About Kummer Consulting

Kummer Consulting enables life science teams to build their innovation capability so they can deliver novel treatments to the patients that need them.

Founder Merle Kummer has created a powerful process for R&D teams to synthesize knowledge across scientific, regulatory, financial, and commercial domains, in order to make sound decisions in the fast-changing world of life science. A pioneer in the practical application of discoveries in the cognitive mechanisms of innovation, she brings cross-disciplinary creativity into the everyday work of biopharma teams. A thought leader in biopharmaceutical R&D productivity, she designs and manages learning programs for life science organizations who are facing complex, unprecedented challenges: new scientific discoveries, new markets, re-organizations, and mergers.

As creator and facilitator of the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development’s acclaimed course Leadership for Drug Development Teams, she has trained a generation of high-performing biopharma leaders. Her transformative learning process frees professionals from the limits of their own disciplines, expanding their world-view and enabling them to prevent problems and generate new solutions.

Some examples of Kummer Consulting’s work include:

• Facilitating a cross-functional effort to build new approaches to reducing the risk of moving from research to development at major biotech.
• Implementing a science-driven decision structure for breakthrough neurodegeneration therapy.
• Creating a process for accelerating the regulatory submission of a complex drug-device combination.
• Guiding the translational medicine strategy for a market leader in rare disease therapeutics.

Before starting Kummer Consulting in 1998, Ms. Kummer spent 20 years in industry as a senior manager, internal consultant, and project leader in health care and technology. She created an internal consulting practice in new product development at Analog Devices, Inc., enabling semiconductor development teams to push beyond the limits of processing speed while creating a new way of partnering with customers. As Vice President of Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, she managed the acquisition of a new business unit from strategic planning and financing to establishing a successful management team. As a Project Manager for Financial Planning and Reporting for Hewlett-Packard Medical Products, she helped senior executives use information effectively for decision-making when the division re-organized from a functional hierarchy to customer-focused business units.

Merle Kummer earned her MBA at Yale University and a BA magna cum laude from Wesleyan University.