2022 Speakers

Ajan is an experienced biotechnology CEO with a track record in drug development, biotech transactions and commercialisation. Over 20 years, he has served as the Global Head of Emerging Technologies for Roche Group (SWX: ROG), Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Novacyt S.A (LON: NCYT) and CEO of Celixir Ltd.

With Prof. Sir Martin Evans, Ajan founded Celixir, and developed a novel cardiac cellular medicine which completed pre-clinical development and won FDA, MHRA and EU regulatory trial approvals. Celixir completed a licensing for the Japan market only with Daiichi Sankyo, a Japanese Big Pharma company which included a £12.5 million upfront payment and an £5 million equity investment which valued Celixir at ~£220M.

Ajan is an alumni of Harvard Business School (AMP) and is recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship. He is also a graduate of the University of Oxford (MSc Experimental Therapeutics), Kellogg Business School (MBA) Northwestern University and University of London (BDS). He has represented England at the Hockey Masters World Cup and European Championships.

Dr. JEANNE completed his PhD in biochemistry and cell biology within CNRS 7369 MEDyC research unit. He has authored 15 peer-reviewed scientific publications on TSP-1 pathobiology and won numerous international awards. During past professional experience as a project manager, he developed his expertise in translational drug development while building capacity to manage research programs, partnerships, and reach deliverables. As a co-inventor of TAX2 patents, he engineered the first ever antagonists being selective for TSP- 1/CD47 interaction. Beyond scientific background, Albin JEANNE acquired strong management skills and strategic insights as he completed the Challenge+ program at HEC international business school. He co-founded Apmonia Therapeutics early 2019 and serves as President and CSO.

Alex is a partner at Syncona. He is a Director on the Boards of SwanBio Therapeutics and Anaveon. Previously, he was a member of the Healthcare Investment Banking team at Jefferies, where he worked on a range of financings and mergers and acquisitions across the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. Alex has a PhD in Immunology from the University of Cambridge.

Anette Sommer is a biochemist by training and has more than 25 years of experience in Pharma R&D. Anette is the Emerging Science & Innovation – Lead Oncology Europe at Pfizer. In this role, she is responsible for search and evaluation of novel preclinical stage opportunities for cancer therapies in Europe – starting from validated target up to IND stage assets and covering also R&D technology platforms.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Anette held several positions in drug discovery at Schering AG and Bayer AG, Berlin, Germany – covering all stages of the R&D value chain: from target identification to members in global project teams for clinical stage assets. As a Principal Scientist she supported external academic alliances and consortia, due diligences and the creation of a spin-off company in the ADC field. Anette studied biochemistry at the Universities of Hannover (Germany) and Glasgow (UK), obtained her PhD at the Medical School Hannover, and was a PostDoc at Schering AG. Anette is co-author of >50 scientific publications and >10 patent applications.

Bart is a biotech CEO with over 30 years’ experience in innovative drug development, biotech financing, business development and licensing. He has extensive experience in working with R&D  based companies in several therapeutic areas, including cancer, inflammatory diseases and fibrosis. Bart Wuurman has contributed to successful biotech company exits in the UK and in the Netherlands and he was responsible for pharma licensing deals worth over $700 million. Bart was CEO of De Novo pharmaceuticals (UK), AM-Pharma (NL), Lanthio Pharma (NL) and Lyramid (Australia) and is Director of Hercules Pharmaceuticals. Bart was also Managing Director of DDF Ventures, a life-science focused venture fund with a portfolio of start-up companies in The Netherlands.

Benedicte completed her DPhil in life sciences at Curie Institute Paris working on neurotrophic receptors and neuronal differentiation. After a post-doctoral position at the University of California in San Francisco conducting research on adult neural stem cells and experimental models of demyelinating diseases, Benedicte co-founded a biomedical start-up dedicated to the development of innovative compounds in neurological diseases as their lead scientist. During that time, she was in charge of designing & managing scientific projects, including performance measurement, cost & risk management, as well as project strategy evaluation.

In 2011, Benedicte started her own consulting company helping Biotech companies plan and manage their preclinical studies in the Life Sciences field, as well as develop strategies to bring drug candidates to the clinical phases.

In 2013, she joined SATT IdfInnov a French government baked Technology Transfer Office in Paris, France. Benedicte worked as a Technology Transfer Manager in the Healthcare Department. She joined Oxford University Innovation, the Technology Transfer Office of the University of Oxford, in January 2017, as a Principal Licensing & Ventures Manager, where she assists Oxford researchers with IP protection, licensing & spinout formation, and liaising with technology seekers and investors.

Benedicte is an active member of the Project Management Institute and holds a PMP® certification.

Bobby is involved in Global Entrepreneurial & Ecosystem Development at illumina, working on models that will accelerate the creation of genomics and VC backable startups.  Through Illumina For Startups, he co-launched Illumina accelerator UK, a VC-partnered model in China (Sequoia) and currently working on models in Australia, Singapore and Israel.  His function is to work with investors, lifescience stakeholders and startups to create communities, that promote this ambition.  He intends on raising funds that support early-stage startups.  Previously, he was Head, Market and Business Development EMEA, and prior to joining Illumina spent time in the NHS and several years in Pharma.  His background is Neuroscience & Genetics, IT.  He is a member of BIAs Genomic Council, mentor at Cambridge Judge and Oxford University Business School and supports NHS Innovation Accelerator.

At Karaktero, Carri leads Capital Markets Advisory, acting as an advisor and partner to Institutional Investors, Founders, CXOs and Boards.

Following the completion of her PhD in Neuroscience at the ETH-Zürich and biomedical research at Novartis, Carri established herself for over a decade in Life Science Finance. With dedicated coverage, she established buy-side Biotech at Credit Suisse and continued her Finance career in Investment Banking and Pharma companies. These roles included multiple global corporate healthcare transactions at leading institutions.

Carri’s unique Life Science expertise as a former molecular biologist, senior executive in the board room, Equities professional at leading banks and management consultant allows her to provide unique insights and an extensive professional network to identify strategic assets in Biopharma and Digital Health.

A native of Detroit, Carri has worked and lived in 5 countries so remains fascinated with working with entrepreneurs across geographies to  encourage bold new ideas unfold.

Cees van Rijn studied Physics at Amsterdam and Leiden University. He was appointed professor in Micro and Nanotechnology for Food and Health at Wageningen University and is currently a physics professor in Microfluidics and Nanotechnology at University of Amsterdam. His current interest is in studying drug degradation during nebulization and in validating methods for nebulization and inhalation of complex nanoparticle drug and biological formulations.

Chris is a Partner and Head of Life Sciences at UK law firm Penningtons Manches Cooper, based in Oxford.  He is a commercial and IP lawyer specialising in licensing transactions, with many years’ experience of acting for companies and institutions working in life sciences, engineering, environmental sciences and publishing.  He has particular expertise in technology transfer, acting both for research institutions and their spin-out companies. Chris is top-ranked in Chambers, in the Legal 500 Hall of Fame, a Transactional IP Star and Highly Recommended for transactions by IAM Patent 1000.

Dani joined +ND Capital in our Lausanne office in 2019. He is currently a board member of  Cytoki, EVIR Therapeutics, Vandria, Osasuna Therapeutics and a board observer of Amazentis. He is also a former board member of Arctos Medical (sold to Novartis) and CellPoint (sold to Galapagos) .

Prior to this, Dani spent 12 years as a venture capital investor in the life sciences and 10 years in academic research. Dani’s motivation has been to translate scientific innovation into better healthcare. He is passionate about working with entrepreneurs to develop better medicines and cures. Prior to joining +ND Capital, Dani served on the board of 15 companies in Europe and the US, ranging from drug development to medical devices and digital health. Some of these companies have developed viruses capable of curing cancer, engineered proteins to tackle rare diseases and invented devices to keep heart failure patients safe. Dani became a venture capital investor at Index Ventures (Geneva), to join later Aravis Ventures (Zurich) and Imperial Innovations – IP Group (London). During his previous life as a scientist at the University of Geneva and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)  in Lausanne, Dani conducted research in immunology and virology (HIV).

Dani holds a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Barcelona and an executive MBA from EOI Business School (Madrid).

Deborah has a bachelor’s degree from the University of London, an E*MBA from Copenhagen Business School, a MSc from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD from Dundee Business School focused on Life Sciences Intermediaries.

Deborah is currently responsible for developing activities under the Industrial/Innovation Strategy across the University of Oxford and is a senior member of the Innovation & Business Partnerships Team, where she engages with industry to build strategic partnerships that leverage the research strengths from the University.

She has previously worked at the Oxford Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) as the Life Sciences specialist for the Region and helped to establish the Health Tec Cluster at the Harwell Science Campus as part of her remit. This role allowed her to engage with many life sciences and biotech companies in the region and beyond.  Deborah has also worked in senior positions at the Universities of Edinburgh and Dundee and also as the leader of the Cluster Network BioDundee for a few years. In addition she has also worked for a couple of the UK Research Councils – the MRC and BBSRC. While at The University of Edinburgh, she led on the successful establishment of a new genomics centre.  Then once she moved to the University of Oxford she used her previous genomics experience to spearhead the funding for the new £30m Nucleic Acid Therapies Accelerator (NATA).

Deborah has now been in Oxford for 5years and has been involved in a range of large initiatives that involved growing a consortia. She is currently project managing a relatively new programme that brings together 2 different sectors (Quantum Computing and Drug Discovery) and has 6 partner organisations, called the QuPharma programme. Then in 2021 she co-founded The Oxford Water Quality Centre that brings together under one umbrella, research from across the University to solve a myriad of problems related to water. Some of the themes that impact on human, animal and plant health, include AMR, hormones and pharmaceuticals in wastewater.

Developing strategic alliances and partnerships is an important part of the work she has done in the last 15years and she will be presenting some of the learning gained along the way.

Passionate about serendipity and the exponential economy, Didier is a serial entrepreneur.

He has, in fact, participated in the creation and investment of more than 50 digital startups. He has an international background with an MBA from Columbia University, a PhD from INRIA, and an engineering degree from École Polytechnique and Télécom ParisTech.

For 12 years, he worked in the telecom industry and became President of France Telecom North America and then Business Coach for the European Commission’s H2020 program. He also taught for many years at the Institut Mine Telecom – Business School (IMT-BS) and directed the Executive MBA “Leading Innovation in a Digaital World”,

Co-founder of Digital Pharma Lab, he is committed to the transformation of the healthcare industry through digital innovation, drawing on his real-life experience of transforming several industries. Didier has led the success of many relationships between pharmaceutical companies and healthcare startups through the “Open Design Thinking®” methodology.

Dmitrij is a core member of the investment team working on new investments across funds and therapeutic areas. Through his previous roles within R&D and Business Development at Bayer Pharma in Ophthalmology and Cardiovascular Diseases, he is actively contributing with his expertise to driving and supporting new and existing investments in these areas. Via involvement in creating the CNS company VectorY and anti-viral company Covicept, his portfolio involvement covers various stages, treatment modalities and diseases.

Dmitrij currently serves as a board member for Oxular, ARMGO Pharma and Complement Therapeutics, and as a board observer for VectorY. He previously served as a board observer and R&D committee member of Gyroscope Therapeutics that was acquired for up to $1.5BN by Novartis in December 2021.

Dominik obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of Basel in Switzerland. Following research projects at the University College London (toxicity), German Cancer Research Center (RNAi and cancer), University of Basel (targeted nanomedicines and DNA delivery) and the University of Zurich (mRNA-based genome editing), Dominik joined the team of Prof. Pieter Cullis at the University of British Columbia to focus on RNA delivery utilizing lipid nanoparticle (LNP) systems. Dominik had leadership roles within the NanoMedicines Innovation Network (NMIN – a Canadian Networks of Centres of Excellence), he co-founded and led NMIN`s NanoCore to support >30 projects with advanced nucleic acid delivery technologies, and he served as a Board Member of the Controlled Release Society Focus Group “Gene Delivery and Genome Editing”. Dominik has a proven track record in nanomedicines enabling tissue as well as cell specific drug and gene delivery. To translate next-generation LNP technologies into the clinic, Dr. Witzigmann co-founded and leads the LNP-nucleic acid company NanoVation Therapeutics.

Dr Eve Hanks is the CEO & Founder of MI:RNA Ltd, a novel veterinary diagnostic testing company. She is a veterinary surgeon, research scientist, holds a PhD in immunology and a post graduate certificate in medicine and she has a background in clinical pathology. She is an innovator and entrepreneur with a particular interest in biomarker research and immune system interactions with nucleotides in mammals. She is an advocate for improving disease control in animal health.

Fausto has a double PhD (Information Technology and Computer Science), earning his second master’s and PhD at the University of California, Irvine. Fausto also holds multiple certifications from MIT, Columbia University, London School of Economics and Political Science and soon also from Kellogg School of Management, University of Cambridge and University of California, Berkeley. He has worked in multi-disciplinary teams and has over 20 years of experience in academia and industry.

As a Physicist, Mathematician, Engineer, Computer Scientist, and High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Data Science expert, Fausto has worked on key projects at European and American government institutions and with key individuals, like Nobel Prize winner Michael J. Prather. After his time at NVIDIA corporation in Silicon Valley, Fausto worked at the IBM T J Watson Center in New York on Exascale Supercomputing Systems for the US government (e.g., Livermore and Oak Ridge Labs).

Georges holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Paris VI and a business & management training from the ESSEC Business School. For more than 25 years, he has worked at different positions in the pharma/biotech industry as scientist, drug discovery professional, business development expert and entrepreneur supporting biotechnology companies building their pipeline and strategy at the forefront of modern science. He is currently serving as board member of different biotechs, including Alia Therapeutics and Apmonia, and as Chief Biotech Studio at the investment firm eureKARE.  Georges was CEO of YSOPIA Bioscience. Prior to this, he was BD & Intellectual Property VP and member of Celyad management team. He successfully held various senior BD positions at Cellectis, Galapagos, ProStrakan and Sanofi-Aventis and led strategic alliance consulting assignments.

Gerald has a background in Management Consultancy and academia. A London Business School alumnus with a Doctorate from Oxford University, he has experience of several start-ups and their exits, with considerable experience in building company executive boards, which has led him now to sit on VC investment committees, among other roles.

In 2010, he founded Innovation DB. Developed under contract from the UK MOD, IDB has now created an AI-enhanced data gathering system, that identifies, captures and describes emerging technologies, drawn from around 20,000 academic institutions. This provides an unparalleled dataset of research with real-world applications, that includes all biotech and pharma-related tech transfer activity to be found globally.

Professor Gino Martini is the Chief Executive for the Precision Health Technologies Accelerator (PHTA) which is the University of Birmingham’s signature health and life sciences research facility, providing approximately 70,000 sq ft of state-of-art laboratory, incubation and collaboration space and was supported with funding from GBSLEP.

PHTA will soon occupy the top three floors of No.1 BHIC – the flagship building of the ambitious Birmingham Health Innovation Campus which is being delivered in partnership with experienced investor developers Bruntwood SciTech.

Prior to his role at the PHTA Professor Luigi “Gino” Martini was the Chief Scientific Officer for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

He is a registered practising Industrial Pharmacist and Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society who divides his time between the pharmaceutical industry and Academia as a visiting professor in pharmaceutical Innovation for a number of HEI’s in the UK.

Prior to that he spent over 17 years at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, Roche Product Ltd. and Shire Pharmaceuticals working in a variety of commercial, innovative technology-based and medical affairs roles, directing groups in the US, Europe and Emerging Markets.

Professor Martini has an MBA specialising in SME success and business failure awarded with distinction from the University of Liverpool.

He is a past chair of the Industrial Pharmacists Group of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and past president of the European Industrial Pharmacists Group.

In 2016, Professor Martini was appointed a Fellow of the European Industrial Pharmacists Group.

Dr Grégoire Prevost, Founder, Owner & CEO, is a serial entrepreneur who currently manages 3 companies based in France with one holistic approach to speed up the life sciences research value transformation through networking development, expertise identification, and education of start-up creators. Grégoire brings more than 30 years of experience in research and development in oncology.

   He obtained his PhD in Molecular and cell biology in 1989 from the University of Tours (France) and his national habilitation to direct research work in 1993. He started his postdoctoral research career at IOCMH (Bobigny, France) and BIOMEASURE (Milford, MA, USA).

   In 1995, he was appointed Head of research in oncology at Beaufour-IPSEN (Les Ulis, France) and held progressive positions at IPSEN, including Director of Translational Research in oncology, Director of Scientific Affairs in oncology and management team member of the oncology products portfolio. In 2011, Grégoire joined InteRNA Technologies (Utrecht, the Netherlands) as Chief Development Officer to identify and develop miRNA therapeutics.

CIPREVO was created in 2013 to favor the interactions between partners from different fields having the same goal: prevent and cure cancer diseases.

   In 2016, in collaboration with his partners, Grégoire co-founded Life Sciences Leadership School to transfer knowledge from international experts to talented individuals who want to create or support life sciences companies. In parallel, also in 2016, Grégoire launched a third company called International Bio-Business Services to promote networking between the academic and private partners involved in the development of life sciences. In 2018, Gregoire has been recognized as Ambassador of the European Association for Cancer Research.

Heinrich has his professional focus on development of pharmaceutical products in the field of nanotechnology and drug & RNA delivery. In his Ph.D. in the group of Prof. Dr. Helmuth Möhwald at Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz and academic career in Italy and Brazil he researched lipid membranes and organized bio-molecular systems. Having moved to pharmaceutical industry he developed nanoparticle products with application in cancer, inflammatory diseases autoimmune diseases and other indications. At BioNTech, he is the scientific lead of the formulation and analytics department, which develops RNA therapeutics based on a broad scope of delivery technologies.

Hervé de Cidrac is a Senior Vice President and the President of Zoetis France, the world leading animal health company. In this role, Hervé is responsible for  the commercial operations in France.   With an extensive experience working across functions and geographies in human and animal healthcare, Hervé is a senior business leader who consistently demonstrated business acumen and ability to build strong teams.  His career includes 20 years of General Management in France, Europe and the US for major pharmaceutical companies (Lilly,Teva, Sanofi, Pfizer),

He holds a Business School Degree from the Neoma Business School.

Jarne has more than 30 years of experience within Life Sciences in CEO and Vice President roles in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech industries. Furthermore, he has extensive venture capital experience as Managing Partner responsible for three Danish venture funds with 24 companies. Throughout his venture capital days, he has worked to develop both technologies and people to secure financing and eventually realizing exits with strong returns to the investors.

Jarne is currently CEO of Swiss based Stonehaven Incubate, the only dedicated animal health incubator successfully bringing human innovations to animal health.

Jerome Samson joined the European Investment Fund in 2017 as an Investment Manager, as part of the team investing across Europe in Venture Capital funds. He represents the EIF on the Advisory Boards of a diversified portfolio of funds, most of which operate in the fields of life sciences or climate & environmental impact, either with a focus on early or later stage investments. Prior to joining the EIF, he has been doing direct venture capital investments for over 10 years successively with three different Paris-based venture capital firms investing in early stage life sciences and agri-food technology companies. Jerome holds an engineering degree from the French Ecole Polytechnique and a PhD in Biology from Paris Descartes University.

Jim Cornall is editor-in-chief of global online publication Labiotech.eu. An award-winning writer, editor, photographer and broadcaster, Jim has written nine books on a variety of subjects, and written and taken photos for hundreds of publications, books and websites around the world. He has edited newspapers, magazines, journals and websites, and taught courses on design, photography, writing, and audio and video production. He currently resides in western Scotland.

Joachim spent more than 20 years in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry in BD and research roles. He is enthusiastic about cutting-edge technologies and projects that ultimately can be developed into new medicines. Joachim holds a diploma in chemistry and received his PhD in protein crystallography at the University of Freiburg.

Jon Bell is a Senior Director within AstraZeneca’s Alliance and Integration Team, based in Cambridge UK.  He has over 25 years’ experience in the Pharma Industry and has worked for AstraZeneca for a total of 15 years.  Jon was involved in implementing the alliance between AstraZeneca and Merck for LYNPARZA, bringing together over 20 markets globally to co-commercialise the asset and working with Finance leads to align on a joint financial planning process, which met the needs of the Alliance and the Planning Cycles of the two companies.  In 2019, Jon worked on the deal team for the ground-breaking alliance between Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca for ENHERTU, and subsequently became the Enterprise Lead for the ENHERTU and Dato-DXd alliances. He also has accountability for smaller alliances in Respiratory and Cardiovascular disease.

Julien joined Jeito in 2021 as an associate. He previously managed the Paris Brain Institute startup incubator (iPEPS – The Healthtech Hub), where he supported 30+ early-stage biotech and medtech companies with their development (fundraising, strategic partnerships) and Pharma companies with their corporate acceleration programs. Before this, he was in charge of business development and industrial partnerships at the Institut Curie. Julien holds a PhD from Institut Pasteur and graduated from INSEAD.

Jürgen studied biology/molecular biology in Osnabrück and Aberdeen (UK). After his diploma thesis at the EMBL in Heidelberg, he worked at Genentech, Inc. (USA). He undertook his PhD-thesis at the Max-Planck-Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen. He joined Cellzome AG (Heidelberg, now part of GSK) as the first employee where he was instrumental in setting up the company and was later responsible for IP-issues. After a stint in the patent department of Baxter AG in Vienna, he changed to technology transfer. At Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH, Vienna, he was managing life science inventions developed at Austrian universities.

In 2007, he moved to PROvendis, the central technology transfer agency of the universities of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where during most of his time at PROvendis, he served as a head of the Life sciences team. Except for another stay for one and a half years in Vienna, as head of technology transfer at the University of Vienna, he stayed with PROvendis until May 2022. In June 2022 he became the Managing Director of Life Science Nord, the regional industry network for medical technology, biotechnology and pharma for the German states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein.

He also holds a Master´s degree in Pharmaceutical Business Development and Licensing from the University of Manchester.

Karine joined Erytech Pharma in September 2017, leading early-stage program strategy first as Director, Business Development and now as Director, Innovation and Valorization (R&D and BD&L activities). In her current role, she is leading Erytech’s early-stage development efforts to utilize the Company’s proprietary platforms to develop red blood cell-based therapeutics for rare disease and oncology. She manages all facets of program derisking and additionally creates development value through scouting, evaluating potential licensing opportunities and partnerships, and leading IP and grant financing strategy.  Prior to joining Erytech Pharma, Karine was a Researcher in charge of R&D programs in the non-profit company Généthon, dedicated to developing gene therapies for rare diseases, where she developed deep experience in innovative product development in gene therapy space.  She then moved to the Scientific Direction of AFM-Téléthon to support detection, valorization and follow-up of projects to be funded in the field of rare diseases.

Kathrin is Venture Partner for Biotech with NLC, the European Healthtech Venture Builder. She has 20 years of experience in supporting Startups in the Life Science business in different positions as a consultant and coach. Kathrin is a biochemist by training and holds a PhD in Molecular Neuroscience. Kathrin’s expertise is supporting early-stage scientific and entrepreneurial projects and turning them into valuable businesses.

Kelvin has over 20 years of international business experiences across a number of sectors including biotech, pharma, nutrition and FMCG. He is currently the Strategic Growth Director responsible for health sector engagements globally, and previously held a variety of roles at UniServices including Business Development Director (S.E. Asia) and Executive Director UniServices (Hong Kong) Limited. Kelvin previously founded and exited a biotech company in 2005 with operations in Asia, Middle East, Europe and US, and have extensive experience in establishing and managing global public private partnerships.

Kelvin has served on the boards of a number of companies and is a current board member of the EpiGen Global Research Consortium with headquarters in UK and was previously on the Board of Energia Portior and UniServices (Hong Kong) Limited, and Chair of Foundation Ventures. He is also a Partner at healthcare investment firm Covalent Ventures. He has formal qualifications in Biotechnology and Chemical Engineering from the University of Auckland and is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors.

Keno joined BGV as a Partner in 2021. He serves on the supervisory board of Dualyx, Fibrocor and two BGV companies in stealth. Prior to joining BGV, Keno was a Vice President at M Ventures responsible for Biotech investments (Biopharma and Life Sciences). While at M Ventures he served as Board Member or Observer to the board of several biotech companies including Xilio, Immunitas, Soteria, DNA Script, Riffyn, Inthera, Galecto, iOnctura, ApoGen and iOmx.

Keno has over 20 years of Biotech experience spanning investing (private and public equities at M Ventures and Omega Funds), investment banking (Piper Sandler), management consulting (IQVIA), and medical research (MRC).

Keno is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, holds a PhD in Genetics from University College in London and an MBA from INSEAD. His research in lipid metabolism has been published in the top scientific journal Nature.

Dr. Klaas Zuideveld initially joined Versameb as Chief Development Officer and took over as CEO end of 2020. Previously, he held the position of VP Pharmaceutical partnerships at Caris Life Sciences, where he was responsible for their first CDx partnership and precision medicine led clinical trials. Klaas held leadership positions of increasing responsibility at Roche in early and late-stage development leading to the approval of valganciclovir, capecitabine, bevacizumab, obinutuzumab, ocrelizumab and tocilizumab across various indications and formulations. He also worked at and consulted for Mosaic Biomedicals (acquired by Northern Biologic), T3 Pharma, Envision Sciences and Therachon (acquired by Pfizer).

Kristin Thompson is Vice President, head of BD at eureKare, a private investment company focused on microbiome and synthetic biology.  Kristin holds a degree in Biology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a doctorate in Molecular Medicine from the University of Ulm, Germany.  Kristin worked for more than 10 years as a researcher on projects in genetics, physiology and molecular biology for UNC-CH, Inserm in France, PTC Therapeutics and Boehringer Ingelheim.  Kristin then transitioned to roles in Business Development, including in-and out licensing at the microbiome company, Da Volterra in Paris, France and as Senior Business Developer focusing on R&D and innovation with Famar. During her time managing Strategic Partnerships at Bioaster in Lyon, Kristin was also a coach for MBA students at the HEC to advise on creation of biotechs and how to build a partnering strategy. She is often consulted for strategic insights in the life science sector.

Luka K.  joined Sartorius as Sales Specialist CMTS in May 2021 and soon moved to the FAS Team Field Application Specialist Cell Culture Media and Testing Solutions (CMTS).

Prior to joining Sartorius, Luka worked for Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT- Danaher Group) as Regional Manager. A Genomic Company and specialized manufacturer of Synthetic Genes, CRISPR, qPCR and NGS Reagents. Before this role he was many years the BDM for the    North American for PromoCell a Cell Culture Company specialized in Primary Human Cells, Stem Cells Special Growth Media and Cell Culture Reagents
Luka holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering / Biotechnology from the University of Podgorica, Montenegro, and MSc in Medical Science from the Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the PFH Private University of Applied Sciences Göttingen.

Luzius is a senior associate at VISCHER with a practice focus on life sciences, corporate and commercial law, start-ups and mergers & acquisitions. He assists growth companies in all major legal processes, from formation to sale or IPO. Luzius studied Law & Economics in St. Gallen, has been admitted as an attorney at law since late 2015 and has a Postgraduate Certificate in Management and Finance from the London School of Business & Finance.

Manuel Gea is a serial entrepreneur, co-founder, CEO & EVP R&D IT of Bio-Modeling Systems; he is a Keynote Speaker, independent board member, senior expert & business angel developing and supporting disruptive solutions addressing complex systems problems.

He spent 30 years creating value in various domains and executive jobs:

• From consumer goods industry to cosmetics, nutrition, biotechnology & pharmaceutical companies and,
• From business to R&D ( International business manager at Colgate-Palmolive (consumer goods company), Senior consultant creator of the Pharma Practice at McKinsey France, Managing director at Boehringer Ingelheim, CEO Europe at HemispherX Biopharma, Co-founder & President of the Advisory Board of Pherecydes-Pharma, Co-founder & board member of Formitel, Co-founder & CEO of BMSystems.

He also spent these 30 years co-founding or contributing as member, chairman & senior advisor to leading professional organizations:

• Co-founder & V-P of Leem Biotech, co-founder of Medef Health, co-founder & executive board member of Medicen the first healthcare cluster in France.
• Chairman at the Independent trans-discipline biotech Think Tank Adebiotech.
• Co-founder and Chairman of Centrale-Santé, the French Health Think-Tank gathering 2500 members, professionals involved in health sector innovations and creating value for patients.
• Board member of Polepharma the first European Pharma production cluster.

As a digital transformation expert, he is:

• Co-founder and representative of Medicen Cluster Executive Board at the Paris Region Digital Health cluster gathering Cap Digital, Medicen, and Systematic Paris-Region clusters.
• Co-founder of the Digital Health Commission at Medicen Paris region
• Pioneer in the development of confident AI and Augmented Intelligence (hybrid of Human and Artificial Intelligences).

He is graduated from Ecole Centrale Paris (data scientist, operational research, modeling), and has a sociology of organizations degree from Paris IX Dauphine University where he discovered and implemented general semantic to address complex systems problems and a Supply chain degree CNAM (Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers) cycle C.

Matthieu brings more than 15 years of experience in venture capital and operations, having spent a decade in tech transfer as head of company creation at Inserm Transfert (Paris, France) and managing partner at Inserm Transfert Initiative. He handled investments in 14 seed-stage companies including Enyo Pharma, Eyevensys, Sensorion and Inotrem. He also served as VP operations & business development at two French biotechnology start-ups, TherAchon (sold to Pfizer) and Annapurna Therapeutics (merged with Adverum Biotechnology).
Matthieu co-founded AdBio Partners with Alain Huriez in 2016.
Matthieu not only brings a wealth of experience in early-stage investor management, financial and operational strategies, but also a strong network of researchers, entrepreneurs and technology transfer officers with whom he has forged significant partnerships.

Melya Hughes Crameri is a seasoned executive and life science entrepreneur with over 25 years’ experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. She has founded and served as CEO, CXO and at board level for companies in Europe as well as in the United States. She has negotiated more than USD 80M in government contracts and secured USD150M+ for life sciences companies, has been responsible for a number of high value partnering deals, as well as preparing companies for listing on the SIX stock exchange. Melya joined Ventac Partners in 2015 as the founding partner of its London office. She has also served on boards and committees for life sciences industry cluster building and innovation uptake by the healthcare system.

Niccolò Bacchi is the Founder & Managing Director of BiotechFounder, a venture builder that builds biotech companies from scratch with the aim to accelerate commercialization of emerging science. He believes there is tremendous value to be delivered to patients and investors by proactively seeking great science and structuring it into fit-for-purpose startups with an entrepreneurial mindset from the start.

Niccolò brings several years of early-stage venture capital investment and company creation experience. He worked at Novo Seeds, the early-stage investment team of Novo Holdings, one of the largest life science investors globally, and most recently at DROIA Ventures, a global early stage venture fund specialized in genetic diseases and oncology. Niccolò also held the position of Business Development Officer at Fondazione Telethon, an Italian foundation which finances and conducts research in rare genetic diseases.

Niccolò holds a Ph.D. in Biomolecular Sciences (University of Trento, Italy), a M.Sc. in Medical, Molecular and Cellular Biotechnology (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Italy – completed within the Dutch gene therapy company Uniqure) and an M.B.A. (IE Business School, Spain).

Oliver Boucher is responsible at Zoetis for securing value-adding business opportunities relevant to the company’s future growth. He has extensive B2B transactional experience in 6 countries across human and animal healthcare (biotech, pharma, diagnostics and digital opportunities). Oliver’s background is in business development across multinationals (buy-side) and start-ups (sell-side) drawing on expertise in opportunity assessment, fund-raising, deal sourcing, negotiation and execution to maximize value. Before Zoetis, he served executive and non-executive roles in a succession of biotech companies after having gained executive level experience for seven years as a director of business development at GSK.

Olivier Martinon is Vice President, External Innovation at Zoetis where he leads the team responsible for identifying and developing strategic partnerships that enhance the company’s own research and development pipeline. He joined Zoetis via its legacy companies in 2006, and has previously held roles at the company including Executive Research Director for Zoetis’ global therapeutics group and led portfolio projects and mentored researchers critical to securing global approvals for our new monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to control pain associated with osteoarthritis in dogs and cats. He also previously led the livestock therapeutic area identifying key external partners to advance that portfolio, was the original champion in creating the biotherapeutic discipline within Zoetis’ Veterinary Medicine Research & Development organization. Dr. Martinon completed his veterinary studies in Paris-Alfort France in 1990, and he studied molecular biology at CIRAD before moving to a DEA/MS in Biotechnology from Paris VI. He then pursued a cursus in Immunology for three years with Institut Pasteur Professor. Olivier is French and American having grown up in Lyon (France) and moved to the U.S. in 2002. He and his wife live near Grand Rapids, Michigan and have three grown sons.

Pascal Breton PhD has been a Manager BD&L and Global Alliances within Vetoquinol since January 2024. Prior to his current position within this highly regarded top 10 animal health global player, he used to be a serial entrepreneur (Virsol, VitamFero, WaveImplant, OPGS Pharma, KeenaMics). Innovation and technology transfer have always been the drivers of its international career (>32 y) in the Life Sciences industry (UPSA, BMS, Halisol, IDM Pharma, SGS-LSS…), in human and animal health, from R&D to commercialization.”

Richard Reschen is Associate Director, Business Development & Licensing within MSD’s European BD&L team since May 2020. Within the team, Richard leads Neuroscience Search & Evaluation activities in the Europe and Middle East regions for MSD. Prior to joining MSD, Richard spent 8 years at Oxford University Innovation, where he led numerous licensing and spinout projects, covering both therapeutics and medical technologies, and represented Oxford on the £13m LAB282 drug discovery initiative. Richard has an extensive network in the pharmaceutical, biotech and VC communities, and a passion for progressing the best science. Richard has a PhD in Cell Biology from the University of Cambridge.

Rita is a Venture Developer in the Biotech team & Biomarkers expert at NLC – the HeathTech Venture Builder. She has a background in Molecular Biology and a PhD in Bioengineering from the MIT-Portugal Program. Following her academic work in translational research in oncology and a mini-MBA for life scientists at Nova School of Business and Economics, she joined NLC, where she evaluates early-stage scientific projects that aim to solve unmet clinical needs and helps turn them into ventures.

Sonia Hallen is a Vice President in the EQT Life Sciences team, focused on unlisted equities. She is a Director on the Board of ViCentra, and Observer on the Boards of Evommune and NOBI. Previously, Sonia was a Strategy Consultant in the Life Sciences practice of Accenture in London, UK and a Stem Cell Scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Melbourne, Australia. Sonia holds a PhD in Bioengineering & Regenerative Medicine from Imperial College London.

A biochemist by training, Stefanie has spent more than 20 years in the biotech- and pharmaceutical industry and technology transfer. She has broad experience in in- and out-licensing of clinical and preclinical projects.  In particular, she successfully worked on numerous major collaborations between academia and industry. Since 2012 Stefanie is a Director Technology Management at Ascenion GmbH, an independent knowledge and technology transfer company that supports more than 30 European partners with a life-science focus. In this role, she has also been very active in supporting start-up projects. Stefanie joined Ascenion from Novartis, where she served as Director Strategic Alliances with global responsibilities for the Musculoskeletal Disease Area and Oncology.  Prior to that she worked as Director Business Development at Santhera Pharmaceuticals, a Swiss-based specialty pharmaceutical company for orphan neuromuscular diseases.

Stefanie holds a PhD from the Philipps University of Marburg. During her thesis she spent time at the Biocenter in Basel and worked closely with researchers at the Institut de Myologie in Paris, France.

Thijs Cohen Tervaert is a Junior Partner at INKEF. Thijs currently also serves on the board of TargED BioPharmaceuticals, Calypso Biotech, ViCentra, Audion Therapeutics, Aidence and Castor. Prior to INKEF, Thijs was a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group with a focus on health care and technology. He worked on projects for pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and insurers. During a one year secondment, Thijs helped to establish the Amsterdam Health and Technology Institute in 2014. Thijs is a medical doctor and graduated at Leiden University. He has also co-authored several scientific papers.

Tugrul Ozdemir joined Novo Seeds in May 2022 as an Associate. He actively searches for innovative ideas and approaches, that are capable of transforming human medicine. Within the core team, he works to build new companies as well as support due diligence and management processes of biotechnology companies across various therapeutic areas. Previously, Tugrul worked as a research fellow and lecturer in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford. He has extensive research experience, published articles in high impact peer reviewed journals and provided external consultancy to biotechnology companies and venture capitals.

Tugrul was trained as a molecular biologist in Turkey and the USA, and holds a PhD in cognitive neuroscience from the Medical University of Vienna.

With a background in oncology and immunology, Dr. Brichard’s work has been focused since 1986 on immunotherapy of cancer.

He holds an M.D., a specialized master’s degree in Internal Medicine and Oncology, and a Ph.D. from Louvain University, Brussels. He further holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Dr. Brichard participated actively in the pioneering work done at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Brussels Branch), where he identified several tumor antigens and started the first trials in humans with MAGE antigens. He spent several years at the Institut Curie (Paris), one of Europe’s best-known cancer centers, where he set up a cancer immunotherapy platform. In 2002 he joined GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, where he became Senior Vice-President and had responsibility for the Immunotherapeutics Business Unit, which covered a broad, integrated approach to immunotherapy – from bench discovery through clinical development and operations to regulatory and commercial activities. In addition to this position, he served as a member of the Board of Directors at GSK Biologicals (annual sales ca. £ 7bn). Based on his experience, translated by more than 90 primary research publications and reviews, he decided to provide support to companies, organizations, institutions and individuals in the fields of immuno-oncology, auto-immunity and vaccines. Vincent is Venture Partner with LSP since 2015, active mainly in the LSP 5, LSP6 and LSP 7 funds.

Vishal is a Director of Corporate Business Development and Strategy at H. Lundbeck A/S where he focuses on searching and evaluating pre-clinical, clinical and digital opportunities for partnering. Over the last 10+ years, Vishal led teams at several stages of the drug discovery, development and commercialization value chain at Eisai, GSK and MSD, working across Europe, the United States and Asia to support the development of small molecule-, biologics- and gene therapy-medicines.

Vishal holds a PhD in Developmental Neurobiology from University College London, a Master’s degree in Experimental Neuroscience from Imperial College London and a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Science from King’s College London.

She completed her PhD and postdoctoral training in Neuroscience at Cambridge University and her undergraduate degree at Oxford University. Following her academic work, she worked in EU Pharma & Biotech equity research at Goldman Sachs. She later co-founded and was the CEO of Sixfold Bioscience prior to joining Lilly.