The Experts in Animal Health

Our Team

Meet our talented team members

Our Team

Robert Jones, PhD President

Bob has had a thirty-year career in animal health and is experienced in leading commercial organizations in both the US and international markets, particularly emerging markets. Bob has a great depth of knowledge in both the companion animal and food animal segments. Bob’s focus is on general and strategic consulting, with an emphasis on assisting Brakke clients in assessing their sales forces and improving their competitiveness through people as well as products.

Robert Watson Jones

Contact Bob Jones at 336-456-0583 or rwjones@brakkeconsulting.com


Ron Brakke, Founder, Senior Executive Consultant

Ron is an industry veteran with more than 40 years in the animal health, pet and veterinary businesses. During his career Ron has been involved in dozens of transactions representing both the buyer and the seller. The majority of his time at present is spent on assisting senior management clients in new business development, either buying or selling a company or brokering new technology. In addition, Ron is involved in the recruitment of senior executives in the industry for numerous companies, and coordinates and participates in a wide variety of consulting projects.

Ron Brakke

Contact Ron Brakke at 336-396-3916 or info@brakkeconsulting.com


Joel Adamson, MBA, Senior Consultant

Joel Adamson specializes in business development and marketing assignments, especially those involving products for companion animals. His background and recent work illustrate his strong skills and insights that are especially useful in assisting clients considering new market channel entries, exploring intellectual property licensing opportunities, seeking industry insights, and handling due diligence work. He brings extensive experience in various over-the-counter channels (OTC) and consumer packaged goods to assignment challenges.

Joel Adamson

Contact Joel Adamson at 402.215.5635 or info@brakkeconsulting.com


Paul Casady, Senior Consultant

Paul brings over 35 years of animal health experience with broad knowledge of both the US and International markets- along with involvement in all species and product groups. He has held senior roles for over 20 years in both Merck and Merial in both country and regional management, including living abroad for over 10 years. He is uniquely experienced in the emerging markets such as Latin America, Asia, and Oceania. Paul helps Brakke clients with mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning and execution, business development, and operational excellence. Paul also works extensively in leadership and talent development.

Paul Casady

Contact Paul Casady at 336.396.3916. or info@brakkeconsulting.com


Lynn Fondon, DVM, MBA, Senior Consultant

Lynn Fondon specializes in managing market research projects and developing market segment analyses, and has more than 20 years of experience in conducting both primary and secondary research. Her background as a practicing veterinarian offers clients a resource with an understanding of both the business and medical aspects of the animal health market, as well as an invaluable perspective of veterinary medicine. Lynn is the editor of Brakke Consulting’s weekly electronic newsletter.

Lynn Fondon

Contact Lynn Fondon at 336-396-3916 or info@brakkeconsulting.com


Randall (Randy) Freides, MBA, Senior Consultant

Randy has almost 29 years of corporate finance experience at Merck & Co., Inc in both the human and animal health business segments. While at Merck, he provided financial support to Merck’s Human Health commercial operations in Japan, Latin America, Asia/Pacific, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. Most recently he was the North America Commercial Finance Lead for Merck Animal Health (2011-2018) assisting the sales and marketing organization develop go-to-market strategies, product launch plans, promotion programs, financial/operational forecasts and budgets and analyze external growth initiatives in addition to his statutory financial reporting and financial/business control responsibilities.

Randall Freides

Contact Randy Freides at 908-256-1020 or info@brakkeconsulting.com


Lourens Havenga, DVM, Senior Consultant

Lourens is a 26-year veteran of the animal health industry, locally and internationally, in the vaccine, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical segments for food animals. He has a proven history of success in product development, regulatory affairs, new business development, and start-up leadership. He has successfully led a start-up through growth to successful sale and ownership transfer.  Lourens assists Brakke clients with potential product assessments and provides guidance along the product development pathway to commercialization, sales and marketing development, technical support development and start-up company structure and management.

Lourens Havenga

Contact Lourens Havenga at 970-817-0376 or lhavenga@brakkeconsulting.com


Richard (Rich) Hayworth, MBA, Senior Consultant

Rich had a long sales career in the companion animal health industry, which includes national account management experience for Novartis, Virbac, and KindredBio. His experience spans from independent veterinarians and distributors to key accounts and corporate clinics, which involve complicated trade terms and longer purchasing cycles. Rich has been on leading edge of consumer driven market trends and specializes in “selling to and pulling through” non-traditional animal health sales channels like online retailers, traditional retail stores, specialty pet stores and international export channels.

  Richard Hayworth

Contact Richard Hayworth at 214-422-2025 or rhayworth@brakkeconsulting.com


Jim Kroman, Senior Consultant

Jim Kroman brings over 40 years experience in the Animal Health Industry to Brakke Consulting. Throughout his years at Beecham Laboratories, Novartis Animal Health, and Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Jim led effective teams focused on Sales, Sales Management, Marketing, Business Development and Licensing, and Project Management. From the successful implementation of an SAP platform in a highly complex biologics manufacturing environment, to successful rounds of acquisitions and divestitures, Jim has used his industry knowledge to bridge his sales and leadership experience with the technical demands of the assignment. Jim is prepared to assist clients of Brakke Consulting in their efforts to build or streamline their businesses through the acquisition or divestiture of product lines, facilities or companies, as well as through the development or optimization of sales force activities and personnel.

Jim Kroman

Contact Jim Kroman at 336.396.3916. or info@brakkeconsulting.com


Jay Lockhart, Senior Consultant

Jay is an experienced project manager whose background includes sales and marketing expertise in the pet food, livestock feed, and veterinary markets. His work with Brakke focuses on executive search and both proprietary and multi-client market research project management. Examples include the design and management of major multi-client market research projects such as the Manufacturers’ Sales Force Effectiveness and Distributor Effectiveness studies that are used by many clients as benchmarking tools.

Jay Lockhart

Contact Jay Lockhart at 314.821.3368 or info@brakkeconsulting.com


Mauri Ronan Moreira, DVM, MBA

Mauri, a veterinarian based on São Paulo, Brazil, is an expert in sales, marketing and innovation across nearly all species in the animal health industry. Mauri’s career has spanned companion animal pharmaceutical and nutritional products, as well as the farm animal market, with specialized focus in aquaculture, cattle and swine. He has held senior level leadership positions with several major animal health companies, including Elanco, Novartis, and Hill’s Pet Nutrition and has experience working in countries throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

Mauri Ronan Moreira 

Contact Mauri at 336-396-3916 or info@brakkeconsulting.com


Michael McGinley, Ph.D., Senior Consultant

Mike is a 35-year veteran of the animal health industry in the vaccine, pharmaceutical, and diagnostics segments for both food and companion animals. He has a proven history of success in product development, regulatory affairs, new business development, and manufacturing operations leadership. Mike assists Brakke clients with science and technology assessments and provides guidance along the product development pathway from proof of concept to commercialization.

Michael McGinley

Contact Mike McGinley at 970-893-0518 or info@brakkeconsulting.com


Kevin Scott, Senior Consultant

Kevin has more than 35 years of experience in both the companion and food animal segments of the market. His background includes sales and marketing management along with extensive experience in product evaluation, licensing, and acquisition. His work with Brakke has included competitive benchmarking, product and market evaluations, executive search and strategic consulting for a number of companies. Kevin assists Brakke customers in new product potential, market entry and competitive landscape.

Kevin Scott

Contact Kevin Scott at 847.471.4461 or info@brakkeconsulting.com


Jeff Santosuosso, Senior Consultant

Jeff Santosuosso leads the recruiting activities at Brakke Consulting, leveraging his 30 years’ animal health experience to pinpoint and focus on individualized and specific client needs. With a broad background in commercial operations, licensing, and M&A, as well as general management, Jeff is particularly adept and experienced at helping businesses both large and small. His animal health experience includes global team and cross-functional team leadership, innovative go-to-market models, data-driven analysis and decision making, and new revenue and profit streams. With this experience, Jeff is able to help Brakke clients find the talent they need to be competitive and successful in the dynamic animal health and nutrition industries.

Jeff Santosuosso

Contact Jeff Santosuosso at 214.986.0672 or jeff@brakkeconsulting.com


John Volk, Senior Consultant

John Volk is an expert analyst and project manager. With deep experience in the companion animal, equine and food animal markets, he regularly assists clients with strategy development, evaluation of business opportunities, and due diligence on potential acquisitions. John is also one of Brakke’s most experienced market research experts, managing both proprietary and multi-user studies. He is particularly noted for authoring two landmark reports on the business practices of veterinarians that are widely referenced in the profession.

John Volk

Contact John Volk at 773.327.4941 or info@brakkeconsulting.com


International consultants

Atsuto Hata, DVM

Atsuo Hata has served for more than 50 years in the animal health industries in Japan. His analysis and information on the Japanese market, as well as Far East countries, have built a reputation for reliability in working with major and minor global animal health companies.He specializes in marketing, market analysis, regulatory affairs, and new business development as a veterinary consultant.

Contact Atsuto Hata at info@brakkeconsulting.com


Yuki Ujimasa, DVM, MS

Dr. Yuki Ujimasa is a doctor of veterinary medicine and also holds a master’s degree in science from Hokkaido University in Japan. Through his experience as owner of his company AHRMS and through his work with Brakke Consulting, he has gained deep experience in registering products, business licenses, and foreign manufacturing accreditations in Japan. He also has worked extensively in supporting multi-national animal health companies entering Japanese markets. Dr. Ujimasa has provided veterinary practitioners with webinars, new product information, and veterinary news on the Internet through his company Vm3, and frequently lectures and writes for the Japanese animal health industry. Dr. Ujimasa has also served as a member of VICH Expert Working Groups and as chairman of a consortium for Japanese veterinary medicinal product manufacturers.

Yuki Ujimasa

Contact Yuki Ujimasa info@brakkeconsulting.com


Jishu Shi. DVM, PhD

Dr. Jishu Shi received a doctor of veterinary medicine from the Beijing Agricultural University and a doctorate in immunophysiology from Kansas State University. Dr. Shi is a full professor for the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University and the director of the U.S.-China Center for Animal Health, Having worked at Pfizer and multiple academic institutions in the U.S. in the last three decades, Dr. Shi is a frequent consultant to animal health companies in the U.S., China, Japan, and Europe. In 2010, Dr. Shi founded VaxiAm Group, a global consulting firm with offices in Beijing and Kansas that focuses exclusively on the Chinese animal health market. Working with Brakke Consulting, VaxiAm Group provides the following services to its clients: investment due diligence, market analysis, regulatory affairs consultation, product registration, and selection of business partners including sales agents, distributors, product co-developers, and manufacturers.

Jishu Shi

Contact Jishu Shi at 785-282-9426 or info@brakkeconsulting.com


Administrative Team

 

Amanda McDavid, MEd, Administrative Manager

Amanda lives in Greensboro, NC with her husband, three children, which includes twins, and her Shih Tzu, Ellie. Amanda is originally from Tennessee where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and then a Master’s degree in Education. Amanda has spent the majority of her career in education and has also managed a daycare center before joining Brakke as an administrative manager.

Amanda McDavid

Contact Amanda at 336-396-3916 or amcdavid@brakkeconsulting.com


 

Newsletter

"Brakke Consulting Animal Health News & Notes” provides a summary of relevant articles, as well as the Brakke Consulting Viewpoint on the news and major industry meetings. The newsletter is available at no charge to individuals involved in the animal health industry.
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