Head of Biosimilars Partnership Strategy and Operations Organization of Merck 

Brigitte is responsible for ensuring maximization of the deal value and minimization of the risks associated with the partnership on biosimilars with Fresenius Kabi. Brigitte brings over 25 year of leadership experience across roles in  R&D, worldwide drug safety operation leadership at local and global level,  cross business and functional program management across geographies, drug development program and partnership leadership. In the course of her 28 years at Merck she also contributed and led specific asset acquisitions and divestments, integrations and carve-outs at function and business level. Brigitte holds an executive MBA from Ashridge Business School in the UK and 2 Master’s degrees in languages & international laws and in medical languages from Paul Valéry University of Montpellier and Lumiere Lyon 2 University respectively.

Jürgen Burger is full professor for Translational Medicine and Entrepreneurship at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Bern/Switzerland. At the same time, he is director of the Swiss School for Translational Medicine and Entrepreneurship at sitem-insel AG, Bern. He finished his Master‘s and PhD Degree in Physics at the University of Erlangen, Germany. His professional experience includes employments at CSEM and Roche Diagnostics before he was appointed Professor for Microtechnology at the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH). During this period, he set up the domain of Medical Technology in the department and study program of Microtechnology. The research collaboration with Prof. Lutz Nolte, University of Bern resulted in the foundation of the master’s program MSc Biomedical Engineering which started in 2006. In 2008, he joined Johnson&Johnson, Codman Neuro Sciences and the J&J «Center for Smart Implants and Instruments» as Head R&D Microsystems where he developed complex business models in cooperation with companies, universities and public authorities. In 2008, he received the venia docendi and in 2014, he was appointed titular professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Bern. Over the years, he received calls for a chair at the University of Sydney, the Charité and Humboldt University in Berlin and the University of Stuttgart. Jürgen Burger‘s research aims at bringing innovative treatment and therapeutic/diagnostic medical systems to the patient. A special focus is on intelligent implants and surgical instruments in combination with pharmaceutical products.

Torsten Butz leads the M&A and Investment Activities of CSS Insurance, the leading Health Insurance in Switzerland. In the beginning of 2020, CSS decided to create the «SwissHealth Ventures» to invest directly in digital health startups and support innovative ideas for a high quality and cost-effective health system. The first two investments were already successfully closed last year as well.

Besides the startup investment activities, Torsten is also responsible for larger M&A Activities, such as the sale of the Enterprise portfolio to Zurich Insurance in 2020 as well.

Prior to joining CSS, Torsten worked at Cisco Systems and Mobiliar Insurance in the fields of Corporate Innovation, Technology Management and Strategy.

Torsten graduated in Physics and holds a PhD in signal processing both from EPFL.

Ata received a double-B.Sc in Mathematics and Electronics Engineering, and holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Biomedical Microfluidic Systems. After inventing its core technology during his PhD, he has co-founded Lunaphore in 2014. He has 10 years of hands-on experience in design, development, fabrication, integration and testing of clinical microfluidic systems. He authored 6 patents, 10 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and 14 in international conferences.

Ata is leading Lunaphore since its conception in 2013. As the CEO, he is directly responsible for fundraising, business development, intellectual property and general management of the company.

Front-end business and innovation leader in medical device technologies. Vice President & General Manager for Cardiac Devices and Electrophysiology in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Boston Scientific. Previously in charge of Strategy and Business Development at Medtronic across EMEA and Canada.

Angelo brings over 25 years of international leadership experience in the medical device business, covering General Management, Sales and Marketing, Business Development, Merger & Acquisition, Clinical responsibilities in diversified geographic areas.

He is also an entrepreneur, founder of NayaMed International and passionate for disruptive business models in healthcare. Advisory Board member of the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Joint Programme. Past President and member of the Advisory Council of the HealthTech Summit.

Angelo holds a Biomedical Engineer Degree from the University of Pisa, MBA diploma from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Continuous education from IMD in Lausanne and Harward Business School in Boston, certified Strategy Management Officer.

Tanja Dowe is the CEO of Debiopharm Innovation Fund, the digital health investment arm of Debiopharm located in Lausanne, Switzerland. Passionate about transforming healthcare and pharmaceutical development through digital innovation, Tanja is constantly on the look for ambitious entrepreneurs who do not settle for status quo. During her 20 year career as an entrepreneur and international transaction & strategy consultant at Innomedica before joining Debiopharm, she worked with more than 80 medical & healthcare companies globally, giving her a broad view into product development, team building and commercial strategies that work – and some that don’t. Tanja is an experienced board member and chairwoman with a track record of successful M&A exits. MSc Tech in Applied Microbiology and Biochemistry from Helsinki University of Technology.

Hervé graduated from Ecole Polytechnique (Palaiseau, France) in 1987, SupAero (Toulouse, France) in 1989 and obtained an MS from Stanford University in 1990. He worked for the French department of defense for two years and went back to academics to obtain his PhD in electrical engineering from Université de Rennes in 1994 (with one year spent at Stanford University again). Hervé stayed in academics from 1994 to 1997 as dean of studies of the ENSTA (Paris, France) and at Onera (Palaiseau, France).

In 1997, he left the academic world to begin a new career in venture capital with Index Ventures in Geneva, Switzerland. Working at EPFL since 2004, he started as a licensing officer in the Technology Transfer Office. In mid-2005, he helped in launching and took charge of the INNOGRANTS. In 2010, Hervé became a Senior Scientist in the field of high-tech entrepreneurship and his research field concentrates on academic spin-offs, including Stanford University and Silicon Valley.

Former Founder and CEO of Aïmago (sold to Novadaq in 2014 for $12m). At Aïmago, Michael converted an early-stage technology into an FDA cleared / CE marked product with initial sales in Europe. Michael and most Aïmago investors have reinvested in Distalmotion.

Nicolas Loeillot is a senior technology entrepreneur and investor. Back in 2003, he founded a computer vision company in Japan. Pioneering in A.I. applications, his company served hundreds of projects with large companies in Japan, Asia and the US before being acquired by a GAFA in 2017.

Since 2010, he chairs the Tokyo Interaction Center, a privately-owned incubator in central Tokyo, focused on early stage deep technology start-ups. In 2018, Nicolas Loeillot joined the Swiss health insurer Groupe Mutuel as Chief Innovation Officer to setup an innovation strategy, accelerate deployments of A.I. and craft a data-driven, prevention-focused future of the company. In 2021 he joins InnoSuisse as Expert for a 4-year mandate.

Rana Lonnen is a healthcare technology investor, entrepreneur, and molecular biologist. At Novartis, she focuses on strategic investments in healthcare technologies. Rana is passionate about corporate ventures as an innovation tool that can shape the future of the parent company, while creating value to startups and the innovation ecosystem. Rana is motivated by ventures that reconcile a higher purpose with business growth.

Previously, Rana was Head of Preclinical Development at a UK biotech, Auspherix and was consultant to venture capital firms on academic spinouts and intellectual property licensing. Prior to this, Rana was a principal investigator leading translational medicine in infection, immunity and inflammation; her teams research led to high impact publications; she won a Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery Award and became Founder and CSO of Axendos therapeutics, with first-in-class compounds and patent granted in the US. Before this, Rana worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb, in sales and marketing.

Rana holds a PhD in molecular biology and an Executive MBA from Imperial College London, focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, and human-centered design. In her down time, Rana is a hidden chef, coaches entrepreneurs, loves live music and dance performances and hikes in the mountains. Rana is a board observer at Koneksa and NuvoAir, and is based out of Basel, Switzerland.

Massimo Lucchina is a Senior Executive with large experience in High Tech, Internet and Telecom sector; currently he is VP Corporate Business Development and Strategic Alliance at CySec and Member of the Innovation Council at Innosuisse and Advisory Board Member at Bugsolutely.

Previously Massimo was at Samsung as Chief Strategy Officer and overlooking M&A activities in Europe for 4+ years and Cisco Systems for 22+ years where he had sales and channel responsibility, Corporate Innovation leader with the Technology Center, member of VoIP team to deliver 1st product on market, initiated M&A office in Europe to deliver 12 acquisitions and Head of Cisco System International in Rolle and EPFL.

Prior to Cisco he worked for Telecom Italia and for the European Space Agency. Massimo holds MsC in Electrical/Telecommunication Engineering from Politecnico di Milano.

Raphael Rollier develops and promotes digital innovation and transformation. He is currently in charge of Innovation and Product Management at swisstopo, working on topics such as geolocalisation and data science in the field of geoinformation.  Previously, in co-creation with several cities, he created a “Smart Data” tool, which turns billions of data generated by the mobile phone network into anonymized and aggregated traffic indicators. Raphael has 13 years of international marketing&sales and general management experience, having worked for Nokia. Member of the Venture Kick jury, Raphael has developed a mentoring program for start-ups at the EPFL, where he obtained a master’s in micro engineering. He also writes about the digital economy at LeTemps webpage: See blog

“We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise, why even be here?” Steve Jobs tweeted that in 1985 (well he said it in an interview, these were the 80’s). Meet Jeroen van den Oever, leading finance and operations at SUN bioscience, the Organoid company. Straight talking Dutch financial expert trying to make a remarkable difference in the world around us. Equipped with a wicked sense of humour and a hunger to challenge the status quo he is out to improve drug development through innovation and entrepreneurship.

Founder of a regulatory technology start-up (sold in 2010) he converted an early technology project into a viable business with clients in the corporate world. Wanting to pay forward what he had learnt Jeroen started sharing his experience with start-ups and corporates alike. Jeroen’s talent was spotted at SUN bioscience that offered him the opportunity to join the company and never be bored again.

Jeroen is a licensed CPA and experienced board member. He learnt the trade in the first 12 years of his career at KPMG. For inquiries reach out to him on LinkedIn.

Dr. Sherif joined Oculis from Novartis where he served as Entrepreneur in Residence at Novartis Venture Fund during 2017. Prior to this, he held senior positions in global business development both at Alcon, where he was Region President of Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Novartis Pharmaceuticals, where he served as President of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Canada. Dr. Sherif joined Novartis Pharmaceuticals in 2002 and has also held roles as Head of Transplant and Infectious Disease for Latin America, and Head of the Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Division for Latin America.

Prior to Novartis, Dr. Sherif worked for several pharmaceutical companies, holding positions of increasing seniority, mainly in marketing and general management with international scope. Dr. Sherif is a medical doctor by training, and also has an MBA from IMD and a Specialized Master’s degree in Medical Management.

Nathalie Virag is a Distinguished Scientist responsible for the worldwide Strategic Partnership Program at Medtronic Corporate Science & Technology. She collaborates with international teams in the industry, academia, hospitals, and government institutions with the objective to accelerate meaningful innovation in healthcare and improve patient outcome. Nathalie has over twenty years of experience in the medical device industry where she is recognized for her ability to translate basic research concepts into medical solutions. She is also actively engaged in directing research outside Medtronic and managing public-private partnerships. She holds a Master’s degree in electrical engineering and a PhD in signal processing from EPFL. She is based at the Medtronic European Headquarter in Tolochenaz, Switzerland.

Lan is the Deputy Managing Director of EPFL Innovation Park and an Expert of Innosuisse – the Swiss Innovation Agency.  She has 23 years of hands-on professional experience in industry as well as in the ecosystem of innovation & entrepreneurship.

Lan started her career at R&D department of Rolex, in charge of creating new computer aided design and optimisation tools in the product development process. She was later appointed as Head of Operational Planning at Pictet, working closely with a startup to design, develop and implement a management information system for group operation control. As the Managing Director of Geneva Creativity Center, she connected large corporations, SMEs, startups and researchers to initiate innovative joint R&D projects.

Currently at EPFL Innovation Park, she is leading entrepreneurship training and acceleration programs and is helping startups to establish business partnership with large corporations. Lan has a PhD degree from EPFL, an MBA from HEC Lausanne and postdoctoral applied research experience at Stanford University.