BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 13, 2026--
Beaconcure, Inc., a leader in trusted AI solutions for clinical development, today announced the appointment of Seth Houston as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 13, 2026. Houston will lead the company through its next phase of growth as life sciences organizations increasingly adopt artificial intelligence to improve the quality, speed, and efficiency of clinical development.
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Houston brings more than 25 years of executive leadership experience spanning healthcare technology, enterprise software, and the life sciences industry. Throughout his career, he has built and scaled commercial organizations, developed strategic partnerships, and helped pharmaceutical and medical technology companies leverage innovative software solutions to accelerate business transformation and customer success.
"We are delighted to welcome Seth to Beaconcure," said Anne Whitaker, Interim Chair of the Board. "Seth's proven ability to build high-performing organizations, develop lasting customer relationships, and scale technology companies makes him the right leader for Beaconcure's next chapter. As demand continues to grow for trusted AI solutions in clinical development, we are confident his leadership will help expand our market presence and deliver even greater value to our customers, partners, and employees."
Prior to joining Beaconcure, Houston served as Chief Commercial Officer at MediSpend, where he led the company's global commercial organization, including sales, account management, solution engineering, partner alliances, and marketing. Earlier in his career, he held executive leadership positions at IQVIA, OpenQ, Wolters Kluwer Health, and Proscape Technologies, where he helped life sciences organizations modernize operations through innovative SaaS and data-driven technology solutions.
"I'm honored to join Beaconcure at such an exciting time for both the company and the industry," said Seth Houston, Chief Executive Officer of Beaconcure. "AI is transforming the way life sciences organizations develop and deliver new therapies, and Beaconcure is uniquely positioned to help customers adopt these technologies with confidence. Our platform combines innovation with the quality, transparency, and governance required in regulated environments. I look forward to working alongside our talented team, customers, and partners as we continue to scale the business and help shape the future of clinical development."
Founded in 2016, Beaconcure has become a trusted partner to leading biopharmaceutical companies and CROs by modernizing clinical development through AI-enabled validation, workflow automation, and collaboration. Its Verify platform helps organizations reduce manual effort, improve quality, strengthen compliance, and accelerate the review of clinical analyses while maintaining complete traceability and audit readiness.
About Beaconcure
Beaconcure empowers biopharmaceutical companies and CROs to modernize clinical development through trusted AI solutions for validation, quality, and regulatory workflows. The company's Verify platform enables teams to review, validate, and govern clinical analyses with greater efficiency, transparency, and confidence while maintaining the quality and compliance required for regulated environments.
To learn more about Beaconcure's platform and how it is helping life sciences organizations modernize clinical development, visit www.beaconcure.com.
Seth Houston, Chief Executive Officer at Beaconcure
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States and Iran each asserted Monday they controlled the Strait of Hormuz after a weekend of attacks stretching across the wider Middle East, further threatening any diplomacy to end the war.
The attacks, sparked by Iran striking a container ship Sunday in the strait off the coast of Oman, again underlined that the waterway that once saw a fifth of the world's traded crude oil and natural gas pass through it remained the key issue in negotiations. The narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf has seen shipping disrupted since the start of the war as Iran maintained a chokehold on it by attacking commercial vessels around it, intimidating shippers.
Iran and the U.S. are nearly at the midway point of the 60-day period of an interim deal that was supposed to set up talks for a permanent end to the war. Instead, it has devolved into a series of attacks over the strait and its future, worrying world leaders the Iran war fully could resume.
“A return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement.
The U.S. military’s Central Command described its forces as hitting dozens of sites in the strikes Monday, including air defense systems, radar sites, missile and drone equipment and small boats.
“The Strait of Hormuz is a vital maritime corridor for global trade,” Central Command said. “Iran does not control it.”
The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also called for the strait to be open as it was before the war.
“The Strait of Hormuz has to be opened, freedom of navigation has to be respected,” she said.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a key power center in the country's theocracy that controls its ballistic missile arsenal, sharply rejected America's statement.
“The Strait of Hormuz is our territory, and we will not allow a rogue and child-killing army from the other side of the world to continue its illegal interference in it,” the Guard said.
Missile alert sirens sounded three times Monday in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, and Kuwait said it was intercepting hostile fire. There was no immediate word on damage in either country.
In Jordan, the kingdom's military said it shot down four Iranian missiles in an incident that "resulted in zero casualties or material damage.” Jordan also hosts U.S. military forces and aircraft.
In Iran, authorities reported attacks in Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Markazi provinces and at least two people were killed, according to state-run IRNA news agency. Semiofficial Iranian media also reported strikes on Sistan and Baluchestan province as well.
Iranian attacks on Sunday stretched Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan and even Oman — whose territorial waters with Iran make up the strait. Oman, which long has been an interlocutor between Tehran and the West, summoned an Iranian diplomat to criticize the attack.
Meanwhile Monday, a base belonging to the armed wing of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, an Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in Iraq’s semiautonomous northern Kurdistan region, came under drone attack. Rebaz Sharifi, commander of the Kurdistan Militia Corps, said the strikes targeted the group’s Chamshar base, without giving details on casualties or damage. No group immediately claimed responsibility.
The U.S. military early Sunday said it hit some 140 targets, including missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites — a far-heavier set of attacks than in two previous rounds of strikes in the last week.
“We bombed the hell out of them last night,” U.S. President Donald Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Iran retaliated by attacking nations in the region hosting U.S. military forces, while insisting it alone must control the strait and potentially charge vessels for traveling through it.
Iran described the strait as being closed, while the U.S. military and Trump asserted that the strait remained open.
Iran’s chokehold on the strait, however, has loosened as the U.S. military provided support to vessels moving along a southern route hugging the coastline of Oman. That new route has angered Iran, which launched repeated attacks on ships using it.
Iran’s grip on the strait led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei blamed Washington for the chaos gripping the Mideast.
“Considering the memorandum of understanding’s fourteen clauses, the Americans have, in this brief period, in one way or another, slaughtered its various components,” Baghaei told journalists Monday.
Baghaei also said Iran wouldn't agree to visits by the International Atomic Energy Agency to Iranian nuclear sites bombed in 2025 by the U.S., where Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium is believed still to be.
Trump suggested last week that the interim deal in the war was “over.” But mediators, including Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt, have continued efforts to reach a final agreement to end the war.
A regional official involved in mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss talks, said efforts to shore up the ceasefire continued Sunday. Pakistan said its foreign minister spoke by phone with Iran’s top diplomat and urged “de-escalation” on both sides.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, unseen since the war began, on Saturday vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Iranians would avenge his killing.
Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Stella Martany in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.
A group of people stands in shallow water as a cargo ship appears anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
Commercial vessels are seen in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
