About Brand Institute

James Dettore, Brand Institute (BI) senior strategist, Chairman & CEO, founded BI in 1993. He has been instrumental in advancing BI’s hallmark offerings in Nomenclature Development & Visual Identity through innovation and service excellence. BI’s initial clients included Fortune 500 consumer and business-to-business companies from the automotive, beverage, entertainment, financial, food, household products, industrial, OTC, personal care, and technology industries. As BI grew and expanded its service offerings, Mr. Dettore established Drug Safety Institute (DSI), a wholly owned subsidiary of BI, in 2004, which has since become a leading authority in pharmaceutical naming-related regulatory services, setting the industry standard with its unparalleled expertise.

Mr. Dettore is an alumnus of the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Harvard University New York Chapter Owner & President Management Program (OPM). In recognition of Brand Institute and DSI's unwavering support of the pharmacy profession and commitment to patient safety, Mr. Dettore was inducted into the Phi Lambda Sigma Pharmacy Leadership Society in 2020. Demonstrating the company’s steadfast commitment to advancing patient safety, he spearheaded DSI’s partnership with the Nova Southeastern University College of Pharmacy to establish the prestigious Stephanie Feldman Aleong National Patient Safety Award. Since 2009, this annual award has been presented to healthcare industry leaders and patient advocates whose efforts have significantly advanced patient safety.

In 2024, Mr. Dettore and Brand Institute were appointed to the CEO Roundtable on Cancer. Created in 2001 by the late President George H.W. Bush, the CEO Roundtable on Cancer is a national forum bringing together key cancer leaders from government, business, academia, and nonprofit sectors, all sharing a common vision: eliminating cancer.
Brand Institute’s membership in this elite oncology-focused organization underscores our ongoing commitment to the healthcare industry globally and aligns with our broader commitment to partnering with worldwide manufacturers, academia, and government organizations in serving the public good.

Mr. Dettore has over five decades of experience in brand management, holding key positions at renowned organizations, including Hilton International Hotels, J. Walter Thompson Advertising, Ralph Lauren, PepsiCo, and 31 years creating industry-defining Name Development guidance protocols and services to meet global Nomenclature & Visual Identity needs with Brand Institute and its regulatory subsidiary, Drug Safety Institute.

Mr. Phillips joined Drug Safety Institute (DSI) - Miami as President & CEO in 2004 and he was promoted to President, Client Relations at Brand Institute in 2020. He retired from the U.S. Public Health Service at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2004, after 16 years with the Agency. Joining the Agency in 1988, he became the Director of the Division of Labeling and Program Support in the Office of Generic Drugs, where he shared responsibility for the approval of all generic drugs in the U.S. In particular, he developed his expertise in the labeling and safe use of pharmaceutical products. In December of 1998, he became the Associate Director for Medication Error Prevention in the newly created Office of Post-Marketing Drug Risk Assessment (OPDRA), which is now known as the Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology (OSE).During his 6 years with OSE, he created and became the Acting Director of the Division of Medication Errors and Technical Support (DMETS), recently renamed the Division of Medication Error and Prevention Analysis (DMEPA), responsible for the review and analysis of all proprietary names in the United States. While with the OSE, he developed the methodology that the FDA uses in testing all U.S. proprietary names for safe use.Mr. Phillips’s leadership in preventing medication errors has included work on a plethora of projects and committees stateside, including the recent Bar Coding Rule published by the FDA. In addition, he was the Chair of the Medication Errors Committee in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Chair of the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP), principal author of the Taxonomy of Medication Errors created by NCC MERP, member of NIOSH Working Group on Hazardous Drugs, and member of the Department of Defense (DoD) working group to establish pharmaceutical bar coding in the DoD.Mr. Phillips earned his B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Houston and completed an ASHP hospital pharmacy residency at the U.S. Public Health Service hospital in Staten Island, N.Y.Mr. Phillips oversees all proprietary & nonproprietary strategy, naming, safety research, labeling, risk management, name submissions, rebuttals and special consults for DSI.

Mr. Reyes joined BI - Miami in 2001. He oversees Brand Institute’s trademarks department. He has led over 5,000 branding initiatives during his 20 years with Brand Institute for a multitude of large, midsized and startup healthcare and consumer/B2B clients. Mr. Reyes received his B.A. from the University of Chicago and J.D. from Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans.

Mr. Piergrossi joined BI - Miami in 2003. As President, Creative, Mr. Piergrossi is Brand Institute’s lead creative naming and brand name strategy official. He has led thousands of branding and naming initiatives during his 19 years with Brand Institute, developing creative nomenclature for a multitude of large, midsize and startup healthcare and consumer/B2B clients. Heis proficient in the disciplines related to the creation and marketing of brands, including strategy, positioning, trademark law and regulatory affairs. In his previous role as President, Operations & Communications, Mr. Piergrossi led Brand Institute’s Miami-based operations and global corporate communications. He continues to serve as head of media relations for BI. Mr. Piergrossi received his B.A. in Advertising from Barry University in Miami.

Mr. Gomez joined BI - Miami in 2000. He oversees Brand Institute’s Information Systems (IS) Department and leads technology initiatives for every department. Mr. Gomez started as a Software Engineer and has held many leadership roles in the IS department over his 22 years with the company. He currently serves as Brand Institute’s Senior Vice President of Information Systems. Mr. Gomez received his B.A. in Systems Engineering from the “Universidad de los Andes” and M.B.A from FIU Chapman Graduate School of Business.

Mrs. Lewis joined BI - Miami as Associate, Business Development in 2007, was promoted to Vice President, Professional Development in 2018 and most recently was promoted to Senior Vice President, Professional Development. Mrs. Lewis has worked on over 400 creative naming and name research projects including well-known brands such as KYMRIAH, STEGLUJAN, ZEMAIRA, TREMFYA and PROAIR RESPICLICK. She is responsible for brand management and new business development for the New York region. She earned a B.F.A. in MultimediaDesign from the University of Florida.

Mr. Diaz joined BI – Miami in 2000 as Creative Assistant Manager and then moved to Senior Webmaster in 2004. Mr. Diaz was promoted to Senior Vice President, Visual Identity in 2019 and oversees a team of creative designers and has been involved in over 750 logo, packaging and website development project. These include BIOVENTUS, SEQIRUS and CORREVIO corporate identities. Mr. Diaz has over 25 years of experience in Art & Advertising Design and website development.

Mr. Celebican joined BI - Miami as Associate, Business Development in 2002. He was formerly Director, Global New Business Development and was most recently promoted to Senior Vice President, Global New Business Development Operations. Mr. Celebican has worked on over 500 creative naming and name research projects including well-known brands such as COMIRNATY, MYLOTARG, REXULTI, MOVANTIK and BRILINTA. He is responsible for brand management and new business development in the New York region. He earned a B.A. in International Finance & Marketing from the University of Miami.

Ms. Lash joined BI - Miami in 2013. She serves as one of the leading experts in specialty creative projects ranging from brand strategy recommendations to live creative sessions. Ms. Lash has spearheaded thousands of creative naming, brand architecture and naming strategy projects during her tenure with Brand Institute, while also contributing to creative innovation and outfacing deliverable program design. Before joining BI, she worked as a Social Media & Marketing Coordinator and as a freelance writer and editor. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing from the University of Central Florida and her Master of Arts degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in Boston.

Ms. Suga joined Brand Institute - Miami in 2008. She leads the day-to-day operations of Brand Institute’s creative department and oversees the company’s diverse and global creative team. Ms. Suga is bilingual, speaking and writing fluently in English and Japanese. She has spearheaded creative naming projects and brand strategy recommendations for hundreds of global and Japanese-specific projects over the course of her tenure. As the company’s leading expert in name development for the Japanese market, she contributes katakana transliterations and Japanese language translations to projects that require those services. Ms. Suga received her B.A. in Law from Rissho University in Japan and her M.B.A. in International Business from Florida Metropolitan University in the US.

Ms. Mejia joined BI - Miami in 2013 as an Administrative Assistant. In November of 2014 Ms. Mejia joined the Market Research team as a Market Research Analyst and was later promoted to Market Research Team Lead. In 2017 she was promoted to Vice President of Market Research, where she oversaw research projects worldwide. During her tenure at Brand Institute, Ms. Mejia has worked on 3500+ global nonproprietary and brand name development initiatives encompassing multiple therapeutic areas and industries. In 2022, Ms. Mejia was promoted to Vice President, Brand Development. Ms. Mejia earned a B.A. in Public Relations and a M.B.A. in Advertising from Barry University.

Mr. Bazerghi joined BI - Miami as Vice President, Brand Development in 2020 and was recently promoted to Vice President, Commercial Research & Strategy. Prior to joining Brand Institute, Mr. Bazerghi was Vice President of Marketing at Alkermes where he was the commercial lead for marketing, brand strategy and lifecycle development for numerous brands, including the Brand Institute partnered brands Aristada and Aristada Initio. Prior to that, he served as Senior Director of New Product Planning, responsible for integrating Therapeutic Thought Leader involvement in product planning decisions and serving as the commercial lead for multiple clinical-stage medicines in Addiction, Schizophrenia, Major Depressive disorder, Bipolar I disorder, Binge Eating disorder, Pain, Multiple Sclerosis, Opioid-induced Constipation and Parkinson’s disease. Earlier in his career, he worked in award-winning marketing strategy and product management roles at Gilead Sciences, Abbott Laboratories (now AbbVie) and GSK, partnering on and overseeing the commercial development and marketing activities of numerous Brand Institute partnered brands, including the antiviral brands Hepsera, Viread, Norvir, Epivir, Kaletra and Synagis, the cardiovascular brand Tricor, the blockbuster brand Humira, the anti-infective brand Biaxin, and the anti-migraine brand Imitrex. He earned a B.B.A. from Université du Québec, Montréal, Canada.

Dr. Cristina Milesi joined BI - Miami in 2014 as a Drug Safety Evaluator. Prior to joining Brand Institute, she worked in various roles in retail pharmacy in Italy. In 2017, Dr. Milesi was promoted to Manager of Safety Research and to her current position of Vice President, Safety Research working on over 2,500 safety research initiatives. Dr. Milesi received her Pharm.D from the University of Milano College of Pharmacy.

Mr. Anderson joined BI - New York as Vice President, Trademarks & Head of Product in 2021. He is an expert in brand establishment, IP product management, IP software solutions and pharmaceutical name clearance. He has extensive experience, both inside and outside the pharmaceutical industry, developing customer-focused solutions and technologies that automated project workflows and improved the trademark filing and clearance process. Prior to joining Brand Institute, he served for 12 years at Corsearch, most recently as Director of Product Management, where he directed product development and lifecycle initiatives globally and set forth the vision and strategy for Corsearch’s online trademark screening global platforms. He served for 7 years at Pfizer/Wyeth, as Senior Trademark Specialist and Trademark Analyst.During his time at Pfizer and Wyeth, he was recognized for his innovation in technology workflow solutions in the pharmaceutical trademark establishment process, and administrated large trademark portfolios, working on major brands such as CELEBREX, EFFEXOR, ADVIL, ENBREL, PREMARIN, CENTRUM, ZOSYN, PROTONIX, RAPAMUNE, PREVNAR, and many others. Steve has collaborated on numerous product naming projects with cross-functional teams as a trademark professional and product manager. He earned a B.A. from University of Iowa, received his Master’s Certification in Applied Project Management from Villanova University, and has a level 6 Pragmatic Marketing certification.

Jacqueline joined BI-Miami in 2012 as a trademark attorney with BI’s in-house legal team. In a position that allowed her to apply her interests in both trademark law and linguistics, she used specialized software to screen and risk assess thousands of potential names against existing global trademarks to provide BI clients with the best possible legal recommendations. In 2018, Jacqueline was promoted to Vice President, Human Resources & Legal Affairs where she currently leads BI’s global HR team with recruitment, employment, and corporate law matters. Jacqueline received her law degree from the American University Washington College of Law in 2010.

Alejandro Bretana joined BI – Miami in 2014. As Vice President of Information Technology, Mr. Bretana oversees the IT department and is responsible for creating a strategic defense for the company’s data and its resources across the network. Mr. Bretana’s first position with BI was Helpdesk Technician, and he rapidly grew in title and skillset as he simultaneously pursued and received his bachelor's in IT from Florida International University in 2014.