L. Lee Karras

Chief Executive Officer

Lee brings nearly 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience and knowledge to AAIPharma Services. Prior to joining the company, Lee served as vice president of contract services for Baxter Healthcare Corporation. In this role, he directed the business strategy, design, implementation, development, and operation of more than $300MM manufacturing and drug development assets in support of one of the largest contract manufacturing/service businesses in the world.

An accomplished leader, Lee has developed win-win pharmaceutical service and supply relationships with many of the top global pharma and biotech companies for some of today's most successful drug therapies. He also directed the conceptual business strategy, formal design and implementation of the ISPE 2005 Facility of the Year pharmaceutical plant. Lee holds a bachelor's degree in Chemistry and a master’s degree in Environmental Science from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

Burton Ely

Chief Financial Officer

Burton brings more than 25 years of experience to AAIPharma Services. His financial management expertise is focused predominately in manufacturing environments. Prior to joining AAIPharma Inc., he served as Senior Manager of Finance, Business & Manufacturing for Baxter Pharmaceutical Solutions LLC, a Baxter Healthcare company that provides contract manufacturing services to pharmaceutical companies. He was also Senior Director of Finance for the Pharmaceutical Development division of AAIPharma Inc. Burton holds a bachelor's degree in Accounting from the University of Mississippi.

Scott Warner

Vice President and General Counsel, Corporate Secretary

Scott has more than 30 years experience as a business transactional attorney. Prior to joining AAIPharma Services Corp, he was in private practice focused on assisting clients with negotiating, coordinating and consummating a variety of commercial transactions. Scott was appointed by the Attorney General of Ohio to represent the investment fund of the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, which had more than $60 billion in assets under investment. He was also appointed by President Clinton in 1995 to serve as one of three US representatives on a bi-lateral diplomatic committee resolving issues related to the transfer of control of the Panama Canal. He holds a JD and MBA from Ohio State University. Scott is also a member of the Ohio State Bar Association.

Christopher Smith, CQE, RAC

Vice President, Quality and Regulatory Affairs

Chris brings more than 30 years of experience to AAIPharma Services. He began his career as an Investigator with the US FDA. During his 12 year-career with the Agency, he held positions of increasing responsibility including Assistant Director of Congressional Operations, Associate Director of Program Management and Deputy Associate Commissioner for Public Affairs. Building on his FDA background, Chris accepted a position as Associate Director of Regulatory Affairs at Abbott Laboratories. He also served on the Executive Committee for AAI International. He went on to join the management team at Endeavor Pharmaceuticals and most recently has been an independent regulatory/quality consultant to the pharmaceutical industry. Chris has a bachelor's degree from Michigan State/Oakland University, and a master's degree in Microbiology from Wayne State University. He is a member of the Drug Information Association, the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (certified RAC), the Parenteral Drug Association and the American Society for Quality (certified CQE).

George Spanos, Ph.D.

Vice President of Analytical and Formulation Development Services

George joined AAIPharma, Inc. in 1992 as an analytical method development scientist. During his tenure with the Company he worked on a variety of analytical development projects, managed method development groups and large global FTE programs. His expertise is in the area of Analytical Development in support of Pharmaceutical Product Development and Manufacturing. Prior to joining AAIPharma Inc., George was a postdoctoral research scientist at North Carolina State University where he conducted research on supercritical fluid extractions, HPLC/ELSD and MS/MS characterization of lipophilic compounds. He also was a research assistant at the University of Athens. He has authored over 25 analytical chemistry publications and presentations. George holds a Ph.D. in Food Science/Biochemistry and a Master's Degree in Food Science/Chemistry from Oregon State University.

Richard Green

Senior Director, Manufacturing Services

Richard has been with AAIPharma since 2001. Prior to joining AAIPharma he worked at Sandoz (Geneva) Pharmaceuticals where he held various roles in technical services and manufacturing. He also spent 15 years in manufacturing and product development at Schering Plough. Richard is currently responsible for directing the company’s manufacturing facilities, including the Wilmington, North Carolina solid dosage site and the Charleston, South Carolina parenteral site. He received his bachelor of science degree in Biology from the University of Tennessee.

James Murtagh, Ph.D.

Senior Director, Formulations Development

Jim has 25 years of pharmaceutical development experience, primarily in injectable dosage forms. Prior to joining AAIPharma, he worked as Director of Product Development for Oakwood Laboratories and Ben Venue Laboratories in Ohio. His expertise reaches across a broad spectrum of small and large molecules, including pre-formulation studies, development of liquids, lyophilized products, emulsions and suspensions in diverse therapeutic areas. Jim has development and scale-up experience in the following technologies: dispersion equipment, solubilization, lyophilization, emulsion, injectable microsphere processing, aseptic processing, thermal analysis, experimental design optimization, transfer of processes to manufacturing, and early phase clinical dosage forms. Jim holds a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Brown University and a B.S. in Biochemistry from McGill University.

Deborah Swan

Senior Director of Operations

Deborah (Deb) has more than 15 years experience working within a pharmaceutical environment. Currently she oversees both the Clinical and Commercial Packaging & Distribution and Corporate Project Management groups. Deb has additional experience in regulatory, clinical and clinical supply management. Prior to joining AAIPharma Services Corp., she held management positions at various contract research organizations and pharmaceutical companies including Cardinal Health, Trimeris and Voyager Pharmaceuticals. Deb holds a bachelor's degree in Business Management and Economics from the State University of New York at Empire.