Why Veristat
Executive Leadership
Veristat is a dynamic and evolving organization backed by more than 27 years of expertise driven by scientific excellence. The company continues to grow because of the vision, hard work, and experience of its leadership. Our leaders are futurists, forward-thinkers who not only look to help our clients bring new life-improving and life-saving therapies to market today.
Meet our dynamic visionaries and leaders.

Patrick Flanagan
Chief Executive Officer

Patrick Flanagan
Chief Executive Officer
Patrick has built a career leading commercial growth, international expansion and financial & operational improvement initiatives for leading companies in the consulting, healthcare, and software fields including A.T. Kearney, Baxter International, Allegiance Healthcare and Oracle. Prior to joining Veristat, Patrick served as Chief Operating Officer of Certara and the General Manager of Certara’s Pharsight Consulting Services Group, a Vector Capital portfolio company engaged in the business of providing consulting services and software to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
Patrick holds a BS in Business from Penn State University and an MBA with a concentration in Finance and Marketing from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Patrick is also an active father, skier, golfer, occasional marathon runner and aging tri-athlete.

John P. Balser, PhD
Founder, President, and Chief Statistical Officer

John P. Balser, PhD
Founder, President, and Chief Statistical Officer
Prior to founding Veristat in 1994, John served as Vice President, Biostatistics, and Data Management at Medical & Technical Research Associates, Inc. He has held positions of increasing responsibility in the biostatistics departments at various pharmaceutical companies including E.R. Squibb, Biogen, and Miles.
John received his MS and PhD in Biometrics from Cornell University, and has been actively engaged in clinical biostatistics for over 30 years. John is an avid runner and has competed in the Boston Marathon.

Barbara Balser, VMD
Founder, Executive Vice President, and Chief Scientific Officer

Barbara Balser, VMD
Founder, Executive Vice President, and Chief Scientific Officer
Barbara has participated in the writing, oversight, and submission of multiple marketing applications to US, Canadian, Japanese, and European Union regulatory authorities. Prior to co-founding Veristat, Barbara served as Associate Director of Clinical Research at Medical & Technical Research Associates, Inc. where she was responsible for strategic planning, design, and management of clinical development programs; preparation and submission of regulatory applications; and scientific communications.Barbara began her career in the pharmaceutical industry at Miles, Inc. (currently Bayer Corporation). In her capacity as Assistant Director of Clinical Research at Miles, Barbara assisted with strategic planning for the clinical development of anti-infective compounds from Phases 2 to 4 and with the planning, writing, and compilation of two successful NDAs for anti-infective products. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, Barbara practiced veterinary medicine at a private veterinary hospital. Barbara holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and a VMD from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine. When Barbara isn’t busy traveling the world for our clients, she enjoys spending time on the beach with a good book.

Joe Scott
Chief Financial Officer

Joe Scott
Chief Financial Officer
Joe has a reputation for being an action oriented, engaged, and knowledgeable financial leader. He is known for driving company growth in collaboration with functional teams, often rolling up his sleeves and mentoring high performing teams, bringing competencies in corporate finance and ensuring regulatory compliance. The thoughtful insights Joe brings to the executive team strongly support the value we deliver to our clients.
Prior to joining Veristat, Joe served as Chief Financial Officer at Advanced Group, focused on establishing the financial infrastructure, improving efficiencies and driving top line growth for a CRO / staffing company. Prior to that, Joe was at Parexel where he held positions of increasing scope and responsibility, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, Strategic Finance. Joe led the organization through significant expansion, managing a substantial global budget, enhancing internal controls and overseeing the global talent upgrade of the Finance department which resulted in an efficient team aligned with metrics-driven performance.
Joe graduated from University College, Cork, with a Bachelor of Commerce Honors Degree. He is expert in Six Sigma process improvements and Sarbanes Oxley compliance controls. Joseph was born and raised in Ireland and remains an avid fan of both the Patriots and Liverpool.

Colleen Pelton
Chief Talent Officer

Colleen Pelton
Chief Talent Officer
Colleen has dedicated her entire career to human resources roles across a variety of industries, the majority of which have been healthcare-related. Her wide-ranging expertise spans the design and implementation of global talent management and acquisition-related initiatives for billion-dollar global enterprises operating in 30+ markets with thousands of employees.
Prior to joining Veristat in 2021, Colleen served as Senior Vice President, People and Performance for Dental Services Group, leading the HR function. From 2014-2016, Colleen served as Senior VP, HR Leader at St. Jude Medical, Inc. where her responsibilities included developing a multi-year road map to evolve the broader organizational structure and capitalize on high growth opportunities. From 2004-2014, Colleen served in global HR roles with increasing responsibility at Smith & Nephew PLC, leading transformative global HR initiatives, harmonizing HR processes globally, mentoring management and improving the employee experience.
Colleen graduated from the University of Florida where she received a B.A. in Communications. When reflecting on her career, Colleen expresses her heartfelt satisfaction from supporting organizations that help people live longer, healthier lives. She brings a reputation for fostering a positive workplace culture and helping employees adapt to ever-changing work environments.

Cindy Henderson
Chief Commercial Officer

Cindy Henderson
Chief Commercial Officer
Prior to joining Veristat in 2007, Cindy served as the Senior Manager of Training, Innovations and Processes at Averion International Corporation where she led various initiatives to create and improve standard operating procedures, while implementing new technologies for data management and was a member of the integration team for several key corporate acquisitions. While at Parexel International Corporation as the Associate Director of Data Management, Cindy managed several international clinical trials, developed SOPs and processes, provided training and participated in software development, validation, and implementation efforts.
Outside of Veristat Cindy is a Board Member and Supervising Judge for the North American Flyball Association. She also competes in this fun and fast paced sport with her two border collies as part of the Patriot Flyball Team.

Shaheen Limbada
Executive Vice President, Global Clinical Operations

Shaheen Limbada
Executive Vice President, Global Clinical Operations
He joined Veristat through the acquisition of Topstone Research, a Canadian-based CRO that he co-founded and held the position of Managing Director. Prior to Topstone, he worked in clinical operations, project management and leadership roles at various clinical research organizations (CROs) and pharmaceutical firms including Leo Pharma, Cetero Research and AstraZeneca.
Mr. Limbada graduated from the University of Toronto and quickly began his career in clinical trials with AstraZeneca Canada Inc.

Montserrat (Montse) Barceló Riera, MD
Vice President, Europe

Montserrat (Montse) Barceló Riera, MD
Vice President, Europe
Dr. Barceló received her medical doctor degree from the University of Barcelona in Spain in General Medicine and Surgery. She started her pharma services career as the General Manager for Spain at Clinical Data Care, a Swedish data management CRO. Later in her career, she joined the Scandinavian CRO, TFS, as Regional Managing Director, ascending to the role of Global Chief Operating Officer, where she was responsible for 18 countries globally and more than 600 clinical research professionals across 23 affiliate locations.
Team Member Name
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