Alexandra Goncalves is Vice President Medical Digital Health at Bristol Myers Squibb. Dr. Goncalves is part of a team transforming healthcare by tools and services in artificial intelligence, big data and genomics to enable research and improve disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and management to help patients prevail over serious diseases.


In 2016 Dr Goncalves became Sr. Medical Director for the Ultrasound business in Philips. She was instrumental in this business’s success by providing clinical insights and strategic direction and developing impactful partnerships through fostering relationships with clinical, scientific, regulatory, and regulatory and marketing leaders worldwide. In 2019, she joined Philips Chief Medical Office where she led clinical strategy for Cardiology and served as Head of the Medical Office for Personal Health.


Dr. Goncalves started her career as an academic cardiologist in Portugal and Spain and her experience includes research in epidemiology and clinical trials in the Cardiovascular Department at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/ Harvard Medical School (HMS). She earned a Master’s in Medical Sciences from HMS and while working as a clinical cardiologist, she earned a doctorate degree (PhD). Her work drove the refinement of the use of echocardiography in transcatheter structural heart interventions.


Dr. Goncalves is an internationally recognized thought leader, educator, author, and editor with business acumen and an extensive record of multi-disciplinary medical collaborations. She serves as an Affiliate Professor of Medicine in Portugal and has been awarded several prizes for her work and achievements, including the prestigious Senior Clinical Research and Career Development Award from HMS and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.

Constantin Schwaab is a serial entrepreneur who has pursued an active role as a life sciences investor in companies such as Quanta, NVision, and Merlion. Constantin is the CEO of Wirelane, a technology company focused on infrastructure solutions in the space of electromobility.

He is a founder and CEO of Kinoheld, a market leading platform for movie tickets which was acquired by a global leader in live entertainment, the German CTS Eventim AG. Prior to this, Constantin was the founder and managing partner of Plain Energy, a Europe-wide PV-plant developer with approx. €50m assets under management. He is an experienced project manager with 10 years of expertise in all facets of the PV industry including power plant developments in 5 countries, and a strong track record along the value chain including site development, construction, financing and operation.

Constantin started his career as the founder of one of the largest European e-commerce sites at its time; with a successful exit in 2007, when it was sold to NYSE Euronext listed as Loyaltouch. Constantin studied political sciences at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, the Uni Mail in Geneva and the UB in Barcelona. He speaks 4 languages, successfully competed in the endurance sports competition Iron Man Triathlon and has three kids.

Christoph is an enthusiastic company builder who is dedicated to translating science into application; he has contributed to the discovery and development of eight FDA-approved cancer medicines.  Christoph is currently the co-founder and CSO at Curie.bio.

Before founding Curie.bio, Christoph was a partner at Third Rock Ventures where he had been instrumental in founding and launching several companies including Blueprint Medicines (BPMC), Relay Therapeutics (RLAY), Thrive Earlier Detection, Celsius Therapeutics, and MOMA Therapeutics. He currently serves as a consultant in R&D strategy at Thrive Earlier Detection.  Several years ago, Christoph founded Advice Connect Inspire (ACI) to provide both strategic consulting and hands-on operational support to startups and young European companies so they can more easily succeed globally.


Prior to joining Third Rock, he was CSO and chief drug hunter at Blueprint Medicines, global head of oncology drug discovery at Sanofi, and senior unit head of oncology discovery at Novartis. Prior to Novartis, Christoph was an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he was involved in the identification of several cancer driver genes including PIK3CA and BRAF. As part of his research, Christoph discovered that all cancers are genetically unstable, which explains the molecular heterogeneity of cancer and why cancers develop resistance to drugs. He has authored more than 100 scientific articles published in top-tier scientific journals, including Cell, Nature, and Science. Christoph studied human genetics in Salzburg, Austria and got his PhD in biology from the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He received his MBA with a focus on medical services management from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.   


Christoph has received numerous awards, including the Novartis Oncology President’s Award for Top Innovator. He has been elected to membership in the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. Christoph is a strong and outspoken advocate of patients’ rights and is featured in the New York Times bestseller and HBO movie The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. He coached the Johns Hopkins Women’s soccer team for several years and was director of coaching at the Baltimore Bays Premier Soccer Club.  

Erich founded Cedrus Therapeutics Inc. in May 2008 to develop novel therapeutic concepts and medicines. He is also an independent board member of several biotech companies including Cellerys AG (Cofounder, Chairman), PharmaBiome AG (Chairman), Tolremo Therapeutics AG and Topas Therapeutics GmbH (Chairman).

Prior to that, he held various senior positions at Evotec, including Chief Innovation Officer and Member of the Management Team. He was responsible for science, corporate strategy and corporate development from 2002 through 2008 and initiated several business collaborations and public-private partnerships including the European Screening Port and the NEU2 BioPharma Consortium.

Prior to joining Evotec, Erich was a Research Associate at the German Research Cancer Center in Heidelberg, from where he spun off Pointer Pharmaceuticals AG (later PheneX Pharmaceuticals). Erich was trained in mathematics and medicine at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg and the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, USA.

He serves as a strategic advisor and reviewer for several governmental, public and private institutions in the US and in Europe, including the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry for Health.

Dr. Dawn Bell has been starting and scaling life-science businesses from academic spinouts to Top 5 Pharma for the past 20 years, most recently at Novartis. Her career spans buy and sell-side BD&L, portfolio strategy, R&D, and commercialization in both private and public companies like Novartis and The Medical Company.

Working in large pharma, mid-sized, and start-up companies, she has developed and launched 12+ innovative medicines across 8 therapeutic areas, including the blockbuster Entresto where she led global development, registration and launch in major markets. She has raised venture capital, led global teams of 100+ people and managed budgets/P&L of more than $50M. She is a board director, start-up thought leader, and advisor for life-science companies, research institutes, CEOs, founders, and innovation accelerators in the US, Canada, and Europe.

She currently serves on the boards of New York BIO and The Metabolomics Innovation Center and is a strategic advisor for Type 6 Therapeutics, se[rna] therapeutics, and Panakeia AI.

Graziano Seghezzi is Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners which he joined in 2006. He seed-funded and was on the Board of GlycoVaxyn which was sold to GlaxoSmithKline in 2015 and Omthera Pharmaceuticals which went public on Nasdaq in 2013, then was sold to AstraZeneca later that year.

Graziano also seed funded and is on the Board of Mission Therapeutics, Crescendo Biologics, Hookipa Biotech, Corvidia, Hotspot Therapeutics, Polyneuron and Erydel. He promoted and is on the Board of BiovelocITA, Italy’s first biotech accelerator. Graziano started his career in venture capital in 2001 at Sofinnova Partners and then joined Index Venture in 2003.

Ida Beerhalter is Co-head of IOME, a private investment office of women principals from the Persian Gulf with its head office in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

She currently serves as a Member of the Board of Auma Obama Foundation Sauti Kuu (Germany and Kenya) and is Head of Family Office Investments Division at Green Sands Equity (USA). She serves as Strategic Advisor to Impact Investment Partners LLP (United Kingdom), is Vice Chairman of the board of Trustees of First Light Trust (United Kingdom) and is a Member of the Advisory Board of Professors Without Boarders (United Kingdom) and the Arab African Economic Development Initiative (Nigeria & Dubai). She is also a Member of the Board of Jim Button Foundation (Germany), Ambassador to TBLI Group (Netherlands), and Spokesperson of the advisory board of the Charité Entrepreneurship Summitt (Germany).

Jens Eckstein has more than 15 years of venture capital experience in biopharma and 10 years of operational experience in drug discovery and development. Jens is a Kauffman Fellow and a mentor for life science entrepreneurs and start-up teams in the area of innovative life science and healthcare IT companies.

Dr. Mayr is the CEO of Vector BioPharma. Prior to Vector BioPharma, Dr. Mayr has been the Chief Technology Officer for GE Healthcare Life Sciences and was responsible for all R&D investments, research programmes, business growth strategy, technology innovation, and R&D talent development across all business areas_ BioProcess, Imaging Diagnostics/Contrast Media, Research Tools and Applied Markets, Cell & Gene Therapy, New Opportunities.

Previously, he has been working as Vice President & Global Head, Reagents & Assay Development with responsibility for the generation of all biological reagents and assay development activities across all therapeutic research areas at AstraZeneca.

Montserrat Vendrell is partner at Alta Life Sciences since 2016. She sits on the board of Peptomyc, Accure Therapeutics (Chair), Ona Therapeutics and Inbrain Neuroelectronics (observer).
Prior to Alta Life Sciences, Vendrell was founder and CEO of Biocat and the Barcelona Science Park and its bioincubator. Vendrell also chairs the Executive Committee of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation - Alzheimer’s research and the Board of Trustees of Pompeu Fabra University.

Regina Hodits is a Managing Partner at Wellington Partners Life Sciences (WPLS) and represents the WPLS funds on the Boards of AYOXXA, Endostim, GTX Medical, Polares Medical, Themis, and TRiCares. She was a founding investor in Rigontec (acquired by MSD), Sapiens (acquired by Medtronic), Middle Peak Medical (acquired by Symetis/ Boston Scientific), and an external director at GlaxoSmithKline's Respiratory TA Board.

Since joining the industry in 2000, she has become an influential investor in the European venture capital industry, focusing on early-stage and growth deals in Life Sciences.

Dr. Valentin Piëch joined BioMed in 2015 with a background in venture capital, science, and technology. Dr. Piëch founded impact2partners AG, a private venture capital firm with a focus on companies developing treatments and diagnostics for rare diseases.

Prior to impact2partners, he was Investment Analyst and then Principal at Nextech Invest, a venture capital firm focusing on oncology. In addition, he is a private investor in a number of startup and growth companies.

Vincent Hennemand is the COO at Intergalactic Therapeutics. He was previously Senior Vice President of Strategy, Corporate & Business Development at Akili Interactive Labs.

Prior to that he was a Principal in Sanofi’s corporate R&D venture group (“Sunrise”) where he was responsible for developing and managing new investment opportunities including Myokardia, Voyager Therapeutics, WarpDrive Bio, and Portal Instruments.

Dr. Vishal Gulati serves as a venture partner at Molten Ventures. Specialising in Digital Health, Dr. Gulati previously served at DFJ Esprit, Europe’s leading Silicon Valley style Venture Capital firm with over $1b under management.

Since 2012, Vishal has been a leading promoter of investments in the emerging Digital Health sector and Chairman of Digital Health Forum, which supports the best-in-class Digital Health companies to grow into global enterprises. Vishal serves on several boards including Horizon Discovery Group PLC, a gene editing company; Fluidics Analytics, a next-gen protein discovery engine; Frameshift Healthcare Information Flow Platform and EcoEos, a consumer genomics business. His previous investments include Napo Pharmaceuticals, Glenmark, Renovo and Phagenesis.

Dr. Werner Lanthaler was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Evotec AG in 2009. In his previous position, Dr. Lanthaler served as Chief Financial Officer of Intercell AG in Vienna, Austria, a global biopharmaceutical leader dedicated to the development of vaccines. In this role, he was also responsible for Business Development and Marketing & Sales.

Derek Young was an entrepreneur and innovator in the healthcare sector. He was a named inventor of over 32+ patents with commercial success globally.

Mr. Young successfully co-founded a number of European medical device start-up companies including Medtech, Advanced Surgical Concepts, and Haptica before joining the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) in Dublin. While there, he established a Healthcare Innovation Hub to develop ideas received from clinicians and inventors in Europe and internationally. Mr. Young spearheaded and completed at least 12 Medical Device Exits with key International Healthcare MNC over the last 12 years.