Paul Gottsegen brings an impressive blend of business acumen and marketing knowledge from his 30 year career in international business and marketing with some of the most successful global technology companies. He has a personal connection to Gastric Cancer Foundation through a close friendship with JP Gallagher, Gastric Cancer Foundation’s founder and previous chairman of the board.

Paul is President, Client Experience at ISG, managing the firm’s marketing activity, including demand generation, branding and communications. From 2019 to 2023, Paul led the ISG Research business to great heights and now continues as Chair, ISG Research.

The first 20 years of his career, Paul was a classic product marketing leader for PC hardware, including launching the industry’s first network servers. He has since applied that product marketing experience to CMO roles in large services firms. While marketing is his “center of gravity,” he has led large sales organizations and has been a general manager with full P&L responsibility.

Prior to ISG, he was the Chief Marketing Officer for Mindtree and Infosys, completing end-to-end branding and marketing turnarounds. As Vice President of Enterprise Marketing at HP, Dell Inc., and Compaq earlier in his career, Paul led product marketing, revenue marketing and enterprise alliances for the network server businesses. As owner of Compaq’s largest P&L, Paul led 40 percent annual revenue growth per year.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Brandeis University and a master’s degree in business administration from The Wharton School.

Stephen Cheren brings 30 years of pharmaceutical commercial experience to the Board. Steve has worked in marketing, market research, and sales management for several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, with the last 20 years at Novartis. He has experience working in a range of therapeutic areas, including 7 years in oncology. In his work with medical experts, healthcare professionals, and patients, Steve’s focus has been on uncovering insights that will help provide solutions to improve and extend patients’ lives. Steve is currently leading RedShift Consulting, which provides strategic consulting and marketing training to pharmaceutical companies. Steve has a BS in biology from Tufts University and an MBA in marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Cindy Gallagher, wife of late founder JP Gallagher, joined the Gastric Cancer Foundation Board of Directors in June 2014. She has worked in school settings as an elementary counselor and with families in crisis. Currently, she works as a grief therapist in the Bay Area, as well as a counselor in clinical settings.

Cindy brings a wealth of personal experience with this disease as well as a passion to help patients and family members of patients affected by gastric cancer. Her work at Gastric Cancer Foundation will help keep JP’s legacy for hope and a cure.

Cindy holds a bachelor of arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and received her master of arts degree in Counseling Psychology from Santa Clara University.

Ajay Goel, PhD, AGAF, joined City of Hope in June 2019 as founding chair of the new Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics and founding director of Biotech Innovations at Beckman Research Institute. Dr. Goel is also the associate director of basic science for the comprehensive cancer center.

A noted expert in gastrointestinal and other cancers, Goel is currently developing early-detection blood tests for colon, pancreatic and ovarian cancers — as well as a test for pancreatic cancer that can detect the disease several years earlier than is now possible. He is also working with genomic-based precision oncology to provide answers to the question: Why do therapies work with some good candidates and not with others.

Goel was born in India, received his Ph.D. in biophysics from Punjab University, completed his postgraduate work at the University of California San Diego, and went on to a noteworthy 16-year career at Baylor Scott & White Research Institute in Texas. He has authored more than 300 articles in peer-reviewed international journals and holds more than 50 advanced genomic and transcriptomic international patents.

One surprising fact about Goel: In addition to his technological expertise, he finds wisdom in the ancient Indian medical system Ayurveda, which has given us such natural therapies as the proven anti-inflammatory in turmeric. Prevention, he believes, is the best medicine.

Dr. Peter Langecker, MD, PhD is currently Executive Medical Director, Global Oncology at Clinipace. He brings to the Board over 25 years of hands-on experience in establishing and conducting industry-sponsored oncology and hematology clinical research and development. His previous positions included pharmaceutical company experience at Novartis, Merck, SUGEN (acquired by Pfizer) and several biotech companies.

Dr. Langecker’s medical training and published research focused on preclinical and clinical oncology and the hormonal regulation of breast cancer. He has had university hospital level clinical experience in solid tumors (including breast, GI, lung cancer), lymphomas and leukemias, and bone marrow transplants. He has authored and co-authored 50+ publications and posters.

Hans Rueffert is an acclaimed chef, author, educator, television producer and gastric cancer survivor. Shortly after finishing third in the Next Food Network Star television series in 2005, Hans was diagnosed with stage three stomach cancer. He lost most of his stomach and esophagus to the disease, but is currently cancer free. In addition to his time on the Food Network, Hans has hosted and produced several cooking shows throughout the south, most notably, Hans Cooks the World and Hans Cooks the South.

After his diagnosis, Hans published Eat Like There’s No Tomorrow, a cookbook that includes a collection of original recipes, photographs and narratives. In the book, he shares his story about his own stomach cancer in addition to thoughts on healthy eating, optimism and life. In his personal life, Hans mentors people with stomach cancer through both the MD Anderson Network and Imerman Angels. He also teaches regularly at the Cancer Wellness Center at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta.

Hans holds a master’s of art degree in Hospitality Management from Georgia State University.

Hemanshu Shah is an executive with more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry, including more than 20 years in the oncology therapeutic area. His experience includes multiple functional areas including Research & Development, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Marketing and Investor Relations. Hemanshu has global experience, having worked for American, German, French and Japanese companies. He has a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Rutgers University and an MBA from the University at Buffalo.

Arlene Weintraub is a freelance content writer specializing in health and science. She was most recently an associate director and health writer for APCO Worldwide, where she provided writing and communications consulting to hospitals, biopharmaceutical companies, scientific equipment makers and health nonprofits. She was previously an award-winning journalist and author with more than 25 years of experience writing about healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, first on staff at BusinessWeek magazine and then as a freelance contributor to CURE Magazine, Fierce Markets, US News & World Report and others. Her most recent book, Heal: The Vital Role of Dogs in the Search for Cancer Cures (ECW Press, 2015), brings to life the world of comparative oncology and the many ways that dogs are helping fight the war on cancer. Arlene lost her sister, a mother of four, to gastric cancer in 2010.