As part of SOSV, one of the worlds most active early stage investors, John Carrigan provides deep expertise and mentorship to support SMEs. In addition, he is heavily involved in recruitment, technical due diligence and program curriculum development for a number of its accelerator programs.

He has also acted as an expert advisor to the European Innovation Council since 2018.

John graduated from University College Dublin in 2005 with a PhD in protein biochemistry. In 2012, he was a founding member of the Aer-Sustainable Energy Limited team, a company that was acquired by Cellulac in 2015. While there, John was responsible for the development of cost-effective natural product extraction (particularly omega oils) from microalgae

Eileen has been working with entrepreneurs since 1990’s where she was part of a consultancy team and small fund. Since 2001 Eileen has worked for Oxford Innovation working on projects relating to business development for SMEs with specific background in business support and Access to Finance and coaching. Since 2004 as Manager of OION Ltd, one of the UKs longest running Angel Networks, overseeing the development of the angel network through to FCA regulation and its own Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme Fund. Her past roles included delivery of National Government programmes including the AngelHub concept and AngelsforLifesciences that now partners with MedCity London. Eileen is a member of the EEN Executive Team for Access to Finance Thematic Group, Board Member of Venturefest Oxford and RSA Fellowship Councillor (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce)

Aleksandra is Medical Director in Roche, leading innovative healthcare company, where she played key roles related to scientific research and market access in different therapeutic areas in Serbia and the region. She specialised programs INSEAD Roche Champions and London Business School 360.

Aleksandra finished School of Medicine in Belgrade with neurology specialisation and worked as a doctor at the Institute of Neurology, Clinical Center of Serbia, before she became part of pharma industry.

Dr Mellad is a scientist entrepreneur passionate about translating innovative technologies into better patient outcomes. As CEO and co-founder of Start Codon, he aims to identify and recruit the most disruptive healthcare start-ups across Europe, seed-fund them and drive their success. Previously, he was the CEO of Cambridge Epigenetix which has developed a proprietary epigenetic biomarker discovery platform for the development of new diagnostic assays and the identification of novel drug targets. While at Cambridge Epigenetix, Jason transformed the research tools company into a leading liquid biopsy player and led two successful fundraisers (Series B and C) for a total of $51m. Prior to joining Cambridge Epigenetix, Jason was a Business Development Manager for Horizon Discovery’s diagnostics division, being responsible for developing and launching new reference standards for genomic clinical assays. Jason obtained his PhD in Medicine from the University of Cambridge with a focus on the molecular mechanisms regulating vascular remodelling within coronary artery bypass grafts.

Laura obtained her PhD in Biotechnology in March 2015. During her PhD, she conducted research in new gene therapy applications in the field of cancer. Laura has worked in technology transfer managing projects in the health sector (diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and ICTs) for the past two years. Nowadays, she is an investment analyst at Healthequity SCR and Invivo Ventures FCR, venture capital funds located in Barcelona, investing in SMEs in the Healthcare sector.

An experienced CEO and entrepreneur with a passion for business creativity, out of the box thinking, innovation, technology, and the automotive industry. I enjoy sharing my experiences as a former Oxford start up CEO and board member to inspire other business owners and CEO’s on what is possible if they dare to dream. I have raised over £4 million in venture capital for an Oxford University spin out I founded, from a mix of institutional and angel investors. Prior to moving to the UK I was the founder of a successful software and consulting business in based in Adelaide, South Australia.

Manisha has held many roles in the biotech industry. She attended the University of Pennsylvania for her undergraduate education in Biochemistry and Biology, and received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco. She has worked with a wide range of labs and techniques, from cell biology in infectious diseases to crystallography in cancer biology She consulted with several small startups while at UCSF and participated in the Idea to IPO competition, which has spawned many successful startups. She worked in various technical and strategic roles at the Fluidigm and was part of the team that commercialised the world's first single-cell genomics instrument. She now works at Seven Bridges managing the Cancer Genomics Cloud platform.

Prior to his current role, Vincenzo was the Operation Officer and Chief of Staff for Enterprise Data & Analytics Programme, PMO director for Optimising Medical Evidence Generation Activities and Patient Centricity Excellence Director responsible for the strategic direction and delivery leadership of the overall capability programs to enable lifecycle teams to build patient value in R&D.

Following his passion for advancement of medicines for patients, before joining AstraZeneca, Vincenzo has led several projects at GlaxoSmithKline-UK in World Wide Business Development, in the Centres of Excellence for Drug Discovery, in Global Project & Portfolio Management and in Global Medical Affairs.

Vincenzo has contributed to several patented published inventions, successfully led the in-licensing of gene-therapy treatments and built the Global Strategy, Operations and Governance for a number of programmes in Global Medical Affairs, in Global Medicine Development and in BioPharmaceutical R&D within GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca.
Vincenzo is a doctor in medicinal chemistry with an international Project Management accreditation and an MBA in strategic management.

With 9y+ experience in marketing, Rita has been operatively involved in more than 20 startup projects as founder, marketer or freelancer. She is an expert in the field of early-stage growth, performance marketing and strategy focusing on startups. For 3 years, she has been acting as a mentor in 5 acceleration programs across Europe (incl. Techstars Berlin and StartupWiseGuys in the Baltics) and already coached 150+ tech startups (B2B and B2C). Currently she is the Head of Marketing at ZOLLHOF - Tech Incubator, one of the fastest growing startup incubators of Germany and officially the Digital Health Hub founded and backed by the German government. As part of the Digital Health Hub, Rita has been coaching digital health startups over the past couple of years.

Rob Shay has been the Chief Financial Officer for Seven Bridges since June, 2018 and has over 25 years of international financial leadership experience. Rob has served in multiple executive level financial roles for both private and public U.S. companies, partnering with operating leaders to drive long-term growth and improve gross margins through the efficient use of capital and process optimization. Prior to joining Seven Bridges, Rob held leading finance roles at IHSMarkit, supporting both the Energy and Automotive business portfolios. Rob also has M&A and VC fundraising experience having participated in a $1.5B acquisition and Series C raise.Rob received his undergraduate degree in Economics and Government from Bowdoin College and his MBA from the Olin School of Business at Babson College.

Creating sustainable and supportive ecosystems for entrepreneurs is both Daniel's personal and professional passion. Currently, he leads the innovation management process in Northern Barcelona, particularly, in Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital, one of the major Catalan hospitals providing high technology and complex healthcare to over 1.200.000 patients. Working in the scope of the Gerencia Territorial Metropolitana Nord, his main task is to identify, nurture and grow innovative projects and initiatives arising from healthcare professionals and activities.

Daniel has extensive experience in business development, innovation, research and project management, marketing, communication, start-ups and STEM ecosystem development. In this sense, he founded Innovation Forum Manchester, where he was President, and led the global marketing, communication and operations strategies for a number of years. He also occasionally evaluates EIT Health projects and serves as a mentor in the MCN network.

Interested in new technologies and in entrepreneurship through leadership and innovation, he has many years of experience working and leading international teams: he was Vice-chairman of the Young European Biotechnology Network, where he was also Chief Communication Officer and an Executive Board member. Daniel has participated in the organisation of many scientific and outreach meetings in the UK, Germany and Spain. Overseeing and supporting more than 15 different projects in 7 different countries, he has played a key role in the strategic development, innovation and talent management in a number of companies.

He has an extensive list of scientific publications from his time as an academic in Manchester (United Kingdom), where I worked in cardiovascular research, platelet and endothelial function in the context of inflammation.

Angela Hobbs is the founder of Wilkinson Hall, a consultancy business that works with entrepreneurs, start-ups, and scale ups to achieve sustainable growth, applying her understanding and experience in product design, innovation management and delivering customer value. Angela serves as a non-executive member of OBN and is a member of the Chatsworth Schools Advisory Board. She works as a volunteer for Aspire For Equality, Santander Breakthrough Women Business Leaders Mentoring Programme and Oxford Women in Business.

Wilkinson Hall is launching CarriMe in October 2020 to inspire, connect and support women through the impacts of menopause and enable them to thrive in all aspects of health, ambitions, relationships and the choices they make.

Nick is a co-founder and CEO of Accunea Ltd, a medical device company with real time diagnostic monitoring products for patients with AKI and is the Director of Precision Medicine Strategy for New Medicine Partners, UK.

Nick has a PhD in Microbial Genetics from University of Warwick followed by post graduate research (genomics/biotechnology) at Harvard (DFCI, 1995) and Oxford (Biochemistry, 2000). At Oxford, the research in Professor Sir Ed Southern’s laboratory led to the creation of the spin out company Oxford Gene Technology Limited. Nick went on to secure a fellowship in technology transfer at the University of Warwick and then to Manchester as a business consultant to UMIC, mentoring entrepreneurs and commercial development of the bioincubator. This was followed by heading up the business group at Warwick HRI (2008) and the creation of Warwick Enterprise Park for provision of incubation facilities. Nick held several senior level positions as Scientist, CEO, NED, investor and Chairman in several start up enterprises such as the Oxford University start-up Oxagen (Human Genetics, 2003) Novolytics (antimicrobial therapeutics, 2010), BioMimox (peptide aptamers, 2014), Arcamis (business consulting, 2010), and has served as the Director of Business Development at OBN (2012). Nick has raised significant public, private, VC and business angel funding (Beer and Partners, 2013) for several businesses (multiple £M) and was a coach for the Growth Accelerator programme. More recently Nick created the Molecular Diagnostics Centre within the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, building self-sustainability models and international collaborations and partnerships. Nick also led the successful bid to become the Oxford Genomics Medicine Centre and the Director of the Programme. Nick is a current member of the Diagnostics Advisory Council in Oxfordshire; has advised on Genomics products for ThermoFisher; was a lecturer at MIB (Manchester) in genomics; and graduated (2016) with a PGDiP in Strategy and Innovation from the Said Business School in Oxford.

Sina Henrichs has broad professional experience in implementation and development of projects in research-driven environments. She holds a doctorate in Molecular Biology from the University of Zurich as well as an MBA in Academic Management form the University of Basel. Sina Henrichs combines her extensive research experience in the life sciences and in-depth understanding of process development and project management to provide interactive and professional training experiences. She implemented the Graduate Center GRACE, the professional platform for doctoral candidates and postdocs at the University of Basel and is founder of Manage Science (www.managescience.ch). Since 2018, Sina is working as Project Manager Education at the AO Foundation in Davos.

Tony is an entrepreneur with exits and an authority on corporate innovation, entrepreneurship, start-ups, scaling and leveraging emerging technologies, capabilities and business models including circular economy. He is especially focused on Environment, Healthcare, Social Impact, purpose driven organisations.

He is currently a Board Member & Venture Partner of UNDP, International Trade Centre & Pfizer backed sustainability venture accelerator Accelerate2030 in Geneva that scales the impact of companies working towards positive social and environmental change aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

As an entrepreneur in residence with UK government’s Global Entrepreneur Programme he specialises in environmental, social impact, renewable energy and healthcare innovation combining positive impact with high commercial performance and access to finance for growth and scale at a global level.
Tony is active in research and academia and is a visiting lecturer and mentor at the University of Cambridge; Judge Business School, Entrepreneurship Centre, University of Cambridge; Department of Engineering, Institute for Manufacturing, INSEAD and the University of Cairo with focus on the UN SDG’s and the circular economy.

His corporate experience includes being a member of the Executive Board of T-Mobile International & Deutsche Telekom's corporate venturing T-Ventures as global EVP Business Development & Innovation and Group Managing Director of Bauer Digital for the €1.4bn M&A and post- merger integration of EMAP PLC. He has held senior international leadership positions in FMCG brand marketing (Nestle, Diageo).
His start-up and growth stage experiences include being the co-founder of mobile entertainment company Mobilephonia, leading the turnaround and sale of digital services agency Bluewave (Maersk portfolio) and the leadership team for an $800m IPO (NASDAQ: ACOM). He was co-founder and founding investor of accelerator Springboard (acquired by Techstars) and founder of Health-Tech Company Dupl (IP sale Optima), which provides context to biometric sensor data.

He is an investor and board advisor in mobile technology, digital media, nanotechnology, sustainability, CleanTech, HealthTech and software ventures with M&A exits to Oracle, Piksel, Nokia and Opentext.

Tony has an MBA from Henley Business School specialising in corporate venturing, BSc (Hon) Physics & Electronic Systems, from Brunel University, certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner from University California, Santa Cruz and the Technische Universiteit Delft in Circular Economy.

Vladimir Trkulja is a Venture Fellow at UNICEF Global Innovation Fund, which invests in startups in the Western Balkans region developing open-source innovative technology with the goal to improve the lives of children.

He is a strong believer in open-source as a business model, and looking for teams developing products based on AI/ML, Blockchain, VR/AR, Drones, IoT, UAV & 3D printing.
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Vladimir graduated at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade and has extensive experience in leading tech teams and developing products for the global market. He is a Certified Digital Transformation Expert, working with small and medium companies in defining strategies to embrace digital reality and develop new business models.
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Vladimir co-founded Startit, an organisation that runs several tech hubs across Serbia and an online tech media, reaching more than 70.000 people every month with the goal to make technology and entrepreneurship more widespread in Serbia.

Paula strives to foster innovation and facilitate the digital transformation of the healthcare system by leveraging data and technology to deliver the best therapy to the right patient at an affordable cost.

She has ten+ years of experience in the field of data science and analytics, implementing novel technology to support decision-making in the life science industry. With an entrepreneurial spirit, she helps companies plan their digital transformation and their innovation strategy with a patient centric and sustainability approach.

While Data Science is today's challenge, the access, integration and unification of the data is yesterday's unsolved problem. Data in all fields of knowledge is missing, heterogeneous, fragmented across databases, inaccessible.

The vision at Phenotype is to provide a combined service where data architecture and engineering come together to provide a seamless framework for machine learning and analytics. With years of experience in the health and life science sector, by serving biotechs, hospitals and Pharma, our ultimate goal is to impact patients and the health care system.

Paul is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of HairClone, a cell therapy Company developing cell based treatments for androgenic alopecia. Paul has over 30 years’ experience in the US and UK in the commercialisation of various Regenerative Medicine and Cell Therapy products in both public and private Companies. He was the lead inventor on patents for Apligraf the first multi-cell therapy approved by the FDA which has treated hundreds of thousands of patients in the US with chronic ulcers. Paul was the sole founder of Intercytex Ltd. where he served as CEO for the first 5 years. During this period Intercytex developed several products that reached the clinic, including Vavelta which was commercially available and being used for the correction of Rhytids, scar contractures and dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa before the EU’s ATMP regulations came into force. Intercytex also carried out the world's first cell therapy clinical trial to induce new hair formation. Paul has sat on a variety of panels, grant funding bodies and regulatory committees. He is co-editor of the Journal of Regenerative Medicine, a co-Director of the Doctoral Training Centre in Regenerative Medicine at Manchester University and Industrial Director of Regener8.

Rebecca joined the Entrepreneurship Centre to establish entrepreneurship education programmes for the research community at Cambridge. The first was EnterpriseTECH in 2018, which has seen over 400 PhD students and postdocs attend - working on over 75 commercialisation projects. She went on the create EnterpriseTECH STAR as follow-on programme which completed its first run in November 2019. Other programmes that fall within her remit include EnterpriseWOMEN and Enterprise Tuesday.

For close to 20 years, Rebecca’s home was the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. She is an organic chemist by training having done her PhD with Prof Chris Abell FRS. After her PhD, Rebecca went on to a long postdoc with Prof Steven Ley CBE FRS also in the Department of Chemistry. During this time, she also worked with Prof Sir Shankar Balasubramanian FRS as the Associate Director of the Cambridge-CRUK PhD Training Programme in Medicinal Chemistry for 10 years. Her research has covered many areas of chemistry, mostly at the medicinal chemistry interface, and particularly around cancer research. Rebecca values collaborative efforts and is passionate about cultivating meaningful research impact and creating opportunities for researchers to thrive beyond academia.

Dr. De Backer graduated from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands as aerospace engineer. He attained an MSc degree in aerodynamics and specialised in applied biomedical computational fluid dynamics leading to a PhD from the University of Antwerp, Belgium. He is an alumnus of the MBA programs at London Business School, London and Columbia Business School, New York. Dr. De Backer has received several awards for his innovative research in the field of airway modelling in respiratory and sleep medicine. His work has been published in international journals. Dr. De Backer founded FLUIDDA in 2005 and he has held the position of Chief Executive Officer since 2007.

Janko Ignjatović holds a master of pharmacy degree from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade in Serbia. Upon finishing master studies, he continued his academic and scientific development by enrolling in doctoral studies at the module of Drug Analysis at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade, Serbia.
Moreover, his curiosity and motivation to contribute to science and healthcare led him to further expand his expertise and professional development within pharmaceutical companies GSK and Novartis. Furthermore, during his postgraduate development he was declared as individual winner of Regional BioCamp, a forum connecting academics and industry in Ljubljana capital of Slovenia, thus he gained the right to participate in the Global BioCamp which was organized in headquarters of pharmaceutical company Novartis in Basel, Switzerland. There he was selected as an individual winner of the global Novartis BioCamp 2014. For this achievement he was awarded a professional training and a visit at Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research (NIBR) in Beijing and Shanghai in the People's Republic of China.

Motivated to continue with his passion to foster application of academic knowledge in the industrial field and give his contribution to shaping the healthcare, he pursued a career of research scientist in Novartis global drug development department for biopharmaceutical drugs in Mengeš, Slovenia.
In addition to working in pharmaceutical industry, he enrolled and completed an additional doctorate studies in the field of Biotechnology of the Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, where the primary focus of his research is protein aggregation and its potential immunogenicity.
Janko continued with further personal and professional development in the field of management, leadership, economics and project management within courses in prestigious International Executive Development Centre (IEDC) in Bled, Slovenia. Currently, he is attending Masters in Business Administration (MBA) studies at the Faculty of economics and centre for business excellence in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Aldo is working in line with Business’ CEOs and CTOs, making decisions and reaching successful conclusions with regard to digital technologies.

He possesses extensive client facing experience in B2B and B2C and continues to be a confident manager across different countries for large web development teams, as well as for outsourcing companies. Aldo demonstrates natural ability in organising teams, client and projects, making the process run perfectly for large organisations, without the hassle of technicalities.

He has an ongoing long-standing experience in helping startups as a mentor & coach and he continues to collaborate with venture.ch (EPFL - ETH), masschallenge.com, fusion.xyz and other accelerators.

Holding a degree in Quality Control of Medicines from the Federico II University of Naples and an MBA from Business School Lausanne, Valentina is a motivated and ambitious professional that has 11 years' experience in the pharma industry. Valentina has spent most of her career in Novartis in roles of increasing responsibility within quality assurance and manufacturing areas of drug development and commercial business units. After her MBA she decided to join the “start-up like” company focused on multiple therapeutic areas as well as orphan diseases, Idorsia where she can contribute to moving projects forward from the development to commercial phase. She is positive, creative and inspiring with the passion for continuous improvement and problem solving. Traveler. Painter. Art and books lover.

Nicolas Charton is the co-founder and managing director of E-CUBE Strategy Consultants SA in Lausanne, which specialises in the energy and mobility sectors. An engineer with expertise in industrial organisation, he advises the top management of major Swiss and European energy companies, and public bodies.

Start-up enthusiast and energetic consultant with experience in transition economies. Having a strong background in strategic planning and donor financing, Dora excels in working in a fast-paced international environment. As startup mentor, she is mentoring 130+ early-stage start-ups on business strategy and getting funded. As project manager, she is currently working on: management of an international collaborative project focusing on fostering innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem development in Central-Eastern and Southern Europe; cross-industrial pre-accelerator programme, EIT Jumpstarter; conceptualisation of an ecosystem-effective university incubation program; and financial management knowledge of a H2020 project.

János Fabricius Ferke is independent VC expert running an independent transaction advisory boutique in Budapest for regional early stage VC transactions. János recently advised the entire fundraising process of a EUR 50 million Regional Technology Fund for the capacity to provide multi-stage funding from EUR 0.25 million to EUR 5 million per into Central Eastern European technology driven projects at early or growth stage, typically in Series A financing round.

Janos has over 15 years of experience in transactional finance with a balanced knowledge base from transactional advisory and VC/PE investments and portfolio management through corporate banking. János worked several years in structured bank financing at the KBC Group member K&H Bank in Hungary, portfolio manager at MAVA Capital managing the Hungarian American Enterprise Fund/Hungarian Equity Partners PE funds and the Hungarian Innovative Technology VC Fund, senior investment manager at Docler Investments, the VC arm of the IT powerhouse Docler Group.

János participated and had senior responsibility in more than 50 M&A, bank loan financing transactions, venture capital and private equity deals during his career and out of them more than 25 deals were carried out on the investor side. János spent one year at the Chicago Board of Trade, USA. János holds M.Sc. in Economics from Budapest Corvinus University and Executive MBA from the CEU Business School, Budapest/NYC.

Jim Doherty is passionate about helping businesses to grow.

Based at Inventya and having lead delivery on the successful Scaleup Programme Pilot, Jim is now integral to the Scaleup Programme delivery function. He coordinates the operational client service offer as well as managing a significant client portfolio.

A corporate finance specialist and experienced board- level finance professional, he has over 25 years’ experience contributing to the financial strategic direction of numerous fast growth SMEs.

Jim started a lift manufacturing company in his late twenties which grew to a £2m-turnover, 45-employee enterprise within 18 months, winning contracts with global corporations such as Thyssen, Kone, Otis, Fujitec, Mitsubishi and Schindler.

Jim has considerable experience engaging with and presenting to the VC community, leading several funding rounds for both established and growing as well as early stage and pre-revenue businesses within the telecommunications, manufacturing, service and facilities management, legal medical services, mobile data recovery and cybersecurity, biopharma and medical device sectors.

David has a background in biochemistry, immunology and molecular biology with a PhD from Imperial College, London and three years of post-doctoral experience. David has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 20 years. He worked in big pharma at AstraZeneca for more than 17 years in a wide variety of R&D roles both in the UK and the US. Whilst at AstraZeneca he was heavily involved in developing the use of informatics and systems biology to support the development of new medicines. David joined Blueberry Therapeutics as Chief Scientific Officer at the start of 2014. In this role, he is responsible for leading the research activities of the business which are focused on developing new treatments for serious infectious diseases. The first of these treatments is currently in Phase 2 clinical testing.

Domen Bole is a founder and managing director of Co-creation, providing key expertise in the start-ups, entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem development, and he acts as advisor to top management of Business Incubator of University of Ljubljana and supports the development of teams and start-ups coming mainly from academia.

As seasoned startup coach and mentor with 10+ years of experience, Domen helps early stage startups develop and validate their business models and raise funds using running lean methodology. He has supported over 400 startups within startup competitions, acceleration programs, startup incubators, technology parks in South eastern Europe.

All together Domen has more than 20 years of international professional experience as research assistant, founder of start-ups, interim manager in SMEs and corporate entrepreneur with investment fund experience. He has extensive global network with masters focused in Entrepreneurship and certifications in Intellectual Property Valuation and Technology Transfer. He is also a co-author of SEE Startup Report 2018 and several other publications in field of startup ecosystem development.

Areas of Expertise:

• Early stage Business model development
• Running lean methodology
• Found raising & pitching
• Seed investments

From 2013, Jelena has been positioned as Acting Director of the Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, at the University of Belgrade and from 2016 Head of the Laboratory for Molecular Microbiology, IMGGE.

Her research focus is on fundamental research in the field of molecular microbiology and also on the application of biotech in food and pharmaceutical industry. She has particular expertise in research related to lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and their probiotic potential and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in different microorganisms. Jelena has published more than 50 papers in leading international journals in the field.

From 2013 she has been involved as a Lecturer in the Faculty of Pharmacy in a doctoral study program Microbiology and Immunology.

In 2016 she established the Technology Transfer Office in IMGGE and she is actively involved in all activities related to technology transfer. In addition, through intensive collaboration with industry she is focused on implementation of open innovation concepts both within the Institute and in the country. She is a coordinator and participant in numerous scientific and innovative national and international projects including those with the industry.

Seasoned professional in clinical research industry with over 20 years of experience, with expertise in rare disease, paediatrics and medical device.

Managing Director and owner of AXIOM International Contract Research Organisation (CRO) operating in the region of ex-Yugoslavia and surrounding countries for over 12 years.

Vice-President of KLINIS Association of Advancement of Clinical Research of Serbia since its foundation in February 2012.

Member of EFGCP and MedTech Europe Medical Technology Stakeholder Alliance since its foundation.  Member of the EFGCP Initiative on Patient Information Sheet (PIS) Improvement Working Group .

Author and director of INFORMED CONSENT short educational film explaining 20 elements of Informed Consent process (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUBmcn0acwI)

Co-Author of Clinical Trials Hero Exhibition at Educational Museum Belgrade (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64sdb9xiYTU)

In parallel translator and court interpreter for the courts of law in Serbia and Bulgaria. Also, international lecturer, author of several textbooks and dictionaries.

Lisa Cowey has worked in the field of innovation with high tech companies, including spinoffs and startups for over 26 years. She started her career with Oxford Instruments, one of the earliest and most successful start-ups to emerge from the Oxford University Physics Laboratory. She has direct experience of licensing technology, equity fund raising and successful trade sale with ventures in the UK, USA and Germany.

After returning to UK she joined Finance South East Ltd, a specialist regional funding organisation managing debt, equity and specialist funds including R&D, PoC and Seed Funding for ambitious technology / knowledge-based companies in the region. She managed the Alchemist Business Angel Network and the ERDF funded Merlin Mentoring scheme.

For the last 12 years Lisa has worked in the Western Balkans to support innovative SMEs, including startups, and the transfer of technology from universities and research institutes to companies. She is a mentor on the Investment Readiness component for EU4TECH WB and is the Key Expert for IP and a mentor the EIB EDIF project on intangible assets and intellectual property for the region. Further afield she is a mentor for the MIT startup program in Poland.

Lisa has a PhD in Physics from the University of Oxford, an MBA from Oxford Brookes University Business School where she specialised in entrepreneurship and university technology transfer, and
a Diploma in IP Law and Practice from Bournemouth University Business School IP Unit.

I see myself as a people activator with more than ten years of experience in multinational companies. I started gathering professional experience as a sales representative and continued upgrading my sales experience and knowledge, through consumer engagement, marketing, leading sales teams as well as being in charge of accounts responsible for 3rd party engagement. I graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy on English language and Literature department, via several years in Telenor I came to Philip Morris International 9 years ago, where I currently hold the position of National Supervisor Indirect retail relationship.

Gregor Cuzak, MSc, MBA, has been one of the key organisers of the Slovenian eHealth ecosystem since 2014. He has partnered with all relevant Slovenian health stakeholders, as well as numerous
internationally, such as Health 2.0 and European Connected Health Alliance. Gregor operates as a consultant on topics of business development, data analytics and marketing. His role at ECHAlliance is International Ecosystems Coordinator, which puts him in regular contact with connected health ecosystems across Europe.

Professional with 14 years of experience in innovative pharmaceutical companies with broad experience from the field to strategy planning.

More than 12 years of experience in Medical Affairs, including strategic milestones in Serbia as setting up infrastructure for development clinical trials and their kick off in 2012, leading the team of Regulatory, Medical and Drug Safety associates in complex regional structure.

Being a Compliance Officer for more than 5 years, along with strong personal integrity, gave the business strong integrity and compliance in achieving results.

Open in communication, real team player that doesn’t satisfy with status quo, assertive in challenging current situation in order to achieve better solution for the company and patients.

Working in a pharmaceutical company made me realise how much I can do for patients. If every day starts better for at least one patient because of something I did, then it makes me feel happy and like I did something meaningful.

But to go even further in amplifying that, I am happy to share my experience and help others to do something great for the patients and healthcare system.

Dr Lara Dobrkovic is Clinical Lead Director and Country Manager for Serbia in IQVIA, one of the leading CRO companies in the world. She is managing group of Clinical Leads around the world; and overseeing dozens of clinical studies for new medicines in Central Nervous System and Gastro-Intestinal system. Prior to taking role in management and oversight, she worked herself for few years as leader of big, multicentric and international projects in various indications, and started her carrier in clinical research as Clinical Research Associate working closely with biggest hospitals in Serbia. Overall, she has over than 15 years of Pharmaceutical industry experience, with the last 12 years in management and leadership positions of various departments within the company.
She graduated from Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade and obtained academic specialization in Pharmaceutical Medicine. She speaks fluent English and Spanish, and has medium level knowledge of German. In her free time, she is inclined to all kinds of sports activities.

Mr. Gil-Ad brings more than 25 years of experience in management of large R&D projects. Prior to founding NovellusDx, Haim Gil-Ad was the CEO of Optigo Systems Ltd., a vertically integrated high-tech company developing technology-oriented products and a leader in electro-optical R&D that was acquired by the Elta Co. of Israel Aerospace Industries. Prior to joining Optigo, Mr. Gil-Ad pursued an extensive career with the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD) as head of major international R&D and full-scale development programs. Mr. Gil-Ad earned a B.Sc. in Engineering from Tel-Aviv University and an MBA from Ben-Gurion University. He has twice been awarded the Israel National Quality Award.

Martin Eglitis, Ph.D., has over 15 years research experience and additionally 20 years of pharmaceutical licensing experience. He has headed labs at the NIH, lead discovery and enablement research teams at a biotech startup, and conducted all aspects of the licensing process at global pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Eglitis has closed licensing deals valued into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Currently at Blazing Star Pharma Advisors, he provides strategic and business development consulting services to small and mid-size biopharmaceutical companies.

Prior to founding Blazing Star Pharma Advisors, Dr. Eglitis held Senior Business Development positions at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Amgen Inc., and Eli Lilly and Company. Dr. Eglitis was also involved in one of the first gene therapy start-ups, Genetic Therapy Inc., from its inception through a successful IPO. While there he contributed to the IND filing for the first gene therapy clinical trial.

Dr. Eglitis is inventor on four patents, and author of dozens of research papers and book chapters, spanning a wide breadth of fields including mammalian developmental biology, retroviral vector molecular biology, and physiological responses to neurological disease and injury. He obtained his baccalaureate in Biology and Ph.D. in Anatomy and Developmental Biology from the University of Virginia.

Masha has been working as a Data Protection Officer for the past 5 years, helping early stage biomedical startups from UK and Ireland, and has contributed as a mentor on many international business accelerators. She specialises in implementing, monitoring and auditing business compliance with privacy regulations (HIPAA, PIPEDA, E privacy directive, GDPR, PCI DSS, EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks).

As a member of the ECHAlliance Ecosystem Serbia she works closely with patient associations, Serbian Government and private medical sector advising on information security and personal data protection.

Masha studied Law at the Belgrade University and has a Masters degree from the Faculty of Law. She has passed the Bar examination in 2016 and got GDPR certification from the PECAB in 2018.

Areas of Expertise:

● Early Stage Businesses Development
● Information Security
● Regulatory Compliance
● Legal research

Svetlana Ibrić received her bachelor degree at the Faculty of Pharmacy (University of Belgrade) in 1994. In 1997, she received her Master Degree, and her PhD degree in the field of pharmaceutical technology in 2002 at the Faculty of Pharmacy (University of Belgrade). She was promoted to the position of full professor in 2014. From 2012-2018, she was Vice Dean for Science and International Relations at the Faculty. In 2017. European Directorate for Quality of Medicines (European Commission) nominated Svetlana Ibrić as an expert and a Chair of the Powders Working Group in European Pharmacopoeia.

She is Lead of the Centre of Industrial Pharmacy (http://cifff.emyspot.com/) which brings together members of all pharmaceutical companies in Serbia, regulatory authorities and academia. Dr Ibrić is a member of the Committee for marketing authorisation of human drugs in the Medicines and Medical Devices Agency of Serbia (from 2010). She is leading the scientific project financed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia (starting from 2010) with the participation of pharmaceutical companies: Hemofarm and Galenika. The title of the project is "Development of products and technologies that enable desired drug release from solid oral dosage forms“. Her area of interest is controlled release dosage form development, 2D and 3D printing of
tablets and medical devices, application of machine learning tools in product/process optimisation and Quality by Design implementation in development of dosage forms and processes.

She has published over 200 scientific papers, she is co-author 6 chapters in international monographs. She has over 1200 citations and her h-index is 18.

Dr Drago Indjic is a Managing Director at Oxquant. Oxquant provides expertise and advice on risk management, investments and the impact of data science and artificial intelligence in finance and other knowledge-based industries. Drago is also a co-founder and an adviser to several technology and fund businesses across Europe; has been an EU technology project funding evaluator since 1997; and lectures on fintech and hedge funds. Drago has over 25 years’ experience in alternative investments and entrepreneurship; and has worked as a portfolio manager and in research at several hedge funds, a family office and for a sovereign wealth fund. Drago holds a Dipl Ing from the University of Belgrade and a PhD from Imperial College, London.

Daniel Jamieson is the CEO and founder of Biorelate. He founded Biorelate during his PhD in computational biology at the University of Manchester, UK, after supporting the successful development of drug re-purposing opportunities with Pfizer. Over the last 6 years Daniel has overseen the growth of a blooming global business backed by VC investment of over £1M, with over 25 employees and a growing range of major industrial players on-board as clients. Biorelate is now recognised as one of the breakthrough AI drug discovery companies and Daniel’s focus remains on growing it into a world leading enterprise, helping pioneering companies in developing the innovations of the future.

Jovana Joksimović is an attorney at law at Law office "Stanić and partners" based in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia. She has a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) focused in International Law and Legal Studies from Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade. Jovana is a member of Belgrade Bar Association and Serbian Bar Association.

She specializes in Intellectual property law, especially trademark and copyright protection, with focus on software related IP. Jovana also, guides companies through process of complying with GDPR and Serbian Data protection act.

Jovana actively supports and educates startups about intellectual property rights and potentials, about their obligations regarding Labour law and GDPR. Jovana also have a passion for new technologies and artificial intelligence.

Milica Jovanović is a teaching assistant at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organisational[[ Sciences, Department for Management of Technology, Innovation and Development. For the last 9 years she has been working with students in the field of technology management and technology entrepreneurship. From 2018 she intensively works with students in Center for Technology Management, on building their capacities in the field of technology and innovation management and entrepreneurship. Also, she is actively involved in the work of the Research & Development Center at the Faculty of
Organisational Sciences. In the last 2 years, she has been working with students at the level of undergraduate studies on building their entrepreneurial skills and creating entrepreneurial projects.

Milica's research focuses on technology and innovation management and entrepreneurship, performance measurement, university-industry cooperation, Triple Helix concept, entrepreneurial university, and entrepreneurial ecosystem. She is an author and co-author of 1 book, 4 chapters in international monographs and over 50 scientific papers.

Predrag has 16 years experience in finance and business development with an in-depth knowledge of FMCG and other industries in multinational and multicultural environments. He has experience in auditing, financial consulting and business advisory services.

He started his career working for BDO, the fifth largest audit house in Serbia, as a representative of audit house Arthur Andersen. He has significant experience working with some of the biggest domestic and international companies.

Currently, he is responsible for the Serbia group for financial reporting, Fresenius Medical Care (statutory and US GAAP/IFRS from 2016), finance, accounting, tax, treasury, controlling, system & process improvements, SAP/software, IT hardware and infrastructure.

Founder of  Tekton Labs  Technology Consulting company in Silicon Valley, Mexico City and Lima Peru. 

·         Mentor  Seedstars Summit , Lima
·         Mentor Endeavor - San Francisco & Lima
·         Mentor  Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center  - San Francisco  
·         Mentor  UTEC Ventures - Lima 
·         Mentor   Emprende UP  - Lima   
·         Mentor  Google Launchpad - Lima     
·         Mentor for companies planning scaling from Product and financial standpoint

Expertise in:

·         Pitching/Presentation
·         Investment 
·         Business Development
·         Sales & Marketing Strategy
·         Contract Negotiations 
·         Team Building 
·         Alliances 
·         Relationship Management 
·         Territory Development 
·         International Partnerships 
·         Contract Negotiations 
·         Prospecting 
·         Technology 
·         Private Equity
·         Sales & Marketing Strategy
·         Development
·         Technology (iOT, Data, Machine Learning)

Miloš Matić is Senior Venture Associate at ICT Hub Venture, first privately owned early-stage venture capital fund in Serbia. Miloš is in charge of funds operations, portfolio management and development, mapping and sourcing of startups from the SEE region. As a part of ICT Hubs’ ecosystem, Miloš is in charge of building the entrepreneurship community and mentoring local startups.

He is the part of the Google Launchpad Mentor Programme, a global community of verified mentors for startups, and he is called to be a mentor for many other local and regional programs such as Biosense Accelerator, Startup Academy in Montenegro, Startup Week in North Macedonia and many others. Miloš is also Ambassador and Advisor for Global Startup Awards competition and entrepreneur himself.

Additionally, Miloš is a member of two working groups of Digital Initiative Serbia and Ministry of innovation and technology development of the Government of Serbia, both aiming to further develop the startup ecosystem and capital markets in Serbia.

He previously worked for UNDP and Microsoft Development Center Serbia.

I graduated from the School of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade, Serbia in 2010, in the Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics. I gained my Master's thesis in the following year, and as a result of that work, the Swedish company Teenage Engineering built the Oplab device, which connects all electronic musical instruments ever made. I have spent many years as an engineer and led projects in a variety of fields, from the music industry and information security, to artificial intelligence. Lately I've also been working on projects in experimental technologies such as blockchain and quantum computers. Also, in the last couple of years, I have lectured at leading international conferences on information security.

An experienced professional manager with extensive knowledge in business and management. Offering over 20 years of versatile experience in technology transfer, VC and early investments, management, innovation, strategy, business development, operations, project management, sales and marketing. Possesses communication, presentation, interpersonal, leadership, negotiation skills and teaching and mentoring skills. Maintaining mutually beneficial internal and external relationships with key customers, partners and other stakeholders.

His academic background is a graduate study at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Zagreb. He has acquired MBA from IEDC (Bled, Slovenia) and has refined his management and leadership skills through various executive programs, including the ones at MIT, VTT, Oxford, Cambridge, WIPO Worldwide Academy, World Bank knowledge economy forums etc.

He gained experience in international corporations as well as in SMEs. His experience includes the formation and investments of 5 Spin-offs from major R&D institutes as well as investments and monitoring of 28 Start-up's from SEE region. Domagoj started his professional career in the consulting company Cap Gemini Ernst&Young. Later he moved to Siemens Business Services, consulting and services part of Siemens. In 2007 he joined Rudjer Innovations as CEO (Technology transfer and investment company from Rudjer Boskovic Institute). In addition, he became a special consultant and advisor for World Bank on EU projects of innovation, commercialization of R&D projects and the restructuring of public institutions. In 2014 he became Partner in South Central Ventures (SCV), company that is fund manager for ENIF (Enterprise Innovation Fund) venture capital fund with offices in Zagreb, Belgrade and Skopje.

Katarina has over fifteen (18) years of professional experience in industrial sector and three years of experience in academia. Business consultant in corporate innovations, business development, strategic portfolio management, startup mentor and coach. Focus on scientific background and current tendencies in Management, Project Management, Knowledge Management and Innovations. In great support of the Serbian innovative community through start up networking, lectures, panels, business networks, corporate training. She has a strong wish to continue with professional development and exposure. She is a proactive expert with excellent organisational skills and knowledge, a true innovative leader that could contribute to any company’s growth and advancement.

Vladimir has more than 18 years of experience in Serbian financial markets. He has a proven track record in the creation of legal and institutional frameworks (National Bank of Serbia, Serbian Central Securities Depository), but also as an active participant in financial markets (CEO of FIMA International-brokerage, Portfolio Manager of the FIMA Proactive fund).

Vladimir has been a managing partner and CEO of the WM Equity Partners since its incorporation. He has participated in numerous corporate finance activities (access to finance to Serbian SMEs and Start-ups), M&A mandates and restructuring procedures. He obtained his bachelor and master’s degree from the Belgrade Faculty of Economics and PhD in Public Finance on the Faculty of Political Sciences. Since 2006 he has been a CFA charter-holder.

Jelena Pribic is a qualified European Patent Attorney who is experienced in patent application drafting and prosecution in Life Sciences. After gaining a Diploma in Pharmacy from the University of Belgrade, Jelena moved to the City University of New York where she gained her PhD in Biochemistry. Jelena's research was directed to elucidating a functional relationship between Paxillin and Phospholipase D in human metastatic breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells that provided further insight into the role of these proteins in cancer and a better understanding of the clinical course of disease.

During her PhD, Jelena was constantly involved in teaching at the City University of New York, as an Adjunct Lecturer. Jelena has received Mina S. Rees Graduate Scholarship Award for excellence in research and teaching.

In 2011, Jelena Pribic joined MSA IP, a law firm which specializes in prosecution and litigation of trademarks, patents, designs, as well as in enforcement of Intellectual Property rights in the region of Southeast Europe. Currently, Jelena is the manager of the Patent Department within MSA IP. In 2018, Jelena was selected as a coach by the European Patent Institute to support the preparation of the candidates for the European Qualifying Examination and becoming European Patent Attorneys. Jelena is very experienced in interpretation and presentation of scientific data as well as in planning and coordinating research activities to accomplish research projects.

Danko was born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia, where he graduated from his Bachelor and Master studies in the Faculty of Applied Arts. Soon after acquiring French Government scholarship, he departed
for Paris to gain further improvement, where he finished his Masters in design and contemporary technologies from the École nationale supérieure de création industrielle. He is currently working as a lead industrial designer for MBrainTrain, in charge of prototype and product development, from requirements gathering to final fabrication, including sketching, 3D modelling, engineering, rendering and 3D printing and assembly process.

Jovana Rakićević is a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, at the Department for Technology, Innovation and Development Management. She is a mentor of the winning teams in world case study competitions for undergraduate students and an executive director of Belgrade Business International Case Competition ranked among top ten best competitions in the world. After about 10 years of teaching in the field of technology and innovation management and entrepreneurship, 2 years ago Jovana started an intensive extracurricular work with undergraduate students on building their knowledge in technology and innovation management and technology entrepreneurship, and building their entrepreneurial skills, mindset, attitudes and behaviour through students’ entrepreneurial projects and initiatives in the Centre for Technology Management and R&D Hub of the Faculty of Organisational Sciences. Jovana's research and teaching interest is in the fields of technology and innovation management and technology entrepreneurship, technology commercialization and transfer, entrepreneurial ecosystem support and university-industry collaborations. Jovana is an author and co-author of 5 chapters in international monographs, 10 scientific papers in domestic and international journals, and over 30 papers in proceedings of domestic and international conferences.

Dejana Rankovic was born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia, where she also resides. After she led a big charity organisation with chapters in the USA and UK, her projects spanned different policy issues including strengthening HIV prevention, reproductive health, human rights and care for the vulnerable communities. Lately, her interest in health policy and development lead her to co-found and chair the Association that is today a key advocacy player in the Serbian healthcare system.

She served as member/chair of several European organisations and spent two years at Harvard University as a teaching fellow in Adaptive leadership, Harvard's flagship leadership course. Dejana graduated with a masters degree in pharmacy from Belgrade University, and a masters degree in public administration from Harvard University. She is currently pursuing a PhD in bioethics and is the CEO of a company dealing with big data and AI in healthcare.

I am an innovation professional who has spent many years developing and delivering innovation and ideas in a range of different companies. I have a lot of experience in idea management and project delivery and my consulting business provides support in these areas.

Dr Richard Saldanha is a Managing Director at Oxquant, an advisory/consulting firm he founded in 2001. Richard is an Independent Adviser to Oxford Portfolio Advisers and lectures on statistical machine learning at postgraduate level at Queen Mary University of London. Richard has over 20 years’ experience in asset management and investment banking in the areas of risk, trading and investments. He has held senior roles at several major institutions in the City of London and also managed his own hedge fund, Oxquant Capital Partners, between 2004 and 2006. Richard holds a doctorate (DPhil) in applied mathematics from the University of Oxford.

Milos has over 6 years of experience in securities analysis, as well as working on corporate reorganisation and improvement projects. After completing basic management studies, he entered the CFA Institute's prestigious worldwide license program and since 2014 holds a CFA title. He actively participates in consulting projects in the field of finding strategic partners as well as raising funds for the
implementation of various projects and recapitalisation of companies. Since 2016, he holds a portfolio manager license and became a member of a European association of professionals in the field of
corporate restructuring (EACTP). Milos is one of the founders and members of the board of directors of TMA Serbia and is a member of the Association of Financial Analysts of Serbia (UFAS).

Petar Savic is an entrepreneur and super-connector with a key interest in project management within an Emerging Deep Technologies, bridging the gap between technical, creative and commercial requirements.

Moreover, he is the founder of a London based deep tech enterprise called Supreme Factory connecting the Balkans with the UK and beyond. Co-Director of Startup Grind London powered by Google for Startups, the world’s largest startup community designed to educate, inspire and connect entrepreneurs.

Petar is a board member of initiatives such as Serbian Entrepreneurs, European Blockchain HUB, London Tech Advocates Balkans.

He is a Trustee of Primrose HIll Community Association, with a mission to create the first London's smart village. In the local OnTheHill magazine he writes a monthly column about entrepreneurship and supports Primrose Hill entrepreneurs.

Mentoring at over 20 accelerators, incubators, and corporate innovation programmes like One Tech by Capital Enterprise, P4 by UCL Precision Medicine, NatWest Accelerator, Newable, Global Entrepreneur Programme (GEP) by DIT, Kickstart London, Hackney Business, Magic Village London, Acorn Aspirations, Teens in AI, Spark Mostar, Business Incubator Novi Sad, Founders4Schools, Swisscontact, Escape The City, WeWork Labs, Startup Grind, Google for Startups, etc.

Petar is a visiting lecturer at the Imperial College London, and a mentor at the top UK universities including University College London, London Business School, London Business School, Cambridge Judge School, Queen Mary University of London, Hult Business School.

He was a Marketing and Events coordinator at the UCL Advances, at the time the largest entrepreneurial department in the world, working with more than 400 entrepreneurs and over 500 community events on pro bono bases. He was an Envoy at the Department for International Trade UK working on Western Balkans summit project.

His previous experience includes more than 15 years as an IT Project Manager in corporate, government and culture sectors, with experience in Marketing, Innovation, and emerging deep technologies such as Fintech, Wellness, Food, Immersive and Digital Media, including the role of Head of Digital at EXIT Festival, the largest music festival in South East Europe.

For the past five years he advised some of the most promising tech startups and funds.

After being ill for years, Roi diagnosed himself with a rare condition (POTS Syndrome), starting a medical revolution, saving lives and promoting health on his way to saving his own life. Roi Is the
founder of the patient-led Israeli society for Dysautonomia and has founded several health startups and NGOs including Help+, Valero clinical, Project hearts, and Labriut! He is an Expert TEDx
Trainer. Roi serves as the first-ever Patient in residence and Head of Patient Innovation for the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute in Austria.

Alex has supported start-ups and MSMEs to grow and develop for nearly 20 years’, across various industry sectors and markets between Europe, Balkans and ex CIS. As a management consultant, adviser, trainer and project manager, he shares his experience and expertise in business strategy and planning, as well as internationalisation.

He has developed considerable experience within the ICT and digital industries, including several related verticals, including renewables, health-tech, software development and AI, environmental and clean-tech. Alex has cooperated as trainer and coach with Inspiral (Sheffield Cultural Industries Quarter Incubator), Sheffield Hallam University Science and Technology Park, and currently provides training and mentoring support to Western Balkans start-ups in cooperation with the Impact Hub, with the Belgrade Business Incubator of Technical Faculties (main country science and tech park), and is a jury member at the Belgrade Venture Forum.

Alex has also contributed to MSME and start-up growth via cooperating with UK Trade & Investment (now DIT), EBRD, European Training Foundation, EU DG NEAR, OECD and various government agencies throughout Western Balkans. He currently works with the University of Sussex as Consultancy and Services Manager, and holds an LLB Hons from La Sapienza University (Rome), an MSc International Business and second MSc in Marketing Management from the Sheffield Business School.

Adam Cragg has served as the Chief of Staff of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, the Founding Manager of the NYU Entrepreneurship Lab and was a Founding Partner of Quake Capital a seed-stage investor and accelerator. Quake made Forbes’ list of the top ten VCs globally. Adam has invested in over one hundred and thirty start-up businesses at seed stage and brings a wealth of experience in supporting businesses through their early years. Adam has a MBA from the University of Oxford.

Associate Professor at the Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Chemistry (UB-FC). Vice Dean of Education at UB-FC (2015-2018). Research Associate at Petnica Science Center; Member of the Serbian Chemical Society, Serbian Association for Cancer Research, International Association of Physical Chemists. Postdoctoral fellowship at Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary (2012, 7 months), Research Associate at Iowa State University, Ames, USA (2002, 9 months), and at University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA (2000, 3 months).

Research focus on fundamental research studies of various types of chemical equilibria in biologically active molecules and properties and application of molecularly imprinted polymers. Particular expertise in physico-chemical methods in drug discovery and development.

Dušan Vukanović is the Innovation and Business Development Director at ICT Hub, a leading Serbian company providing innovation consultancy services to large corporations. At ICT Hub, which he joined in 2015, Dušan has helped to build an ecosystem in which corporations and technology startups partner and collaborate. As a lead consultant, his primary role is to design and deliver programs that support innovation processes in large corporations. As a startup mentor he has participated in numerous programs supporting technology startups (EU Funded FRACTALS, and World Bank funded Pioneers of the Balkans), where he was mentoring startups from Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia.

Before joining ICT Hub, Dušan has been successfully running a private consulting business (Cromer Group, 2007-2014) which focused on organisational development and strategic communications. Between 1999 and 2006, Dušan worked for USAID funded National Democratic Institute for International Affairs on different activities supporting political process and government institutions. Between 2005 and 2007 he was Executive Director of an authentic local NGO that was a hub for development and networking of young political and civic leaders from Serbia and the Western Balkan Region (Center for the Development of Parliamentary Debate).

Since 2016, Dušan has been the co-founder of a technology startup in the area of people analytics (One Assessment).

Between 2012 and 2014 Mr. Vukanović was a member of the Managing Board of the Association of Management Consultants of Serbia.
He is a member of the Belgrade chapter of the Serbian Entrepreneurs, a pay-it-forward global network of entrepreneurs fostering the Serbian startup ecosystem. In 2016 he published “Manual for Launching a Technology Startup in Serbia”. Dušan studied Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics.

Nenad is a graduate pharmacist from the University of Belgrade, with a Masters in management and marketing. He is a competent and energetic professional with significant and growing experience in pharma business in both Novartis and AstraZeneca, focused on product portfolio and people management. Continuous high performer, possessing a deep understanding of the country healthcare structure and market environment, able to understand the impact on business from perspective of different stakeholders (HCPs, patients, healthcare policy makers, competitors, media) and to use this knowledge to prepare and execute commercial plans that lead to sustainable competitive advantage. In his current position, as a Business Unit Manager, he is responsible for the development and execution of an overall strategy for complete Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic therapeutic area for Serbia and Montenegro.

Joanna always tries to embrace entrepreneurial spirit at work. Being exposed to the dynamic changes of industry which implement design management skills to redefine their strategies. With the practical experience in product development and design research, Joanna believes in successful connections of business area, technology and design processes, maintaining sustainable attitude throughout all stages of any projects. One of the key factors of her working vision is to be able to work successfully in different multicultural environments by turning insights into meaningful experiences of future products. SPECIALITIES: Design Thinking, Human- Centred Innovation, Experience Design, Design Research & Strategy, UX Research, Trend Research, Digital Health.

“Mike is an amazing combination – he has deep expertise & skills from his background in Venture Capital. He absolutely understands business and how to build it based on solid fundamentals. Mike also has a razor sharp mind and is very direct and to the point. Melinda likes to tease him that he is the “Dr. Phil” of business – he’s going to tell you like he sees it, whether it’s easy to hear or not!” - Melinda Phillips, ZümiFi

For over ten years, we have been working with entrepreneurs and businesses to support and grow their businesses. We recognize that it takes much more than financial support to get a company off the ground, thus we provide assistance in every aspect along the way allowing business owners to take their businesses to the next level.

Our executive team offers insight, experience, and a hands-on approach to cultivate early stage concepts, products, and services into commercially successful business opportunities.

We work with a full range of clients from Berlin Start-Ups in Silicon Allee to international firms seeking to do business in either Berlin or San Francisco.

Bernabe has worked in the areas of patent, technology transfer and information retrieval since graduation in 1988. During his whole professional life he has been training people from his position at the Centre de Patents of the University of Barcelona. First, he taught information retrieval, mainly scientific and patent searching. Soon later he started training on the patent system and more recently on technology transfer. Although he has been part of the University of Barcelona during his whole professional career, he has always compatabilized this position, first working for multinational companies as Chemical Abstracts Service or Questel-Orbit, and later, with very well-prepared colleagues, founding their own companies: ZBM Patents and Trademarks, and ZBM Business Connect. Ahead Therapeutics is the last and probably the most important project he has been involved with. In fact his professional career has always been a balance between starting new projects and carrying out real technical work and teaching those experiences to people.

Amit Jawandhiya is the Strategic Marketing Leader at Honeywell UOP, UK. He holds a Masters in Business Administration from Warwick University, UK, and a bachelor's in Chemical Engineering from Laxminarayan Institute of Technology, India. Amit has 18+ years of industry experience primarily in the oil and gas domain and has held varied job profiles. His research interests include tools for strategic planning and customer excellence, market assessment, and new growth vectors identification. Being an engineer at heart, Amit also enjoys statistical analysis and business finance.

Ankur is a global executive with substantial diverse experience in building, scaling, turning around and delivering technology businesses. A trusted advisor to start-ups with in-depth knowledge of entrepreneurial finance. Well versed in enterprise sales methodologies and execution across developed and emerging markets. He is a skilled technology professional with extensive experience of driving technical and digital strategy and a published author.

Brian Howlett has a wealth of international experience as a medtech leader which he is currently applying in a Non-Executive / Chairman capacity for surgical graft company Vascular Flow Technologies Ltd, skin cancer imaging company Michelson Diagnostics Ltd and medical device coating and surface modification company Accentus Medical Ltd, as well as ANGLE plc. Brian was formerly CEO of Lombard Medical Technologies PLC, an AIM listed company specialising in stents for abdominal aortic aneurysms from 2005 to 2009. During his tenure significant capital was raised to fund the development of operations to commercialise the Aorfix stent graft towards regulatory approvals and growing revenues in EU, USA, Russia and Brazil. Corporate experience includes six years as UK Country Leader of Boston Scientific Ltd, between 1999 and 2005, during which time major medical devices such as the TAXUS drug eluting stent were launched driving sales and profits to the point where the UK and Ireland subsidiary became one of the leading revenue contributors to the Corporation's European operations. Between 1987 and 1999, Brian was Managing Director of the UK sales and manufacturing subsidiary of Cobe Laboratories Inc. In addition, Brian spent almost 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry, gaining strong sales and marketing experience through a number of senior management positions in UK, Scandinavia and the Benelux markets within Fisons plc. Brian joined ANGLE as a Non-executive Director in January 2013.

Caitlyn has 7 years experience working directly with founders who are scaling their startups from Seed to Series A funding rounds. She was part of the team at Beamery that raised $5m series A in 2017 and again at Lyvly where they raised $4.6m Series A in 2018. She has spent the last 2 years advising Unilever on their innovation and transformation programme where she has honed her skills in change management, coaching, lean innovation and agile principles. She recently completed her MBA through Warwick Business School where she focused on innovation ecosystems.

Dmytro Kuziak is a project finance professional. He has extensive experience in the energy industry of more than 10 years. Originally from Ukraine, he was engaged in power plant development, construction, and operation in Europe (the UK, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine) and Africa (Togo, Sierra Leonne). Dmytro’s expertise includes utilities, oil & gas production, and renewables (solar, wind, hydro).
During the last five years, Dmytro works at US-based company, Wheelabrator Technologies (owned by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets - MIRA), which specialized on Energy-from-Waste (EfW). He leads business analytics function in the UK.

An EMBA candidate at Said Business School in the University of Oxford, Dmytro also holds BA (hons) and MA (hons) in Finance from Kyiv National Economics University after Vadym Hetman (Ukraine).

Evan has a diverse and experienced background ranging from non-profit organizations and social enterprises to SME’s and publicly traded corporations. he has held a variety of positions from administration manager to senior/executive manager positions including CFO, President and CEO; additionally, he has been an external Board advisor and held multiple roles as a Member of a Board including Chair and a member of the Audit Committee.

Evan owned and operated an award-winning restaurant before transitioning to the corporate world. Studying and training as a chef and sommelier while developing an entrepreneurial mindset along with the business acumen needed to run a small business.

Recently, he has been engaged as an independent consultant at Enstrati Consulting, engaging with clients to evaluate their corporate strategies, and following through on delivering change management and digital transformation initiatives to establish tangible and intangible improvements. Adept at lateral thinking for start-ups and new ventures – delivering concepts and approaches involving corporate strategy and business plan development, financial management and projections, and investor readiness.

He recently completed his Executive MBA at Warwick Business School. From Vancouver however, over the last four plus years Evan has lived in Greece, Turkey and Montreal before finally settling down in Oxford. He has spent much of his time forging relationships in the Oxford entrepreneurial ecosystem and assisting start-ups in multiple approaches including corporate strategy and business plan development, financial management and projections, and investor readiness.

He sincerely enjoys discussing business strategies and entrepreneurship – whether he is providing methodologies or lateral thinking, or simply a fly on the wall learning new things.

Ian is a highly accomplished entrepreneur, designer, and systems architect. In 2003 he co-founded Oxford-based Mode 7, a renowned and disruptive company in the online gaming space. He has also designed and developed technology currently in use today by high profile clients such as the BBC and Sky. Ian is currently Chief Technology Officer for Oxford Brain Diagnostics, a ground-breaking Oxford University spin out looking to revolutionise the use of imaging in dementia research and treatment.

Melissa has worked in the life sciences sector for 12 years and is currently CFO for a clinical stage therapeutics private company which is focused on care pathways, outcomes and the provision of dynamic personalised therapy regimens underpinned by digital health solutions - with the aim of providing every drug its real time digital technology companion. Melissa previously served as Vice President, Finance within a US and UK listed biotech working in the antibiotic space and has a broad range of experience from early discovery through clinical development and pre-commercialisation encompassing many areas outside of core finance including legal, HR, governance, strategy and organisational growth.

Paul has over 15 years of experience as a financial services and regulatory lawyer, including eight years as a partner leading the corporate team at offshore law firm Collas Crill LLP, building and nurturing high-performing teams. He built a diverse practice including advising on venture capital fund and joint venture structuring, mergers and acquisitions, banking & finance and financial services regulation. Paul has a MBA from the University of Oxford, an LLB from the University of New South Wales and a first class honours degree in Physiotherapy from Sydney University. Paul is currently working towards the first close of a venture capital firm he has founded with two fellow Oxonians.

I have 27 years of broad expertise in different areas of finance in Brazil. Ranging from being a company analyst at the beginning of my career (Capital Markets, Privatization, IPO and Bond Offerings), to being a managerial controller of a securities broker-dealer, and to being the CFO of an investment company as well as the portfolio manager of the fund used as the investment vehicle.

Specifically in this last position, I engaged in several M&A transactions during the divestment phase of the fund, involving the sale of both successful and distressed businesses, including one under judicial administration (Chapter 11 alike).

Therefore I believe I am in a position to help in most of the areas related to finance (budget, cash flows, projections, valuation etc) and documents necessary for a potential transaction, such as NDAs, teasers, SPAs, etc.

Product management professional with 20 years’ experience leading global teams in Telecom Industry, defining and implementing product strategies for Vodafone Group Enterprise, translating technology innovation into products and services.

Led Global Product Managers and Digital Leads team overseeing the global Internet of Things portfolio of products and IoT digital transformation programs for Vodafone Group IoT division.

Developed first Vodafone business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) IoT products category and launch them across 24 countries in partnership with global Automotive & Consumer Electronics original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners.

Sue Rees has been supporting CEO’s and Founders for the past 25 years, enabling them to attract the leadership team to achieve their global ambitions. She is an expert C-Suite executive search specialist working within Pharma, Biotech, Life science and Technology.

With a wealth of experience she is passionate about connecting people and with a wide network she is more than happy to recommend support to other areas of business. Very much a people person Sue has mentored a wide variety of entrepreneurs in developing their business plans and also advised on their personal portfolio. Sue is passionate about engaging businesses across a diverse range of people and thrives in providing knowledge, experience and opportunities.

Tony Hart is the Head of Smart Oxford, Oxford’s smart city project.

Tony has been working with technology innovation companies and start-ups across Oxfordshire and the UK for the past 15+ years, being part of the founding teams of both Packet Vision and Culloma Technology.

He has worked for and with major technology companies in the US (Intel and Cisco), Europe, India and China and was recently the Managing Director of the UK subsidiary of Holley Technology, the leading Chinese smart meter manufacturer based in Hangzhou.

He has helped commercialise IP from public and private sector research establishments and worked to build a dynamic technology innovation ecosystem within Oxfordshire (especially the Digital & Creative sector through Digital Oxford) linking universities, enterprises, SMEs and start-ups across multiple industry sectors.
Tony has run successful hackathons on themes as diverse as Internet of Things and Space applications to Environmental and Low Carbon issues. He also mentors MBA students at Saïd Business School.

Tony has an MA in Engineering & Economics from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Henley Management School.

Laura is a Partner in Keltie’s Life Science and Chemistry team. She has a broad academic background in biochemistry and specialises in patent matters relating to biotechnology, precision medicine, immunology, gene therapy, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, stem cells and regenerative medicine, diagnostics, medicinal chemistry, and chemical technology. Laura has a keen interest in precision medicine and medical devices and enjoys working with early stage companies, spinouts and SMEs, and providing strategic and practical advice and support.

David is a Chartered Trade Mark Attorney. He specialises in the prosecution of UK and EU trade marks, trade mark audits, clearance searches and contentious matters such as trade mark opposition proceedings, infringement matters, revocation and invalidity actions. David works with clients large and small across a very broad range of sectors, and particularly enjoys working with start-up clients setting out on their journey.

As a member of Keltie’s IT, Telecoms and Electronics team, Samantha specialises in handling software and computer-implemented inventions, and particularly enjoys working with clients applying emerging ‘next generation’ digital technologies (such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and 5G) across a variety of technical fields. She is especially interested in the application and cross-over of such technologies in the field of medical technologies. In her time at Keltie, Samantha has also worked with a variety of start-up clients to identify and formulate strategies for protecting various aspects of their Intellectual Property.

Gabriela is a biomedical scientist with over 20 years of research, managerial and commercial experience. She is a former Enterprise Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and founder and CEO of Centeo Biosciences, a scientific instrumentation company, where she raised £1.6m in public and private funding and achieved sales in 24 countries. She has worked as a senior consultant successfully delivering projects for the private and public sector.

Currently, she is a Senior Knowledge Transfer Manager at KTN. She supports business-led innovation in the medtech and pharma space. Gabriela has led various international missions to China, Colombia, Germany and Mexico and sits in a number of advisory boards including the National Centre for Healthcare Photonics and supports various medtech accelerators and entrepreneurial initiatives.

Gary is an IT Strategy consultant, Cyber Security solutions designer & entrepreneur, helping clients from various industries to select and deploy the best cloud applications for their businesses.

Gary started his career working with ICL & Fujitsu (1985 -2006) in many different roles including Procurement, IT Operations, IT Project Management and IT Sales & General Management. Gary handled multiple projects and notably won and managed the project to manufacture the terminals for the UK National Lottery in 1994.

Gary then proceeded to start Greenlight Computers in 2006 as a "Single point of IT services" to provide services including IT outsourcing, digital marketing, cloud solutions, cyber security & IT support. He has since overseen the establishment of 3 other start-ups and has occupied non-executive roles in 10 companies.

Dom Raban is the co-founder and CEO of Xploro, a digital therapeutics (DTx) platform that uses augmented reality, artificial intelligence and games to reduce anxiety for young patients going to hospital.

Dom established Xploro in 2016 after his daughter had recovered from cancer treatment and he realised the importance of providing patients with information about their treatment – something that was lacking in his daughter's experience. Now the award-winning platform is in use in hospitals in the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. Recently Xploro scored 88% on Orcha, the world's leading healthcare app review platform, making Xploro the highest scoring app on the platform for the search terms 'cancer', 'children' and 'stress and anxiety'.

Dom has been creating 'stuff' for over 40 years, from punk fanzines in the 1970s to content for emerging technology platforms now. He's been in the digital space since the start, building his first website in 1995 and his first 3D virtual environment in 1996. He is also Chair of Corporation Pop, a digital innovation agency that specialises in a user-centred design approach to develop apps, games and software.

Senior Product Developer, specialized in luxury fashion, with 12 years of expertise in trends, sourcing, collection planning and all processes throughout the product life cycle.

Devika Thapar is Co-founder and COO at Wilbe, the home for entrepreneurial scientists. A London based venture firm that educates, supports and invests in scientists solving some of the world’s hardest problems in health, climate and security. Formerly head of new product development at IBM Watson in New York, Devika spent five years commercialising artificial intelligence solutions for large enterprises across USA and Europe. Prior to that she worked with the Tech Transfer Office at Yale during her MBA to help evaluate the commercialisation potential of patents. She began her career as a strategy management consultant with Accenture India. She is an angel investor in early stage ventures.

Devika serves on the Board of Collette, a world leading travel company. Professionally trained dancer, she is on the Board of STEM from Dance, an award winning charity aimed at empowering minority girls to pursue science related studies through dance. Devika completed her MBA from Yale University and a BA in economics from St. Stephens College India.

With over 15 years of international senior management experience in strategic and operational risk management, Mustafa now focuses on impact business and entrepreneurship. In his most recent project he supported designing an impact investment fund for a social enterprise incubator and accelerator aiming to provide patient capital to underrepresented founders in London. Mustafa holds an MBA from ESCP Business School and is based between London and Utrecht.

Entrepreneurial, strategy focused, growth driven general management professional with diversified experience in private sector as well as in social development sector, having experience to work with global multinationals as well as local conglomerates of emerging markets with proven success in driving business and developing enterprise & start-ups from scratch or concept.

Leadership role experience in business strategy, business development, private sector development, enterprise development, trade & market intelligence in the Social enterprise, Healthcare, Agriculture, FMCG Retail & Automotive industry.

Small company CEO.
Business advisor, mentor, coach.
Areas of expertise: Medtech-, bioscience- and technology-based sectors.
Previously in a variety of national and global sales, marketing
and business roles in AstraZeneca

I am an innovation consultant and a clinician in the field of functional skincare, my expertise is in the area of skin ageing, skin barrier dysfunction and acne. My role in business engagement for the National Biofilms Innovation Centre entails the personal care, oral care and home care industries.

I worked for over 30 years in R&D leading the R&D team in the UK and then the Global Innovation team for Smith & Nephew Wound Management from 2000-2002. I then formed and led their approaches to Open Innovation, including engaging with Academic Centres in the UK and other Global Research Centres.

NBIC is an Innovation Knowledge Centre, a hub where academia, industry (150 companies), government, and public policy come together. The four core partners are the University of Southampton, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Liverpool, and the University of Nottingham. They have now been joined by over 50 other universities in the UK and we have international connections. We are funded by Innovate UK and BBSRC.

Dr Andy Round, PhD in Biochemistry and Directors at Praetura Ventures. I am a specialist healthcare investor having invested in life science companies for the past 15 years. I have invested from a range of different sources from EIS and VCT to balance sheet and public private funds. Over the past 15 years I have invested in both early stage and later stage companies across the country and across all of healthcare from therapeutics and diagnostics to medical devices.

Azfar is currently a PhD student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering and an MBA, followed by his current perusal of doctoral studies in biomedical arena. Having professional experience of over 8 years in different functional- managerial roles along with a wide range of volunteering activities; Azfar is passionate about empowering people towards excellence, which he regularly promotes through public speaking-writing and other endeavours.

With 15+ years of experience of driving project success, has extensive knowledge in coordinating prototype development, market research and shaping up the final product. Seeking to leverage partner and vendors development and collaboration skills to morph concepts in to a functional product.

Taufiqur Rahman, is the son of Nazrul Islam, being the proprietor of Uttar Banga Traders (UBT) a 37 years old family business with it’s newly venture in the field of supply and distribution after finishing Masters and Bachelor in Business Administration from North South University, Bangladesh.