Cato Research CEO and leadership

Chris Brennan is a seasoned general counsel and business executive who has managed all facets of complex legal, compliance, human resources, regulatory, and government affairs matters, while serving as a valued member of executive management teams for the past 20 years.

After serving as an active duty officer in the United States Air Force for over five years during the Gulf War and then earning his law degree, Brennan practiced corporate law for five years at the two prominent and internationally recognized law firms of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP and Dechert LLP. Brennan left private practice to launch a venture-capital-backed specialty pharmaceutical company as the second employee. Over the next five years, he served in many administrative and operational capacities, tending to all legal, compliance, human resources, quality, and manufacturing matters as the startup company grew to nearly 100 employees worldwide with a portfolio of over a dozen pharmaceutical products. Brennan went on to serve as a senior member of management as executive vice president, general counsel, and chief compliance officer within the CRO industry at PharmaNet, Bioclinica, and at the world’s largest vitamin, mineral, herbal, and supplement company, Nature’s Bounty. During this time, Brennan worked closely with various well-respected private equity firms, including The Carlyle Group, H.I.G. Capital, JLL Partners, and Water Street Healthcare Partners.

After earning a Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University, Brennan went on to earn a Master of Science from Syracuse University and his Juris Doctorate from Fordham University School of Law, where he held the top student position of Editor-in-Chief of the Fordham Law Review.

David Godwin is a sales and marketing executive who currently serves as chief revenue officer at CATO SMS. In this capacity, Godwin is responsible for all business development and marketing activities.

Godwin has over 35 years of experience in healthcare and, more specifically, the clinical development industry. Prior to his current role, Godwin was at Parexel International where he most recently served as the senior vice president of global business development and as a member of the executive committee. During his over-20-year tenure in business development at Parexel, Godwin built and led high performing global teams that consistently drove business growth and market expansion, including the successful launch of an informatics business, establishment of industry-leading sponsor partnerships, development of business across Asia, and the creation in 2010 of a business focused exclusively on small and emerging sponsor companies. Prior to Parexel, Godwin worked in several teaching hospitals where he held management positions, including department director in information management.

Godwin earned a B.S. in health information management from Ithaca College and an MBA from Boston College.

Richard Shimota is a senior finance professional with more than 30 years of experience leading financial teams in professional services organizations spanning multiple industries. Shimota joined the organization in June 2019 as chief financial officer. In his current role, Shimota is responsible for leading the finance organization as well business technology.

Prior to joining the organization, Shimota served as the chief financial officer for inVentiv Health Clinical Solutions where he oversaw the integration of the organization and partnered with operations to build out the operating infrastructure and improve operational performance and consistency at scale, enabling the business to deliver above market growth and financial returns. inVentiv Health merged with INC Research in 2017 and became Syneos Health. Shimota served in a similar capacity for the next 16 months until he left the organization in December 2018.

Prior to joining inVentiv Health, Shimota served as a senior financial executive in numerous professional services companies, primarily focused on engineering and construction. Shimota began his career with Raytheon and spent time in appliance manufacturing and corporate audit.

Shimota holds a Bachelor of Business Administration as well as a Master of Business Administration, both from the University of Wisconsin. Shimota is a certified public accountant.

John R Howe is an Exec VP/CFO at Cato Research. He has worked as Assistant VP:Budgets & Planning at Cato Research, Senior VP/Controller at Cato Research, and Director:Budgets & Planning at Cato Research.