Leadership Team

Meet the team that is driving our mission to discover insights that cure disease and heal healthcare

Colin Hill

Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder

Iya Khalil, PhD

Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder

David Gascoigne

Chief Operating Officer

Bruce Church, PhD

Chief Mathematics Officer

Mark Pottle, MBA

Chief Financial Officer

Nelia Padilla, MBA

Senior Vice President, Precision Medicine

Colin Hill, MS

Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder

Colin Hill is a leading voice in healthcare technology and precision medicine and brings impressive leadership experience in commercializing machine learning technologies in the biopharmaceutical and managed care industries. He co-founded GNS Healthcare in 2000 and has since served as Chairman & CEO.

Colin sits on board of Biotelemetry Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAT), the leading mobile health information company, and PPD, a leading global contract research organization. He is also a founding board member of TMed (Transforming Medicine: The Elizabeth Kauffman Institute), a non-profit foundation (501c3) dedicated to the advancement of personalized medicine. In 2016, he was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to the Massachusetts Digital Health Council.

Colin was a founding member of the Board of Directors of AesRx, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of new treatments for sickle cell disease (acquired by Baxter in 2014). He was the founding chairman of O’Reilly Media’s Strata Rx in 2012, the first healthcare big data conference in the industry.In 2004, Colin was named to MIT Technology Review’s TR100 list of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.

He is a frequent speaker at national and international scientific and industry conferences and has appeared in numerous publications and television programs, including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC Morning Call & SquawkBox, Nature, Boston Globe, Politico, Forbes, Wired, and The Economist.

He graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in physics and earned Master’s degrees in physics from both McGill University and Cornell University.

Iya Khalil, PhD

Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder

Dr. Iya Khalil is a technology entrepreneur and physicist with a vision of transforming medicine into a discipline that is quantitative, predictive, and patient-centric via artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches. She co-founded two big data companies, Via Science and GNS Healthcare, and is the co-inventor of the proprietary computational engine that underpins both entities. Dr. Khalil’s expertise spans applications in drug discovery, drug development all the way to treatment algorithms that can be applied at the point of care.

She is a frequent speaker at industry events and conferences and was recognized by President Obama at a White House dinner as a leading entrepreneur in genomic medicine. She was named to the PharmaVOICE 100 list of the most inspiring people in the life sciences industry and was recognized for her ability to build bridges across the life science and healthcare industries, bringing people together to harness the power of predictive modeling to change the lives of patients. Dr. Khalil serves on the board of the Accelerated Cure Project and the Scientific Advisory Board of Biocentury Innovations. Recently, she was appointed to the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) Oversight Council by Governor Baker and recognized by INC Magazine as one of the top 100 female founders.

David Gascoigne

Chief Operating Officer

David is a senior executive with a proven track record of building and leading data analytics businesses in the healthcare arena. David recently joined GNS Healthcare from IBM, where he was a Partner in Cognitive Analytics and Big Data. Prior to IBM, David worked for IQVIA where he was General Manager of Analytics Services across real world evidence, commercial and technology divisions. David joined IQVIA from Symphony Health where he created and managed an organization focusing on the application of integrated data assets across managed care, HEOR, and commercial operations; in addition to building a strategic consulting and healthcare advisory services organization. David has also has been a Partner with Accenture focusing on resource optimization and (a prior stint) with IMS Health where he was Vice President for Global Marketing Effectiveness and Consulting Services.

David graduated from Sheffield University in the UK with an advanced degree in Applied Statistics.

Bruce Church, PhD

Chief Mathematics Officer

Bruce Church is responsible for developing algorithms for REFS and leading projects for the development of new products and technologies. Bruce is a member of the founding team of GNS Healthcare.

An expert in statistical physics, machine learning, parallel computing, and causal modeling, Bruce helped develop the original REFS platform. Previously, he spent ten years at Cornell University, developing global optimization methods for computational protein folding, the results of which have been published in several peer-reviewed journals.

Bruce has served as the principal investigator on several major grants, including a $2.5 million award from the Department of Energy. He has served on the Board of Directors for U.S. Rugby and coached the under-23 women’s Northeast rugby team. Bruce received a BS in applied and engineering physics and a PhD in applied physics from Cornell University.

Mark Pottle, MBA

Chief Financial Officer

Mark Pottle is responsible for the finance, accounting, legal, and human resource functions of GNS Healthcare.

Before joining GNS Healthcare, Mark was CFO of N-of-One Therapeutics, which provides analysis and interpretation of a tumor’s genome so that providers can personalize cancer treatments for patients. Prior to N-of-One, Mark worked at Picis Inc., which provides EMRs for emergency departments, ICUs, and ORs. After Picis was sold to United Healthcare/Optum in 2010, Mark became the CFO of Optum’s Accountable Care Organization division. Mark has also previously worked at several start-up to mid-level companies and has helped raise over $50 million of venture-backed funding, as well as over $150 million in private equity funding.

Mark is also a veteran of the U.S. Army. He graduated from University of New Hampshire with a degree in economics and holds an MBA from Southern New Hampshire University.

Nelia Padilla

Senior Vice President, Precision Medicine

Nelia is a recognized life sciences and digital health leader with over 20 years of experience in drug/biologic R&D processes, data analytics and digital health strategy in both R&D and commercial for biopharma and digital therapeutics companies.

Nelia joins GNS from IQVIA where she served as both the Global Lead for Digital Health Consulting and the North American Lead for R&D Consulting. Nelia has also been a Principal with Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company) and a Regulatory Affairs Professional with Cell Therapeutics and Serono (now Merck Serono) focusing on the development of new drugs and biologics in the US and Europe.

Nelia has an MBA from Yale and a BA in Biology from Harvard.