Burak Aktan
Head of Business Operations, Clinical Sciences and Study Management
Merck
Burak Aktan is Head of Business Operations in Clinical Sciences and Study Management with over 10 years at Merck and 16 years of experience across the pharmaceutical industry. He leads strategic initiatives at the intersection of clinical operations, automation, and digital enablement, with a focus on transforming complex operating models into scalable, data‑driven solutions. Over the past decade, Burak has designed and deployed a portfolio of internally developed tools spanning areas such as resourcing, risk assessment, operational planning, and performance management. He is known for driving modernization through pragmatic automation, internal application development, and analytics that improve transparency, accelerate decision‑making, and increase operational efficiency. His work emphasizes sustainable innovation—balancing technology, governance, and change management to deliver measurable business outcomes across all therapeutic areas with early‑ and late‑stage portfolios.