SVA Consulting congratulates Chris Crawford and Al Swarts for receiving awards at the firm’s annual meeting. Chris, Practice Manager of Life Sciences Commercialization, received the Founder’s Award and Al, Commercialization Strategist, received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Created in 2019, the Founder’s Award honors the work and values of our founder, John Baltes. Recipients who embody John’s values are nominated by fellow SVA Consulting colleagues and the winner is chosen by Principal voting.

Nominees must exemplify the following characteristics, known as “John-isms.” These “John-isms” demonstrate what makes SVA Consulting the firm it is today and embody John’s values.

• Integrity/Character: Do what you say you are going to do.
• Humble: Winners win humbly.
• Servant Leader: Take joy in the success of others.
• Commitment and Discipline: Commitment to practice habits and doing the right thing all the time.
• Inspire Trust: "If you keep it to yourself, it's your problem. If you share it with the team, it's our problem."

Chris Crawford – Founder’s Award

In his role as Practice Manager of Life Sciences Commercialization, Chris works with Emerging Life Science (ELS) companies as they transition from R&D focused entities to commercial organizations distributing product. He provides clarity to executive teams on how best to navigate the complicated and diverse waters of commercialization while avoiding the potential pitfalls in a highly regulated industry.

Al Swarts – Lifetime Achievement Award

Al is an experienced and accomplished executive and business owner with more than 40 years of experience leading organizations from inception to market launch and beyond.

As Commercialization Strategist, Al works with ELS companies as they transition from R&D operations to launch-ready commercial operations. He provides executive teams the benefit of this experience in launching over two dozen ELS corporate build-out programs.

Al’s extensive experience allows him to help clients avoid pitfalls and make timely, well-informed strategy and implementation decisions. Clients value Al’s guidance for solving difficult issues where multiple functions are involved or resident expertise is not yet fully in place.

Al and Chris were both previously with Bio-Ops, Inc., a boutique management consulting firm focused on launching operations and providing patients and prescribers with prior authorization support services.

Bio-Ops, Inc. merged with SVA Consulting in 2017, bringing Al and Chris and their extensive knowledge and experience in the ELS space.