
Payment experience—including timeliness, transparency, and consistency—is emerging as a key operational factor influencing site financial stability, working relationships with sponsors and CROs, and overall clinical trial execution.
Holly Wilson Leslie is a seasoned pharmaceutical leader with over 20 years of experience in clinical financial operations on top of a decade in systems integration. Her expertise spans global financial operations, customer governance, and strategic transformation, with a strong focus on leveraging technology to drive efficiency and scalability. Leslie has held key roles at Medidata, Egnyte, DrugDev, CFS Clinical, and now serves as Vice President of Services for Ledger Run where she is responsible for managing trial payment and contracting services for customers. She is committed to advancing this often-overlooked area of the clinical research ecosystem, recognizing its impact on site sustainability and, ultimately, patient outcomes.

Payment experience—including timeliness, transparency, and consistency—is emerging as a key operational factor influencing site financial stability, working relationships with sponsors and CROs, and overall clinical trial execution.

Holly Leslie, vice president of services at Ledger Run, discusses how persistent payment friction, increasing administrative burden from AI-generated queries, and lack of sponsor accountability are pushing sites to become more selective—favoring sponsors that pay transparently, reduce operational strain, and treat site experience with the same rigor as patient recruitment.

Holly Leslie, vice president of services at Ledger Run, explains why site selectivity is not yet universal, but increasingly driven by larger, more sophisticated sites that are demanding stronger remuneration policies and greater leverage in sponsor relationships.