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About Orchestra

Orchestra Life Sciences is a technical consultancy. We provide strategic support and scientific expertise to advance pharmaceutical therapies for cancer and rare disease. Orchestra offers services instrumental to clients in nuclear medicine, radiation oncology, cell and gene therapies, regenerative medicines, and biotechnology. We work in concert with our clients to provide unparalleled expertise; speeding time to market.

Align

Our team of experts help clients align business strategies, regulatory approaches, engineering processes, and go-to-market plans.

Accelerate

We accelerate projects by streamlining supply chains, facilitating business relationships, and guiding regulatory compliance.

Achieve

We provide the right expertise at the right time to execute challenging projects, enable effective decision-making, and solve complex technical problems to achieve client goals.

Meet Our

Executive Management

Sumit Verma

Co-Founder & Partner

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Emilie Pelletier

Co-Founder & CEO

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Castor Armesto

Chief Strategy Officer & Partner

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Meet Our

Our Team

Becky Cooper

Director of Quality Assurance and Compliance

Ernie Banks

Senior Program Manager & OPEX Leader
Strategic Project Director

Sandra Boyd

Senior Quality Director

Clement Cheung

Senior Consultant, Process Chemistry

Dale Simpson

Senior Advisor

Greg Bushman

Senior Consultant, Radiopharmaceutical Manufacturing

Lakeisha Green

Project Manager

Robert Matteoni

Project Manager

Ralph Butler

Senior Advisor

Sterling Marshall

Quality Engineer and Instrumentation

John schmitz

Senior Project Director

Sam Meer

Vice-President Strategy and Supply chain

Michael Blackton

QA Executive

Kim Prefontaine

Executive Administrative Assistant

Timo Henk

Senior Engineer

Cristian Boas

Senior Radiochemist

Eriselda Leka

Quality Engineer

Erin Maniscalco

Junior Designer

Bruna Teixeira

Quality Engineer

Savani Nagarkar

Project Engineer

Jessica Giffey

Vice-President – Radiopharmaceutical programs

Hiten Patel

Director, Manufacturing operations

Nicholas Baldasaro

Project Director

Brian Kirk

Vice President, Construction

Joe Spinelli

Senior Director, Engineering

Keith Thompson

Senior Technical Program Manager

Lovey Bagga

Associate Director, Finance

Michelle Hackmann

Chief of Staff

Stephanie Bladdick

Project Manager

Zach Lewis

Director, Regulatory and Compliance

Sumit Verma is the co-founder and partner at Orchestra Life Sciences, a technical advisory team that is in the forefront of providing scientific and strategic support in the development and commercialization of advanced therapies for cancer and rare diseases.

He most recently served as Senior Vice President Global Strategy and Manufacturing for Iovance Biotherapeutics where he had executive responsibilities for building a new cell therapy manufacturing facility, the Iovance Cell Therapy Center (iCTC), in The Navy Yard Philadelphia.  He formed the commercial manufacturing organization at iCTC that has achieved significant milestones including the accelerated FDA approval of Amtagvi ™ – the world’s 1st approved solid tumor cell therapy.

Verma has successfully built and led technical and manufacturing organization for five FDA-approved therapeutic launches over the past 25 years: AMTAGVI™, Ultra-Technekow™ V4 (Technetium Tc 99m) Generator, Sestamibi™, Proquad Vaccine ™ and Detectnet™ .  He has also led teams in the development and launch of Xenon-133 Gas, Germanium-68, LEU Molybdenum-99 and I-123 gas medical isotopes.

Prior to Iovance, he has had multiple leadership roles at Merck and Co., Covidien, Mallinckrodt and served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Curium Pharmaceuticals.  Sumit received his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Lafayette College and Masters in Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.

Emilie is the co-founder and CEO at Orchestra Life Sciences, a technical advisory team in the forefront of providing scientific and strategic support in the development and commercialization of advanced therapies for cancer and rare diseases.

She brings to the table an impressive track record of laying out robust business strategies to build commercial manufacturing capabilities, orchestrating comprehensive program management plans, and spearheading dynamic engineering teams. Her leadership was instrumental in the design and construction of state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities aimed at producing novel pharmaceutical products such as mRNA, cell therapy, and biologics.

For Iovance Biotherapeutics, she was responsible for building a new cell therapy manufacturing facility the Iovance Cell Therapy Center (iCTC), in The Navy Yard Philadelphia to produce Amtagvi ™; the world’s 1st approved, solid tumor cell therapy.

Prior to Iovance, Emilie led an engineering team responsible for the design processes, and facilities for start-ups to large pharmaceutical companies as Managing Partner for Laporte Consultants. Emilie earned a Chemical Engineering with a Biopharmaceutical option degree from the Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal.

Castor is a partner and Chief Strategy Officer at Orchestra Life Sciences.

He brings 20+ years of experience in law and business in a variety of sectors, including the consumer goods, technology, agribusiness, manufactured products, and energy.  Since Orchestra’s inception, Castor has advised Orchestra on strategy and commercial matters, helping Orchestra achieve rapid growth.

Before joining Orchestra, he served as General Counsel to Earthrise Energy, an independent power producer and solar developer.  Prior to Earthrise, Castor held leadership roles at Spire Inc. (NYSE: SR) and was a partner at the national law firm of Stinson LLP.  He started his career in internet marketing at The Procter & Gamble Company.

Castor holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Iowa State University, and a Juris Doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis.