Paul Evans from Velocity Clinical

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
iHeartMedia RALEI presents CEOs you should know, where we shine a spotlight on decision
makers from all corners of the triangle, showcasing the leaders and companies that drive
our local economy. Welcome to iHeartCEOs you should know. My name's Michael
Berger and I will be the hostfor this episode. We are joined today
by Paul Evans, CEO and Presidentof Velocity Clinical Research. Correct do we

(00:25):
get the title right? Correct?Thank you very much for having me,
Absolutely so glad you could make it. One of the things we've done with
CEOs you should know as a podcastis obviously give you an opportunity to tell
us how amazing the company is,tell us all the stuff you guys are
doing. But also I think oneof the things the audience wants to hear
is your personal story and how didyou get here and what tips for success

(00:48):
do you have and least I knowselfishly for me, that's the part that's
interesting. So we'll try to keepthis very conversational. You know, I
want to make sure we get toyour bullet points and you tell us everything
about Velocity that we ever needed toknow. But hopefully people walk out of
here saying oh, I can bea little bit like Paul Evan. So
before we get started, how manyspeeding tickets do you have right this minute?

(01:11):
I think I've cleared them other thanthe ones I may have just got
on the way here. All right, Well, and I felt like that
was fair to talk about since it'slisted on your bio on the website that
people are scared to get in avehicle with you, even if it is
an uber that is correcting. Ido have a reputation for having a slightly
heavy right foot, I have toadmit it. And not only have I
got speeding tickets across the United States, so I can also claim to have

(01:33):
them in about half a dozen countriesaround the world. So have you been
to the autobon? Ah? Yes, I have. How fast do people
go on? Way? Faster thanI go? My kids heard about the
autobon a few years ago and theywere like, well, we gotta go.
We gotta go check that out.We gotta ride on that road.
How fast can we go? Sowe won't be taking them any of there

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anytime very wise. So all right, so real quickly, before we get
into this, I just kind ofwant to break the ice a little bit
I'm gonna ask you five real quick, random questions that have nothing to do
with your business whatsoever. That allright? Yeah, absolutely? Growing up
on the other side of the pond, what was your childhood dream job?
What did you want to be?I think everybody it grows up where I

(02:15):
come from, wants to be aprofessional footballer soccer player in the old language.
So I think everybody starts out likethat. I'm probably a more interesting
question is what age were you whenyou realized that wasn't gonna happen. That
is a great question. Probably aboutfourteen. To be honest, I was
a bit of a slow learner,So yeah, so fourteen. I mean

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you're talking to a guy here whothought he was going to be a professional
basketball player, so way past thatpoint and happened either. So there you
go. You gave up on yourdreams way earlier. I'm not sure I
gave up. I just had theawakening. See, I think my transition
it was like I'm gonna be acowboy, and then I'm gonna do this
and then maybe be a baseball player. Then became basketball, and then then
it evolved in the media. Yeah, so how'd you get into media?

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Right? How'd you end up doingdrug truck? I was not going to
do It's yeah, fascinating stories.Yeah, fourteens when I gave up on
the Premier League. So fourteen yougave up on the Premier League? Okay?
And what what's your favorite what's yourfavorite Premier League team? Well,
I'm from Swansea which is in SouthWales. We're now in the Championship as
of the last three or four years, so I still name. You know,

(03:21):
I went to Swansea City when Iwas My father took me when I
was four or five years old.And you know, you have to be
careful with fathers, right because theygenerally choose your sports team for you because
wherever they take you, whoever theyintroduce you to, that's who you end
up with. So I ended upwith Swansea City because that's where I come
from and that's where my father tookme at four years old. That's so

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true. How the parents lose itno matter what. So did you watch
Ted Lasso? Absolutely? Okay?Is it accurate? Is it a good
depiction? Did? Obviously it's fictionalized. There's lots of things that are interesting
about Ted Lasso as a as acommentary on how Americans see the attention of
the British Sea Americans. So Ithought there was a lot that was interested
in in that program. Shot inRichmond, which is near where I used

(04:06):
to live when I lived in London, so knew that area really well.
Actually had a wedding in Richmond.So a wedding, yeah, there's been
more than one, but anyway tothe same woman though. So yeah,
it was a It was a greatprogram, very good, very accurate depiction

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of how we were just you know, waiting as Brits. Yeah, Americans
to call it soccer, what isthat sport? Don't recognize that and so
on. So yeah, yeah,I mean that's gonna be tough. You're
never gonna get people here to changethat term. It's always gonna be soccer.
Yeah, yeah, well I'm workingon it. Yeah. Did you
see Nate Barghetti was the host ofSaturday Night Live recently and he had some

(04:48):
jokes on there about how they theycall it they call it football here,
like oh you kick the ball likeno, very very rarely. So all
right, so there question, you'vebeen here. Food is obviously different there
from it is here. What's yourfavorite restaurant? Here in the Durham,
Raleigh area. Oh M sushi,M sushi. Yeah, without a doubt.

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All right, if you can everget in there, there's always falling.
There's never a reservation when you wantone, they are clearly not.
That's what my wife says. Yeah, obviously not. Maybe after this program.
I was gonna say, after CEOs, you should know I'll be able
to get a rest any Tuesday afternoonyou want. Yeah, I love that

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one. And when and when we'refeeling really posh, we we do like
to go to the Olmstead and gota hand beautiful. No, I have
to save several months in advance togo there. Oh yeah, yeah,
that's an amazing place. All right. So you win the power ball five
hundred million dollars tomorrow, what doyou do with the rest of your life?
Oh, good grief, what agood question. I'm not going to

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give you that. Oh I'm stillgoing to go to work because I probably
am not. So I suppose thenext thing I'm going to do is call
up the private equity firm that ownsVelocity and tell them they need a new
CEO. So that's the first thing. After that, probably a whole host
of things there's a whole bunch oftraveling. There's a whole bunch of Italian,

(06:14):
French and Argentinian wines that I wouldwant to buy with that, and
then there's a lot that he waswas around sport. There's the British Lions
tour of Australia that comes up intwenty twenty five. That probably means nothing
to you or your listeners, butthat's a big deal for me. So
I'd be twenty twenty five in Australiafollowing a Lions tour, I'd probably be

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at the next Soccer World Cup,and I'd probably be at the next twenty
Grand Prix formerly one Grand Prix.So I so you're a Lowis Hamilton guy.
No, I'm a Lewis Hamilton guy. Yeah. How many years they
have left Lewis Hamilton as many ashe wants. I think he's just signed

(06:58):
a contract for two more, whichtakes him to four. I think you'll
go beyond that as well. Sohave you been to the F one races
before? Several? Yeah, bigplan to go next year to Monaco,
which is but been into a few, been too, a couple of Silverstone
in the UK. They're good,they're good fun to go with, very
knowledgeable crowd. Yeah, and uh, of course Lewis has a pretty good

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track record there, so we usuallyexpect him to win all at the moment
the stappens doing it, not notnot Lewis. Yeah, it's been it's
been a tougher. So when Netflixcame out with their thing, I'd never
heard a formula My dad grew uplove and Nascar, and I never really
got into it, And so whenthe Netflix special came out, I started
watching it and now I watch religiouslyevery single race. Never been to one

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looked at going to Vegas this year. Yeah, and they looked at the
prices of going to Vegas this yearand is expensive, very expensive Nascar.
Yeah, that takes a bit ofgetting used to. They only go around
in one direction. Yeah, yeah, we can't quite figure that one out.
If you've been brought up with Formulaone, it's they go the other
way. At the halfway point,they turn around to go back back.

(08:03):
Maybe that's it. We were tryingto work that one out. So it's
funny you mentioned that because my actualmy next question, and maybe you've already
answered, maybe you haven't, whatis your favorite sport memory? Attached to
that that sporting of it. Ah, So my favorite sport is rugby,
not soccer or Formula one or anyof those. So I'm a rugby fanatic.

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One thing about the the Welsh isthat rugby is a religion to us.
You know, we don't have anational stadium. We have a cathedral
as we call it, and that'sthat's where we play rugby in Cardiff.
Very small country Wales, it's onlyabout three million people. Probably one of
the few things we're really really goodat is rugby. Now a lot of

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my English friends at this point arelaughing at the radio and saying you're not
that good. And the Rugby WorldCup just has just finished in France.
So uh so my I'm fanatical aboutrugby. So I think seeing anytime Wales
beat England's a bigger, a bigevent, and so most of my memories

(09:07):
revolve around beat in England. Andagain this is where my English friends said
that doesn't happen often, to whichmy response is yes it does, and
usually being blind drunk after those game. I don't even know if I'm allowed
to say that, but one oneway or another, there's a lot of
there's a lot of time spent inpubs around rugby matches, before, during,

(09:31):
at the stadium and after. Butthe memories still lose it they yes,
because I try to write them downas I go along, just to
make sure. But you know,right, Rugby's are very social sport.
I mean if you if you goto probably shouldn't say this, but if
you go to soccer matches in Englandthere's an undercurrent attention about them. Rugby

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is very different. It's very social. People mix. My wife and I
regularly go. I probably wouldn't toa soccer match in the UK. It's
a very male match show, testosteronefueled event. Rugby is not at all
like that. So I have somegreat memories that go into the games that
we play regularly in the Six NationsChampionship, the away matches until I moved

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to America, used to go toregularly and people would say does your wife
not complain? No, she comeswith me. It's Rome, Edinburgh,
London and Dublin. What's not tolight? Yeah, all right, we've
we've had some fantastic times at thosein those cities in some you know,
having some great weekends in you know, mixed company and not full of a

(10:43):
bunch of guys getting drunk on theirown and getting into trouble. So all
right, so it sounds like I'vegot a drink problem now, not at
all. So you know we areheavy at ihearted music. So do you
remember the first concert you went to? The first concert? No? Not
really? Is this back to Wasit after a rugby match? Good question,

(11:07):
good question. No, I don'tremember the first one. Going to
lots of great concerts, most ofthem are what I still consider the classics.
I'm going to age myself now,but been to some, you know,
Elton John concerts and Tom Jones,all these people, people that have
been around a long time in music, and you guys are the experts,

(11:30):
not me. They really know somethingabout how to put on a show.
And it's those I still enjoy goingto see, always have so again or
I remember about those. Well,I think music's better live. But I
also have to say, you know, I come away from those concerts with
my ears ringing, and I alwaysremember that, and I can't hear anything

(11:52):
a couple of hours afterwards, andpeople crowds and people standing on your toes
and all that. So probably notthe best to talk about music borries,
But that's what I kind of rememberfrom them, all right, So now
let's talk about how Velocity is sophenomenal under your leadership and all the amazing
things you've done. So first question, if you were locked in a room
with somebody to explain your company,and you had a minute ninety seconds to

(12:15):
do it, how would you dothat to a layman who doesn't understand the
medical industry as well as you do. Simply put, all drugs that patients
take have to be approved by aregulatory body, so they have to go
through clinical trials. So at somepoint, a doctor has to sit in
a room with a patient. Patienttakes a drug, doctor makes a measurement
on those on that patient. Youdo that many thousands of times, collect

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the data, give it to aregulator they approve or otherwise the drugs so
that it can be sold. Moregenerally, we do the pointy end of
that, where the doctor sits inthe room with the patient. And that's
what Velocity does. Great, great, And I think I don't know if
I don't know, if I'm inthe room, was time? And I
think that was forty two seconds?Hey, I think you killed it.
I think you killed it. SoI've got time to talk to you about
my speeding record as well. We'llsave that for the end. So where

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does like a company like yours,where does growth come from in twenty twenty
four? Well, I mean wewere a startup company five years ago,
so we had our first clinical researchsite around about the end of twenty eighteen.
So we've continued to add to that. So we're now eighty sites and
we're global, so we have sitesclinical research sites in the UK, in

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Germany and shortly in Poland as well. Were those ones around England and Wales?
Were those set ups so you couldwrite those off when you went to
Formula one race, so I couldgo back and have an excuse to go
to Rugby May. Yes, thatwas the reason for those. So we're
continuing to grow by adding more sites. This is it takes. You know,

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there are many thousands of clinical trialsthat are run to get new drugs
onto the market every year. Allof them take thousands of patients to be
recruited into those studies to trial thosedrugs, and accidentally, everybody that does
that is helping the rest of usthat don't go and do it. So
these are the if they if thosepeople didn't do that, we wouldn't have

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those new drugs. We like torefer to them as medical heroes. So
we're looking for those people all overthe world. This is a truly global
market in which we operate, soour growth coming from continue to expand in
other countries. We're also continuing toopen new centers across the US, like
the one we've just opened in Durham, and we're also expanding our therapy degree.

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So we've done a lot of workin things like vaccine and CNS and
gadiovascar and so on, and wecontinue to expand that. So, you
know, the need for drugs neverceases. You know, there's a lot
of patients out there that are sufferingwith the diseases they have, dying from

(14:54):
the diseases they have. So Ithink expanding we think we've got a model
that works, and so being ableto do it in different disease areas,
you know, that's adding value notjust to the company clearly, but to
mankind in general. How important isit telling your story and building brand equity
behind Velocity? I think it's importantto two levels. First of all,

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there are probably something like one hundredthousand research sites doing a trial today globally
somewhere in the world. As Isaid, it's a global business. So
keeping the name of the company inthe mind of the people who are choosing
those sites, and that used tobe me in my previous companies, previous
companies I've worked for, that's reallydifficult because if you're sifting through hundreds thousands

(15:43):
of sites to find the ones youwant to do your research with, keeping
the name in mind is really reallydifficult. So keeping the brand in the
mind of our clients is a challengebecause they're dealing with just so much data
and so many so and there's asecond part to that, and that is

(16:03):
patients. We couldn't do any ofthis without people who are these medical heroes
who are willing to come forward andtake part in a clinical trial. So
when you hear from us as apatient, what's the first thing that you
think? It might not be positive, it might be negative. So building
that image, that or that brandas you call it, that would allow

(16:23):
people to trust us that they cancome and take part in a clinical trial
and they'll be well looked after andbenefit from that trial. That's really important.
So those are the two different cohortsthat we try to keep our name
in front of and I think that'simportant. You hear a lot of companies

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specifically, you know, iHeartMedia talkingabout how important trust is. It's one
of our biggest tenets. People trustwhat go out over the airwaves. They
trust what we endorse, what wediscuss, and I think nowadays trust is
one of the hardest things. Withso many resources, people have to find
out their own information and to lookat things. You know, having a
brand image that is based in trustdoes help you, especially in the medical

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community. You know, you lookat the auto automotive community as well,
and and you know you have tobe able to trust that what they're going
to do to fix your car iswhat's actually going to fix it. Oh
big, oh for sure. Andremember what we're asking people to do is
take an experimental drug right now.Then the fact is that's being through a

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huge process of pre clinical testing,early phase testing, second phase testing.
Most of what we do is what'scalled phase three, so it's been through
a lot before we have a trialit in phase three. Takes a lot
of a lot of time to dothat, and there's a lot of data
behind. You know, this drugis safe, and this drugs drug us

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some efficacy, it will work insome way a disease that you have.
So we've done all of that.But at the same time time, when
a patient comes in to see us, they need to trust that A that's
been done and B we're going tolook after them very well when they come
into come into one of our researchsites. It's interesting that even clinical trials

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often use what's called a placebo arm. All right, so the dummy drugs,
so you test the actual drug versusone that has should have no effect
at all, and you compare onewith the other. Even if you get
a placebo in a clinical trial,there's plenty of research out there that says
patients that take part in a clinicaltrial have better outcomes even on placebo than

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patients who don't take part in aclinical trial. Most people don't know that,
though, Why would they know that? And so that's all part of,
you know, building trust in thepopulation that we're reaching out to.
And it's never more important than whenyou talk about diverse populations. You know,
it's it's there's a lot of alot of distrust amongst minority populations and

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so again, you why would theytrust that they could come to our site
and they're going to benefit from that. So that's something we have to build
as in any community in which weoperate. We spend a lot of time
working on that. And it's notjust we have a trial, would you
like to take it apart? It'syou know, we're working with the community.

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We're engaging with the community. Youcan't just reach out to a community
when you want them to do something, as you guys know very well,
you have to you have to beengaged and they have to be engaged with
you. Yeah, and I thinkthat's important too. When you you look
at a marketing standpoint, Nike marketsthemselves year round for a reason. So
when you're ready to make a decision, you are the person at the top
of the consideration set. It isnot a last minute oh let me google

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who produces shoes in America. Thereis an echoing built into that. Yeah,
correct. And of course, youknow, deciding to take part in
clinical studies a little bit more ofa serious decision than you know, which
sneakers am I going to wear thisyear or whatever? So yeah, so
those things are important to us.So in the role if we ask somebody

(20:02):
on your board, How would theydefine your leadership? Ah, what a
good question, they would probably,Well, I'd like to think they would
say that that, you know,Paul's fully committed to what he does.
You don't spend thirty years in thisindustry without having a good reason for doing
it. So I think the firstthing they'd like to say is he's committed.

(20:26):
I think the other thing they'd liketo say I'd like him to say.
I believe they would say is,you know, Paul cares very much
about the people that work for himand the people that take part in clinical
trials. So it's not just wordswith him. He really does mean it.
And I probably suspect they would sayhe can be a little bit crazy

(20:49):
on times, but we like workingwith him so love it. So,
you know, a lot of timeswith this it is conversational about you as
conversational about the company. But alot of people want to know I want
to get to the point. I'man executive. I want to get to
that point. What advice do youhave somebody who's just transitioning out of wanting
to be a cowboy or just transitioningfrom wanting to be a rugby player,

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and they're like, what's my nextstep? What advice do you have for
that next group of people or nextgeneration coming up who wants to be an
executive gentlemen, Let's talk about clinicalresearch first, because that's that's kind of
interesting because just about everybody you everask how did you get into clinical research?
The answer is by accident. Nobodywent from rugby player to cowboy clinical

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research. Nobody ever did that.What you do find out along the way,
though, is, look, there'sa lot to like about this as
a career. What you're doing isgood. You know, we're not building
the next set of weapons for thenext war that somebody wants to start.
We're not polluting the planet. Youknow, we're actually doing a good thing.

(21:53):
We're curing disease. So that's thefirst thing. The second thing is,
of course, that you know,this is fascinating stuff. You know,
it's really challenging sometimes to understand thescience behind some of the studies that
we do. You learn a lotfrom doing it. It's never a dull
moment. No two trials are thesame. So it's a really interesting area

(22:15):
to work in. So you know, that's why I think people get into
it by accident and stay with it. It's because every day you're doing something
different. So it's a fascinating areato be in. I think for people
who want to go all the wayto the top, and how do you
get there and what makes the difference, I think what I would say to

(22:37):
them is it. Frankly, it'sall down to hard work. At the
end of the day. Nobody evergets to a senior position anywhere without working
hard at it. So it's hard. Graft is what you've got to be
able to commit to and willing tocommit to. And that's got nothing to
do with clinical research. That's amatter of what you want to be,
even if you still want to bea professional basketball player. Are you telling

(22:59):
men it's too late. I no, I don't think it's too late.
You just have to commit to workinghard at it. I'm going to tell
my wife that when I get hometoday, let's take it. Listen.
I talked to Paul. He said, I'm good to go, so I
need to get out there and freethrows. What does culture mean to you
that, again, that's a fascinatingquestion. One of the interesting things about
culture in any company is you cancopy just about anything about a company except

(23:22):
its culture. So you can lookat how we do a clinical trial,
and you can look at the processwe have, you can look at the
business model we have, and youcan replicate that somewhere else. Culture is
much harder to copy. It's alsomuch harder to explain, quite frankly,
to people. I think the culturewe try to build in Velocity is around

(23:48):
a higher achieving one to start with. I think we want people to care.
You think about the values we havein our company, and that tells
you a lot about the company.The culture we're trying to build. We
have four One is do the rightthing, one's inspire change, one's collaborate,
and one is care. And thoseare the four things that define our

(24:08):
company. So that's the culture thatwe're trying to build around. That is
make sure people are focused on thosefour things fundamentally and so hy performing.
You're here for a reason. Wenever try to let people forget that.
You know, there are patients waitingfor the drugs we developing, and some
of those patients are going to diebecause we don't get it there in time.

(24:30):
So it's important that we get thatto the market. And I think
the final thing I would say aboutour culture and the culture I try to
project in the company is you know, I expect you to take your job
very, very seriously, but notyourself. You don't take yourself seriously.
And I think that's the culture wehave. I love it. I love

(24:52):
it. Yeah, I'll be followingup on those. I like those.
And lastly, for velocity, whata success look? And I guess the
second part to that question is areyou measuring success by the end of next
year? Are you on a fiveyear outlook? Are you on a decade
outlook? What is? What doessuccess look like? And when do you
define that? So, let metell you something about the clinical research industry.

(25:15):
In my thirty years in it,it takes about twelve to fifteen years
to get a new drug to themarket. Right. That was the day
I started in the industry in nineteenninety one. How long do you think
it takes today, thirty years later. I'm going to guess dramatically shorter than
that. No, it takes aboutthe same amount of time as when I

(25:37):
started in this industry thirty one yearsago. Right, So again, think
about that's what's the impact of thator the impact of that is you're keeping
drugs from patients that need them.Thank goodness. We learned a few tricks
during COVID and we did it alot quicker in COVID, and if we
could replicate that, everybody would behappier. So so we work in an

(26:00):
industry that takes too long to dowhat it does. Nearly every clinical trial
it sever runs late eighty of them. In fact, fifty percent of those
delays are where Velocity operates. It'sat that point the end of the sphere
where the doctors talking to the patient. So you know, I've got thirty
years of failure behind me to talkof. So I think what Velocity does

(26:26):
and that model didn't exist when Icame into this industry. What Velocity is
aiming to do is fix that problem. How do we get drugs into the
hands of patients faster? So that'swhat we're trying to do. That's the
objective. And every single day,if we take a day off the time
it takes to bring a drug tomarket, we're having success. So I

(26:48):
think it's continuous in terms of whatthe company needs to grow to be.
Then you know we're a global business. Velocity isn't. We're in a global
industry. I told you the countriesthat velocities operating at. So I want
to see us grow to be havingan impact in other countries, in other

(27:10):
regions of the world. But Ithink the most important thing is I want
to see us speeding up the drugdevelopment process. That's phenomenal. Paul Evans,
we appreciate you joining us on CEOsYou Should Know. It's been a
pleasure. Likewise, thank you verymuch for the invite. It's been great
talking to you. Thanks sir.CEOs You Should Know is a production of

(27:30):
iHeartMedia Raleigh. Thanks for listening.