Meet the Members of Our Advisory Board
The PHALANX8 Advisory Board provides seasoned oversight and practical judgment to strengthen the firm’s strategy, operating discipline, and delivery standards. Board members bring diverse leadership experience across life sciences and adjacent regulated sectors, informing PHALANX8‘s risk prioritization, scalable capability development, and performance under scrutiny. Their role is not ceremonial. It is active guidance on where PHALANX8 invests, how it grows, and how it maintains inspection-credible rigor as the firm scales.
Jon Cofsky
Strategic Advisor
Jon Cofsky is the Co-Founder & Creative Director of Whitepenny, a brand & digital strategy firm in Haddonfield, NJ. Over the 20-year history of Whitepenny, Jon's leadership has been instrumental in its growth and in building a diverse client base, from local companies to global brands. In his role as Creative Director, he brings vision and strategic thinking to each client, driving the creation of effective communication strategies and assets.
Jon is not just a business leader but a dedicated community member and is actively involved with local and national non-profits. His roles on the boards of Rails to Trails (Chair), the Markeim Arts Center (Chair), the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey, Executive Leaders for Advisory Boards, and the Haddonfield Youth Basketball Association demonstrate his passion for community service.
Jon lives in Haddonfield, NJ, with his wife Abbey and their three boys, Will, Sam, and Jake, and is a proud alumnus of Boston College.
Jon is a member of Executive Leaders for Advisory Boards.
Mark B. Hassenplug
Board Chair & Chief Executive Officer
Mark B. Hassenplug is a life sciences executive and consulting leader with deep experience across regulatory compliance, quality, supply chain, and transaction support in highly regulated environments. He previously led MAETRICS, a regulatory and compliance consulting firm focused on the life sciences sector. In addition to his role at PHALANX8, he serves as Managing Partner of Gryphon Citadel, a management consulting firm.
Earlier in his career, he served as Global Life Sciences Advisory and Supply Chain Leader at EY, where he shaped advisory strategy and supported complex transformation and performance-improvement initiatives for life sciences clients. Throughout his career, he has led major life sciences remediation efforts, supporting executive teams through critical compliance recovery and operational stabilization. He has also advised on life sciences M&A programs, including diligence and asset fitness assessments to evaluate readiness, risk exposure, and value-creation potential in acquisition contexts. His professional background includes senior leadership roles at Kearney, BearingPoint, KPMG, PwC, and EY.
In addition to his advisory and operating work, Mark is a recognized thought leader on enterprise transformation, compliance, and strategic execution. His perspectives have been featured in global publications, including The Wall Street Journal and Alto Nivel (Mexico’s equivalent of Forbes), as well as other international business periodicals. His work spans corporate strategy, operating model design, and large-scale transformation across organizations ranging from pre-IPO growth companies to multi-billion-dollar global enterprises.
Mark brings extensive international experience, having worked across 47 countries on five continents. His time living and working as an expatriate in Canada, China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria has informed a pragmatic, culturally grounded approach to leadership and advisory work in complex global environments.
He holds an MBA from the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University and a BA from the State University of New York College at Potsdam.
Thomas P. Scurria
Strategic Advisor, Chief Financial Officer
Thomas P. Scurria is a finance and operations executive with a track record across enterprise-scale services organizations and founder-led operating environments. His work spans corporate finance, FP&A, treasury, capital planning, and business development, with a consistent focus on cash performance and resilient operating discipline
Over 23 years at ARAMARK, Tom held senior roles across corporate planning, development, and treasury. He managed complex financial vehicles, including a $450 million retirement plan master trust, and led interest-rate hedging strategy following a leveraged buyout involving approximately $1 billion of debt. He later led nationwide retail operations exceeding $130 million in annual revenue, secured more than $80 million in new business, and improved divisional profitability by 3x
Tom currently serves as an executive advisor to a medical device company and previously served as interim CFO for a project management professional services firm. His experience includes developing long-range financial strategies, optimizing capital structures, and strengthening executive reporting to support clear, timely decisions during periods of growth and change.
As an entrepreneur, Tom helped build and finance a multi-location restaurant franchise group, leading financing, legal, and administrative operations while staying close to day-to-day execution. He brings that operator’s lens to forecasting, cost control, and value creation.
Tom holds an MBA in Finance from Drexel University and is a Certified Public Accountant, having started his career at Deloitte & Touche. He recently stepped down as Vice Chair of Executive Leaders for Advisory Boards (ELAB).
