Our Business Team

Ann Ault, B.A.
Finance & Accounting

Ms. Ault has over 25 years of bookkeeping and business management/cash flow management experience. She has used this experience in the service industry, retail sales, medical office, nonprofit youth organizations, real estate sales and title, property management, family business and personal cash management. Ann is a seasoned user of QuickBooks. She received a B.A. in Business Management/Economics from West Virginia University.

Thomas Delaney, BBA
Chief Growth and Strategy Officer

Tom Delaney has over 25 years of experience working with start up life science and high tech companies.   He has served as Chief Financial Officer and at times has been responsible for sales and marketing, production, compliance and quality assurance.   Most recently Tom worked initially as CFO and then General Manager of International Sales for K2M, Inc., (Nasdaq: KTWO).   K2M is a medical device company focused on designing, developing and commercializing spinal implants.   Tom was CFO of GloboMax, LLC, a CRO specializing in FDA drug development, purchased by ICON (Nasdaq: ICON); Electric Press, Inc., an internet e-commerce and content management company purchased by NIC Commerce (Nasdaq: EGOV); CellCo, Inc., a cell and gene therapy research company, purchased by Spectrum Labs; ProScience, Inc., a developer of animal diagnostics; and Media Cybernetics, Inc., developers of image analysis software for life science.

Tom has  experience with raising funds from Venture Capital, Private Equity, and IPOs.   He has broad experience with the launch and development of Life Science companies.   Tom has a comprehensive understanding of Life Science product development  costs and timelines.  He has a unique perspective from his work with companies that provided drug development services and with companies who utilized these services.  Tom received his BBA from Wisconsin University and  started his career with Ernst and Young.  

Wendy Guy, A.A.
Chief Management Officer

Ms. Guy has more than 20 years' experience in business operations.  She has worked primarily with pharmaceutical companies, clinical research organizations and management consulting firms.   Most recently she was with Questcor Pharmaceutical's (acquired by Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals in 2014) as Senior Manager, Business Operations.  In this position she oversaw the everyday operations of the office as well as grew the Maryland Office from two employees to just under 100 and expanded the facility from 1,200 sq. ft. to 15,000 sq. ft.  Wendy's experience includes administration, office management, business operations, real estate, information technology, human resources, recruiting, budgets, finance, forecasting as well as contract negotiation.  She is proficient with Microsoft Office.  Wendy received an A.A. from Mount Wachusett Community College, and is within two courses of completing a B.A. from University Maryland.

Laura Johnson, M.B.A., B.S.
Business Development, Operations & Contracts

Ms. Johnson has extensive experience in strategic business planning, customer relationship building and program management.  She was VP and General Manager for one of the top ten Contract Research Organizations.  Laura has proven abilities in key account management, contracts and proposals, multi-site operations and P&L oversight reulsting in operational excellence and driving revenue growth.  She has experience in developing strategic alliance partneships and new business development multi-tier markets.  Laura is adept in leading high performing virtual teams, mentoring, cross functional team building and leadership develoment.  She has extensive knowledge of regulatory compliance and management.  Laura received an M.B.A. from Loyola College and a B.S. from Virginia Tech.

Mark Leonard, B.A.
Marketing, Communications and Public Relations

Mr. Leonard is the President & CEO of Next Level Agency, a full service marketing communications consultancy based in the Chicagoland area.  Mark has more than 25 years of experience working with a wide variety of nationally-recognized healthcare, consumer and business-to-business companies, including Pfizer, Under Armor, Eli Lilly, McDonalds, Abbott Laboratories, Zimmer Orthopaedics, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals (formerly Questcor), Sarah Lee (now Hillshire Brands), Hollister, Joseph Abboud, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Motorola, Cord Blood Registry and Upper Deck, among many others.  Mark has also worked with numerous start-ups to help put in place necessary communications platforms.

His areas of expertise include:  advocacy relations, development of strategic partnerships, corporate communications, public relations, patient and advocacy communications, charitable grants and contributions, unbranded promotions, crisis communications, video production, website development and SEO, social media product launches, FDA hearings, national sales meetings, speech writing and celebrity programming, along with internal and external communications.

Mark is adept at working with the C-Suite on down to key management and product directors to help facilitate company goals and objectives.  His cross-functional experience allows for faster workflow and increased output - important considerations for new companies as well as established companies.

Prior to fouding Next Level in 2005, Mark served as the founder, President & CEO of Integrated Marketing Solutions in Chicago.  He also served as Vice President of Edelman Public Relations, the world's larges PR firm.  He helped start - and grow - the agency's healthcare practice in Chicago.

Mark also worked as a communications specialist at Zenith Electronics Corporation and served as a legislative aide in the U.S. Congress and for the State of Iowa. 

He is a graduate of the University of Iowa with a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science.

Yvonne Madden, B.S.
Vice President - Project Management

Ms. Madden has approximately 20 years' experience in project management primarily in pharmaceutical research and development.  Prior to her current role she was resoponsble for the development and leadership of the Project Management function at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals (formerly Questcor).  This involved project management of all internal clinical and nonclinical programs for its autoimmune and rare disease programs and external collaborations.   Prior to this role she worked on international cross functional teams and spent over 8 years with Elan Pharmaceuticals, Ireland working on both internal programs and collaborations with major pharma; she was responsibile for the project management of development programs for both ANDA and NDA submissions that utilized Elan's proprietary controlled release delivery technology.  Yvonne received a B.S. from Kansas State University.

Dennis O'Brien, CPA., CGMA
Finance & Operations

Mr. O'Brien has over 30 years of experience working with domestic and international start-up to middle market companies, with a focus within the pharmaceutical and medical device industry.  His financial and operations background includes positions as Chief Financial Officer in life sciences companies as well as construction, apparel and government contracting.  Most recently Dennis was President of Meridian Medical Technologies, Inc., in Columbia, MD for ten years, leading the company through a period of significant growth.  As CFO of Meridian (Nasdaq:MTEC), Dennis led the sale of the company to King Pharmeceuticals, Inc. (NYSE:KG) which was acquired by Pfizer, Inc., in 2011.  Dennis' prior CFO positions include Ogden Environmental and Energy, After Six, Ltd and Tate Access Floors.  Dennis has at times been responsible for all investor relations, human resources and administrative, information technology and risk management functions.

Dennis has experience raising funds from private equity and debt placements as well as senior and mezzanine lenders.  His overall management experience within the life science industry includes overall responsibility for joint drug and device development with commmercial and US Government partners.  Dennis received his BSAC from the University of Delaware and started his career at KPMG, augmented by experience as the Deputy Director of Internal Audit for a global life science and defense contracting company.