Al Ritter, Chairman & CEO
Al Ritter brings 38 years of leadership and business building experience to Beaufort Advisors. Before founding Beaufort Advisors, Mr. Ritter was founder and managing member of Pilot House Capital Management LLC, where he led the analysis and due diligence activities for investment opportunities in start-up and early stage businesses. Prior to Pilot House, Mr. Ritter was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Landmark Communications, Inc., a privately held diversified media and investment company with interests in The Weather Channel, other cable television networks, newspapers, broadcast television stations, classified advertising publications, career education and a variety of other businesses. As CFO, he had a leadership role in analyzing and selecting investment opportunities, making acquisitions and dispositions, and in setting business strategies. Earlier in his career, Mr. Ritter was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of TeleCable Corporation, a privately held cable television company that operated twenty-two cable television systems in fifteen states. Mr. Ritter, a Certified Public Accountant, began his business career with the firm of Goodman & Company CPAs in Norfolk, Virginia. Mr. Ritter is a graduate of the College of William & Mary. He was an officer in the U.S. Navy, serving on the international staff of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic.

Schuyler Ritter, Senior Vice President, Business Development
Schuyler Ritter brings 25 years of medical product and life science experience to Beaufort Advisors. Before co-founding the company, Mr. Ritter was Vice President of Marketing & Sales for Bio-Reg Associates, Inc., a medical device and in-vitro diagnostic regulatory consulting company. Before Bio-Reg, Mr. Ritter worked in the home health care industry as a General and Regional Operations Manager for Nurses PRN and Olsten Health Care. Mr. Ritter also served as President of Vangard Laboratories, a generic, unit-dose packaging pharmaceutical company servicing the hospital and long-term care market. Before Vangard, Mr. Ritter was the Cardiovascular Vice President and Account Supervisor for Kletmer Advertising, the health care division of Saatchi & Saatchi, where he managed the cardiovascular product introduction/launch advertising campaigns for three pharmaceutical clients. Mr. Ritter also worked at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., as both an In-Line and New Product Development Manager, and Cardiovascular Group Product Manager. As a New Product Development Manager, Mr. Ritter was responsible for guiding the market introduction of Catapres-TTS, the first once-a-week transdermal cardiovascular agent. As the Cardiovascular Group Product Manager, Mr. Ritter directed the marketing and sales activities for a business team that managed six products and accounted for two-thirds of Boehringer’s US and one-third of its worldwide revenues. Prior to Boehringer, Mr. Ritter worked for Merck, Sharp & Dohme Pharmaceutical, Inc., where he held several positions, including In-Line Cardiovascular Product Manager. Mr. Ritter earned an MBA degree from the University of Georgia and a B.S. degree in Marketing Management from Virginia Tech.

John R. Wilson, Jr., Senior Vice President, Drug Development
John Wilson brings 30 years of pharmaceutical experience to Beaufort Advisors. Prior to joining Beaufort Advisors, Dr. Wilson was Vice President, Quality Management and Regulatory Affairs, for Boehringer Ingelheim Chemicals, Inc. During his twenty-seven year career with Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation, Dr. Wilson held positions in clinical research, clinical quality assurance, regulatory affairs, medical administration and active pharmaceutical ingredient production. Dr. Wilson has had extensive experience in dealing with regulatory agencies in the US and abroad, including FDA, DEA, and EMEA. Specific examples include global GCP harmonization projects, as well as working directly with FDA on data quality issues involving foreign clinical trials. Further, Dr. Wilson has experience in building and managing a clinical quality assurance department, with emphasis on infrastructure development and GCP auditing. Dr. Wilson has been a member of the adjunct faculty at New York Medical College, where he taught a course on clinical research. Dr. Wilson has a special interest in ethical issues inherent in drug development, particularly those involving informed consent and the use of placebos. Dr. Wilson earned a Ph.D. and MA from Rice University, an MPH from Columbia University, and a B.S. from Centenary College of Louisiana.

Margaret A. Deuel, R.N., RAC, Vice President, Project Management
Margie Deuel is an experienced nurse with significant knowledge in the fields of vascular surgery and human tissue banking and transplantation. She is expert in Good Clinical Practice (GCP) regulatory requirements and in the conduct and management of clinical trials. She has conducted and managed a national, 45-site clinical trial for and IDE regulatory submission. Her experience also includes regulatory compliance and quality systems management, encompassing knowledge of FDA regulations, ISO Standards and Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP). Margie has led regulatory inspection teams, served on numerous professional committees and has a proven track record of effective communication with external regulatory agencies, including FDA. She is also a contributing author of various medical publications.

Judith J. Smith, MS, RAC, Director, IVD / Medical Devices
Judi Smith has extensive experience with regulatory submissions and quality systems for biologics, in vitro diagnostic (IVD), blood screening, medical device and pharmaceutical products. She has successfully submitted over seventy-five 510(k)s, ten PMAs, forty PMA Supplements, and ten Pre-IDE submissions and has participated in FDA meetings for microbiology, immunology, and chemistry IVDs. Judi has extensive PMA experience with IVD assays for immunosuppressive drugs and infectious disease assays. And, she has worked with FDA to expedite reviews of six PMAs simultaneously. She has experience managing and conducting IVD and medical device clinical trials. Judi is also the current President of the Association of Medical Diagnostic Manufacturers (AMDM).

Bill Young, Operations Director
Bill Young serves as Operations Director with 14 years of business management and operating experience in a wide array of industries prior to joining Beaufort Advisors in 2006. Bill joined Beaufort after owning and operating Taste Unlimited, a chain of six retail outlets with a thirty year history based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Prior to Taste Unlimited, Bill was a marketing analyst for a large building manufacturing concern in Wayne, New Jersey and a commercial banker for Bank of America in Norfolk, Virginia. Bill earned an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and his Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Virginia as well.

Beaufort Advisors maintains a staff of accomplished and highly capable clinical research and regulatory consulting professionals. We also deploy an extensive network of carefully screened independent associate consultants which allows us to rapidly assemble high quality teams to deliver targeted expertise to client engagements.

Our employee consultants average 24 years of experience in their respective fields.