Pharma Sessions — ACTO Client Summit: Hallway Interviews

At ACTO's 2026 client summit in Boston, we pulled some incredible minds out of the hallway for quick, candid conversations about where field excellence, AI, and learning & development are headed. No scripts, no slides — just honest takes from the people doing the work.

In this episode, you'll hear from six pharma L&D leaders on how AI is changing their roles, what they're doing differently at national sales meetings, the adoption challenges they're navigating, and why L&D may be the most strategically important function in any AI rollout.

Timestamps:

• 1:43 — Andrea Penn, Senior Director of Field Training & Customer Training, Autolus Therapeutics
• 7:38 — Sarah Barrett, Associate Director of Medical Affairs Training, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
• 13:10 — Brian McCann, Dupixent Market Access Training, Regeneron
• 18:49 — Nicole Payne, Director of Global Commercial L&D, BioMarin
• 23:08 — Erin Gigliello, Senior Product Owner & Project Manager in L&D, Accord Biopharma
• 30:48 — Chris Richards, Head of Commercial L&D, Nuvations Bio

Pharma Sessions is hosted by Jonathan Kaskey

Follow along on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonkaskey/

Or join the Pharma Sessions Substack:
www.pharmasessions.substack.com

What happens when you put blockchain underneath AI in healthcare? According to Archita Samant, Head of Data Strategy & Analytics for Global Vaccines at Merck — you finally solve the interoperability problem that's been holding the industry back for decades.

In this episode, Jonathan sits down with Archita to unpack the real-world challenges of fragmented health data, why agentic AI demands a better data foundation than we currently have, and how blockchain could be the base layer that makes personalized medicine actually possible.

They cover:

• Why copilots and ChatGPT aren't enough — and what agentic AI actually needs to work
• How blockchain addresses data privacy, ownership, and interoperability across systems like Epic and Oracle Health
• The concept of patients owning their own health data and consenting to share it for better outcomes
• Why the EMR ecosystem is so siloed — and what it would take to fix it at an industry level
• Real-world examples from Archita's experience with Teva's DigiHaler and predictive asthma algorithms
• The global vaccines data problem and why even measuring disease prevalence (like dengue) is harder than you'd think
• Why AI alone can't fix data fragmentation — and what the next five years might look like

Archita also shares her winding path from pharmacist to founding a blockchain-based NFT charity platform to leading global data strategy at Merck — and her go-to karaoke song.

🎙️ Pharma Sessions is a podcast where host Jonathan Kaskey has candid conversations with interesting people across the healthcare and life sciences industry.

The views expressed are those of the individuals and do not reflect the positions of their respective employers.

Pharma Sessions is hosted by Jonathan Kaskey

Follow along on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonkaskey/

Or join the Pharma Sessions Substack:
www.pharmasessions.substack.com

What separates a good pharma sales rep from a great one? According to Jennifer Muszik, it's the ability to understand the question behind the question — the real need behind what a customer is asking.

In this episode, Jonathan Kaskey sits down with Jennifer Muszik, Head of Learning & Development at Alkermes and board member of LTEN, to unpack what it takes to build world-class training programs in the pharmaceutical industry. Jennifer shares her journey from 17 years at Pfizer to leading L&D across some of pharma's most recognized organizations — and why she almost always hires people who've actually done the job they're training others to do.

They get into the nuances of training new hires vs. seasoned veterans, how to engage your highest performers without making them feel attacked, and why former teachers and coaches often make the best pharma reps. Plus: a candid conversation about where AI can genuinely help — and where human connection is still irreplaceable.

Topics covered:

• Why field experience makes better trainers
• The "pull-through" problem after POA meetings
• Using AI for knowledge transfer (and its limits)
• How LTEN is shaping the future of pharma L&D

Pharma Sessions is hosted by Jonathan Kaskey

Follow along on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonkaskey/

Or join the Pharma Sessions Substack:
www.pharmasessions.substack.com