What Happened?
Woodbury, NY-based Linda Amper as Chief People Officer
About the Company
Clever Devices designs innovative technology solutions for all modes of public transportation, including fixed-route, bus rapid transit, paratransit and rail. Our solutions enhance mobility and help meet the public transportation challenges of communities around the world. We deliver scalable and modular Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), providing benefits to transit system operators and the riding public. Clever Devices` technologies advance the abilities of transit agencies to monitor and control their fleets, reduce fuel consumption, lower emissions and increase safety and security. Our solutions also improve accessibility for riders and contribute to the economic and environmental sustainability of the transit systems and the communities they serve. Incorporated in 1988, Clever Devices is a privately-held corporation focused solely on the transit industry. Private ownership enables us to respond quickly to the needs of our clients and to changing market conditions. We are pleased to serve as trusted advisors to our clients, and we work hard to achieve long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships.
About the Person
Linda E. Amper is the Chief People Officer at Clever Devices and President at Linda E. Amper LLC. Linda is an accomplished healthcare executive with senior level leadership experience across, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, health care delivery and other life science areas. With more than 35 years of experience in human resources and operations, she founded Linda E. Amper LLC, Organizational Consultant in 2014. With a strong track record of driving and executing human resource programs, Linda has a demonstrated ability to leverage her cross-functional business experiences to provide both strategic and tactical solutions. Many of Linda`s successes are drawn from the fact that she is a strong collaborator who develops and sustains excellent relationships at multiple levels. She understands the business levers that will drive global growth and increase organizational capacity through effective management. Businesses benefit from her diverse background in both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. Linda enjoys challenges and hits the ground running. She quickly acclimates to diverse and complex situations using her balanced and diplomatic style of taking complex issues and distilling them into workable, win-win solutions. She is known for her success in driving change, managing talent effectively and creating solutions that drive businesses to healthy outcomes. She has an entrepreneurial spirit and is driven by a fast-paced environment. Her favorite saying is, “one needs to know how to act on a dime.” Prior to forming Linda E. Amper LLC, Linda served as Senior Vice President Global Human Resources at Optimer Pharmaceuticals from 2011 to 2013. Until being acquired by Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Optimer was a biopharmaceutical company that engaged in the development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products in the United States and Canada. The company had more than 275 employees and total revenues for 2012 and 2011 of approximately $100M and $145M, respectively. When Linda joined Optimer, the organization had fewer than 50 employees and was in pre-approval stage for their lead drug candidate. Within six months of anticipated FDA approval, Linda hit the ground running, creating a human capital philosophy and integrating all of the traditional HR deliverables. She established HR policies and programs, developed a corporate communication program, and hired more than 230 employees – approximately 135 of whom were field-based. In addition, Linda helped to ready other areas of the organization for the expansion. As a corporate officer with responsibility to the board`s compensation committee, Linda influenced the design of many of the organization`s corporate programs, including compliance and learning and development. From 2001 to 2010, Linda served as a Senior Vice President at OSI Pharmaceuticals, a leading scientific research organization with sites in the United States and the United Kingdom. The company discovered, developed and marketed new medicines and therapies designed to improve the quality of life for individuals with cancer, diabetes and obesity. In her position, Linda was responsible for a $35M operating budget and made significant contributions in corporate strategy, government compliance and business compliance. She was responsible for the corporate human resources function and other support areas. As head of human resources, she developed and launched a human capital strategy aligned to and in support of the business goals and direction. In addition, she supported the company`s leadership team, served as a company officer and reported to the board`s compensation committee. Linda remained in her position until Japan-based pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharmaceuticals acquired the business. Linda finished her tenure at OSI at the end of 2010, after playing a significant role leading the OSI integration team and driving the transition process through the acquisition. While at OSI and Optimer, Linda was involved in both the buy and sell sides of more than a half-dozen major transactions, acquiring experience in M&A activity. These included the acquisition of two publicly-traded biotech companies, a major division of a publicly-traded biotech, two facilities and related assets of a UK company, a facility in the U.S. that she had full responsibility to build out as the organization`s corporate headquarters and a commercially-marketed pharmaceutical product. This last transaction required her to build out a commercial organization in less than three months. Linda began her career at the New York Blood Center, the nation`s largest blood collection organization. The Blood Center continues to run a clinical program as well as a world-renowned research organization. At the time Linda was employed there, the Blood Center also had a pharmaceutical division. She joined the Blood Center as a Laboratory Technologist in 1978 and went on to assume positions of increasing responsibilities, working in a variety of areas in the organization. As part of this journey, she spent approximately 14 years in HR, turning a process-driven “personnel” department into a true, partnering human resource function responsible for nine different unions – decertifying two during her tenure. Ultimately, Linda was named Executive Director and Vice President for the Blood Center`s largest region in 1999, accountable for the operation and the region`s blood supply. As Executive Director with her out-of-the-box strategic thinking, Linda started the first blood donor program in the nation that partnered with the jury system for regular blood collections. She also implemented the first mobile donor bus in the region. Linda remained in that role until moving to OSI in 2001. Twice named to Long Island Business News` “Most Influential Women in Business” (2007 & 2009), Linda holds two degrees from Long Island University, Post Campus, a B.S. in Medical Biology and an M.P.A. with a concentration in Health Administration, and a Ph.D. in Health Care Administration from Columbia Southern. She has her ASCP license, is a certified facilitator, and completed the Energeia Regional Partnership Stewardship program with Molloy College. She has been honored by several organizations and is requested to speak at functional meetings. For more than three decades, Linda has brought considerable business acumen to organizations focused on improving health outcomes for all and those committed to making Long Island a community to live and prosper. She was a trustee of OSI`s Foundation, which promoted employee volunteerism, provided support for cancer and diabetes patients and their families and funded science education initiatives. She remains an active member on a number of boards, including Long Island University, The Farmingdale College Foundation, Energeia Partnership, and Friends of Karen. She also sits on the First President Bush`s CEO Gold Standard on Cancer committee. Linda periodically teaches as an adjunct professor in the business department at Farmingdale State College. She is the daughter of the late Dr. Hamilton S. Blum, a professor of mathematics at L.I. University, Post for 34 years and the inaugural winner of Long Island University`s David Newton Award for Excellence in Teaching. She has established the Hamilton S. Blum Endowed Scholarship in 2010 to benefit Mathematic majors at LIU, Post.
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