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.

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

Constant Beroulle is an Associate at Newfund Capital, a French-American early stage venture capital firm with 400M€+ in AuM, investing across health tech, MedTech, and digital health. Trained as a pharmacist, he brings a clinical lens to early-stage healthcare investing, helping founders navigate the shifting landscape between scientific innovation and capital.

Elizabeth has worked at the intersection of international investment and commercialization within healthcare for the last 15 years, spanning 28 countries and all classes of complexity, building a reputation for strategic risk management for both investors and companies.
She is on the Board of Directors of a business angel network, SWAN Impact, where she focuses on impact-driven healthcare startup investments. Leveraging experience as a senior executive at startups through large public companies while living in Europe and South America, she is a Managing Partner at Venture Atlas Labs, a commercialization firm that supports global companies in US market success alongside investors, government agencies, and innovation centres.
She has worked in global innovation at the leading university in Texas, and she serves as a US federal grant reviewer for medical devices, an advisor to numerous accelerators, and is a frequent keynote speaker.

Emmanuel B. Vander Poorten (Member, IEEE) is currently a Professor with the Faculty of Engineering Technology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, where he has coordinated the activities of the Robot-Assisted Surgery (RAS) Group since 2010. He received the degree in mechanical engineering from KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, in 2000, and the doctoral degree in engineering from Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, in 2007. He has participated in and coordinated a large number of European Union-funded collaborative research projects on surgical robotics. His research interests include medical device design, robotic comanipulation, haptics, teleoperation, control of flexible instruments, and robotic catheters. He has maintained a close collaboration with UZ Leuven, the university hospital of Leuven, throughout his career and has conducted, in close collaboration with the hospital, several clinical trials with in-house developed surgical robotic technology, including world first interventions on robot-assisted retinal vein cannulation and wave-division-multiplier-based FBG shape sensing inside the pancreatic duct. While interacting with the tech transfer office of KU Leuven, he works to translate the developed technology to the market.

Esther is the Founding Managing Partner of THENA Capital, a £45m UK based MedTech venture capital fund focused on digital healthcare solutions and medical devices. Before moving into VC, Esther spent over 10 years as a trusted advisor to large brands, particularly within the consumer healthcare sector, advising them on growth strategies and how best to adapt commercial models to changing environments and trends.

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.

Florence joined Kurma Partners in 2022 and is an Associate in the Biofund team, based in Paris. She focuses on early-stage biotech investments and company creation. Prior to joining Kurma, Florence gained experience in healthcare investment at Omnes Capital. She holds an MSc in Bioscience Engineering, specialised in Cell and Gene Biotechnology, from Ghent University, and an MSc in Pharmaceutical Management from ESCP Business School.

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.

Ivo Svejkovský is Director of the Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer at Charles University, where he works at the intersection of research, innovation and industry, supporting the translation of academic knowledge and research results into practical applications, intellectual property protection and commercialisation.
His professional background combines technology transfer and innovation management with hands-on experience in international clinical research. Before joining Charles University, he worked at ICON plc, a global clinical research organisation, as Global Contracts Lead, negotiating clinical trial agreements and budgets between pharmaceutical sponsors and hospitals and clinical research sites across Europe, North and South America, and Israel.
At Charles University, he has designed and is implementing a university-wide education and professional development programme for students, academics and researchers in entrepreneurship, innovation and intellectual property, as well as the negotiation of clinical trial agreements and budgets from the perspective of research sites and Principal Investigators.
He has also held leadership positions in research institutions of the Czech Academy of Sciences and made a significant contribution to the development of Czechia: Country for the Future 2.0, the Czech Republic’s national economic strategy launched in 2026.
In addition, he serves as an external expert for the European Commission, evaluating research and innovation projects under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe.

Julien is a tech-growth strategist with 20 years of experience translating product vision into global business. As Senior Corporate Director at Samsung Mobile, he led strategy and transformation for an $80B portfolio, establishing digital ventures and design-led customer experiences. Previously, Julien served in the Chairman’s Office of a major Asian conglomerate, focusing on growth opportunities across a range of industries. He began his career in IT consulting, rapidly advancing to Key Account Management for a multinational enterprise. Today Julien advises late‑stage startups, VCs and PE funds on go‑to‑market, product strategy and commercial leadership, while serving as a board advisor in digital health and wellness. He holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and an M.Eng. in Telecommunications from IMT Atlantique.

Kyun Thibaut is the Founder and CEO of COVARTIM, an engineering company that helps manufacturers develop and certify their Medical Devices. Located in Belgium (Brussels, Liège) and France (La Rochelle), COVARTIM supports its clients from all around the world at every step of the development of their solutions (R&D, prototyping, manufacturing, V&V, QA, RA, APEX QMS ®).

Kyun has more than 15 years of experience in the MedTech industry. In addition to leading COVARTIM, he regularly teaches at the university and other training programs.

Maria Viegas Nascimento holds a PharmD and post‑graduate training in Health Technology Assessment (HTA). Since 2008, she has been fully dedicated to clinical research, holding different responsibilities across clinical studies coordination, project management, and regulatory consultancy, contributing to national and multinational trials, supporting market adoption of health technologies. Her profile is further strengthened by specialised training in the EU Medical Device Regulation and usability engineering, positioning her at the intersection of regulatory, clinical, and user‑centered evidence generation for health technologies.
She currently manages testing and validation activities at Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN), focusing on pre‑clinical and clinical evidence generation for medical devices and digital health solutions. Her work centers on designing and coordinating validation strategies that ensure regulatory compliance, clinical relevance, and robust real‑world value, supporting the translation of innovative technologies into safe, effective, and market‑ready solutions.

Dr. Oriol Iborra is CEO and co-founder of NIMBLE Diagnostics, a DeepTech spin-off developing the first non-invasive, non-ionizing system for continuous monitoring of implanted medical devices, with first focus on coronary stents. A cardiovascular researcher trained between Barcelona, Stanford and Harvard Medical School, he has authored 30+ publications and delivered 150+ international congress presentations. He combines strong clinical-scientific rigor with advanced training in entrepreneurship and life sciences management. As CEO, he leads financing strategy, investor relations and the company’s strategy toward creating a new standard of care for patients with implanted stents.

Pedro Lopes is Head of IP and Technology Transfer at CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine. He leads the identification, evaluation, protection, and commercialization of innovative biomedical technologies and supports strategic partnerships with industry and investors. Prior to CeMM, he held innovation-focused roles in the biopharmaceutical industry and has contributed to digital health and venture-building initiatives. His career has taken him across Portugal, Sweden, Austria, and the United States.

Piotr Orzechowski is the founder and CEO of Infermedica, a health AI company improving healthcare accessibility through AI-driven symptom analysis and triage. Since 2012, he has led Infermedica to secure over $50 million in funding and expand to 32 countries. Piotr holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from the Technical University of Wrocław and has participated in programs like the Google for Startups Global Alumni Program and the Leadership Academy for Poland. Recognized as a thought leader in digital health, he is also a husband, father of two boys, and enjoys tennis and playing guitar.

Dr. Ricardo Gaminha Pacheco is a physician-executive at the intersection of generative AI and drug development. As Strategic Partnering, Business Development & Licensing Director and Longevity Biotech Lead at Insilico Medicine (HKEX: 3696), he helps advance one of the industry’s most validated AI-driven pipelines — from forging high-value partnerships to accelerating AI-generated assets into the clinic.
Insilico Medicine, a clinical-stage generative AI biotech, has set a new benchmark in drug R&D: 22 preclinical candidates nominated since 2021, each progressing from project initiation to PCC in just 12–18 months (versus the traditional 2.5–4 years), with only 60–200 molecules synthesized per program and a 100% success rate from PCC to IND-enabling stage. Its lead asset, Rentosertib (ISM001-055), delivered the industry’s first clinical proofof-concept for AI-enabled drug discovery in a Phase IIa trial for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, published in Nature Medicine. The company’s partnership track record — including collaborations with Sanofi (up to $1.2B), Servier ($888M in oncology), Menarini/Stemline (over $550M), and Eli Lilly — underscores the translational power of its Pharma.AI platform spanning target discovery (PandaOmics), generative chemistry (Chemistry42), and clinical development.
Prior to Insilico, Dr. Pacheco spent over 15 years in senior medical and commercial roles across major pharma — including Roche, AstraZeneca, Novartis, and Takeda — driving product development, clinical strategy, and successful launches in immunology, neurodegeneration, and oncology. He holds an Executive MBA and Professional Certificate in Entrepreneurship from MIT Sloan, and is passionate about leveraging AI and TechBio to expand human healthspan.

Susie A. Ruff is the founder of RUFF & CO. Advisory and brings extensive experience in health innovation and health technology, both in Denmark and internationally. She has served in various key roles, including Director of the Healthcare Innovation Centre for the public hospitals in the Copenhagen Region, Head of Research and Innovation focusing on life sciences, and Regional Export Sales and Marketing Manager. She provides strategic and go-to-market support to industry and healthcare organizations across the Nordic region and the EU. Her work emphasizes user-driven and human-centric innovation. Additionally, she is an external lecturer at Copenhagen Business School for the M.Sc. in Health Innovation program, a member of the InnoExplorer Panel at the Innovation Fund Denmark and member of the board of Danish Life Science Cluster.