Leadership Team

John Rubino, MD

E: jrubino@pmg-research.com

Dr. Rubino completed his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Connecticut. After his residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill he joined Raleigh Medical Group in 1986. There, in 1989, he was instrumental in forming their two clinical research sites now known as PMG Research of Raleigh and PMG Research of Cary. For over 20 years, Dr. Rubino has been principal investigator in over 600 clinical trials and has served in various consultancy capacities to the research industry. He is presently President of Key IPA and the Team Physician for North Carolina State University Athletics.

Darren White

E: dwhite@pmg-research.com

Darren White joined PMG in 2000 with a background in accounting and business management. During his tenure at PMG, he has lead the development of the financial operations, accounting, legal and human resources infrastructure that is necessary to centrally handle all aspects of these departments for the PMG site network. He has personally negotiated and executed hundreds of clinical trial contracts, vendor contracts and physician-investigator contracts. He has also developed an expertise in all financial aspects of conducting clinical trials at the site level. With PMG's growing Integrated Site Network, he has also played a key role in the company's site start-ups, expansions and mergers and acquisitions. Darren is responsible for managing all aspects of the company's financial, accounting, legal and human resources operations overseeing a team that includes Contracts and Grants Managers and Specialists, Accounting Specialists, an Accounting Manager, an Employment Manager and a Human Resource Manager. Darren is a graduate of High Point University.

Tonya Ward-Kiser

E: twardkiser@pmg-research.com

Tonya Ward-Kiser has over 19 years experience in the clinical trials industry, starting her career at PMG Research as a clinical research coordinator in 1996. Her experience propelled her into management roles as Manager of Clinical Operations for PMG Research of Bristol, and then as Senior Site Manager/Site Development of PMG's locations in Bristol, Hickory and Knoxville. As Senior Director of Operations, Tonya is responsible for the strategic oversight and performance of all sites in the PMG Research network. She has been a member of ACRP and a certified clinical research coordinator since 1998. Tonya earned her B.S. degree in Biology from the University of Virginia-Wise.

Linda McCarty, JD, LLM

E: lmccarty@pmg-research.com

Linda McCarty, JD is the Senior Director of Corporate Affairs and General Counsel for PMG Research, Inc. Linda oversees PMG’s legal and corporate affairs and works closely with other members of the PMG Executive Team in developing and implementing corporate strategy for PMG Research.

Prior to joining PMG Research, Linda was a partner with a North Carolina law firm where her legal practice was focused on health care, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and general corporate law. 

Linda is a licensed attorney in the State of North Carolina and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association (Health Law Section and Corporate Law Section). Linda is a graduate from San Diego State University (BA), New England School of Law (Juris Doctor), and Boston University School of Law (LLM Taxation). 

Patrick Davis

E: pdavis@pmg-research.com

Patrick has over 20 years of experience in the Information Technology field. Through his various engineering and management roles, he has developed into an executive IT leader who partners with senior management to align the investment of technical resources with strategic business initiatives to improve profitability. He has expertise in business and technology integration, business application development and operations management. He is an astute visionary adept at building an effective, business-centric IT culture. Patrick joined PMG in 2006 and has been instrumental in the growth of the technology infrastructure, site integration and standardization of computing platforms. He also directed the development, testing and implementation of PMG's current Clinical Trial Management System (CTMS), a state of the art multi-tier web-based application designed for site growth, company expansion and overall management of the entire clinical trial process. Patrick is a graduate of High Point University.

Amanda Wright

E: awright@pmg-research.com

Amanda joined PMG Research in 1998 as a Clinical Research Coordinator and has since served in various clinical operations capacities within the Winston-Salem research site and the PMG Research network support team. In 2008, she transitioned to lead business development efforts for the network, focusing on the cultivation of relationships with Sponsor and CRO partners to further PMG Research in achieving its mission to bring clinical research to as many lives as possible. She is currently Senior Director of Client Services, leading the teams within PMG Research responsible for business development, client services, feasibility, communications, and patient engagement and recruitment. Amanda was responsible for the first formal patient recruitment team at PMG Research in the early 2000s, and is currently leading teams charged with developing new strategies and processes for the centralization of feasibility, patient recruitment, and patient engagement across the PMG network in order to provide Sponsor and CRO partners with high-value services beyond the traditional research site model while delivering an exceptional experience to participants. Amanda holds a life sciences degree from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and is currently participating in the President's Club at the Sandler Institute.

Jane M. Shen, Pharm.D.

E: jshen@pmg-research.com

As Senior Director of Innovation at PMG Research, Dr. Shen is responsible for the development of corporate strategic alliances and partnerships as well as strategic innovations.  Dr. Shen collaborates with PMG Leadership team to lead efforts in the development of innovative initiatives and utilization of technology platform to transform clinical research execution.  During a career spanning over 17 years as a clinical researcher and clinical trialist, she has held positions of responsibility involving clinical program design, strategic planning, corporate operations, pharmaceutical business activities, and mitigation of operational & development risks.  Prior to joining PMG Research, she served as Clinical Trial Leader at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation and as Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations at TransTech Pharma.  Dr. Shen earned her Pharm.D. at the University of Southern California.  Dr. Shen completed her post-doctoral research fellowship with Rutgers University, New Jersey. During her post-doctoral fellowship, she completed her clinical training at the National Cancer Institute, NIH.