Cat Oyler Rivers

Cat Oyler serves as Vice President, Global Head Clinical Excellence and Transformation (CET), Janssen Immunology.  In this role, Cat built a new organization leading Janssen Immunology’s cross-functional clinical trial efforts to ensure the therapeutic area is as strong a leader in immunology clinical trial execution as in immunology science. Cat and her team partner closely with Global Development, Medical Affairs, Data Science, Translational Science and other organizations on clinical trial execution for the Immunology Therapeutic Area across all phases, including those in rare disease, which can be particularly difficult to enroll and execute.  CET also collaborates closely with Translational Science and Medicine on execution of healthy normal volunteer and Phase 2 trials.

In addition, Cat co-chairs the Immunology Operations Committee focused on ensuring operational excellence across all immunology trials. Cat also plays an active role as a key stakeholder in other Immunology Therapeutic Area (TA) governance committees, including the Protocol Review Committee (PRC) and the Immunology Portfolio Committee (IPC), and serves on both the Immunology R&D Leadership and the Therapeutic Area Leadership teams. 

Cat’s contributions to the Immunology TA began in 2020, when she served as Vice President, Integration Leader for the Momenta acquisition, and as the interim site head for the Cambridge campus.  Prior to that, she held various roles in Janssen, including Vice President, Global Public Health, Tuberculosis; Global Head, Strategy & Operations, Johnson & Johnson Global External Innovation; and Vice President, Strategy and External Innovation for Janssen Research & Development. In these roles, Cat delivered a 250% increase in use of Sirturo for the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis, led strategy development for the company’s cross-sector Lung Cancer Initiative, managed the creation of the “World Without Disease” strategy and led the Janssen R&D China Innovation Initiative. 

In support of Johnson & Johnson’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, Cat served as Executive Sponsor for the University Pillar of WiSTEM2D (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing and Design), an initiative which supports and inspires girls and women in their pursuit of STEM2D studies and careers, no matter where they are located around the world.  In this capacity, Cat created the Johnson & Johnson Scholars Award which every year recognizes 6 women at the Assistant Professor level (or equivalent) from across the globe who are research leaders in their STEM2D disciplines and provides 3 years of funding support to accelerate their academic careers

Before joining Johnson & Johnson, Cat held business development roles at AstraZeneca and Myriad Genetics Inc., and marketing and scientist positions at Alza Corporation, Alkermes Inc., and Amgen Inc. She has a B.A. in Biology from Williams College and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.