Dr Adam Stoten is SVP and Head of Academic Partnerships at Evotec (UK) Ltd, where he is responsible for creating new international partnerships (BRIDGEs) to accelerate the translation of academic science into new medicines, and for the team that manages Evotec’s involvement in grant-funded research. He also serves as Site Head for Evotec’s Oxford R&D campus and as a director of two Evotec UK subsidiaries. Prior to Evotec, Adam was Chief Operating Officer and executive director at Oxford University Innovation Ltd, worked as Deputy General Manager for a spinout company developing a clinical stage TB vaccine, and started his career in healthcare consulting and technology transfer roles. Adam has held several non-executive director and observer roles on the boards of UK biotech companies EvOx Therapeutics, Barinthus Bio, MiroBio and Dark Blue Therapeutics, the latter being Evotec’s first BRIDGE spinout, which was subsequently acquired by Amgen in 2025 for $840m. He has been a non-executive director of Knowledge Exchange UK, the UK professional association for knowledge exchange, and ATTP, the body that maintains international standards for the knowledge exchange profession. He also chairs the UKRI PoC Fund life sciences committee and a TenU Working Group to generate guidance on establishing and improving PoC funds.

Ana Gallego Román, PhD is a Business Development Manager at the Innovation Department of Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), where she fosters strategic collaborations between academia, healthcare institutions, and the life sciences industry to accelerate the validation and translation of biomedical innovations into clinical practice.

Ana holds a degree in Biology, a Master’s in Molecular Biology, a PhD in Neuropharmacology, and a Master’s in Clinical Trials and Drug Development. Her career combines scientific research, translational medicine, venture capital, and innovation management. Before joining VHIR, she worked as a life sciences investor, evaluating and supporting early-stage biotechnology companies across Europe and the United States.

Her expertise spans technology assessment, business development, innovation strategy, and public-private partnerships, with particular interest in advancing promising healthcare technologies from early validation to commercialization. She is also actively involved in entrepreneurship education, contributing to training programs in biomedical innovation and serving on the advisory board of a Master’s programme in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

At VHIR, she works closely with researchers, hospitals, startups, biotech and pharmaceutical companies to build collaborations that facilitate technology validation and ultimately improve patient care.

Arezki Yaïche is since 2014 a financial journalist specialised in M&A and EU competition law. As a Senior France Correspondent and Paris Bureau Chief for the global M&A newswire Mergermarket (owned by ION Group), he writes on all types of transactions from competition issues, early stage fundraises, and private deals to takeovers of listed companies and IPOs.

Arezki was previously Senior Correspondent Antitrust for regulatory newswire MLex in Brussels between 2019 and 2021. Before that he worked four years as M&A reporter and Paris Bureau Chief for Mergermarket. Arezki also has a six-year experience as Communication consultant specialised in Finance and EU regulation. He worked for financial and public institutions including Dexia Asset Management in Brussels, Credit Agricole Assurances in France, the French embassy in Stockholm, the European Parliament, and the French Ministry for Agriculture.

Fabrizio is today Vice-President – Center of Open Innovation & Competence in Chiesi Farmaceutici. Fabrizio covered in the past a CEO position in Life Science District, a Life Science Venture builder and he was General Manager of OpenZone and Zcube (Zambon Pharma Group), President of CareApt (digital health company) and Ephoran-Mis (preclinical imaging services), General Manager and Director of growth at Bioindustry Park Silvano Fumero science park, Vice President of bioPmed innovative cluster, advisor for different startups and  organizations working in innovation and member of the managing board of Torino University incubator .Over the years he gained international experience in general management,  innovation management, in developing innovation strategies, in developing innovative business model and go-to-market strategies, in the implementation of business development activities and in evaluating projects, startups and business plans. He is also university and MBA professor in Innovation management at Bologna Business school.

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.

A long-standing supporter of BioFIT, 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. He is recognised speaker at many events across Europe.

In 2010, he founded Innovation DB to help business access academic actionable research. Over years of work, IDB has created a system that identifies, captures and describes emerging technologies, drawn from over 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.

Karin has a PhD in molecular neurobiology from Karolinska Institutet and an Executive MBA from Stockholm Business School, Stockholm University. She has over 20 years of experience from the life science industry, including leading roles within both large pharmaceutical companies (AstraZeneca, Merck) and innovative startups (CombiGene, Epigenica) as well as several years of experience as a business coach at Uppsala BIO, STUNS.

Karin has documented expertise in capital raising, business strategy, research and development (R&D), commercialization of research results and development of startup companies. In her various roles, she has successfully run companies and projects as well as support functions within the Swedish innovation system, which has made it possible for academic research to be translated into commercial products/patient benefit. Her experience and ability to coach and guide researchers and entrepreneurs complements the rest of the team at KI Innovations.

Laura is an Associate Director in the Technology Development & Licensing Team at Cambridge Enterprise, where she works to commercialise technologies from across the life sciences. She has experience in identifying, managing, developing and commercialising IP and has worked on a variety of deals to spin-out companies and multi-national corporations, including T-Therapeutics and NoBACZ Healthcare. As part of her role at Cambridge Enterprise, Laura has spent time as a Business Development Manager at one of Cambridge Enterprise’s spin-out companies, Biomodal, and has sat on the board of multiple spin-out companies.

Laura has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Manchester and a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of York.

Lilian Alcaraz is a biopharma executive and innovation consultant with more than 28 years of experience spanning drug discovery, external innovation, business development, and strategic partnering. He advises biotechnology companies on scientific strategy, fundraising, partnering, and transaction execution, and serves on the Investment Board of Parkinson’s UK Research Ventures.

Until recently, Lilian served as Vice President of Early Innovation Partnering EMEA at J&J Innovation, where he led the London-based partnering team responsible for identifying, structuring, and managing strategic collaborations and investments across the region. During his tenure, he and his team completed more than 75 transactions across small molecules, biologics, cell and gene therapies, platform technologies, biomarkers, and digital health.

Prior to J&J, Lilian held senior leadership positions at AstraZeneca, Galapagos (formerly Argenta Discovery), and Charles River Laboratories. Across his career, he has contributed to the advancement of nine clinical candidates and is author or co-author of more than 80 scientific publications and patents, as well as a textbook on medicinal chemistry. He holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Strasbourg and a Certificate in Managerial Finance from the London School of Economics.

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.

Pierre joined Sanofi Ventures in 2024 with a background in biopharma investing. He previously worked as Analyst at Jeito Capital, where his areas of focus included oncology, cardiology, and neuroscience. Prior to Jeito Capital, Pierre worked as Researcher at Smart Immune, clinical-stage startup company developing cell therapies, as well as at Institut Imagine, leading European Center for research on genetic diseases.

Pierre holds a Life Science Engineer’s degree from AgroParisTech, a MSc and a PhD in Biotechnology and Biotherapies from Université Paris Cité, and an MBA from the Collège des Ingénieurs. Before starting his doctoral program, Pierre was trained at Pasteur Institute and was a visiting student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Poul Sørensen is a biotech executive, entrepreneur, and scientific leader with more than 30 years of experience in R&D, corporate development, and company building across the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. He has a strong track record of translating breakthrough science into innovative therapeutics, strategic partnerships, and successful biotech ventures.

Poul is CEO and Chair of Inverna Therapeutics, where he leads the development of next-generation precision RNA therapeutics. He is also Partner and Entrepreneur in Residence at Argobio Studio, a Paris-based venture builder, and Chief Scientific Officer at Allero Therapeutics, which develops antigen-specific immunotherapies for immune-mediated diseases.

He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Copenhagen and is an Honorary Professor of Biomedicine at Aarhus University.

Raoul is a Director-level innovation and ecosystem builder with 13+ years of experience designing and scaling high-impact innovation structures at the intersection of science, industry, and public policy.

He currently leads a 17-person team within hei_INNOVATION and manages €2M+ annual funding, having successfully secured over €7M in competitive third-party funding. He plays a key role in the €20M NXTGN Startup Factory initiative, building and coordinating strategic partnerships with ten major industry partners.

Raoul architects complex innovation ecosystems that translate cutting-edge research into scalable ventures, industry collaborations, and long-term regional impact. He operates at executive and policy levels, aligning universities, corporate partners, and public stakeholders to create sustainable innovation infrastructures.

As Head of the INSPIRE BW Hubs, he coordinates all university incubators in Baden-Württemberg and shapes statewide startup and technology transfer strategy. He represents his institution in national and international innovation networks, including collaborations in Israel and the UK.

Raoul combines strategic leadership with execution under uncertainty. He has scaled organizational structures from early-stage setups to multi-million-euro operations and built cross-sector alliances that enable technology-driven growth.

In addition, he serves in the executive board of Heidelberg Startup Partners e.V., strengthening one of Germany’s leading startup ecosystems through industry integration and ecosystem orchestration.