Water Street and JLL Recruit Mark Thierer to Chairman and Jim Lang to CEO of Global Life Sciences Services Platform

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Jun 05, 2018, 12:01 ET

CHICAGO and NEW YORK, June 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Water Street Healthcare Partners, a strategic investor focused exclusively on the health care industry, and JLL Partners, a leading middle-market private equity firm, announced today that they have recruited Mark Thierer to chairman and Jim Lang to CEO of their rapidly growing life sciences services platform. The longtime health care leaders will spearhead the platform's ongoing expansion of solutions that improve the speed and success of bringing complex therapies to market.

Mr. Thierer brings more than 30 years of health care leadership experience to the organization, which is comprised of the industry's premier service providers including Dohmen Life Science Services, The Access Group, Alliance Life Sciences, Health Strategies Group, Triplefin and Patient Experience Project. Mr. Lang, who previously served as executive chairman of the growing company, has been instrumental in bringing together these businesses over the past six months to build a platform of end-to-end services for life sciences companies.

"I am honored that the board has entrusted me with continuing to build this innovative organization," said Mr. Lang. "We are integrating science and commercialization in an entirely new way to position therapies for success across all major stakeholders – regulators, payers, providers and patients. The addition of Mark to our board will be hugely beneficial to advancing our goal of becoming the partner of choice for biopharmaceutical and medical device companies."

Mr. Thierer added, "I'm excited to join this fast-growing organization that is reshaping the life sciences services landscape. It is a unique opportunity to be part of building a new solution that is addressing a fundamental shift in our industry toward patient-centric, value-based health care."

About Mark Thierer
Mark Thierer most recently served as CEO of OptumRx , where he oversaw all Optum pharmacy care services, including the management of pharmacy benefits, the pharmacy network, and home delivery pharmacy and specialty pharmacy programs. Prior to this role, Mr. Thierer served as chairman and CEO of Catamaran, which was one of America's largest pharmacy benefit management companies and merged with OptumRx in 2015. Earlier in his career, Mr. Thierer served as president, CEO and chairman of SXC Health Solutions, which merged with Catalyst Health Solutions to create Catamaran. During his time as CEO of SXC Health Solutions, the company recorded a compound annual growth rate of 50 percent and a 50-fold increase in shareholder value. He received a bachelor's degree in finance at the University of Minnesota and a master's in business administration from Nova Southeastern University.

About Jim Lang
Jim Lang has more than 25 years of experience leading, advising and funding mission-driven health care companies. Prior to his current role, he served as CEO of Decision Resources Group, which he built into a leading health care data and analytics company via 17 acquisitions. Previously, Mr. Lang was CEO of IHS CERA, now IHS Markit, a recognized leader in energy insight products and services. Before that, Mr. Lang spent 17 years building and leading Strategic Decisions Group (SDG), a premier strategy consultancy, where he advised boards and c-suites of the Global 2000. Mr. Lang's advisory and transformation work has created multiples of billions of dollars in share value across those companies. He also spearheaded SDG's successful sale, including its large life sciences practice to IMS Health (now IQVIA). Mr. Lang is an active private investor in health care and has served on more than a dozen private and public company boards. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of New Hampshire and a master's in business administration from the Dartmouth Tuck School of Business.

About the Company
Water Street Healthcare Partners and JLL Partners, two strategic investment firms specializing in health care, have built the life sciences industry's leading independent provider of services through a series of strategic acquisitions. The firms recently completed the acquisition of Triplefin, which joins Dohmen Life Science Services, The Access Group, Health Strategies Group, Alliance Life Sciences and the Patient Experience Project. As one entity, the businesses offer customers a portfolio of comprehensive solutions, including channel, market access, patient support and compliance to improve the speed and success of bringing complex therapies to market. Together, they employ nearly 1,500 global professionals who serve more than 300 of the industry's top biopharmaceutical and medical device companies.

SOURCE Water Street Healthcare Partners