Leadership
Our Leadership Galvanizes Us
Melissa M. Beck, Esq.
Melissa M. Beck is widely recognized for her strategic vision, collaborative leadership style, and unwavering commitment to building stronger, healthier, and more resilient communities. Currently, she is the inaugural Executive Director of the Sozosei Foundation, bringing over two decades of leadership in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors to the role.
At the Sozosei Foundation, Melissa has championed a bold philanthropic vision, focusing on increasing access to healthcare in order to eliminate the inappropriate use of jails and prisons as default treatment centers for people with mental illness. She has guided the Foundation’s strategic investments and built powerful cross-sector partnerships, while curating the highly anticipated Sozosei Summit—a biannual convening that brings together changemakers from across the country.
Before joining the Sozosei Foundation, Melissa led The Educational Foundation of America (EFA) through a critical period of transformation following an organizational reset. Under her leadership, EFA rebuilt its governance and accountability structures, welcomed a new staff, and designed a new grantmaking strategy across five key program areas primarily directing funds in Central Appalachia and the Southeastern U.S.
Previously, Melissa served as CEO of Family Legal Care (FLC), an award-winning nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to justice for families entangled in the Family Court system across New York State. At FLC, she demonstrated exceptional fundraising prowess, growing the organization’s budget from $300,000 to $3M during her tenure. Earlier in her career, she was a national advocate for criminal legal system reform, first at the Vera Institute of Justice and then helping launch The Nathaniel Project at CASES—the first alternative-to-incarceration program in the U.S. for individuals with mental illness.
Melissa’s early career as a litigator, as both a sex crimes prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, inform her commitment to reforming systems that disproportionately impact vulnerable communities. She has also contributed to the academic community as an adjunct professor of nonprofit management at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service and of political science at Fordham University.
A frequent speaker and writer on nonprofit leadership and social justice, Melissa hosted the podcast Call Declined and serves on the Board of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Research Institute (NRI) and on the Leadership Council of the Support Center for Nonprofit Management. She holds a J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, a certificate in nonprofit management from Columbia Business School, and a B.A. from Hampshire College.
Raised in the Henry Street Settlement House on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Melissa is a proud parent of two, a playwright, standup comic, and an avid supporter of the arts, nature, and lifelong learning.
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William H. Carson, MD
Prior to that, Dr. Carson served as President and CEO of OPDC (2010-2019), having co-founded Otsuka’s presence in Princeton, NJ, in 2002 to support the launch of Abilify in partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Under his leadership, Otsuka was able to launch the Abilify follow-on, Rexulti, and Jynarque for polycystic kidney disease and, ultimately, the first FDA-approved digital medicine, Abilify MyCite.
Born and raised in Columbia, SC, Dr. Carson graduated from Harvard College. He received his MD degree from Case Western Reserve University and did his psychiatry residency at Tufts/New England Medical Center. Prior to joining the industry, he was a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina from 1988-1998.
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Karen Gally
Karen is passionate about using her legal acumen to positively contribute to Otsuka’s business, mission and employee culture. Her leadership style is firmly rooted in Otsuka’s purpose to defy limitation, so that others can too. Driven by the belief that people perform best when they are challenged, she actively seeks ways to continuously encourage those around her to reach their full potential and fulfillment.
As Vice President & General Counsel, Karen focuses on legal issues related to clinical development, product commercialization, and corporate governance. Karen loves the diversity of the opportunities she has had in her Otsuka career, which has afforded her the ability to work on the legal issues for a compound from Phase I studies through its full lifecycle. In addition, Karen supports the Boards of Directors of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc. (OPDC) and Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. (OAPI).
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Karen’s ability to evolve and learn has served her well throughout her career. Prior to joining Otsuka in 2003, Karen was an Associate with Epstein, Becker & Green in the Washington, D.C. office in the national health law practice group. From 1996 through 2003, she represented national healthcare companies in the areas of durable medical equipment, home healthcare, and pharmaceuticals in criminal and civil investigations. Before earning her JD from the University of Maryland Carey Law School in Baltimore, Karen worked in public relations and public policy in Albany. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH.
Outside of Otsuka and the Sozosei Foundation, Karen is on the Board of Directors of the Alliance of Aging Research and the Alumni Board of the University of Maryland Carey Law School.
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Mary Chi Michael
Before coming to Otsuka, Mary spent nine years with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in Opinion Leader and Advocacy Relations, where she developed and executed Global Opinion Leader business strategies across the Specialty products portfolio. Prior to Wyeth, Mary was at Bristol-Myers Squibb for 13 years, in a variety of positions. At Otsuka, she has spearheaded the launch of the Global Council on Alzheimer’s Disease (GCAD), a collection of preeminent experts who influence the Alzheimer’s space, including science, medicine, technology, policy, advocacy, and caregiving. Through GCAD, Mary has jumpstarted technological innovation, framed a patient navigation model for Alzheimer’s, and helped improve communications between families and healthcare providers.
Mary is a graduate of Virginia Tech as well as Singularity University.
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Tarek Rabah
Throughout his career, Tarek has brought together high-functioning teams that challenge conventional thinking and deliver results in complex, challenging business environments. His commitment to empowering and supporting those around him has unlocked innovation and directly impacted the lives of patients. As a citizen of the world, Tarek brings an intuitive global perspective that infuses diversity, transparency, and performance accountability as key tenets in his business philosophy.
Tarek is a growth-oriented executive with extensive experience leading large, multifaceted commercial organizations. In his more than 20 years of experience, he has successfully launched brands and led divisions with AstraZeneca and Novartis in the United States, Europe, South America, Japan, and the Middle East. His expertise spans therapeutic areas in highly competitive and complex healthcare categories. For Tarek, leadership is not about having all the answers, rather, it is about creating an environment where Otsuka-people are deeply connected to their purpose, and the people they serve.
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Tarek joined Otsuka in 2022 as President & CEO of Otsuka’s North America Pharmaceutical Business, with responsibility in the US and Canada. Driven by his personal passion for improving the lives of people, Tarek is leading Otsuka’s commercial organization efforts to introduce products, programs, policies, and advocacy initiatives that help address unmet medical needs and untapped market opportunities.
He holds a BS in Biology and a BA in Business from the American University of Beirut, and an MBA from McGill University. He is fluent in five languages.
“We truly work to change lives at Otsuka—I am continuously inspired by Otsuka-people to uncover new ways to advance innovative health solutions, and for the opportunity to make an impact in the lives of those we serve.”
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Altha Stewart, MD
As a native Memphian and longstanding leader in Community Engagement, she has established working relationships with community organizations serving children and families, and strong ties with community health, behavioral health, and social and human service providers across the county to assist with referrals for needed services.
Dr. Stewart is President of the American Association for Community Psychiatry and a past President of the American Psychiatric Association, Association of Women Psychiatrists, the Black Psychiatrists of America, and the American Psychiatric Foundation. Through these positions and others, she has long taken a leading national role on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in medicine and how discrimination and other social determinants affect a community’s health and well-being. At UTHSC she currently leads research initiatives to identify and address issues related to lack of knowledge and awareness about access to treatment for behavioral health and chronic medical conditions in persistent poverty populations and long-standing systemic health inequities which contribute to the poor health outcomes in these groups. She has co-edited two volumes of Psychiatric Clinics of North America: Workforce and Diversity in Psychiatry (2022) and Achieving Mental Health Equity (2020), as well as the book, Black Mental Health: Patients, Providers and Systems (2018). She co-authored a chapter in the 2022 edition of the Textbook of Community Psychiatry titled “The Role of the Psychiatrist in Community Consultation and Collaboration”.
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