Greg Simon
Greg Simon is President of FasterCures/The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions, a center of the Milken Institute formed in 2003.
FasterCures is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose goal is to save lives by saving time in the discovery, development, and deployment of treatments and cures for serious diseases. It is independent of any interest or industry groups. FasterCures' mission is to evaluate the current system of medical research; identify inefficiencies, misplaced priorities, and conflicting incentives that inhibit the pace of discovery and development; and propose and pursue improvements to the existing system. Its focus is on ways to enhance and accelerate the efforts of those involved in creating and overseeing the creation of safe and effective treatments and cures: health, research advocacy and funding organizations; scientists; medical professionals; policy professionals; clinicians; and patients themselves.
In only a few years, Greg has built FasterCures into an organization recognized and valued for its innovative approach to analysis and problem solving, supported by significant foundation and private grants. Under Greg's leadership, FasterCures has:
- Created the FasterCures Philanthropy Advisory Service, with funding from the Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
- Promoted innovation in disease research and supported the activities of organizations engaged in cutting-edge research through The Redstone Acceleration and Innovation Network (TRAIN);
- Worked effectively to ensure that the special needs and challenges of clinical research are understood by those responsible for building and implementing electronic health record (EHR) systems and the emerging Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN);
- Advocated for increasing the resources and authorities available to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and for increasing the focus on and effectiveness of translational research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH);
- Created BioBank Central (www.biobankcentral.org), a health information system that serves as an accurate and timely source of news and knowledge about biorepositories and their critical role in research and therapy development;
- Explored best practices and promising approaches for improving clinical trials and created the Patients Helping Doctors program and site (www.patientshelpingdoctors.org) as a resource for patients and professionals committed to reinventing clinical trials.
Greg is a member of the National Health Council's Board of Directors, the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute's Board of Trustees, and the Google Health Advisory Council. He serves on the Leadership Council of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Montage Group, which advises its Health Industries practice.
Before being recruited to lead FasterCures, Greg was the Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Al Gore from 1993 to 1997, specifically on economic, science, and technology issues. In that position he oversaw a number of initiatives, including the programs of the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Human Genome Project, and the development of the regulatory framework for biotechnology products. He played a leading role in a variety of White House policies and programs including FDA reform efforts at the time. From 1985 to 1991, Greg was the Staff Director of the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Immediately prior to joining FasterCures, Greg was CEO of Simon Strategies/Mindbeam, a consulting firm focusing on clients in biotechnology, health care, technology, and information technology, among others.
Greg received his law degree from the University of Washington in 1983. He is a member of the Washington State Bar and practiced two years at the firm of Roberts and Shefelman in Seattle in commercial litigation and intellectual property. A native of Arkansas, Greg attended the University of Arkansas, where he was awarded a B.A. in history summa cum laude in 1973; he attended the University of Vienna in Austria from 1971-72. Greg lives in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife Margo Reid and their two children.
