2025 Speakers

Ester Sklarsky is an investment professional in life sciences, currently at Sound Bioventures, a Scandinavian biotech venture capital fund. Prior to joining the firm, she spent over two years at Industrifonden, where she worked across the investment lifecycle, managing deal flow and performing scientific and strategic due diligence for early-stage biotech ventures.
Ester began her career in management consulting at Sirona Health Solutions, advising key stakeholders in the Swedish public healthcare sector. She also gained experience as an equity analyst at DNB, with a dedicated focus on the biotech sector.
She holds a B.Sc. in Biomedicine and an M.Sc. in Bioentrepreneurship, both from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

Gemma is Principal at Invivo Partners, a Spanish venture capital firm based in Barcelona, focused on early-stage investments and technology transfer in innovative areas of drug development. Invivo Partners manages three VC funds, including its first fund, Healthequity, launched in 2012, a second fund raised in 2019 with €60M under management and a third fund launched in 2024 targeting 100M€. Backed by a majority of private investors and supported by institutions such as the European Investment Fund, Fond-ICO Global, the Catalan Finance Institute, the Valencia Institute of Finance, and the Barcelona City Council, Invivo Partners seeks opportunities across Europe and leverages a strong co-investment network.

Previously, Gemma was a Project Manager at UPF Ventures. She holds a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Barcelona, an MSc in Business Management Applied to Biotechnology from the Biotechnology Business Institute, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Financial Management from UPF Barcelona School of Management. She currently serves as a Board Observer at Telomere Therapeutics, EsoBiotec, Integra Therapeutics, Telum Therapeutics, Peptomyc, and Signadori Bio.

Yao has over 14 years of experience in deal-making and forging strategic partnerships spanning academia, non-profit and industry. After earning a PhD in Pharmacology from Yale University, Yao began her career at the technology transfer office of Columbia University, followed by Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she marketed university inventions and negotiated partnering deals with academic and industry parties. Her virology background and interest in patent pooling then led her to the Business Development team of Medicines Patent Pool, where she managed scientific liaison with KOLs, industry and UN agencies, and built strategic research alliances with universities and donor agencies. Following a Business Development role at Redbiotec AG, evaluating academic innovations and executing pharma collaboration in Oncology, Yao joined the Academic Partnerships & External Innovation team at Novartis Biomedical Research in 2020. As the Associate Director of External Research Collaborations, Yao leads cross-functional deal teams to negotiate partnering agreements with predominantly academic institutions worldwide, focusing on non-clinical research collaborations in multiple disease areas.