Elevating People, Not Replacing Them
Why I believe AI, pharma, and human grit can delete the maze, accelerate cures, and make complexity feel simple.
I’ve spent my career leading billion-dollar transformations, scaling startups into unicorns, and orchestrating systems across the globe. But at the core, my mission has never been about the tech itself.
It’s been about people.
🚦 Where It Started
When I joined Biogen, I saw firsthand how fragile and vital clinical supply chains are. Every delay in a trial wasn’t just a number—it was lost time for patients waiting for cures. At Takeda, I watched how data and compliance could either accelerate progress or bury teams in red tape.
Then came the hypergrowth ride at NuBank—scaling from 700 to over 10,000 employees across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. The challenge wasn’t just technology. It was alignment. Culture. People.
At ADM, I led a $1.2B global transformation. We cut costs, delivered outcomes, and scaled processes across 44,000 employees, for the global food supply chain. But what mattered most wasn’t the savings, it was the proof that complexity can be orchestrated into clarity.
⚡ The Moment of Clarity
When I resurfaced from those projects, I asked myself: What’s the one place where solving complexity could change everything?
The answer was clear: Clinical Trials.
Because here, the stakes aren’t just financial. They’re human. Every rejected protocol, every slow onboarding, every delayed trial—it’s weeks or months lost for patients waiting for new treatments.
This isn’t acceptable. Not when AI can help us do better.
🚴 Why I Ride, Why I Build
If you know me, you know I’m also a cyclist. Gravel, road, mountains—it doesn’t matter. Cycling teaches you something vital:
Barriers are meant to be overcome.
Endurance wins over sprinting.
And sometimes, the toughest climbs lead to the clearest views.
That’s the mindset I bring to building NexTrial.ai. We’re reducing trial activation times from 120 days to 30. We’re deleting the maze of paperwork. We’re making compliance a moat, not a burden.
And the result?
Value for pharma.
Acceleration for science.
Hope for patients.
🌱 Why This Substack
This publication—StevenThompson.ai—is where I’ll share the journey. Not just the wins, but the struggles, the lessons, the global perspective.
What I learned in boardrooms in São Paulo, Boston, Los Angeles and Dallas.
What cycling in the rain has in common with steering billion-dollar programs.
Why I believe AI should elevate people, not replace them.
👉 If you care about AI, Pharma, digital transformation, or simply building systems that make humans stronger, hit subscribe.
Because the future isn’t automated. It’s augmented. And it starts with people.