I am a Medicinal Chemist and Discovery Chemistry Program Team Leader with 26 years of experience in big pharma, I have worked extensively in the areas of antiinfective and cardiometabolic disease, and I have a nuanced understanding of all issues associated with drug discovery and early development, including what to focus on in SAR (and what not to), key drug properties and MPO, modeling and informatics, pharmacokinetics and dynamics, drug delivery by oral, IV and implant administration, and early safety testing. To date, five compounds from my programs at Merck have entered Phase I clinical trials.Creating and maintaining highly motivated and effective teams has been an area to which I have devoted special attention, and I consider it to be the bedrock of project success. I take a great deal of pride in the high morale and steady success of the teams that I have led, and for me this has been the source of much of the satisfaction of the job. It's been a special pleasure to work cross-functionally on core teams and early development teams, and I have recently gained a great deal of experience working with Asian CRO's.I have a strong interest in pedagogy, and developed a series of in-house training courses at Merck to teach the basics of organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry to allied scientists. These courses were well received, and I subsequently adapted them for presentation to the public. In the past several years I have given numerous presentations of this material at nearby high schools and colleges, and I look forward to opportunities to expand both the scope and the reach of this enterprise.At this midpoint in my career, my enthusiasm for drug discovery is undiminished: I chose my profession well. My sense that this is good work, useful work, and my confidence in the power of pharma to improve peoples lives has grown with each success. I look forward to more.