Program Coordinator - Contracts & Partner Operations

Briya appoints Jason Hein as Chief Commercial Officer to expand ai-powered research platform. October 14, 2026 Jason Hein Briya, a New York-based healthcare artificial intelligence company, has appointed Jason Hein as Chief Commercial Officer to lead the global expansion of AIRE, its AI-powered platform for clinical research and real-world evidence generation. Hein joins Briya from RTI International, where he served as Director of Corporate Development, overseeing equity investments and strategic partnerships across life sciences, pharmaceutical services, healthcare data and AI businesses. In his new role, Hein will lead Briya's global commercial strategy, including market positioning, business development, customer delivery and long-term client relationships. The appointment comes as Briya moves beyond early research partnerships and seeks to expand adoption of AIRE among contract research organizations (CROs), health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) consultancies, research institutions and life sciences companies. "Now more than ever, the constraint in evidence generation isn't a lack of scientific expertise. It's how much operational complexity we put around that expertise," said David Lazerson, CEO and Co-Founder of Briya. Lazerson said Hein's experience in research operations, commercial strategy and technology partnerships will support the company's next phase of growth. Briya developed AIRE to help researchers convert fragmented healthcare information into evidence used in clinical development, regulatory submissions, reimbursement decisions and post-market studies. The platform uses AI to support data preparation, harmonization, patient cohort development, analysis, validation and reporting. Researchers retain control over scientific methodology and interpretation, while the software automates operational processes involved in preparing and analyzing healthcare data. Briya said the technology is designed to increase research capacity without requiring organizations to expand their scientific teams at the same rate as study volumes. Demand for real-world evidence has increased as pharmaceutical manufacturers face growing requirements to demonstrate treatment effectiveness, safety and value throughout a product's lifecycle. According to figures cited by Briya, the biopharmaceutical industry spends more than $25 billion annually on evidence generation, with more than two-thirds of that spending directed toward specialized analysis rather than software or data. The company sees an opportunity to help research organizations manage growing workloads through AI-enabled workflows. Hein brings experience in corporate development, commercialization and technology strategy across the life sciences industry. At RTI International, he led investments and strategic partnerships involving pharmaceutical services, health data and AI companies, including RTI's collaboration with Navidence. Previously, Hein held commercial, corporate development and portfolio strategy positions at Codexis and LGC Biosearch Technologies. At Codexis, he helped commercialize the company's ECO Synthesis platform, which supports the development of nucleic acid therapeutics. Hein holds an MBA from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management and a Master of Science in Molecular Biology from St. Cloud State University. "Research teams are being asked to deliver more ambitious studies on shorter timelines and tighter budgets," Hein said. He added that AI-enabled research technology can help scientific teams increase their capacity while maintaining methodological rigor and accountability. AIRE is designed to work directly with patient-level information from structured datasets and unstructured clinical records. Its natural language processing capabilities can extract relevant clinical information from medical notes and other text-based records, supplementing information available in structured healthcare databases. The platform also maintains an auditable record of research processes and results, supporting transparency and reproducibility in evidence generation. Researchers can use AIRE with Briya's global data network, which includes approximately 120 million patient records across four continents. The platform also supports internal organizational datasets, publicly available information and licensed third-party data. This flexibility allows research organizations to apply the technology to existing data resources without relying exclusively on Briya's network. Briya is initially focusing its commercial expansion on CROs, HEOR consultancies and research institutions, which conduct substantial volumes of studies for pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients. These organizations face pressure to deliver complex research projects within shorter timelines while controlling costs and maintaining scientific standards. The company also intends to serve pharmaceutical manufacturers and other life sciences organizations conducting evidence-generation activities internally. With Hein leading its commercial operations, Briya plans to expand AIRE's adoption among research organizations seeking to integrate AI into clinical and real-world evidence workflows. The appointment strengthens Briya's leadership as it pursues broader commercialization of its scientific AI platform and expands its presence in the global life sciences research market.

African food-system leaders back market-led model to scale agricultural investment. October 4, 2026 African agriculture does not suffer from a shortage of promising projects. The harder challenge is turning them into businesses that can survive after grants, pilots and development funding end. Business Directory Listing That was the central message emerging from a leadership breakfast convened by PepsiCo and RTI International at the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali, where representatives from business, government, development finance, philanthropy and agriculture examined how public-private partnerships can move beyond short-term interventions and build commercially durable food value chains. The discussion centred on a simple principle: agricultural investment should begin with a credible market opportunity. That means establishing demand and offtake before capital is deployed, aligning incentives across the value chain and ensuring that farmers can participate profitably. Public and philanthropic capital can then be used where it is most valuable: reducing early risk, strengthening infrastructure, building capability and helping promising models reach the point where commercial finance can take over. Hot this week