Speaker

  • Emma Barton
    Emma Barton Director, Alliance and Integration Management (AIM), AstraZeneca
    Emma Barton

    Emma Barton
    Director, Alliance and Integration Management (AIM), AstraZeneca

    Emma Barton is the Director, Alliance and Integration Management (AIM) in AstraZeneca Cambridge, UK Emma’s key focus within the AstraZeneca Alliance and Integration Management team is divestment transitions, building divestment transition capability and promoting best practise across the enterprise. Emma joined AstraZeneca in 2000 and has spent over ten years in business development where she had experiences of diverse and varied externalisation deals including: mergers and acquisitions, spin outs, divestments, late stage licensing, early scientific led alliances and collaborations. Emma holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry and BSC degrees in Chemistry and Biochemistry from Southampton University.

  • Jean-Paul Clozel
    Jean-Paul Clozel Chief Executive Officer of Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd
    Jean-Paul Clozel

    Jean-Paul Clozel
    Chief Executive Officer of Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd

    Jean-Paul Clozel Chief Executive Officer of Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd is a cardiologist educated in France. He furthered his training in pharmacology and physiology at the University of Montreal, Canada, University of California, and San Francisco. After eleven years as a clinician, he decided to move to applied research. During his 12 years at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, he was responsible for the selection of the first T-channel blocker.

    During his 25-year-career in cardiology, he has published widely in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals. At the same time, his passion has remained unchanged: being involved as closely as possible in bringing innovative medicine to "his" patients. He has developed various, novel experimental models allowing the differentiation of these drugs, work honored with the 1997 Hoffmann-La Roche Research Prize. In 2007, he was nominated professor at the Collège de France in Paris, France (Chair of Technical Innovation).

    At the end of 1997, Jean-Paul founded Actelion. First mainly focusing on Research and Development, he then became CEO of the company to bring Actelion to the public in April 2000 and subsequentially launched several drugs with blockbuster potential. With the sale of Actelion to Johnson & Johnson in June 2017, the drug discovery and early clinical pipeline business was demerged and Idorsia was established. Idorsia, a new biopharmaceutical company, is specialized in the discovery and development of small molecules to provide innovative therapeutic options.

  • Francesco De Rubertis
    Francesco De Rubertis Founder and Managing Partner, Medicxi
    Francesco De Rubertis

    Francesco De Rubertis
    Founder and Managing Partner, Medicxi

    Francesco De Rubertis is a Partner and co-founder of medicxi, one of the largest Biotech Venture Capital firms in Europe, which was created in January 2016. Having completed his Post Doc at M.I.T. he joined Index Ventures in 1997 to launch the Life Sciences practice. This is where he spearheaded the creation and adoption of the asset-centric investment strategy which had an immediate impact on the success and growth of the firm. The asset-centric investment strategy has now become one of the industry standards.

    Francesco received a B.A. in Genetics and Microbiology from the University of Pavia (Italy) and a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Geneva (Switzerland) after which he became a postdoctoral scientist at the Whitehead Institute at M.I.T. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and serves on the main board of the University of Geneva (Switzerland).

    In November 2017 Francesco was named in the first "Bloomberg 50” having been nominated, in the Tech & Science sector, as one of the Top 50 entrepreneurs and innovators who helped to define Global Business in 2017 “

  • Tanja Dowe
    Tanja Dowe Head of Debiopharm Innovation Fund S.A.
    Tanja Dowe

    Tanja Dowe
    Head of Debiopharm Innovation Fund S.A.

    Tanja Dowe is the CEO of Debiopharm Innovation Fund S.A., located in Lausanne, Switzerland. Debiopharm Innovation Fund is the strategic investment arm of Debiopharm Group, focusing on smart data, pharmaceutical and diagnostics fields. With 150M under management, the fund invests in innovative companies with technologies and business models that change the way we develop drugs and the way we treat patients.

    Before joining Debiopharm, Tanja was the Managing Partner of Innomedica Ltd, a Nordic strategy and transaction consulting company in life sciences. During 18 years in consulting, she worked with more than 80 life science companies in building strategies, analyzing business opportunities, in-/out-licensing and acquisitions. Tanja has started up two companies and is a returning lecturer on PhD’s to Business courses at the University of Helsinki. Tanja has an MSc in microbiology & biochemistry from the Aalto University, Finland.

  • Alexandra V. Eberhard
    Alexandra V. Eberhard Managing Director EMEA Signals Analytics
    Alexandra V. Eberhard

    Alexandra V. Eberhard
    Managing Director EMEA Signals Analytics

    Alexandra V. Eberhard, PhD MBA, is the Managing Director Europe and EVP Sciences for Signals Analytics. She joined the team seven years ago and is one of the Signals Analytics pioneers. She has strongly contributed to the software solution development and its successful commercialization. For the last two years, Alexandra has played an integral role in the establishment and development of Signals overall growth strategy and success within the European market. Globally, her mission is to help healthcare & life sciences leaders drive product innovation and market growth.

    Since 2009, Alexandra has also held the role of Partner for the leading investment house ‘Cukierman & Co Life Sciences’ (Israel). Here she supports business development, fundraising, licensing and M&A activities within the Group. Previously, she served as VP Business Development and then as CEO of the biotech start-up within ‘RAD BioMed Accelerator’ (Israel) and Associate Partner of a boutique consulting firm, ‘Quilt Solutions’ (Switzerland).

    Alexandra earned her PhD in Immunology/Virology at BioMerieux (France) and her post-doctorate at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel). She has co-authored more than 15 peer-reviewed international publications, disseminated her work at more than 20 top international conferences and received six academic awards. Dr V. Eberhard also earned an International MBA from Bar Ilan University (Israel). She is married with two children.

  • Anthony A. Hörning
    Anthony A. Hörning Founder of Strategic Transactions Advisory AG
    Anthony A. Hörning

    Antony Hörning
    Founder of Strategic Transactions Advisory AG

    Anthony Hörning is the Founder of Strategic Transactions Advisory AG, in Basel, Switzerland, and a Senior Advisor to Vantage Partners, Boston, USA. He is a Pharmaceutical industry coach and collaborations bridge-builder with cultural and language versatility. His work with clients encompasses advising both licensors and licensees on all aspects of negotiation and alliance management.

    As a leading member of Novartis Business Development & Licensing function, he was in charge of the preparation, launch and ongoing implementation, as well as of all renegotiations, of the company’s global alliances and created a widely recognized alliance skills training program. He is a trainer and speaker at international Licensing and Alliance Management conferences, and served for many years as a member of the board of the “Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals”.

  • Rana Lonnen
    Rana Lonnen Head S&E Strategic Venture Capital, Novartis
    Rana Lonnen

    Ranna Lonnen
    Head Search and Evaluation Strategic Venture Capital, Novartis Pharma Switzerland

    Rana is Head Search and Evaluation, Strategic Venture Capital at Novartis in Switzerland. She joined the company after completing her MBA thesis on disruptive innovations with Novartis. Before joining Novartis, Rana was a in the UK as an independent consultant for life science firms and was Head of preclinical development of an anti-infectives biotech, Auspherix Ltd. Before moving to industry, Rana was director of a Wellcome Trust drug discovery Programme having won a £4 million award to develop first-in-class inhibitors of a bacterial virulence factor. Prior to this, Rana spent 6 years as a postdoctoral research fellow studying host microbe interaction in psoriasis and lung infections. Before academia, she worked in sales and marketing at Bristol Myers Squibb in the MENA region. Rana Holds a PhD in Molecular Biology and an Executive MBA from Imperial College London specialising in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Design Thinking in collaboration with the Royal College of Art in London. She is an author and inventor on 15 publications and patents and was featured in the financial times on design thinking in the pharmaceutical sector.

  • Viren Mahurkar
    Viren Mahurkar Former Regional Director Business Development and Licensing Asia and Russia, Novartis Alcon Division
    Viren Mahurkar

    Viren Mahurkar
    Former Regional Director Business Development and Licensing Asia and Russia, Novartis Alcon Division

    Viren Mahurkar is completing an assignment as Regional Director, Business Development & Licensing for Novartis Alcon, focused on M&A and licensing for the Asia and Russia region.

    Mr Mahurkar was previously Managing Director of HitchinRock Advisors, a Singapore-based boutique M&A, licensing and capital introductions firm consulting to companies and investors interested in the Asia healthcare and biomedical sector.

    Mr Mahurkar has extensive experience in both financial and healthcare sectors, including as EVP and Head – Strategic Advisory and Capital Markets at ICICI Securities India;Senior Vice President and Head Global Business Development at Wockhardt; Director International Business Development Pfizer New York; Partner and Head – M&A at Ambit Capital India; and Associate Director at ANZ Investment Bank London.

    Mr Mahurkar holds an MBA from the University of Delhi, MSc from the London School of Economics and is a member of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association. He completed an Executive Leadership Program at Harvard Business School.

  • Michael Meissner
    Michael Meissner Chief Technology Officer (MedTech), Sanofi
    Michael Meissner

    Michael Meissner
    Chief Technology Officer (MedTech), Sanofi

    Michael Meissner is CTO of the Medical Device Development group (MED) at Sanofi, working on digital drug delivery systems as well as leveraging that data and data from other devices to deliver services around the drugs that accomplish better patient compliance and improved outcomes (“beyond the drug”).

    Prior to joining Sanofi, he worked as CTO at a digital pathology startup-up (JV between UPMC and GE Healthcare) and prior to that he was Vice President of Engineering and Vital Images (now a Toshiba company), facilitating the transition from traditional 2D image review to enterprise 3D image management. He is an entrepreneur “by DNA” and passionate leveraging technologies to bring new and innovative solutions to solve our healthcare challenges.

  • Vikalp Mohan
    Vikalp Mohan Celonic AG
    Vikalp Mohan

    Vikalp Mohan
    Vice President Sales and Marketing Celonic AG

    Mr. Vikalp Mohan is Vice President Sales & Marketing with Celonic AG; a Switzerland headquartered biologics development and manufacturing organization. Leading the commercial operations, corporate strategy and business development group, he has been instrumental in rejuvenating Celonic biologics services portfolio, shaping strategic alliances and driving global commercial expansion models, with the goal of establishing Celonic as a premier quality CDMO player, globally.

    Before joining Celonic, Mr. Mohan worked with Syngenta AG, donning different commercial and strategy leadership roles, across Europe, Asia, and Africa. He had also designed, implemented and led various sales and marketing capabilities improvement initiatives, for multiple fortune-500 clients, as a CRM manager with BearingPoint, based out of New York, USA.

    An engineering graduate, Mr. Mohan holds a master’s degree in business administration from INSEAD, France

  • Jon Otterstatter
    Jon Otterstatter Chief Executive Officer, Preventice Solutions Group
    Jon Otterstatter

    Jon Otterstatter
    Chief Executive Officer, Preventice Solutions Group

    Jon Otterstatter is the original co-founder of Preventice Technologies in 2007; formerly known as Preventice. He currently serves as the president and global strategy officer and CEO. Jon earned a reputation as a creative, solutions-oriented leader and technology expert. His skills and commitment to excellence have brought high value to global enterprises while returning above-average value for stakeholders. Prior to co-founding Preventice, Jon served as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for SPSS. While at SPSS, he guided the strategic direction, budget, personnel and daily operations for the company’s worldwide technology operations. He also served as Senior Vice President of Technology for ShowCase Corporation in Rochester, MN, and was a Senior Programming Manager at IBM. Jon holds a Master’s degree in Technology Management from M.I.T., and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

  • Carey Pepper
    Carey Pepper Vice President & General Manager Global Licensing, Swarovski
    Carey Pepper

    Carey Pepper
    Vice President & General Manager Global Licensing, Swarovski

    Carey is a marketing management executive with in-depth expertise in managing internationally renowned luxury brands and brand licensing initiatives, including Fragrances and Beauty, Eyewear, Watches, Fashion, Jewelry and Accessories for Men and Women.

    Currently in the role of Vice President of Global Licensing at the Swarovski Group in Männedorf Switzerland, his focus is extending the brand into new territories outside of Fashion and Accessories. Before joining Swarovski he held global executive positions at the Zino Davidoff Group and at Hugo Boss. He has a proven record of building brands and successfully managing sales and marketing teams.

    As a German/American he grew up in California and Western Germany and went to University in Saarbrücken and Paris, before starting his career in the Beauty Industry at L’Oréal and then Shiseido managing a multitude of brands.

    While traveling is his passion, he lives in Switzerland and calls Zurich his home.

  • Alan Selby
    Alan Selby Executive Director, Torreya Partners
    Alan Selby

    Alan Selby
    Executive Director, Torreya Partners

    Alan is a Director at Torreya working on strategic transactions and financings across the life sciences. He has almost 15 years of transactional experience including buyside and sellside M&A as well as structured financing. He has worked on over 30 closed transactions with total value of approximately €5 billion.

    Before joining Torreya’s team in 2011, he worked in healthcare private equity at LGV, a UK-based middle-market private equity fund, and Macquarie, a multinational, multi-fund investor. Alan has also served as an advisor to the healthcare team at Booz & Company.

    Prior to his career in Finance, Alan was a practicing doctor in teaching hospitals in London specializing in neurology, infectious diseases, endocrinology, and elderly care.

    Alan holds both an M.Sc. in finance from INSEAD and an M.B.Ch.B. with Hons., University of Liverpool.

  • Ravi Sodha
    Ravi Sodha Senior Director, Business Development , Actelion
    Ravi Sodha

    Ravi Sodha
    Senior Director, Business Development , Actelion

    Ravi studied in the UK obtaining B.Sc. in Pharmacology, Ph.D. and MBA. He started his career in basic research nearly 30 years ago (London University, Zurich University Hospitals, Ciba Geigy Basel). In 1995 Ravi moved to Clinical Development at SmithKline Beecham. In 1997, he joined Novartis Pharma Sales & Marketing and in 1999 moved to Global Business Development & Licensing, where he spent 8 years in various functions and activities. Ravi joined Actelion in early 2008 as Senior Director, Business Development where his responsibilities include structuring and negotiating licensing deals across several therapeutic areas, including orphan indications. Ravi retires in April 2018.

  • François Taverne
    François Taverne CEO of Hermès Cuirs Précieux
    François Taverne

    François Taverne
    CEO of Hermès Cuirs Précieux

    After 4 years at Deloitte & Touche, François Taverne joined the Hermès Group in 1994, where he assumed successively the responsibilities of European and American retail financial control, the coordination of the group products’ divisions and the industrial development.

    In 1999, he became Managing Director of the Leather Goods Division, the biggest products’ division of Hermès. In 2006, he created and chaired Hermès Intérieur & Design, opening new possibilities for Hermès in cars, aviation and boat industries as well as interior architecture.

    Since May 2011, he is CEO of Hermès Cuirs Précieux, the tanning division of Hermès which handles the purchasing, tanning, dyeing and finishing of precious hides destined for high quality fashion and leather goods brands as well as for the high end watchmaking industry.

  • Shigeo Taniuchi
    Shigeo Taniuchi Head of EMEA, Senior Corporate officer and Member of the Board.  Santen Pharmaceutical
    Shigeo Taniuchi

    Shigeo Taniuchi
    Head of EMEA, Senior Corporate officer and Member of the Board.  Santen Pharmaceutical

    Mr. Shigeo Taniuchi represents Santen’s journey in becoming a specialized ophthalmology company with global presence.

    He joined Santen 20 years ago as a sales representative in Osaka, the city where the company is situated since 1890. As Santen has internationalized itself, he has been assigned various international projects to lead the company’s globalization. He worked on numerous projects in Asia, including the start-up of direct marketing activity in China. In addition, Shigeo worked on various projects for the US and Europe including several business development projects and PMIs. He studied an MBA at Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.

    Recently he was assigned to head the European business, and in 2015 he established the new HQ in Geneva. Since then he has been leading business integration and transformation, territory expansion and new product launches, realizing enormous growth in the whole EMEA region.

  • Daniel Weston
    Daniel Weston General Counsel and Global Head of Corporate Affairs and CSV, Nestlé
    Daniel Weston

    Daniel Weston
    General Counsel & Global Head of Corporate Affairs and CSV,   Nestlé Nespresso SA

    Daniel Weston is General Counsel & Global Head of Corporate Affairs and Creating Shared Value (CSV) at Nestlé Nespresso SA, Switzerland, the worldwide pioneer and reference in premium portioned coffee. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Aluminium Stewardship Inititative, which fosters greater sustainability and transparency throughout the aluminium industry, as well as Board and Investment Committee member of the Nestlé Pension Fund.

    Daniel joined Nespresso in April 2011, bringing a strong background in antitrust, licensing and intellectual property enforcement. He also has commercial management experience, having previously led a small lifescience business as well as negotiated major life science deals as the business lead. Prior to joining Nestlé in 2007, Daniel worked for Novartis (in both its pharmaceuticals and consumer health businesses) and Johnson & Johnson, following an early career with law firms in the City of London. He also spent 9 months working with a medical and educational NGO in Rwanda after his legal studies.

    Daniel is a British citizen, a Solicitor of the High Court of England & Wales and a CEDR accredited mediator. He is a graduate of Leicester University and Guildford Law School in the UK, and received his business management training from Vlerick Management School in Belgium.