-based contracts.

Donna’s expertise spans worldwide operations, quality, and regulatory experience across vaccine, biological, pharmaceutical and device technologies where she has held positions of significant responsibility for Quality and GxP Compliance, including various roles in drug discovery, operations, and quality and regulatory affairs at Merck & Co., Bristol Myers Squibb and Lachman Consultants.  

Jennifer is Civica’s Chief Commercial Officer, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, providing oversight of the Commercial, Compliance and Business Development organizations and providing strategic legal strategy and counsel in support of business objectives. Jennifer has extensive experience in complex licensing, contracting, healthcare compliance and crisis management.

Prior to joining Civica, Jennifer was Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Medical Segment of Cardinal Health.  Jennifer led a global team of lawyers to support the rapidly growing Medical Segment by providing strategic legal advice, including a $6.5B acquisition of Medtronic’s Patient Recovery Business.

Kristopher Weidling (Kris), a strategic-thinking HR leader for global life sciences firms, showcases a superior track record of supporting an organization’s growth strategy while astutely managing talent and cultural change. He has proved to be a trusted advisor to organizational leadership in initiating innovative human capital management strategies and aligning HR best practices and processes with organizational objectives. Most importantly, he has accelerated transformation through leadership, attracting and developing the best talent and building a culture of engagement, agility, and innovation.

Most recently, as the Head of HR (Global Business Functions) at Astra Zeneca (AZ) Oncology, Kris championed the creation of an agile organizational culture while enabling 49% growth within the Oncology unit in 2018-2019. Here, he aligned all strategic HR scorecard initiatives with the AZ 2025 strategy of “Disruptive Innovation” to become the #1 Oncology company by 2025.