About Us
Elevating Leadership in Life Sciences
We’re a team of hand picked consultants, coaches and advisors who are current or former senior executives, board members, regulatory experts, communication strategists, scientists, educators, and entrepreneurs — all with deep communication and industry expertise, and a passion for helping others.
A Senior Team
Everyone you work with at The Comvia Group is a senior leader with a proven track record of helping professionals be more inspiring and influential leaders.
Collectively, our team has helped thousands of business leaders get their messages heard, convince stakeholders, become better presenters, improve interpersonal relationships, boost performance, and inspire high-performing teams.
“Comvia” is a combination of the Latin preposition com, meaning with or together and the noun via, meaning road or path. At Comvia, we’re proud to be by your side along your career and leadership journeys.
Coaches and Consultants
Michael Piperno, MS
Founder, Leadership Communication & Executive Coach
Michael is a leadership communication expert and executive coach who has helped over 400 leaders in 12 countries communicate clearly, speak and present more effectively, build and maintain positive and healthy business relationships, refine their executive presence, and lead with confidence.
He is also an entrepreneur whose successes include founding Comvia Group as well as building, scaling, and selling a brand communications agency with international clients in healthcare, including large and small pharmaceutical companies, health insurers, and medical communications firms.
Michael holds a Master of Science in strategic communication from Purdue University and bachelor’s degrees in communication studies and speech and theatre arts from Montclair State University.
Stacey Tannenbaum, PhD, FISoP
Communication and Leadership Coach & Consultant
Stacey is a communications and leadership coach and consultant with specific expertise in supporting the Model Informed Drug Development (MIDD) community. She has 25+ years of experience in Pharma and consulting as a Pharmacokinetic / Pharmacodynamic scientist and leader, including roles at Metrum Research Group, Astellas Pharma, and Novartis Pharma. Her training is in Biomedical Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Applied Mathematics.
She is also a sought after public speaker, with 80+ conference presentations, training lectures, webinars, and podcasts. She has expertise in coaching speakers on scientific presentation development and execution. She has also supported drug development scientists in attainment of critical strengths such as negotiation, conflict resolution, change management, process improvement, and relationship building.
Kelly Matro
Training & Development Consultant
Kelly specializes in learning strategy, skill enhancement, and process improvement. She excels at transforming raw development needs and content into effective learning experiences, designing and building customized solutions that drive specific behavioral results, and standing up training functions in growing organizations.
Leveraging a master’s degree in organizational behavior from Case Western Reserve University and extensive experience spanning critical roles within both pharmaceutical industry and agency settings, Kelly brings a unique and comprehensive perspective to developing impactful learning solutions and building sustainable training functions, particularly for rapidly scaling biopharma companies.
Julie Levinson
Visual Communication Coach and Presentation Design Expert
Julie is a graphic/presentation designer and coach who help leaders creates clear and compelling visual presentations.
A former Assistant Professor of Design and Communications at St. John’s University, Julie was also a Preferred Vendor for Johnson & Johnson, designing presentation visuals at the highest levels of pharmaceutical corporate communications.
The Network…
At Comvia Life Sciences, our strength lies not only in our dedicated coaches and consultants, but also in our expansive network of trusted experts.
This extended community allows us to quickly tap into specialized knowledge and experience, ensuring we meet the evolving needs of our clients with agility and precision.
Want to work with us? Let’s talk.
Strategic Advisors
Lisa Peluso
Lisa is a communications expert and coach who helps biotech teams create and deliver clear, consistent, and convincing messages to Health Authorities, Investors and other stakeholders.
She has worked with over 50 clinical development teams, preparing them to present and defend their data at high-stakes regulatory interactions in the US and Europe.
Her deep experience and familiarity with the biotech industry helps clients get to the heart of the challenge and ensures they communicate with clarity and impact.
David Esposito
David is an experienced healthcare executive who has led, built and scaled multiple companies that resulted in successful exits to strategic buyers. His experience in life sciences helps clients navigate the complexities of leading and communicating across all sizes and stages of healthcare innovation. Currently, he is CEO of ONL Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative treatments to protect and improve vision in patients with serious retinal diseases and conditions.
David began his healthcare career at Merck & Co. Inc. where he rose through the ranks of sales, marketing and commercial strategy for the US Division.
He is also a combat veteran who led an infantry platoon with the 101st Airborne Division through several combat operations, and was recognized with a Bronze Star for combat action in Iraq in 1991.
Mary Kay Delmedico, PhD
Mary Kay has dedicated over 30 years to the biopharmaceutical industry, holding senior executive leadership roles in support of scientific, clinical, regulatory, commercial, and strategic objectives across multiple therapeutic areas. She has been an integral part of product design and development from early discovery, candidate selection, IND-enabling studies, clinical development and commercialization.
She is an experienced project leader of multi-functional teams and has a passion for helping teams and individuals effectively communicate detailed technical concepts.
Mary Kay holds a B.S. from St. Edwards University and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
Neelu Agrawal, MBA
Neelu Agrawal is a trusted advisor to healthcare executives, with 35 years of experience in management consulting, strategic marketing, and cross-functional leadership. She has guided over 100 clinical, medical, regulatory, and commercial teams through critical milestones—from development to launch and lifecycle management.
Neelu leads clients through high-stakes engagements, including FDA Advisory Committee preparation and strategic planning for C-suite decisions. Her leadership blends strategic clarity with structured problem-solving to drive alignment and impactful communication.
She brings a passion for teaching to her work, having developed and taught a Strategic Market Assessment course for Rutgers University’s Professional Science Master’s Program, earning top ratings.
Earlier in her career, Neelu was a Partner at Rosetta, where she helped lead the healthcare consulting practice. She also held brand leadership roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Campbell’s Soup, and began her consulting journey at the Boston Consulting Group.
Neelu holds an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a BS from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Rachelle Lee
Rachelle guides organizations to cultivate leadership as a shared asset, ensuring they’re prepared for change, succession, and growth. She’s known for turning leadership gaps into growth opportunities—helping organizations move from relying on a few star performers to building leadership capacity at every level.
Her journey began as a client, then a consultant, and today she leads as President and CEO of Einblau & Associates. That progression gives her a rare 360° perspective and lived experience of the challenges leaders face—and how to meet them with practical strategies that stick.
Whether guiding an executive team through succession planning, teaching leaders how to coach, or embedding the Collective Capacity framework into daily operations, Rachelle makes sure progress feels possible and embedded in culture.
Tu Tran
A published transformation catalyst and trusted advisor to public, private, and PE-backed CEOs, GMs, and founders. Tu delivers sales and marketing counsel grounded in 360° operational perspective across B2B+C sectors including food, nutraceuticals, and pharma.
His commercial career spans factory floor to ELT boardroom and C-suite succession. From engineering and manufacturing origins at GM, Nestlé, and Heinz, he uniquely evolved into sales and marketing leadership—honing a holistic lens that’s served iconic brands including Unilever, Whole Foods, Ortega, Bayer, J&J, and GSK.
Tu holds degrees from Cornell (BS, M.Engineering) and Case Western Reserve (MBA, Marketing). Based in CT, he also serves on nonprofit boards stewarding youth and civic engagement.
Jeff Mangum
Jeff is a media expert who counsels clients across a variety of sectors including medicine, technology, philanthropy and management consulting. He has helped C-suite executives, medical researchers, industry experts and financial analysts prepare for interviews with Bloomberg News, CBS, CNBC, NPR, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and specialty publications ranging from American Banker to Medscape.
He has provided media training and crisis communications guidance to hundreds of executives throughout the U.S., as well as in Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia.
Marketing and Administration
Julie Boyer
Executive Assistant
Julie is the “behind the scenes” magician at Comvia, handling everything from scheduling to travel arrangements, and all the other tasks that let our coaches and consultants focus on our clients.
She also assists with our marketing efforts, helping make our newsletters, blogs, social media, and podcasts happen.
In short, she is the master at keeping things organized and running smoothly.
Julie has a degree in Advertising & Marketing, and is a wife and busy mom to two awesome boys.