Our Team

Taking your product successfully to market hinges on the talents of those developing it. Our scientists and professionals are among the top in the industry. We combine our experience and expertise to form an in-depth understanding of your product. We become an extension of your company, anticipating changes, overcoming challenges, and developing on-the-spot solutions for advancement. Our projects are characterized by timely communications and responsive action so the client is never unfavorably surprised. We go beyond simply delivering a product. As a team of innovative thinkers, we contribute our unique insight to quickly meet the specific challenges of your product. Our extensive train of equipment, responsive staff, and detailed scheduling processes ensure that your project will be completed with the highest level of quality, cost control and timeliness.



John M. Gregory
Chairman and CEO

Serving as Chairman and CEO for UPM Pharmaceuticals, Inc., John M. Gregory is a pioneer in specialty pharmaceuticals. In 2002, John received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, honored as the winner in the Health Sciences category. After graduating from the University of Maryland with a degree in pharmacy, John and his wife, Joan, moved to Bastian, Virginia, where he opened the town's first retail pharmacy. Seeing an opportunity to expand, in 1984 John co-founded General Injectables and Vaccines (GIV), a company that supplied injectables and vaccine products directly to physicians' offices. As president and CEO, John turned GIV into a successful enterprise with 550 employees and annual revenues exceeding $150 million annually.With a small initial investment in their pockets and a lot of debt on their shoulders, John and his brothers purchased a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Bristol, Tennessee, in 1993. Under John's leadership as chairman and CEO from 1993-2001, King Pharmaceuticals grew from a 90-employee family business to an S&P 500 Index company on the New York Stock Exchange with revenues exceeding $1 billion.


Jim Gregory
President and COO

James E. Gregory served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of UPM from 2004 to 2007. After retiring in January, 2008, he was reappointed to this position in October, 2009. Gregory previously worked for King Pharmaceuticals from 1995 to 2000 as Executive Vice President and General Manager of King’s Bristol, Tennessee manufacturing facility. He served in various consulting capacities at King from 2000 to 2003 and served on the Board of Directors in 2002 and 2003. Gregory served from 1982 to 1995 as a senior administrator in the court systems of Phoenix, Arizona and Washington, D.C. He was deputy executive officer in charge of business operations of the District of Columbia Court System from 1990 to 1995. Gregory has a B. A. from the University of Maryland and a masters in public administration from American University.


Harold Chappelear
Vice-Chairman

Harold E. Chappelear, LLD, (Hon.), Vice Chairman, brings to UPM a distinguished background in the pharmaceutical industry, including a thirty-year career at The Upjohn Company, where he was Corporate Executive Vice President. After participating in the private practice of pharmacy at St. Francis Hospital in Greenville, South Carolina, Dr. Chappelear joined The Upjohn Company as a sales representative in Anderson, South Carolina in 1962. He became a member of the company's management ranks in 1967 and throughout the years that followed, held numerous positions which included responsibility for North American Operations, Worldwide Marketing Support, and External Affairs. He was a member of the Corporate Management Office, a group of eleven officers responsible for directing the business of The Upjohn Company. Since his early retirement from Upjohn, he served as President and COO of Medicis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (New York and Phoenix) and in April, 1993, Dr. Chappelear was appointed Adjunct Professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Maryland.


Gary Hollenbeck, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Hollenbeck has been a member of UPM’s senior management team since its inception in 1997 and he assumed the position of Chief Scientific Officer, January 1, 2006. He serves as a key scientific and technical advisor at UPM and personally directs focused research and development projects in the area of novel drug delivery platforms. Dr. Hollenbeck also currently oversees the technical services, manufacturing, and materials management groups at the Baltimore facility. Prior to assuming the full-time position at UPM, he was most recently Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. He received his B.S. degree from Albany College of Pharmacy and his Ph.D. in Industrial and Physical Pharmacy from Purdue University. Hollenbeck was Associate Dean for Academic Programs at the UM School of Pharmacy from 1991 to 1996, and was one of the principal architects of the School's nationally recognized Doctor of Pharmacy program. During that period, he was also co-principal investigator on the UMAB/FDA Collaborative Agreement; a joint education, research and computer database effort aimed at establishing a scientific basis for review of new and amended drug applications. In this capacity, he and his associates received a Special Recognition Award for the SUPAC IR Training Program, from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA, PHS, DHHS. Hollenbeck also served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Pharmaceutical Science, Office of Pharmaceutical Science at FDA and in 2003 received a DHHS, FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation for his work with the Center for Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Hollenbeck is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Pharmaceutical Technology and continues to serve as Adjunct Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the UM School of Pharmacy.


Lisa C. White, Esq.
General Counsel and Vice President of Human Resources

Ms. White has over 15 years of experience handling pharmaceutical, corporate and human resource legal issues. She has spent the last 10 years overseeing strategic mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry and swiftly resolving legal issues in pharmaceutical manufacturing, sales, distribution, intellectual property and research/development. After working in private practice and as a state prosecutor, she joined King Pharmaceuticals in 1998 and became the Vice President of their Legal Affairs Department. Most recently, she was Executive Vice President of Contract Administration for SJ Strategic Investments in Bristol, Tennessee. Ms. White has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia and her Juris Doctor from the University of Richmond School of Law.


Ed Scholtz, Ph.D.
Vice President, Research and Development

Dr. Scholtz is responsible for UPM's Research and Development Division. He also personally manages numerous formulation and development projects. Prior to joining UPM, Dr. Scholtz enjoyed 22 years working in various sophisticated scientific and management positions for Merck & Company. These positions included site automation compliance, worldwide quality assurance, manufacturing division regulatory compliance, and pharmaceutical R&D leadership on large, complex, new product formulation/process development project teams. Dr. Scholtz is the co-author of four patents, numerous publications, and many presentations at professional meetings. He received his B.S. degree in Pharmacy from the University of Pittsburgh, an M.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the same institution and his Ph.D. in Industrial and Physical Pharmacy from Purdue University.


Frances F. Spaven, PhD
Vice President, Contracting & Drug Development Services

Dr. Spaven oversees early stage Client-UPM project contracting, requests and deliverables. Prior to joining UPM, Dr. Spaven spent ten years with the Medical Products Business at E.I. DuPont de Nemours. Her assignments there included: Process Chemist in R&D, Manager of a cGMP Tablet and Blend production area, and Technical Manager of Specialty Reagents and Industrial Pharmacy Divisions. During this time, Dr. Spaven also participated on the following committees: ISO-9001 certification, Business Resource Planning, Product Development and Commercialization Framework, Consumables Product Approval Committee (CPAC), Medical Products Professional Progression Committee (PPC) and the Technology Advisory Panel. The CPAC reviewed and approved all new and revised products for funding and resourcing; the PPC recommended for approval all senior level technical promotions. The TAP evaluated and approved funding for new research and technology scouting efforts. Dr. Spaven also has contributed her time to programs such as Junior Achievement, Telementoring Science, and Education and Business Alliance; programs all aimed at encouraging young adults in science careers. Dr. Spaven earned her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.


Ruth Moore, Ph.D.
Vice President, Analytical Services

Dr. Moore has over 15 years experience providing R&D laboratory services to pharmaceutical and related industries. She has spent the last 10 years leading formulations, methods development, validation, and stability programs in support of drug development and manufacture. She has a proven track record of effectively managing contract research services throughout her tenure at Cook Imaging (formerly a subsidiary of Cook Pharmaceuticals), Oread Inc., Proceutics, Inc., and Covance Inc. She was most recently employed at Shire Laboratories in Rockville, Maryland. Dr. Moore received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.


John Connell
Executive Director, Technical Services

John has 30 years of developmental, scale-up and commercial/contract manufacturing experience ranging from hands-on production/operations management to senior level technical operations. His experiences includes solid, liquid and semi-solid dose forms and includes work history in both generic and brand pharmaceuticals. Generic production management includes the scale-up and commercial delivery on fourteen ANDA’s and six Prior Approval Supplements at Copley Pharmaceutical (acquired by TEVA Pharmaceutical). Additional generic controlled substance and site transfer experience was acquired while working at Vintage Pharmaceutical’s 300,000 ft2 solid dose facility in Huntsville, Alabama as the facilities’ Asst. Plant Manager. Brand experience at Colgate Palmolive’s Colgate Hoyt Laboratories in Canton, MA and the Gel-Kam Corporation in Dallas, Texas were instrumental in forming skill sets in liquid and ointment contract manufacturing and product site transfer technology. Models of growth by brand acquisition were further acquired while working as the Senior Director of Manufacturing at King Pharmaceutical in Bristol, Tennessee, which led to the successful and highly profitable acquisition/manufacturing site transfer of an ACE inhibitor called Altace.


Ram Ramachandran, Ph.D.
Project Manager

Dr. Ramachandran is responsible for management of formulation and process development projects. He has over 18 years of experience in solids and parenteral formulation development including liposomes, lyophilized recombinant proteins, vaccines, IR solids and cytotoxics. He has significant experience in biophysical characterization of recombinant proteins, protein purification, analytical method development and validation, CMC documentation and interaction with reviewers and process development. Dr. Ramachandran received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from University of Iowa.


Ted McCarthy
Executive Director, Quality Assurance

Mr. McCarthy has 15 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry in the areas of manufacturing, laboratory operations and Quality Assurance. He has been with UPM for the past 9 years, starting in the Analytical Chemistry Group, and for the past 5 years being the on-site head of the Quality Assurance and Document Control departments. Mr. McCarthy led UPM’s Compliance Upgrade Initiative that ultimately lead to the 2009 FDA approval of the facility for commercial manufacturing – a milestone for UPM. In addition, Mr. McCarthy was the QA lead for UPM’s technology upgrades with the implementation of Documentum and Formweigh systems. Prior to joining UPM, Mr. McCarthy held laboratory and research positions with Wyeth Ayerst (NJ), Proctor & Gamble (MD), and Alpharma (MD). He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry from Loyola College in Maryland.