return to press releases

March 14, 2001

AnVil Informatics, Inc. Announces the Expansion of its Business Advisory Group to Four New Business Advisors

Lowell, MA — AnVil Informatics, Inc., a data exploration company providing bioinformatics data mining, analysis and visualization services and software, announced today the appointment of James T. Ogle, Philip R. Reilly, Francis J. Bullock, and Edwin Hastings to its Business Advisory Committee. These industry experts will help guide Anvil's strategic direction and provide advice on day-to-day business issues.

James T. Ogle is a seasoned senior executive with extensive international experience. As President and Chief Operating Officer of Quintiles Product Development Group Worldwide, a 9000-person unit with staff in 31 countries, Mr. Ogle achieved rapid growth and solidified Quintiles' position as the market leader in contract clinical research for the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Quintiles, he served as CEO of BRI International growing it to the 8th largest CRO and subsequently selling BRI to Quintiles. Earlier, Mr. Ogle served as President of ERC BioServices Corporation, which he grew to be a leading contractor to the National Institutes of Health and commercial firms specializing in bio-medical research and development support. He received a Masters of Industrial Engineering from the University of Alabama with concentration in Computer Science and Operations Research, and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

"Coming from a service industry, I see a tremendous opportunity for Anvil to work side by side with their pharmaceutical and biotech clients to explore complex data sets and assist these clients in making informed decisions about potential lead candidates in the drug discovery process," said Mr. Ogle.

Philip R. Reilly, M.D., J.D., is currently the Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at Interleukin Genetics, Inc., a Functional Genomics company located in Waltham, MA. Dr. Reilly is a medical geneticist and attorney and internationally recognized as an expert in genetic medicine and the legal, social, and ethical aspects of genetic testing. Dr. Reilly is a graduate of Cornell University, Columbia University (J.D.), and Yale University (M.D.). He is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Clinical Genetics, and is a Founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics.

"I am enthusiastic about the value of Anvil's expertise in data mining and visualization and the potential it offers genomics companies," added Dr. Reilly. "I believe it will not be long before drug discovery companies are out-sourcing their data analysis tasks in order to keep up the rapid pace of discovery necessary to remain competitive in pharmaceutical industry."

Francis J. Bullock, Ph.D., is currently a Senior Consultant with Arthur D. Little, Inc. in its Health Care Practice group, with a focus on pharmaceutical and biotechnology R&D. Dr. Bullock is a graduate of Harvard University and the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. Prior to joining Arthur D. Little, Dr. Bullock was the Senior Vice President of Research Operations at Schering Plough Research Institute (SPRI). At SPRI, Dr. Bullock had operating responsibility for all research directed to discovery of new therapeutics within the New Jersey operations. This included Chemical, Biological, and Biotechnology research and preclinical Drug Safety Evaluation.

Dr. Bullock commented, "With my background in chemistry and drug discovery, I have witnessed first-hand the explosion of data associated with the search for commercially viable drugs. AnVil Informatics is well positioned to provide data exploration services and software to the drug discovery companies grappling with these overwhelming quantities of data."

Edwin Hastings is currently Chairman of Granitar Incorporated, a venture backed consulting and systems integration firm focused on extending organizations by applying the power of the Internet. Prior to co-founding Granitar, Mr. Hastings was Vice President of Consulting and Chief Technology Officer at Onward Technologies Inc., now part of Computer Sciences Corporation. Mr. Hastings background includes business segment management, systems integration management and systems consulting in computer networks, business process reengineering, multi-platform applications design, and research in parallel processing. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

"I am always excited to watch a new technology emerge with the potential to provide integrated solutions. Granitar is seeing an increasing need for data mining services and software, and thus is keenly interested in staying abreast of these new developments," said Ed Hastings. "In addition, my experience in IT consulting enables me to provide guidance to AnVil as they begin to scale up their custom data exploration software offerings."

"I'm pleased to welcome these recognized industry leaders as business advisors to AnVil," said Michael J. McManus, President and COO of Anvil Informatics. "The appointment of these seasoned and experienced individuals is a key factor in assisting us to develop our business strategies and tactics for AnVil's rapid and long term growth."

About AnVil Informatics:

AnVil Informatics, Inc. is a data exploration company. Incorporated in March of 2000, AnVil Informatics, Inc. provides data mining, analysis, and visualization services to the leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. AnVil's combination of unique, internally developed software and commercial tools allows for the exploration of complex, large and high dimensional datasets. In addition, AnVil's technical experts harness different properties of human perception such as color, texture and shape in the process of visualizing various attributes of complex data. The resulting visualizations make conclusions more evident earlier in the decision-making process and can greatly enhance every step of the client's decision making-helping them to make informed decisions faster and more accurately.

To learn more about AnVil's professional services and software offerings, visit our web site at http://www.anvilinformatics.com.

Copyright © 2001 AnVil Informatics, Inc. All rights reserved.

back to top