Durham-based Velocity Clinical’s new management team

DURHAM – Velocity Clinical Research is hoping to disrupt the quickly changing business of clinical trails and patient recruitment. Now it’s got its A-team to help it do just that.

Today, the Durham-based company announced its newly appointment senior management team.

They include: Jeffrey Jensen, as senior vice President, Operations; Jamie Wilkerson, as vice president, Finance; and Craig M. Koch, as vice president, Business Development.

They join president and chief executive officer Paul Evans and executive chairman Bruce Tomason.

“Velocity Clinical Research focuses on the most persistently disappointing link in the clinical trials chain,” said Dr Evans. “If we are going to face this challenge head-on, we need the best people to do so. The company is new, but our sites and our people have over 20 years of history in this field. Clinical research is a mature industry, and the talent pool is deep. We look for industry experts with an entrepreneurial streak. Jeff, Jamie and Craig all bring this to the table.”

Velocity Clinical Research’s new management team … Left to right, Front row: Craig Koch, Jeffrey Jensen; Back row: Bruce Tomason, Jamie Wilkerson, Paul Evans

First three research sites already acquired

The appointments come on the heels of the company recently raising more than $20 million in equity and acquiring its first three research sites.

Among them: Clinical Research Institute of Southern Oregon (CRISOR) of Medford, Oregon; New Horizons Clinical Research (NHCR) of Cincinnati, Ohio; and MD Clinical of Hallandale Beach, Florida.

The company is actively pursuing additional acquisitions and is even open to starting new sites, Evans told WRAL TechWire at the time.

It also plans to focus heavily on patient recruitment.

“The patient recruitment model is changing; old recruitment methods are failing. Nearly 30 percent of investigator sites in the U.S. fail to enroll a patient. By actively managing patient recruitment with precision and focusing on the patient, we are positioning Velocity to be the industry leader in setting – and surpassing – sponsor expectations,” he said.

Founded in 2017, Velocity is the brainchild of Chapel Hill-based Tomason, the former CEO of One Call Medical, Alterna, and Copernicus.

Evans joined the team in October last year, relocating from the UK to Durham. He previously served as corporate vice president of Global Site Solutions at PAREXEL and vice president, Global Site Management at IQVIA, among others.

Evans said the company decided to make Durham its headquarters, in part, to be close to its target client base, biopharma companies and contract research organizations (CROs).

“There is also a highly skilled and experienced life science workforce in the Triangle that we can tap into,” he said.