ASAP Summit NYC

Alliance Essentials equips alliance professionals with the mindset, shared language, and practical frameworks needed to succeed in today’s collaborative business environment.

Designed, built, and delivered by leaders in the strategic alliance community through ASAP, the nonprofit professional association for alliance professionals.

Designed for alliance leaders seeking to elevate their strategic impact. This workshop focuses on strengthening leadership judgment, optimizing alliance performance, and building organizational capability across the entire alliance life cycle.

Designed for those with 3+ years of alliance experience, this course reviews the alliance life cycle framework and applies the skills, processes, and practices required to ensure effective alliance implementation. It is a required prerequisite course to sit for the CA-AM certification exam.

Led by seasoned and experienced alliance leaders in highly complex, global partnership environments, including pharmaceutical industry leaders, this immersive program equips mid- and senior-level alliance professionals with the clarity, confidence, and tools needed to excel in today’s high-stakes partnership landscape.

Hacking and Hackathons are nothing new, but they are still very effective methods for producing new ideas and prototypes in a timeboxed manner. By running the world’s biggest private hackathon for over 74,000 Microsoft employees over the last 10 years, we’ve learned a few things about how to generate ideas, analyze and derisk them, validate with real people, and finding a potential sponsor. Join us for a set of pro tips aimed at busy executives who are tasked with “innovating on demand”.

• 
  Mike Pell

  Envisioneer

  The Microsoft Garage NYC

• 
  Fern McSorley, PhD

  Head of Alliance Management

  Isomorphic Labs
• 
  Brooke Paige, CSAP, CA-AM

  Global Alliance Management, Digital, Rare and Neuroscience

  Novartis
• 
  David Thompson, CSAP, CA-AM

  Vice President, Global Head of Alliances

  BeOne Medicines

Hear from a former alliance leader (and lawyer!) turned dealmaker about what alliance managers need to know before the deal is done.   This talk demonstrates how to align incentives, clarify decision rights, and test assumptions before the deal begins.  Attendees will learn how to spot threats early, think through transaction design, and position Alliance Management as a strategic risk-management function and driver of success rather than a post-signing governance support and implementation function.  Hear best practices for how alliance managers can optimally support a deal leader's efforts and influence a collaboration's entire trajectory--from the deal room itself.

• 
  Rod Herrell, PhD, JD

  Executive Director, Transactions & Alliances

  Kyowa Kirin

In 2026, AI is no longer a tool; it is a generative collaborator that can complicate alliance management. The shift toward AI-driven discovery creates critical friction points in governance and IP entitlement. This session provides a tactical roadmap for managing inventorship risks under the latest patent office mandates. We will discuss how to evaluate workflows for patent-readiness, consider human attribution warranties, and structure data-rights clauses that protect critical training data and negative know-how, all in collaboration with your legal team. Attendees will learn to safeguard their organization's "secret sauce" while maintaining trust and transparency essential for high-value, AI-enabled partnerships. 

• 
  Caleb Bates, PhD, JD

  Head of IP

  Isomorphic Labs

There’s nothing better than a corporate team who can quickly bring their ideas to life – but nothing worse than doing that as “Innovation Theater” versus real impact. Our companies are all being pressed by management to develop AI-based solutions to increase sales and streamline expenses, but few can do that in a truly breakthrough manner. This session will dig into why cultural transformation is the key to true innovation, and what you can do to better prepare yourself to design and create true breakthroughs – not just shiny POCs or brittle prototypes. It all starts with your mindset, not technology. 

• 
  Mike Pell

  Envisioneer

  The Microsoft Garage NYC

Multi-partner alliances are often viewed as complex and risky, yet they can deliver significant strategic advantages, including broader capability coverage, faster development timelines, and the potential for breakthrough innovation. Successfully realizing these benefits requires careful management of competing partner objectives, increased governance complexity, and thoughtful exit planning. In R&D collaborations, traditional approaches to intellectual property ownership, licensing, confidentiality, and termination provisions often need to be reconsidered and adapted for multi-party environments. This session brings together experienced practitioners to share lessons learned and practical approaches for structuring and managing multi-partner alliances, with key insights and best practices captured and shared with the broader conference community. 

• 
  Jeremy Ahouse, PhD, CSAP, CA-AM

  Alliance Executive & Advisor
• 
  Vetakata Garimella, PhD

  Vice President & Head-Intellectual Property, Innovation

  Dr. Reddy's Laboratories
• 
  Christoph Huwe, PhD, CSAP, CA-AM

  Senior Director, Strategic Alliance Management

  Bayer
• 
  Adam Kornetsky

  Partner

  Vantage Partners
• 
  Lynn Richard, CSAP, CA-AM

  Vice President & Chief Alliance Officer, Science and Technology

  GE Healthcare

Building Global System Integrator partnerships from scratch—with no playbook, precedent, or existing program—is uniquely challenging yet rarely documented. This candid session shares real-world lessons from launching a GSI alliance motion at a cybersecurity company. Learn how to: design a foundational operating model covering partner selection, executive alignment, and role definition; establish credibility with GSIs before revenue proves the model; operationalize enablement, engagement cadences, and success metrics that build momentum early; secure and maintain internal stakeholder buy-in throughout ambiguous early stages; and avoid common pitfalls that derail first-time alliance leaders. Leave with a repeatable blueprint for transforming uncertainty into strategic, scalable GSI partnerships applicable across industries and company sizes.

• 
  Rainie Spiva

  Director, GSI Partnerships & Alliances

  Radiant Logic

Strategic misalignment is becoming a defining challenge in long-lived alliances as companies reshape portfolios at increasing speed. Assets that once were prioritized can quickly diverge in importance, leaving alliance leaders managing partnerships where strategic objectives no longer align. The result is often investment disputes, stalled governance decisions, and operating teams caught in cycles of rework. This session provides a practical, industry-agnostic framework for turning strategic divergence into explicit tradeoffs and preserve contractual rights while maintaining execution momentum. Participants will learn how to identify early signs of strategic drift, make differences visible, stabilize teams during uncertainty, and protect value and relationships while keeping alliance performance on track.  

• 
  Jan Twombly, CSAP, CA-AM

  President

  The Rhythm of Business

In complex partnerships, blurred lines between Alliance Management, Project Management, and Program Management can quietly erode performance. When roles, decision rights, and escalation paths are unclear, teams duplicate work, miss risks, and struggle to maintain momentum. This session explores how clear role definition between alliance and project leaders establishes sharper expectations, stronger focus, and true ownership at every level of the collaboration. Participants will examine practical frameworks for clarifying accountability, aligning governance with execution, and preventing turf tension before it undermines results. The outcome is amplified impact: healthier partnerships, faster decisions, and operating teams that understand exactly who leads, who supports, and who is accountable for success. 

• 
  Brent Harvey, CA-AM

  Executive Director, Alliance Mangement

  Eli Lilly and Company

Alliance teams are under pressure to deliver measurable revenue in increasingly complex sales environments where multiple partners, platforms, and sellers must align. This session introduces Coalition Selling—a practical approach to orchestrating the right mix of partners around a specific customer need and deal motion, emphasizing activation at the point of execution rather than partner volume. Grounded in real-world SaaS and ecosystem examples, attendees will learn how to shift from relationship management to revenue orchestration, understand why traditional alliance models fall short, identify the core components of an effective partner coalition, align alliances with sales and marketplace motions, apply a practical framework to activate partners around live opportunities, and define success metrics that reflect true alliance-driven growth.

• 
  Jody Schiavo

  Founder

  AllianceMind
• 
  Rajae Skrezyna

  Coalition Selling Strategist

  AllianceMind

Session Description TBD

• 
  Mika Clark Tupy, JD

  Managing Director, Alliances

  United Airlines

In large tech organizations, corporate alliance teams and business unit teams often operate independently—sometimes colliding, sometimes missing opportunities. This session reveals how to transform potential conflict into productive collaboration. Learn practical approaches to: align corporate-wide partnership strategy with business unit objectives without creating bottlenecks; establish clear roles, decision rights, and communication protocols between corporate and BU alliance functions; leverage corporate relationships to unlock BU-level opportunities and vice versa; balance standardization with the flexibility business units need; and create governance that serves both enterprise goals and product team agility. Through real-world examples, discover how leading organizations orchestrate alliance activities across organizational levels to maximize value for all stakeholders. 

• 
  Ian Kane

  Director, Corporate Strategic Alliances

  Lenovo
• 
  Erika Nothnagel

  Global Managing Director, IBM-Lenovo Strategic Partnerships

  IBM
• 
  Phil Sailer, CSAP, CA-AM

  Executive Director, Storage Solutions

  IBM

Alliance organizations struggle to improve partner programs when no single team owns end-to-end problems. This session shares PTC's proven approach: dedicating 10% of time from a cross-functional group to pilot targeted improvements, validate impact, and hand off successful solutions for scale. Rather than attempting large transformations, the team ran fast pilots addressing fragmented data, inconsistent governance, and lack of peer learning. Once value was proven, ownership transitioned to operational teams with clear playbooks and metrics. Learn how this lightweight model enables faster experimentation and durable improvements—without major reorganizations. 

• 
  Neal Hagermoser

  Vice President, Global Services & Technology Partner Strategy

  PTC

• 
  Katherine Kendrick, CSAP, CA-AM

  Executive Director, Head of Alliance Management

  Jazz Pharmaceuticals
• 
  David Thompson, CSAP, CA-AM

  Vice President, Global Head of Alliances

  BeOne Medicines

Financial stability underpins every successful alliance, yet it is rarely assessed with the rigor it deserves. In a volatile business environment, overlooking a partner’s financial health can expose organizations to unexpected risk, strained relationships, and performance breakdowns. This interactive session examines why continuous financial monitoring matters, how to implement it effectively, and how to respond when warning signs emerge. Participants will learn practical methods for evaluating financial health, identifying red flags in statements and public reporting, and interpreting reliable data sources. Through a hands-on case study, attendees will analyze risk factors and develop action plans to strengthen alliance resilience and safeguard long-term performance. 

• 
  Steven Roy

  Alliance Leader - Oncology

  Jazz Pharmaceuticals
• 
  Kristen Van Such, CA-AM

  Director, Alliance Management

  Jazz Pharmaceuticals

Large enterprises face a challenge: strategic alliances get expert attention, but numerous smaller partnerships are managed by practitioners with limited alliance experience, creating quality gaps and hidden risks. This session presents a field-tested checklist framework that standardizes alliance execution without requiring dedicated managers for every initiative. Learn how to: design minimum-viable checklists covering business planning, contract structuring, risk identification, and approval requirements; enable practitioners to prepare negotiations confidently and completely; standardize reviews and approvals while maintaining flexibility; improve risk identification, internal alignment, and auditability; and scale alliance governance across diverse partnership sizes and complexities. Leave with actionable tools to enhance execution quality, reduce variability, and empower your organization to manage alliance portfolios efficiently.

• 
  Yoshihiko Sunamura, CA-AM

  Alliance Director

  NEC Corporation
• 
  Natsuki Yamaguchi

  Manager

  NEC Corporation

Discover how to structure pharmaceutical partnerships that deliver sustained mutual value beyond the initial handshake. Learn proven frameworks for aligning partners through evolving science, markets, and priorities. You'll gain practical strategies for: establishing robust governance structures and early trust-building; integrating alliance managers into deal negotiations to ensure long-term viability; maintaining flexibility throughout the partnership lifecycle; and maximizing collaboration value when business conditions shift. Through real-world success examples, understand how strategic alliance leadership transforms transactions into enduring partnerships that benefit both organizations.

• 
  Tomoko Hanadate

  Head of RD Alliances, Business Development

  Astellas

As AI reshapes industries, alliance leaders are increasingly expected to move beyond coordination and act as ecosystem architects who create durable competitive advantage. This session explores how alliance managers can enable partners to deliver superior outcomes while building network effects that strengthen both relationships and revenue. Drawing on real-world examples from AI-powered drug discovery, diagnostics, and digital signature platforms, participants will learn practical approaches for identifying transformational partners, reframing conversations from risk to opportunity, and using case-based learning to drive adoption and measure success. 

• 
  Nancy Ridge, CA-AM

  Head of Partnerships

  Lumin

Discover why traditional bilateral alliances struggle to scale in today's data-intensive biotech landscape—and how platform-driven models solve this challenge. Using antibody discovery ecosystems as examples, learn to: diagnose scaling inflection points before they create governance friction; design multi-party platform alliances that grow without proportional complexity or cost increases; apply AI-driven metrics beyond milestones to measure learning velocity and ecosystem health; stabilize asset-centric partnerships using platform governance principles; and operationalize adaptive alliance strategies across the full lifecycle. Through case studies and interactive exercises, gain practical frameworks for transforming transactional agreements into compounding innovation engines that accelerate discovery while preserving partner autonomy.

• 
  Swati Prasad, PhD, CSAP, CA-AM

  Director, Alliance Management

  Alloy Therapeutics

Many alliance teams struggle to define performance metrics that meaningfully guide decisions rather than simply report activity. This session takes a practical approach to alliance measurement across different stages of the alliance lifecycle, focusing on aligning metrics with stakeholder needs, governance expectations, and evolving partnership objectives. Participants will explore how to distinguish between operational indicators and strategic measures, avoid metric overload, and translate performance insights into actionable decisions. The session introduces a focused framework for selecting, evolving, and communicating alliance metrics that support alignment, accountability, and continuous improvement, helping alliance professionals demonstrate value while enabling more effective management and stronger partnership outcomes over time. 

Strategic alliances have undergone a dramatic transformation over three decades—from distribution deals and standards bodies to today's AI-driven capability coalitions. This session traces five distinct eras of alliance evolution, revealing how the very purpose of partnerships has shifted from scaling distribution to building shared production systems around computers, data, and models. As AI accelerates co-opetition, invites regulatory scrutiny, and introduces new partner archetypes, leaders must rethink their alliance strategies entirely moving from transactional partnerships toward outcome-based ecosystem operating models built for the intelligence era. 

• 
  Kimberly King

  Chief Partner Officer

  PTC

• 
  Adam Conway, PhD, JD

  Senior Director, Global Alliances

  Abbvie
• 
  Fern McSorley, PhD

  Head of Alliance Management

  Isomorphic Labs
• 
  Alex Waldron

  Chief Executive Officer

  Neutargeton Therapeutics

Select a table and using the framing question below, discuss what worked? What failed? And What would you do differently. Each table should capture the top 3 takeaways and return it to the front of the room. We’ll consolidate and share them back with all of you in the app. 

1. Managing Strategic Drift in Long-Term Alliances - When partners’ priorities diverge mid-stream, how do you realign—or decide to exit? 

2. AI Governance in Partnerships: Who Owns What? - How are you structuring data rights, IP ownership, and accountability in AI-enabled alliances? 

3. From Bilateral to Ecosystem: Operating in Multi-Partner Deals - What breaks when you move from 2-party alliances to 5+ partner ecosystems—and how do you fix it? 

4. Measuring What Actually Matters in Alliance Performance - What KPIs truly reflect value creation—not just activity? 

5. Internal Friction: The Hidden Killer of Alliance Success - Where do internal misalignments (sales, product, legal) derail partnerships—and how do you intervene? 

6. Trust at Scale: Building Credibility Across Complex Ecosystems - How do you build and maintain trust when partnerships span cultures, companies, and competing incentives? 

7. Alliance Talent: What Skills Matter Now (and What’s Obsolete?) - How is the role of the alliance manager evolving with AI, data, and ecosystem complexity? 

8. When to Double Down vs. When to Walk Away - How do you identify inflection points where a partnership should pivot, scale, or end? 

9. Cybersecurity & Third-Party Risk in Partner Ecosystems - How do you build secure-by-design partnerships while maintaining speed and trust? 

10. Designing Effective R&D Alliances – Where do R&D alliances most often break down, governance, IP, or incentives, and how are you designing around those risks?   

External partnerships are often judged by market outcomes, yet their success is strongly shaped by how effectively internal teams lead, align, and collaborate. While alliance professionals routinely assess external partnership health, far fewer apply the same rigor to evaluating how internal leadership dynamics influence results. This session explores the role Alliance Managers can play in diagnosing and strengthening internal conditions that enable external success. Participants will learn practical frameworks to assess leadership alignment, role clarity, communication norms, and cross-functional collaboration, and to address internal friction that undermines partnerships. Attendees will leave with actionable tools to improve organizational effectiveness and strengthen alliance performance from the inside out.

• 
  Adam Kornetsky

  Partner

  Vantage Partners

Most change models assume one organization. Alliances shatter that assumption—change happens between companies where no one fully controls the outcome, yet everyone feels the impact. Driven by geo-economic pressures, acquisitions, and leadership shifts, alliance leaders must orchestrate change across organizational boundaries without direct authority. This session explores how to identify early warning signs of partner misalignment and apply non-hierarchical influence strategies when traditional change management fails. Discover essential skills for navigating complexity by building alignment rather than issuing directives—critical capabilities when your success depends on partners you don't control.

• 
  Tracy Blois, PhD

  Head of Alliance Management

  Amgen
• 
  Julia Levinsky

  Senior Manager, Business Development & Alliance Management

  Amgen

AI is reshaping how partnerships create value, giving alliance leaders a unique opportunity to redefine ecosystem strategy. This session explores how organizations can lead by adopting an AI-first, client-centric approach that integrates AI into daily operations, partner engagement, and collaborative innovation. Through practical examples, participants will examine how internal AI adoption builds credibility, accelerates innovation, and strengthens partner relationships. The session also introduces emerging approaches to cross-platform, multi-agent orchestration, where connected capabilities unlock outcomes beyond individual technologies. Attendees will gain practical frameworks for positioning AI-driven alliances, enabling repeatable innovation, and creating scalable ecosystem value in an increasingly AI-powered environment. 

• 
  Natalya Kasatova

  Managing Director, Ecosystem Go-to-Market Lead

  Protiviti
• 
  Claudia Kuzma, CA-AM

  Managing Director, Global Ecosystems

  Protiviti

 External shifts in science, strategy, or market dynamics force critical decisions: adapt the partnership or exit? This interactive breakout explores how to navigate these inflection points strategically. Through small group discussions and real-world scenarios, you'll examine: recognizing early signals that demand partnership reassessment; evaluating whether your alliance foundation—trust, strategic alignment, and nimbleness—supports pivoting versus termination; managing the ambiguity of exploring new directions together; assessing both parties' capacity and willingness to adapt; and determining when cutting losses preserves more value than persisting. Share experiences with peers about successful pivots and well-timed exits, leaving with sharper instincts for these high-stakes decisions. 

• 
  Christina O'Halloran, CA-AM

  Senior Manager, Alliance & Program Management

  Pfizer

Alliance professionals play a critical role preparing stakeholders for high-stakes external engagements—from refining investor messaging to prepping executives for industry conferences and empowering teams for alliance leadership conversations. This cross-industry panel explores strategies for ensuring executives and alliance teams deliver aligned, confident, compelling messages that advance objectives and shape external perspectives. Panelists from pharma, tech, and other sectors share practical approaches to aligning stakeholders on key narratives, anticipating and mitigating sensitive topics, and socializing meeting outcomes to maintain organizational awareness and consistency. Learn how to transform preparation from administrative task to strategic advantage. 

• 
  Danielle Martinez, PhD, CA-AM

  Director, Alliance Management

  Jazz Pharmaceuticals

This session examines the key milestones organizations should track across the alliance lifecycle—from strategic alignment and launch readiness through value realization and thoughtful closure. Drawing on practical experience, the panel will discuss how leading companies define measurable inflection points, establish joint accountability, and differentiate activity metrics from true performance outcomes. Participants will gain clarity on which indicators reliably signal partnership health, emerging risk, and sustained value creation. The conversation will also offer pragmatic frameworks, governance structures, and reporting disciplines that enable alliance leaders to implement rigorous, outcome-oriented milestone tracking without creating unnecessary administrative burden or complexity. 

• 
  Julie Settipani, PhD

  Lead Product Director

  Inpart

• 
  Nina Akerley Lindsey

  Chief Marketing Officer

  GE Heathcare

Alliance leaders are often expected to influence without authority, align diverse stakeholders, and translate complexity into action. Yet even the strongest strategy can stall if the message lacks clarity and resonance. This interactive session introduces the AM Heroes’ Journey as a surprisingly simple storytelling framework to communicate with greater focus and impact. Participants will explore how to structure narratives that clarify purpose, surface obstacles, and position alliance teams as catalysts for progress. Through guided exercises and real-world scenarios, attendees will practice shaping messages that inspire alignment, drive decisions, and strengthen credibility across partners, governance forums, and executive audiences. 

• 
  Markus Kropf, CA-AM

  Global Head, Alliance Mangement

  EMD Serono

Federated collaboration - where data stays distributed, governance is shared, and competitors collaborate - is reshaping alliances across industries. Yet without effective data partnerships, without effective data collaboration, the transformative potential of alliances has a ceiling. Learn practical lessons from real-world multi-party initiatives in life sciences, healthcare, financial services, energy, and beyond. Gain actionable strategies for: converting independent goals into clear operating rules and enforceable terms; reducing participation friction across diverse governance structures and risk profiles; making trust measurable through shared rules and transparency mechanisms; governing distributed authority with clear accountability and decision rights; and adapting federated models as participants and objectives evolve. Leave with a practical checklist, common failure modes to avoid, and repeatable patterns for enabling secure, scalable collaboration without compromising privacy or IP.  

• 
  Kimberly Cline, CA-AM

  Head of Cloud Partnerships

  Rhino Federated Computing

When strategic partnerships break down, can trust be rebuilt? This interactive session provides a practical framework for repairing damaged alliances. Through real-world scenarios and breakout workshops, you'll learn to: acknowledge and assess trust gaps objectively; recognize the business impact of relationship fractures; implement a systematic reset framework with clear steps; and establish metrics to track trust-rebuilding progress. Leave equipped with actionable tools to transform troubled partnerships into functional collaborations. Whether facing current challenges or preparing for future obstacles, gain the skills to navigate difficult conversations and restore mutual value in critical alliance relationships. 

• 
  Susie Freda

  Senior Director, Alliance Management

  Teva Pharmaceutical

• 
  Stephen Cho, PhD

  Senior Vice President, Global Portfolio & Program Management

  BeOne
• 
  Christina Neary

  Vice President, Avanade/Microsoft Alliance

  Avanade
• 
  David Thompson, CSAP, CA-AM

  Vice President, Global Head of Alliances

  BeOne Medicines

• 
  Ruben Santos Garcia, CSAP, CA-AM

We’re trying something new and offering small group dinners in the Big Apple, giving participants the opportunity to connect with peers in a relaxed setting. Attendees will meet directly at their assigned restaurant, where reservations for groups of six have been arranged under ASAP. All restaurants are within walking distance of the conference venue in Midtown Manhattan, and the cost is included in conference registration. It’s a convenient and fun new way to continue conversations (what bridges will you build?), build new connections, and enjoy an informal evening with fellow attendees at some of the City’s best restaurants.