As one of the custodians of PCMG’s website, it’s a little embarrassing to be adding an item about yours truly, but I am proud and humbled to have been added to the list of luminaries previously honoured with PCMG’s lifetime award by the PCMG Committee. This does, however, furnish me with the opportunity to praise the band of brothers and sisters that comprise this association of like-minded enthusiasts. Back in 2006, not long having come back to pharma after treading the boards of Covance, Fisher and Quintiles, Roger Joby persuaded me to present my experiences and learnings in outsourcing Phase I trials at PCMG’s first international Annual Conference in Prague. I was happily hooked. Joining the many opportunities that PCMG provided to learn from experts in the field, I later joined the PCMG Committee and, shortly thereafter, took on the role of Chair, working jointly with Lan Bandara and the Committee to pull together the 2013 Annual Conference in Budapest. (Yes, that’s the Budapest stage in the main photo. No it’s not PCMG that’s turned me grey.) Being on the PCMG Committee was a rare privilege that I would recommend to anyone. This unique role offered the chance to tackle real challenges in clinical development outsourcing outside the normal workplace. No politics, no positioning, just a shared goal to do the job well, learning from each other, volunteering time and energy to find ways to develop this ‘Best Practice’ in outsourcing and, in doing so, create a community that spanned pharma/biotech sponsors and the swirling ocean of suppliers operating under the banner of CROs. At the end of 2021 I was delighted to hand over the reins of Committee leadership to Gill Slater – and finally give someone smarter and younger chance to get a word in edgeways.

There are too many people that I’ve shared this experience with over the years to name and thank here. I look forward to continuing to contribute and support this worthy cause from within the Committee. And, of course, continue to enjoy the experience.

Cheers!

Richard