Bethany Bray was born in London and moved to the U.S. at age 24, when she was recruited to work as an oncology researcher at Emory University in Atlanta.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in pharmacology, a master’s degree in translational medicine and neuroscience from Imperial College London and an MBA from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
“The biggest risk I have taken was to leave my home, the United Kingdom, my family, friends and the support of my peers to move across the world to pursue and further my education and career in the United States,” Bray said.
Today, Bray is CEO of AutoCruitment. Since 2013, AutoCruitment has helped pharma companies, biotechs and clinical research organizations to identify, screen and recruit patients to participate in clinical research across a range of therapeutic areas. By streamlining the patient recruitment process with digital and automated screening technology, AutoCruitment helps accelerate the commercialization of safe, effective new treatments for devastating diseases and conditions. AutoCruitment’s mission is to remove the patient recruitment barrier from clinical research and make clinical trials accessible to patients across the globe.
Bray has developed industry standards and methodologies in the field of direct-to-patient clinical trial recruitment, which accelerate clinical trial and research study enrollment by an average of 97%, her team said.
Since founding AutoCruitment, Bray has grown the company into a $50 million revenue company, with satellite offices in Atlanta, New York City and Toronto, with additional operations in North America, Europe and Asia.
Bray has been asked on numerous occasions to be a presenter and panelist at the DIA Global Annual Meetings. DIA is a global association that mobilizes life science professionals to engage with patients, peers and thought leaders. At one of the DIA meetings in 2016, Bray was a featured presenter and panelist. She conducted a session titled “Direct-to-Patient Digital Recruitment: A Targeted Approach to Recruitment Enrollment and Retention.” Most recently, Bray led AutoCruitment through an investment from QHP, the management company for NovaQuest Private Equity. The partnership will allow AutoCruitment to scale its operations further and continue to position AutoCruitment as a market leader.
“One of the most important attributes to make a great leader is to first be self-aware, humble and acknowledge your own limitations; only then can you build a strong team to support you,” Bray said. “Being coachable and knowing when to ask for help have been instrumental in getting AutoCruitment to where it is today. Noticing the strengths in others and putting them in those roles of responsibility have been what has accelerated our success.”
