2023 Speakers

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Agostino is an Innovation and Technology Transfer Manager with 4+ years’ experience in managing R+D+I projects at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research and Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, renowned research institutions in the Health and Biotech sectors.

He has vast experience in the valorisation and transfer to the market of innovation projects focused on Therapeutics, Medical Devices, E-health, and IVD. As an Innovation manager, Agostino is responsible for scouting business opportunities, designing and implementing strategic valorization plans, promoting collaboration with industrial partners, investors and venture builders, and transferring know-how and assets to the market by creating spin-offs, licensing and service agreements. In the last four years Agostino has managed +30 innovation projects, coordinated the establishment of 5 spin-offs, and negotiated 7 licensing contracts. His support in the creation of spin-offs consists of helping shape their business plan, negotiating agreements, identifying founding teams, promoting companies with investors, advising on IP strategy, and collaborating in competitive funded public-private projects.

Agostino holds a PhD in Science and Technology of Advanced Materials from University of Parma (Italy) and has previous experience as postdoctoral researcher in the fields of Bioelectronics and non-invasive Point-of-Care diagnostics.

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Anela joined Apollo Health Ventures as COO in 2020 and has since been helping shape R&D strategy and clinical development plans in the fund’s venture creations. She takes an active role and supports companies both as an advisor and operator as needed. She currently serves on the board of directors of several companies including Samsara Therapeutics, Cleara, Booster Therapeutics and RefoxyPharmaceuticals. In addition, Anela helps evaluate new investment opportunities and initiates company creation projects, especially in the area of neurodegeneratio n and brain health. Before joining Apollo Health Ventures, she worked at a boutique consulting firm Catenion T here she has managed international projects for Big Pharma and biotech upstarts regarding R&D strategy and advised top tier VC’s and hedge funds o n their investment decisions. Anela holds a PhD in neurobiology from the Free University of Berlin and her work was published in top ranked peer reviewed journals.

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.

Antoine is a Director within Rothschild & Co’s Healthcare Group, with 12 years of experience in investment banking. Now based in Paris, he spent most of his career in New York and London covering the biopharma and healthcare space in the USA and Europe. More specifically, Antoine has advised a range of industry players, including large diversified companies, emerging innovative biotech and health tech organizations, as well as investment firms.

Rothschild & Co partners with emerging innovative players as well as industry global leaders worldwide, advising on key financial and strategic considerations, including private and public equity raising, licensing and partnerships as well as M&A transactions.

The Rothschild team is proud to be trusted advisers to the healthcare ecosystem, providing global reach with local expertise to drive innovative solutions for their clients.

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.

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Emma O’Neill is the Life Sciences Case Manager at KnEx – the Knowledge Exchange Office at Trinity  Innovation & Enterprise, Trinity College Dublin. She supports Trinity researchers to identify, protect and commercialise IP from life sciences research at Trinity.  Emma has been involved in IP management and knowledge transfer in various roles in Ireland for over 25 years. She has held positions at Enterprise Ireland, NTERA Ltd , a university spinout, Dublin City University and Trinity College Dublin. Emma is the current Secretary to the Board of IKTA, the Irish Knowledge Transfer Association.

Serial entrepreneur that combines strong strategic, technological and managerial experience with proven track record of deal-making and fund-raising. During his career he achieved together with his different teams to bring four drug candidates from research to the clinics (up to phase IIb). Overall, Eric has raised as of now a total of more than €160 million from VCs and strategic partners in Europe, USA, Japan and Korea and have had numerous successes in the sale and initial public offering of biotechnology companies. He is CEO of the biotechnology company PDC*line Pharma and board member of Essenscia (Bio.be). Eric is co-founder of four biotechnology companies called Myosix (bought by Genzyme mid-2002), Murigenetics, HairClone and Digital Orthopaedics. He is co-Inventor of the first GMP approved mobile manufacturing unit for cell therapy. Eric worked for 12 years in the Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice of Arthur D. Little.  Eric holds two master’s degrees in pharmacology and Molecular Biology and a MBA from ESSEC business school (Paris, France), with an advanced degree from the Health Care ESSEC chair.

As an Academia-Industry Alliance Manager, Dr. Fadwa Benkessou is responsible for identifying strategic partnership opportunities, facilitating collaborations, and ensuring seamless communication between academic researchers and industry partners. Dr. Benkessou holds a PhD in Medical Sciences from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and a Master of Science Degree in Biotechnology from Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane.

The function of Dr. Benkessou’s role is an integral part of Karolinska Institutet’s mission to advance knowledge and contribute to improvements in human health. Forging alliances with industry partners can actively contribute to the translation of scientific results into tangible solutions that have a meaningful impact on global healthcare.

As one of the founders of Sarsia, and the principal analyst regarding life science investments, Farzad brings nearly 30 years of drug development expertise and management from large global pharma and early-stage start-ups. Farzad’s experience spans multiple national and global preclinical and clinical drug development initiatives at both administrative and Board levels. In addition to receiving training in entrepreneurial business financing from London Business School, Farzad obtained his doctoral education in pharmacology from the University of Edinburgh Medical School, UK and postdoctoral training from HaukelandUniversity Hospital Bergen, Norway.

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.

Gilles has dedicated over two decades to revolutionizing how companies in biopharma find partners and collaborate. As the CEO and co-founder of Inpart, Gilles has helped reshape the collaboration landscape for developing groundbreaking medicines. Since Inpart’s inception in 2010, he has overseen its transformation into a powerhouse that aids hundreds of life science companies, including 60% of top 50 pharma companies, in realizing their partnering strategies.

An engineer by training from Mines in Paris, Gilles resides in Lyon, France and his leadership continues to innovate the science partnering realm internationally.

Hanjo Hennemann studied biology and obtained his Ph.D. in genetics at the University of Bonn, Germany. As a Feodor Lynen Fellow (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation), he completed a postdoctoral stay at the University of California, San Diego. He established his research group at the Caesar Research Center in Bonn and co-founded and led a biopharmaceutical company (peptide-based therapeutics) as CEO/CSO. He later co-founded Verovaccines GmbH (vaccines for animals) in 2017, which he heads as Managing Director/CEO. The company developed a proprietary technology platform for subunit vaccines that offers unique advantages in vaccine generation, combination, manufacturing and development.

I spent 25 years in research and development in biologicals for animal health, and contributed to the development and marketing of several animal health products.

In 2020, I joined the strategic partnering team within BD&L at Boehringer-Ingelheim Animal Health. I am in charge of scouting for assets or technologies in the field of animal oncology, immunological and fibrotic diseases.

Iraida joined the UK DRI as a Senior Innovation and Business Manager in July 2021. In that role, Iraida supports the incubation of translational projects with a specific focus on dementia and neurodegeneration and with a broad technology/therapeutic spectrum. She leads several activities ranging from early industry collaborations to IP assessment and commercialisation. Prior to that, Iraida looked after innovation projects arising from Oxford University research for three years, and spent another year as an analyst of a seed-stage venture capital fund based in Barcelona.

Iraida holds a BSc degree in Biotechnology and an MSc in Neuroscience from the University of Barcelona. She also holds a Masters in Business Management applied to life sciences companies from the BBI Business School.

Isabelle Scarabin is a Director, Business Development & Licensing Officer, at the Pharmaceuticals division of Bayer AG since November 2021. She leads the development of strategies and projects as related to business development for New Platforms (Cell & Gene Therapy), Ophthalmology, Cardiovascular and Immunology.

Isabelle is a senior Business Development manager with 17+ years of experience in the Healthcare industry. Since 2013, she was the Business Development Director at GenSight Biologics, a French public company, developing and commercializing gene therapies for rare degenerative diseases. Prior to GenSight, Isabelle had 10+ years of consulting experience in non-profit organizations in business development for biotech firms. She started her career in innovation management at Resources in Innovation and in new vaccine launch management and strategic marketing at Sanofi Pasteur MSD.

Isabelle received a double master’s degree in Biochemistry Engineering from the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) Lyon and in Innovation & Technology Management from EMLyon Business School.

Jan-Philipp Kruse, PhD, is Senior Director Open Innovation and Business Development and Licensing, at Bayer Pharmaceuticals. He leads Bayer’s biotech incubator CoLab in Berlin, driving company recruitment and selection, company engagement, and programming. He is also actively engaged in developing Bayer’s presence in various innovation ecosystems, including the U.S., U.K., and DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). With more than 10 years of experience in business and strategy consulting with exclusive focus on Life Sciences and R&D, Jan-Philipp has advised biotech companies, mid-to large scale pharmaceutical companies, investors, and venture funds. He has long championed novel ways of collaboration to maximize the impact for all involved parties, and ultimately patients. Jan-Philipp joined Bayer in 2015 in a leadership role of the in-house R&D consulting team before joining Open Innovation in Boston in 2018, and later Business Development and Licensing / Open Innovation in 2020. He holds a PhD from Columbia University, New York.

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Jean-Paul Fèvre is Chairman and CEO of Plant Advanced Technologies PAT, a company he founded in 2005, and Chairman of the subsidiary in charge of PAT’s pharmaceutical developments, Temisis Therapeutics.
An agricultural engineer, he is a former Director of Maize Seed Research for the Euralis group (1994-2003, France, US). He was head of research in France and Canada for Sanofi’s seed subsidiaries from 1981 to 1994. During his career, he was involved in numerous company valuations and purchases, notably with Sanofi (1981-1994) and Aventis CropScience, as well as numerous international negotiations.

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Jeroen has a background in neuroscience and holds the position of Senior Grant Consultant at Akkodis. In this role, he specialises in helping companies and universities develop successful grant applications. Across diverse industries, he guides various types of clients through the complexities of European-funded grants and other funding opportunities.

With a passion for facilitating collaborations and securing funding, he plays a vital role in bridging the gap between various stakeholders while fostering their engagement and alignment. His dedication and knowledge around the grant application process as well as grant management aspects benefits organisations seeking resources to drive their innovations forward. In this role, Jeroen is helping his clients achieve their funding goals while building a robust grant strategy for the future.

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.

CEO & co-founder of Nuage Therapeutics, a Barcelona based spin off from the Institute of Biomedical Research (IRB) that exploits chemical biology and biomolecular condensation to develop potent and selective therapeutic agents targeting proteins with disordered regions for challenging indications to improve patient’s life.

Previously, CEO of CataloniaBio & HealthTech until the end of 2021, the organization that represents companies in the biomedicine and health sector in Catalonia comprising almost 200 member companies and knowledge stakeholders that are leaders in research, development (R&D) and innovation. Anido joins the board of CataloniaBio & HealthTech in 2018 and was the first woman president of the institution. She was also co-founder of Mosaic Biomedicals, a biotech company spin off from VHIO (Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology) based in Barcelona and dedicated to the development of innovative drugs for cancer treatment. She led the growth of Mosaic as CEO from 2012 until its merger with the Canadian company Northern Biologics in 2016, when she assumed the general direction of Mosaic and became Vice-President of Operations and Corporate Affairs at Northern. In 2020 the assets of the companies were successfully acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim and AstraZeneca.

PhD in Biology from the University of Barcelona and an MBA from Duke University (United States) with Certification in Health Sector Management and specialization in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Anido accumulates over 10 years experience in cancer research at VHIO and was Associate at the Pipeline and Portfolio Planning Team at Genentech (Roche Group) in San Francisco. She has been awarded with the Premi FemTalent 2018, promoted by the Barcelona City Council. She has also received competitive grants from the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC in Spanish), Rafael del Pino Foundation, Duke University and Caja Madrid Foundation.

Juliette joined EQT Partners in February 2023 as an Associate in the EQT Life Sciences team in Amsterdam. Juliette works across funds but is mainly involved in the Dementia Fund. Prior to joining EQT, Juliette worked as an Analyst at 4BIO Capital in London, UK. Prior to 4BIO Capital, Juliette was an Investment Fellow at M Ventures in Amsterdam. Juliette holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and a Master in Neuroscience from King’s College London.

Dr. Bauer is a graduate of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt (Biology) and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology.

After spending four years as a research scientist at the Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne, Dr. Bauer joined the R&D Center of Lesaffre International, the world leader in the baker’s yeast market, where he was Head of the Molecular Biology and Genetics Team. In 2000 he joined Axaron Bioscience AG in Heidelberg, a joint venture of BASF and Lynx Therapeutics from where he moved on to Gentana GmbH, a biotech company providing gene expression analysis services based on its proprietary technology platform.

After acting as CEO of Gentana for two years, Dr. Bauer joined EMBL Enterprise Management Technology Transfer GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory as Business Development Manager. As of May 2011, he was appointed as Deputy Managing Director of EMBLEM and responsible for Business Development.

Dr. Bauer is alumnus of the Chemical Industry Fund within the German Chemical Industry Association and the St. Gallen Business School. He serves as board member of different companies, associations and consortia.

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.

Lydia holds a BSc in Biology from Greece, an MSc in Pharmacology from the Netherlands, a PhD in Neuroscience from Sweden and an MBA. After 9+ years of R&D experience in academic and industrial settings (including Yale University and AstraZeneca), she developed a strong interest in the business/commercial side of Life Sciences. Currently, she leads the Biotech domain at NLC and builds successful Biotech companies bringing innovative therapeutics to patients in need.

Dr Lang Consulting GmbH brings 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical R&D, the successful development, manufacture and registration of biopharmaceutical drugs (focus on oncology and immunology).

Founder and Managing Director Dr. Markus A. Lang has profound leadership experience and successful P&L management of development portfolios in medium-sized companies as well as corporate environments in the biotech & pharmaceutical industry.

He made key contributions to successful development of several marketed drugs [Monjuvi®, Cyltezo®, Removab®, Pradaxa®]

As biotech entrepreneur Dr. Markus A. Lang supports companies in the areas of

• Venture Development
• C-Level Biotech Management. Organizational development
• Preparation & execution of fundraising campaigns
• Development and execution of drug development strategies
• Lifecycle Focus: Late Discovery through (early) Preclinical to Phase I IND Readiness and/or phase II PoCC
• Therapeutic entities: Biologics, ADCs and other moieties in primarily oncological and immunological disorders

Maya Chkaiban, associate at Jeito capital, has joined the fund since its inception in January 2020, very attracted by Jeito’s values, vision & differentiated model as well as its highly expert & multi-talented team. A dual Pharmacy degree from Université Paris Descartes and a Master in Management from worldwide top ranking ESSEC business school, have enabled Maya to develop both the technical skills/scientific reasoning and a business mind to best serve the portfolio companies. Maya has acquired in the past 5 years diverse and complementary professional experience working in different parts of the drug development value chain from the hospital and community pharmacies, Biotech direct leadership support to Associate in a leading and differentiated Capital Firm. Having been raised in different countries & multi-cultural environments have shaped some of Maya core value such as diversity and inclusion.