Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc. - Our People

Senior Staff

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Jeff W. Sampere
Vice President, Marketing
Mr. Sampere joined Inspire in November of 2003 as Senior Director, Marketing and was promoted to Vice President, Marketing in October 2004. He is responsible for all marketing activities around the current product portfolio. These include products within the existing pipeline, as well as products acquired through licensing agreements. He brings over 19 years of pharmaceutical marketing, sales and management experience to Inspire. Mr. Sampere began his career in the pharmaceutical industry with Glaxo Pharmaceuticals, starting as an analyst and becoming a sales representative in Jacksonville, Florida. He then held several positions in marketing, where he was responsible for Beclovent^® Inhalation Aerosol and was a member of the Flovent^® Inhalation Aerosol launch team. Subsequently he became a district manager in South Carolina before leaving to join DJ Pharma, which was acquired by Biovail Pharmaceuticals. During this period, Mr. Sampere was responsible for marketing Keftab^®, Teveten^® and Zovirax^® Ointment and Cream, as well as managing new product development. Mr. Sampere graduated from East Carolina University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and The College of William and Mary where he received his Masters in Business Administration.

Amy E. Schaberg, RN, BSN
Vice President, Clinical Research
Ms. Schaberg joined Inspire in August 2001 as Senior Director, Clinical Research. She worked with Inspire as a consultant for two years prior to accepting this position. Ms. Schaberg was promoted to Vice President, Clinical Research in April 2003. She is responsible for directing the scientific and operational aspects of clinical activities for clinical development programs in the pulmonary therapeutic area. She brings to Inspire over 22 years of clinical development experience including the design and implementation of clinical trials and the reporting of clinical trial data, including the clinical portions of two New Drug Applications (NDAs) and two supplemental NDAs. Prior to consulting for Inspire, Ms. Schaberg was employed for ten years at Glaxo Wellcome in various capacities in clinical research. She holds a B.S. in Nursing from Boston University.

Sammy R. Shaver
Principal Investigator I, Pharmaceutical Sciences
Mr. Shaver has held positions of Group Leader, Director of Chemistry and Principal Investigator in Biochemistry and Screening before moving to his current role. As Principal Investigator in Pharmaceutical Sciences, he is responsible for creating and developing analytical methods to support internal preclinical and formulation activities as well as for transfer to external vendors. He is additionally responsible for maintaining and administering the in-house cheminformatics and bioinformatics systems. He was previously employed for 14 years at Burroughs Wellcome, focusing on nucleosides as antiviral agents. Mr. Shaver graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.S. degree in Chemistry.

Denise M. Sheehan, RPh
Vice President, Product Planning
Ms. Sheehan joined Inspire in July 2004 as Senior Director, Strategic Markets and was promoted to her current position in February 2007. She is responsible for maximizing the global commercial potential for Inspire with in-licensing and out-licensing opportunities and compounds in research through commercial development, with a large focus on product planning, alliance management and key opinion leader development. Ms. Sheehan has over 20 years of a broad range of marketing and sales experience in the pharmaceutical industry. She was directly involved with the successful global launches of cardiovascular products including Parke-Davis' Accupril^® and Accuretic^®, regional launches of Parke-Davis' Lipitor^® and CNS product Celexa^®, and global launches of ophthalmic products including Allergan's Zymar^® and Elestat^®. Ms. Sheehan headed up Global Marketing for Anterior Segment Products in Pharmaceutical Eyecare at Allergan in Irvine, CA. At the Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Division of Warner-Lambert in Morris Plains, NJ, she first joined the company in International Marketing and held positions of increasing responsibility in Global Marketing Planning, U.S. Cardiovascular Marketing and as a Business Director for the South Central Customer Business Unit. She began her career in the pharmaceutical industry with The Upjohn Company, in general and hospital sales in Georgia and Tennessee. Ms. Sheehan received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Pharmacy from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC and completed a Clinical Pharmacy Residency at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, NC. Ms. Sheehan also received a Masters of Management degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

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Mark A. Siemek
Director of SEC Reporting and Financial Planning & Analysis
Mr. Siemek joined Inspire in July 2005 as Director of SEC Reporting and Financial Planning & Analysis and is primarily responsible for the preparation of all SEC periodic reports, Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 compliance, as well as other financial planning and analysis initiatives. Mr. Siemek has over 16 years experience in accounting, working in both public and private industries. Most recently, Mr. Siemek was Sr. Manager of Financial Reporting at the AOL division of Time Warner for the past 5 years, where he was responsible for the internal and external reporting of AOL and worked on various financial reporting related issues including compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 and system implementations. Mr. Siemek started his career as an auditor with Arthur Andersen, LLP in Washington D.C. where he serviced primarily banking and government clients. Mr. Siemek received a B.B.A. in Accounting from James Madison University. Mr. Siemek is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in North Carolina and Maryland.

M. Lynn Smiley, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Smiley joined Inspire in August 2005. Her responsibilities include serving as Medical Safety Officer for the Company and assisting the executive management team in developing and overseeing medical strategies related to product development. She develops and guides regulatory strategy and serves as a medical and scientific consultant to the Company's research and marketing teams. During her career, Dr. Smiley has been involved with the development of more than 20 pharmaceutical compounds, including 14 approved products, such as first-in-class drugs, Fuzeon^® (enfuvirtide) HIV treatment, Retrovir^® (zidovudine) HIV treatment, also known as AZT, and Zovirax^® (acyclovir) anti-viral treatment. Prior to joining Inspire, Dr. Smiley served as Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Compliance, and Drug Safety for Trimeris, Inc. She joined Trimeris as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Clinical Research in January 2001. Dr. Smiley spent 13 years at GlaxoWellcome, Inc. (and its predecessors) serving most recently as Vice President of HIV and Opportunistic Infections Clinical Development and Director of the Infectious Diseases Department. Dr. Smiley has held teaching positions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine since 1984, serving as Clinical Professor of Medicine since 1994. She holds an M.D. from the Duke University School of Medicine and a B.A. in Microbiology from the University of Kansas.

Gerald W. St. Peter
Senior Vice President, Sales and Managed Markets
Mr. St. Peter joined Inspire in July 2003 as Vice President of Sales and was promoted to his current position in February 2007. He is responsible for the development and execution of the sales infrastructure in North America to promote potential products from Inspire's pipeline, as well as partnered products. Mr. St. Peter brings over 16 years of pharmaceutical sales, managed healthcare, business development, leadership, and management experience to Inspire. In his previous position, Mr. St. Peter was the National Sales Director for Muro Pharmaceutical, Inc., a private specialty pharmaceutical company, and served on the company's Executive Management Committee. In this and previous roles at Muro, he grew the sales function from a small entrepreneurial sales force to a fully integrated 267-person national sales team, and led all aspects of the team including the Sales Operations, Sales Training and Sales Administration departments. Mr. St. Peter was responsible for the launches of several key products including Dynabac^® Tablets, Optivar^® and Alrex^® Ophthalmic Solutions, Astelin^® Nasal Spray and Volmax^® Tablets. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Education from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Mr. St. Peter currently serves on the College of Health Professions Advisory Board and is an annual guest lecturer for the College.

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Wei Tian, PhD
Principal Statistical Scientist I
Dr. Tian joined Inspire in November 2004. As Principal Statistical Scientist of Biostatistics and Data Management, she is responsible for providing statistical expertise for biostatistical and data management activities for Inspire's development and research teams. Prior to joining Inspire, Dr. Tian served as Statistical Scientist, Biostatistics at Quintiles, Inc., where she worked for five years. Dr. Tian has made significant statistical contributions to a number of NDA submissions in a variety of therapeutic areas and her work has been published in peer-reviewed statistics and clinical journals. Dr. Tian received her Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the University of Pittsburgh.

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Paul S. Watson, PhD
Senior Director, Chemistry
Dr. Watson oversees Inspire's Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Development Groups. He joined Inspire in May 2003. The medicinal chemistry department is responsible for all of the activities related to lead generation and lead optimization. The chemical development group is responsible for developing synthetic routes to fund material requirements for Inspire's preclinical toxicology studies and Phase 1 drug substance requirements through a blend of both internal and external resources. Prior to joining Inspire, Dr. Watson was a medicinal and process chemist at both Dupont Pharmaceuticals Company and Bristol Myers Squibb. Paul received his BS degree in chemistry from SUNY-Oswego. He received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from UNC at Chapel Hill. He was awarded a post-doctoral research fellowship from the National Institutes of Health and did his post-graduate training at Harvard University. His graduate and post-graduate research focused on the total synthesis of complex natural products.

Anita L. Woodring
Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs
Ms. Woodring joined Inspire in January 2000. As Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs, she is responsible for managing regulatory support for projects, including activities such as regulatory strategy, regulatory operations, safety reporting and project management. She received her Regulatory Affairs Certification in 2001. Ms. Woodring came to Inspire from Glaxo Wellcome where she spent six years in clinical research. There she participated in the submission of three NDAs for nine pulmonary drugs, and was instrumental in the design and execution of the asthma clinical trials performed to support the Advair NDA. Ms. Woodring completed her B.S. in Medical Technology at the University of Akron, and earned an M.S. in Pharmacy Administration from UNC - Chapel Hill.

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Page last updated: 13-Nov-2008