Mike Howe-Ely was born in Rhodesia, the country now called Zimbabwe. Mr
How-Ely did a bachelor in Commerce (with distinctions) at Rhodes University
in South Africa. He further developed himself by participating in the Johnson
and Johnson International Manager Development Program, the Executive
Development Program of Wits Business School in South Africa and the MDT
Global Leaders program.
Mr Howe-Ely started his professional career as an officer in the Rhodesian
army (military service) and as a diplomat for the Rhodesian government
working in Angola and South Africa. After the change of government in
Rhodesia at the end of 1979, Mr Howe-Ely made a career change and worked
during the subsequent 23 years for Johnson & Johnson as product manager,
marketing manager, ending as director of external markets. Since 2002 he
works as a regional director for Medtronic (Africa) (Pty) Ltd. His stewardship
has not only led to a strong growth of business, he integrated many business,
implemented a state-of-the-art distribution model, introduced a Therapy and
Procedure training center and is proud to have recruited and retained one of
the best management teams in the industry.

Russell Williams is a passionate advocate for innovation in health care and in
economic development. Since joining Rx&D in March 2004, Mr. Williams has
promoted policies that improve patient outcomes by expanding patient
choice and access to new medicines and vaccines. He works tirelessly to
ensure that Canada is a world leader in attracting biopharmaceutical
investments, which are key components of the knowledge-based economy.
Under Mr. Williams’ leadership, the association’s Code of Ethical Practices
has been significantly enhanced to ensure that all member companies adhere
to the highest standards of ethics. He has participated actively in numerous
provincial working groups and task forces aimed at improving the partnership
between industry, governments and stakeholders.
Prior to joining Rx&D, Mr. Williams had a successful career in provincial
politics and community service. For fifteen years, he represented the
Montreal riding of Nelligan in the National Assembly of Quebec. During his
career as Liberal MNA, he led numerous public policy debates on important
and complex issues, such as the role of government in research and
development (R&D), compensation for victims of contaminated blood,
linguistic policy, access to services for the disabled, and pre-hospital
emergency services. He is well known for his dedication and perseverance as
an advocate for individual rights and government services focused on the
needs of its citizens. He continues active volunteer involvement in palliative
care.

Anban Pillay is the Deputy Director-General for the Health Regulation &
Compliance Management Branch, at the National Department of Health.
His current responsibilities in the Department of Health include:
Development of a National Health Insurance Policy; Public Private
Partnerships, Financing of the Public Health System and price regulation.
Dr Pillay serves on the Medicine Control Council, Pricing Committee and
other Policy Committees of the National Department of Health and the
World Health Organization.

Tshepo Boikanyo is a lawyer by training. He obtained a bachelor of law (B
juris) and a bachelor of laws (old LLB) degree. At the moment he is studying
for a legum magistrum or LLM in labor law. Following his law studies he was
admitted as an advocate to South African High Court.
Mr Boikanyo has not only been an advocate, he was also a prosecutor. He
was the prosecutor in the case of the State versus Lucas Manyane Mangope
(the former president of the Bophuthatswana homeland) and he is a former
head of prosecutions in Johannesburg. In addition he has been a Senior State
Advocate of the Witwatersrand Local Division.
He has also been a teacher of a variety of audiences: teaching criminal law at
Vista Soweto, training members of the South African Police Services on
presenting evidence in Court and on the gathering of evidence at the crime
scene, and teaching nurses and doctors in the Gauteng area on their
responsibility with respect to victims and on testifying in court. He has also
lectured medical students at the University of Pretoria on Ethics.
More recently, his interest turned to medical affairs, having been General
Manager of the Legal Services of the Health Professions Council of South
Africa and currently he is Chief of Operations for the Health Professions
Council of South Africa.

Roy Jobson is a medical doctor who trained in Family Medicine and in Clinical
Pharmacology. Dr Jobson is presently involved in teaching pharmacology to
pharmacy students in the Faculty of Pharmacy at Rhodes University. He was
the Chairperson of the Rhodes University Ethical Standards Committee from
2007 to 2011 and remains a member of the committee.
Dr Jobson was previously involved with the South African Medicines Control
Council (MCC) as a Council member; and as a committee member of the
Clinical Trials Committee and Complementary Medicines Committee. He was
also the inaugural Chairperson of the MCC’s Pharmacovigilance Committee.
He now serves as a Council member of the Allied Health Professions Council
of South Africa; and has been co-opted onto that Council’s Professional
Board for Homoeopathy, Naturopathy and Phytotherapy.
Dr Jobson is presently completing a PhD in the advertising and marketing of
medicines in South Africa.

Laurenne Nicole James studied Pharmacy at the Medical School of the
University of Witwatersrand, where she obtained her bachelor degree in
1996. In 2007 she obtained a Master of Business Administration degree at the
University of the Witwatersrand Business School, with a focus on marketing
and strategy and subsequently did a course in “Evidence Based Medicine” at
the University of Pretoria.
Miss James started her career in quality assurance in pharmaceutical
companies; however her passion for interaction with customers, marketing
and new business development soon led her to more customer-facing and
product management roles within marketing.
Miss James has been with Aspen Pharmacare, the largest pharmaceutical
company in South Africa for almost 5 years, with roles in Export, Market
Access and Special Projects. Special projects included the integration of the
marketing code within the sales and marketing teams.

Heather Simmonds is the Director of the Prescription Medicines Code of
Practice Authority (PMCPA). Heather chairs the Code of Practice Panel,
which considers complaints submitted under the Code in the first instance,
and is responsible for the overall running of the organization. Ms Simmonds
also works with IFPMA and EFPIA in relation to their codes of practice.
Ms Simmonds has a degree in pharmacology and joined the ABPI in 1984.
She has been working full time on the Code of Practice since 1989 and has
been Director of the PMCPA since 1997.

As member of the Rx&D team and the Executive Director of Ethics and
Compliance Practices, Chrisoula Nikidis is responsible for the Code of
Ethical Practices and related issues. Her key responsibilities include
maintaining and updating the Code, managing the Code education
program, answering Code related questions, offering guidance on the
application of the Code while providing expertise on industry practices.
Included in her responsibilities is advice and support to the President of
Rx&D in matters that pertain to the IFPMA and the Code Compliance
Network.
Prior to joining Rx&D, Ms Nikidis was RFP Solutions’ Senior Advisor for Bid
Evaluations where she worked on assisting government officials with the
proposal evaluation process and provided procurement related strategic
advice. While residing in Montreal, Ms Nikidis worked as a Legislative
Assistant on behalf of Quebec Member of the National Assembly, Geoffrey
Kelley.

Roeland van Aelst joined Johnson & Johnson in 1987 as a Medical
Representative for Janssen Pharmaceutica. Mr van Aelst held various
positions of increasing responsibility in both sales and marketing and joined
the WWOHCC&P in May 2005 for the EMEA region with extension to Asia,
Latin-America and Canada in 2008. In 2010 he became responsible for
EMEA & Canada cross sector. Regional Vice President – HCCO MD&D
EMEA & Canada is his current position since October 2012. Currently Mr van
Aelst also fulfills the Chairman role of the EUCOMED compliance network
and is a member of the board and a founding member of ETHICS.

Robert Skinner has 21 years’ experience within the pharmaceutical industry,
mainly within the clinical research environment. His current position is
Deputy Compliance Officer, Emerging Markets, Asia Pacific & Japan
(EMAP&J) within GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). His main responsibility includes
working collaboratively with business teams to identify and mitigate risks,
including those related to audit findings, anti-bribery & corruption and
merger & acquisition activities. His previous role was Head of Medical
Operations at GSK for the same region where he had responsibilities for
Phase IIIb/IV clinical trials, Medical Information and the GSK Promotion &
Marketing Code.
Dr Skinner’s previous positions have included Scientific Director of the GSK
Academy of Pharmaceutical Medicine and Director of European Clinical
Operations. He has worked closely with the UK Royal College of Physicians’
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine assisting with the development of their
Pharmaceutical Medicine Specialist Training (PMST) curriculum and was
made Honorary Member of the Faculty in June 2008. Dr Skinner is also a
Visiting Lecturer at the Post Graduate Medical School, University of Surrey,
UK and King’s College London.
Prior to joining the industry, Dr Skinner was a Lecturer in Biology & Exercise
Physiology. He obtained his PhD from King’s College, University of London.

Val Beaumont is Executive Director of Innovative Medicines SA (IMSA), a
pharmaceutical industry trade association representing manufacturers of
research based medicines. The role of the association is to promote access
by patients to innovative medicines in South Africa and create an
environment for sustained investment and growth aligned with national
governmental objectives.
Ms Beaumont is a pharmacist, having degrees from both Rhodes and
Pretoria Universities. Her professional career has exposed her to diverse
aspects of pharmaceuticals and includes 13 years employment in the
pharmaceutical industry at what were then Wellcome and Roussel
Laboratories, owner of a retail pharmacy in Johannesburg and lecturing
posts at the universities of Wits and Pretoria where she set up post-grad
degree courses for industry pharmacists. She is the founder of Health
Science Academy (HSA) where she pioneered outcomes based training for
pharmacists assistants qualifications, the development of new professional
skills such as immunization and screening tests for pharmacists, and the
dispensing doctor qualification. HSA training also involved training in
regulatory affairs, clinical research, and the marketing code. She has
consulted extensively for both Government and the private sectors.
In 2003 Ms Beaumont was charged with the start-up of IMSA and she has
taken it from a four member association to become a significant player in
the health care sector.
She has served two terms as an elected member of the South African
Pharmacy Council, a period as chair of the Private Health Forum and has
held various leadership positions in professional associations. The
Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa recognized her contribution to the
profession through the award of fellowship of the society.
As one of the initial instigators of the initiative that has led to the formation
of the Marketing Code Authority, Ms Beaumont is totally committed to
ensuring the effective implementation of an ethical code for the marketing
of medicines in SA.