Lisa Burns is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Burns McClellan, Inc., one of the country’s oldest independent healthcare public and investor relations firm. Since its establishment in 1988, the Firm has represented more than 400 of the industry’s pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies through all phases of development and commercialization. Over the past two decades, Lisa has provided strategic financial counsel to both early- and late-stage companies, with a particular focus on securing access to institutional investors, and has enduring relationships with the leading venture capitalists investing in the life sciences sector. Lisa has been instrumental in assisting companies with strategic positioning and fundraising rounds from seed and private financings through initial public offerings, reverse mergers or other approaches to entering the public markets, as well as numerous follow-on public financings. Lisa has extensive experience with hostile takeovers; most recently, she provided strategic advice to executive management teams during three highly visible hostile takeovers in the biopharmaceutical industry. In the communications area, Lisa’s expertise includes investor and media relations, corporate development and strategic consulting, new product launches, and crisis management. Lisa has worked on product development and issues management in such areas as women’s healthcare, neurology, oncology, hematology, cardiology and obesity/metabolic disorders. Lisa served as a member of the Board of Directors of Genesis Pharmaceuticals and was a board member of Sapient Health Network (currently a division of Web MD/Healtheon) and the Irvington Institute. Lisa was a founding member of the Society for the Advancement of Women’s Health Research (SAWHR), and the founder of its corporate advisory council. Prior to founding Burns McClellan, Lisa served ten years as a member of senior management at several leading public relations firms, including Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, and Burson-Marsteller.