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Ben van der Schaaf

Partner

United States

Life Sciences expert working with biopharmaceutical companies to solve their biggest challenges pragmatically

Areas of Focus

Education

Henley Management College
Business Design; Business & Enterprise Architecture
University of Maine - School of Business
Master of Business Administration
NIVRA-Nyenrode
NACII, Accountancy

Past Experience

PA Consulting Group
Management Consultant
The Tussauds Group
Director of Finance
Ernst & Young
Auditor

Ben is a Life Sciences partner based in Arthur D. Little’s New York office. He is a pharmaceutical expert who works closely with companies to help solve urgent operational issues; designs and implements transformation programs and has extensive experience supporting transactions – both divestment and integration, especially from the operational side. 

He is an experienced management consultant and program manager with an international background in finance and general management with 30+ years total experience of which the last 15 have been in the pharmaceutical industry.

Select project experiences include post-merger integration, complex program design and delivery, quality & compliance related programs, strategic sourcing & partnering, organizational analysis and design, commercialization, sales-force effectiveness and operations management. In addition, Ben is skilled in stakeholder management, change management and collaboration, and has broad international business experience. He operates and communicates comfortably across cultures, levels and functions.
Ben holds an MBA with an operations and finance concentration, and an undergraduate degree in accounting and auditing. He is fluent in Dutch and English.
 

Why patient centricity is key to long-term pharma company success
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Why patient centricity is key to long-term pharma company success
Patient centricity seems to be an obvious focus for pharmaceutical companies. After all, their core business is to develop drugs and treatments to meet specific patient needs. Yet, patient centricity is not evident across the end-to-end pharma value chain, from identifying unmet patient needs through drug discovery and development to product availability and treatment. For example, on average, 30% of patients leave clinical trials before their scheduled treatment completion date, often because of the high burden of the trials on their lives.
Find out more
From good to great: Enhancing innovation performance through effective management processes
From good to great: Enhancing innovation performance through effective management processes
Find out more
Healthcare & Life Sciences
COVID-19 – FOCUSING ATTENTION ON THE NEXT TRANSFORMATION IN HEALTHCARE
Dr. Franziska Thomas, Dr. Ulrica Sehlstedt, Ben van der Schaaf, Dhiraj Joshi, Trung Ghi
Essentially the pandemic has shown the strengths and weaknesses of the global healthcare sector – and the opportunities that exist for improvement and transformation. While demonstrating what can be achieved through global collaboration, COVID-19 has also shone a harsh light on the disparities in healthcare access between developed and developing countries.
Find out more
The pandemic stress test
Alan Martinovich, Ben van der Schaaf, Florent Nansé
There’s an old joke that we may have all heard at one time or another: “My doctor asked me if I had ever had a stress test. Sure … it’s called life!” Today, and for some time to come, the COVID-19 pandemic has become part of our daily lives and is providing the biggest stress test of our lifetime.
Find out more
The ecosystem future
Shinichi Akayama, Dr. Raymond Khoury, Ben van der Schaaf
Find out more
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Hyper-collaboration in the healthcare and life science industry – The new imperative
Dr. Franziska Thomas, Ben van der Schaaf, Dr. Ulrica Sehlstedt
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the ability of the healthcare and life science industry to respond to unexpected needs with unprecedented speed. However, independent of the pandemic, the industry was already facing transformation in light of multiple, highly disruptive innovations not only in the traditional field of drug modalities but also in related fields such as digital, AI, data, and medical devices.
Find out more
Pharma: Strategic realignment for a better future
Ben van der Schaaf
Amid the search for effective COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, the pandemic will have long-term side effects for the global pharmaceutical industry. As our article explains, companies will need to focus on change in three areas (portfolio reprioritization, accelerated R&D and technology transformation) if they are to position themselves successfully for the future.
Find out more
The Company of Tomorrow
Shinichi Akayama, Ralf Baron, Rick Eagar, Dr. Raymond Khoury, Michael Kolk, Thomas Kuruvilla, Francesco Marsella, Greg Smith, Ben van der Schaaf
The COVID-19 crisis hit the world as this edition of Prism was in preparation. Needless to say, the outlook for business, at least in the short term, has changed radically in just a few weeks. Nevertheless, it’s becoming increasingly clear that one effect of the crisis has been acceleration of trends that were already there, such as virtualization of the workplace, further penetration of digital technologies (for example, AI and the IoT), and “asset-light” business models that make businesses more responsive and resilient to rapid shocks.
Find out more
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Managing clinical trials during COVID-19 and beyond
Ben van der Schaaf, Ben Enejo, Craig Wylie, Tom Teixeira, Rick Eagar
One of the many consequences of the COVID-19 crisis has been difficulty in continuing to enroll and run clinical trials, which typically involve large numbers of people interacting in multiple geographies. Arthur D. Little (ADL) has pioneered and deployed a new, risk-based predictive analytical approach, powered by machine-learning technology. It enables pharma companies to make much better predictions and forecasts to support decision-making around key issues, such as adapting patient targets to favor less affected and recovering geographies, program extensions, and new trials.
Find out more
Oil, Gas & Other Natural Resources
Funding lower-priority clinical trials
Ben van der Schaaf
Introduction: Some biopharma companies have built pipelines that offer more development opportunities than their resources allow them to pursue. Promising clinical trials may be moved down the priority list and their execution delayed – resulting in decline of asset value against a fixed patent expiration date. One potential solution is to package complementary trials and bring them into collaboration with the investor, CRO or other organizations and fund the execution of these trials outside the biopharma company. The potential advantages of this approach are four-fold: the trials supporting asset development will be delivered, investors have an opportunity to generate a high return, CROs expand their revenue base and additional patient populations may benefit.
Find out more

Ben is a Life Sciences partner based in Arthur D. Little’s New York office. He is a pharmaceutical expert who works closely with companies to help solve urgent operational issues; designs and implements transformation programs and has extensive experience supporting transactions – both divestment and integration, especially from the operational side. 

He is an experienced management consultant and program manager with an international background in finance and general management with 30+ years total experience of which the last 15 have been in the pharmaceutical industry.

Select project experiences include post-merger integration, complex program design and delivery, quality & compliance related programs, strategic sourcing & partnering, organizational analysis and design, commercialization, sales-force effectiveness and operations management. In addition, Ben is skilled in stakeholder management, change management and collaboration, and has broad international business experience. He operates and communicates comfortably across cultures, levels and functions.
Ben holds an MBA with an operations and finance concentration, and an undergraduate degree in accounting and auditing. He is fluent in Dutch and English.
 

Why patient centricity is key to long-term pharma company success
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Why patient centricity is key to long-term pharma company success
Patient centricity seems to be an obvious focus for pharmaceutical companies. After all, their core business is to develop drugs and treatments to meet specific patient needs. Yet, patient centricity is not evident across the end-to-end pharma value chain, from identifying unmet patient needs through drug discovery and development to product availability and treatment. For example, on average, 30% of patients leave clinical trials before their scheduled treatment completion date, often because of the high burden of the trials on their lives.
Find out more
From good to great: Enhancing innovation performance through effective management processes
From good to great: Enhancing innovation performance through effective management processes
Find out more
Healthcare & Life Sciences
COVID-19 – FOCUSING ATTENTION ON THE NEXT TRANSFORMATION IN HEALTHCARE
Dr. Franziska Thomas, Dr. Ulrica Sehlstedt, Ben van der Schaaf, Dhiraj Joshi, Trung Ghi
Essentially the pandemic has shown the strengths and weaknesses of the global healthcare sector – and the opportunities that exist for improvement and transformation. While demonstrating what can be achieved through global collaboration, COVID-19 has also shone a harsh light on the disparities in healthcare access between developed and developing countries.
Find out more
The pandemic stress test
Alan Martinovich, Ben van der Schaaf, Florent Nansé
There’s an old joke that we may have all heard at one time or another: “My doctor asked me if I had ever had a stress test. Sure … it’s called life!” Today, and for some time to come, the COVID-19 pandemic has become part of our daily lives and is providing the biggest stress test of our lifetime.
Find out more
The ecosystem future
Shinichi Akayama, Dr. Raymond Khoury, Ben van der Schaaf
Find out more
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Hyper-collaboration in the healthcare and life science industry – The new imperative
Dr. Franziska Thomas, Ben van der Schaaf, Dr. Ulrica Sehlstedt
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the ability of the healthcare and life science industry to respond to unexpected needs with unprecedented speed. However, independent of the pandemic, the industry was already facing transformation in light of multiple, highly disruptive innovations not only in the traditional field of drug modalities but also in related fields such as digital, AI, data, and medical devices.
Find out more
Pharma: Strategic realignment for a better future
Ben van der Schaaf
Amid the search for effective COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, the pandemic will have long-term side effects for the global pharmaceutical industry. As our article explains, companies will need to focus on change in three areas (portfolio reprioritization, accelerated R&D and technology transformation) if they are to position themselves successfully for the future.
Find out more
The Company of Tomorrow
Shinichi Akayama, Ralf Baron, Rick Eagar, Dr. Raymond Khoury, Michael Kolk, Thomas Kuruvilla, Francesco Marsella, Greg Smith, Ben van der Schaaf
The COVID-19 crisis hit the world as this edition of Prism was in preparation. Needless to say, the outlook for business, at least in the short term, has changed radically in just a few weeks. Nevertheless, it’s becoming increasingly clear that one effect of the crisis has been acceleration of trends that were already there, such as virtualization of the workplace, further penetration of digital technologies (for example, AI and the IoT), and “asset-light” business models that make businesses more responsive and resilient to rapid shocks.
Find out more
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Managing clinical trials during COVID-19 and beyond
Ben van der Schaaf, Ben Enejo, Craig Wylie, Tom Teixeira, Rick Eagar
One of the many consequences of the COVID-19 crisis has been difficulty in continuing to enroll and run clinical trials, which typically involve large numbers of people interacting in multiple geographies. Arthur D. Little (ADL) has pioneered and deployed a new, risk-based predictive analytical approach, powered by machine-learning technology. It enables pharma companies to make much better predictions and forecasts to support decision-making around key issues, such as adapting patient targets to favor less affected and recovering geographies, program extensions, and new trials.
Find out more
Oil, Gas & Other Natural Resources
Funding lower-priority clinical trials
Ben van der Schaaf
Introduction: Some biopharma companies have built pipelines that offer more development opportunities than their resources allow them to pursue. Promising clinical trials may be moved down the priority list and their execution delayed – resulting in decline of asset value against a fixed patent expiration date. One potential solution is to package complementary trials and bring them into collaboration with the investor, CRO or other organizations and fund the execution of these trials outside the biopharma company. The potential advantages of this approach are four-fold: the trials supporting asset development will be delivered, investors have an opportunity to generate a high return, CROs expand their revenue base and additional patient populations may benefit.
Find out more

More About Ben
  • Henley Management College
    Business Design; Business & Enterprise Architecture
  • University of Maine - School of Business
    Master of Business Administration
  • NIVRA-Nyenrode
    NACII, Accountancy
  • PA Consulting Group
    Management Consultant
  • The Tussauds Group
    Director of Finance
  • Ernst & Young
    Auditor