His Excellency Dr Al Knawy has been Chief Executive Officer of Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs (MNGHA) and President of King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Saudi Arabia since 2009. He is also an executive member of the Saudi Health Service Council, the national governing healthcare body in Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Al Knawy is a strong advocate of patient safety and quality of care and oversaw the launch of several high-impact initiatives. Under his management and direction, the Health Sciences University and King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre commissioned state-of-the-art facilities, and he has also led a system-wide implementation of the BestCare electronic health record system covering all medical services in the MNGHA network.
His latest project was the Riyadh Global Digital Health Summit, a G20-associated event that envisioned a global health system connectivity in preparedness and response to COVID-19 Pandemics. The event has been described as one of the largest virtual health conferences of the year and certainly largest one on public health combined with digital health.
Bandar Al Knawy, MD
FRCPC, FRCP(edin)
Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs
President, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences
Summit Chaiman
Summit Vice Chairman
Prof. Ahmed Alaskar, MD, FRCPC, FACP
Executive Director King Abdullah International Medical Research Center
Ahmed Alaskar is a Consultant and a Professor, Adult Hematology & Stem Cell Transplantation at King Abdulaziz Medical City, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs. He is also the Executive Director, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center and the President of Saudi Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (SSBMT).
Prof. Alaskar gained his MBBS from King Saud University and completed medical trainings at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada where he obtained both the Canadian and the American Boards of Internal Medicine and of Hematology and Stem Cells Transplantation.
He assumed numerous administrative tasks and positions since 2001. He was the Director, Inpatient Services at King Abdulaziz Medical City – Riyadh and the Program Director of the Saudi Board Preparatory Course for Internal Medicine. He led the Department of Oncology at its establishment stage in 2005/2006 while he continued to be the Head, Division of Adult Hematology & Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation until March 2015. He was one of the founders of the Saudi Scientific Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and was elected twice to be the President of the society. He was then appointed as Deputy Executive Director, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center from May 2010 and became the Executive Director in September 2013 until present.
Prof. Alaskar has more than 100 publications and involved in numerous local and national committees and member of several International Societies.
Prof. Ahmed Alaskar
MD, FRCPC, FACP Executive Director King Abdullah International Medical Research Center
Summit Vice Chairman
Dr. Abdelali Haoudi
“We are now witnessing the dawn of new era where we can no longer look at biomedical R&D centers separately from healthcare innovation centers and Biotechnology enterprises. The current COVID19 global pandemic has raised a serious alarm that the existing Biotech and Biopharma is still facing major challenges to rapidly and effectively cope with global health pandemics. Therefore, our proposed Riyadh Global Biotech Summit will bring together taught leaders in the field to push the boundaries of our existing thinking and practice and propose innovative models that will impact the country, the region and the rest of the world with direct impact on health and economy.“
Dr. Haoudi is currently leading the Strategy and Business Development and is also Managing Director of the Biotechnology Park at King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, at the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, and is also Distinguished Scholar at Harvard University/Boston Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Haoudi has held several senior positions in Research and Development and Innovation, including Founding Vice President for Research, Executive Director for Biomedical Research Institute and Chairman at National Research Fund at Qatar Foundation.
Dr. Haoudi served also as Research Professor of cancer and infectious diseases at the University of Virginia and Eastern Virginia Medical School and a fellow of the US National Institutes of Health. He has also held several other positions in elite research and education institutions including Visiting Professor at Harvard Medical School (USA) and a fellow at Institut Pasteur (France).
Dr. Haoudi was elected as a member of Hassan II Academy for Science and Technology in 2006 and graduated from University Paris XI and Paris VI, France in 1996 with a doctoral degree in cellular and molecular genetics and received executive education from Harvard Business School in Corporate Management and Strategy and received multiple awards including Fogarty International Award and has published numerous peer reviewed international research publications and served as Founder and Editor-In-Chief for the Journal Biomed Research International and is a member of the international advisory board for the Lancet Oncology and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the MASciR Foundation for Science, Research and Innovation.
Dr. Abdelali Haoudi
Head R&D Strategy and Business Development Managing Director, Medical Biotechnology Park
Summit Speakers
Sir Menelas N Pangalos
Quote: The COVID-19 pandemic poses an unprecedented challenge to humanity and demands a global, united response across the life sciences sector. At AstraZeneca, we have undertaken multiple approaches to find tangible solutions for overcoming the pandemic, combining our skills and expertise with world-leading experts to help realise this commitment; supporting healthcare workers with essential supplies, innovating in COVID-19 testing and researching and developing novel preventative and treatment approaches. Our development of a COVID-19 Vaccine with the University of Oxford has been an extraordinary and unprecedented journey. In just over 12 months, we have developed a vaccine that is highly effective against all severities of COVID-19, gained approval for emergency use in over 80 countries and delivered over 500 million doses. Right from the start we committed to supplying billions of doses of the vaccine at no profit during the pandemic to ensure broad and equitable access. It is fantastic to see the impact our vaccine is having, saving tens of thousands of lives already.
Mene was appointed as Executive Vice-President, R&D BioPharmaceuticals in January 2019 and is responsible for BioPharmaceutical R&D from discovery through to late-stage development covering Cardiovascular, Renal, Metabolism, Respiratory, Inflammation, Autoimmune, Microbial Science and Neuroscience areas. Prior to this, he served as Executive Vice-President of AstraZeneca’s IMED Biotech Unit and Global Business Development.
Since joining AstraZeneca in 2010, Mene has led the transformation of R&D productivity through the development and implementation of the “5R” framework resulting in a greater than four-fold increase in success rates compared to industry averages. In parallel, he has championed an open approach to working with academic and other external partners, changing the nature of academic-industry collaboration. Mene previously held senior R&D roles at Wyeth and GSK. Mene holds Honorary Doctorates from Glasgow University and Imperial College, London, is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society of Biology and Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. He sits on the Council of the MRC, co-chairs the UK Life Sciences Council Expert Group on Innovation, Clinical Research and Data and is a member of the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Implementation Board. He is also on the Boards of The Francis Crick Institute, The Judge Business School, Cambridge University and Dizal Pharma. Mene was awarded the 2019 Prix Galien Medal, Greece for his scientific research and named Executive of the Year at the 2019 Scrip Awards. Most recently, Mene was awarded the honour of a Knighthood by Her Majesty The Queen for his services to UK science. Mene also oversees the creation of AstraZeneca’s new Global R&D Centre in Cambridge – a state of the art facility designed to stimulate collaborative scientific innovation and which will play an important role in the future success of the UK life science industry.
Sir Menelas N Pangalos
Executive Vice President and President
BioPharmaceutical R&D, AstraZeneca, UK
Mr. Walter Klemp
Walter (Wally) Klemp is the Chairman and CEO of Moleculin Biotech, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed (Nasdaq: MBRX) drug development company based in Houston, Texas.
Mr. Klemp is the Founder and Chairman of two current Nasdaq-listed biotech companies (MBRX, SOLY), one in cancer drug development and one in medical devices. With 19 years in the biotechnology industry, he has been responsible for numerous clinical trials, as well as regulatory approvals of both drugs and devices and out-licenses to EU and Asian drug companies. He has raised nearly $1 billion in development stage funding for his companies, including 7 public securities issuances and 4 Nasdaq IPOs. Mr. Klemp’s first company became #1 on the INC 500 List of America’s Fastest Growing Companies, as well as earning the American Marketing Association’s Gold Edison Award. He was invited to serve as an Advisor to the White House Conference on Small Business and has delivered numerous lectures on the development of the biotechnology sectors.
Soliton was listed as the most successful Reg. A+ IPO by the Wall Street Journal in 2019 and recently announced it is being sold to AbbVie at a value of approximately $.5 billion.
Mr. Klemp helped facilitate an initiative similar to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 in the country of Poland. This was called “Vision 2020,” and its objective was to help diversify Poland’s economy by establishing Poland as a hub for new technology, with an emphasis on biotechnology, throughout Eastern Europe. Specifically, Moleculin, which had been developing technologies discovered at MD Anderson Cancer Center (the world’s largest cancer research center), sublicensed cutting edge cancer drug technologies to development companies in Poland (including rights to surrounding territories) in exchange for access to grant funding intended for their Vision 2020. This led directly to the expansion of clinical trial activity in Poland.
Mr. Walter Klemp
Chairman and CEO Moleculin Biotech, Inc.
Eng. Suliman Almazroua
Eng. Suliman Almazroua, CEO of the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP). He leads change and strives for innovation at this important stage of the program to contribute in achieving the strategic objectives of the Kingdom's Vision 2030.
In recent roles prior to his assignment as Head of the Program Office, he acted as Executive Director in the National Transformation Program, the NTP program was mandated to achieve the 37 strategic objectives of Vision 2030. Almazroua also acted as the Director General of the Delivery and Rapid Intervention Center where he managed a team of over 90 professionals to support the delivery of Vision 2030 goals.
Eng. Almazroua received his Bachelor of Science degree in Systems Engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in 2001 and his master’s degree in business administration from Hull University (UK) in 2006. He also participated in many global leadership programs, including Program Management from Rice University and Executive Program of Harvard University.
Since then, he has gained a wealth of experience in technical, managerial, and leadership roles in the industrial sector; he began his career in Saudi Aramco in the technical field and then he moved to the managerial field, both experiences contributed to shaping his technical, managerial and leadership skills.
In 2011, Almazroua was appointed as Manager of the International Operations for Saudi Aramco in Houston, USA where he established North America Satellite Research and Development Centers, improved Cybersecurity Posture in all Saudi Aramco international offices and technical management of the healthcare sector in Saudi Aramco.
Almazroua acquired the technical skills and industry knowledge that enabled him to build a unique problem-solving ability. Equipped with his skills and work ethics, Almazroua aspires to play a pivotal role in KSA's most prominent Vision Realization Program, NIDLP, which is focused on transforming Saudi Arabia into a pioneering industrial powerhouse and a global logistics hub by integrating growth in four key sectors: Mining, Industry, Logistics, and Energy (with focus on Industry 4.0) in line with Vision 2030.
Eng. Suliman Almazroua
CEO of the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program
Eng. Nizar Al-Hariri
Eng. Al-Hariri is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Industrial Development Center. He joined the National Industrial Development Center (previously known as Industrial Cluster) in 2015 as a VP for Pharma and Biotech. With 27 years of experience, Eng. Al-Hariri has a successful track record in business development for both government and private sectors. He has deep experienced across all aspects of business development, from concept to JV set-ups, contractual negotiations and funding arrangements, to major project management, strategic planning and organization structuring.
Eng. Nizar Al-Hariri holds a Master from the University of Cambridge, Engineering Department in Design, Manufacture & Management, as well as a BSc in Chemical Engineering from King Saud University.”
Eng. Nizar Al-Hariri
Chief Executive Officer National Industrial Development Center
Dr. Ashraf Allam
Ashraf Allam is the CEO of the Pharmaceutical Investment Company (PIC) which is fully
owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) - PIF is a global investment powerhouse
and one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. The fund is building a
world-class, diversified portfolio through investments in attractive, long-term
opportunities at both domestic and international level.
In his capacity, Ashraf is fully responsible for creating, providing, and implementing
strategic, financial, and operational leadership for the company, closely coordinate and
work with the senior executive team representing both the shareholders and the Board
of Directors.
Prior to joining PIC in April 2021, Ashraf has served for more than seven years as the
Regional Vice President of Mundipharma Middle East, Turkey, and Africa region, based
in Dubai, UAE.
Mundipharma is a leading global research and manufacturing privately held,
multinational pharmaceutical company with annual revenues ~$4.0 billion. In his role
Ashraf managed the business across META region and was fully accountable for the
profit and loss. He has also served for several years, as the elected Chairman, Executive
Committee for the Association of American and European research-based
manufacturing pharma companies (PhRMA) in the Middle East and Africa.
Ashraf is also serving as the elected Chairman of the Board, Self-Medication Industry for
the middle east and Africa region and serves also as a board member at Mecomed, the
industry’s association for medical devices and diagnostics.
Prior to joining Mundipharma in late 2013, Ashraf was appointed by Amgen; one of the
world's largest Biopharmaceuticals companies (Market Cap ~ USD 180Bn) as their Vice
President for International Business Development based in Switzerland, in addition to
full profit and loss responsibility for the European markets of Italy, Greece and the
Balkans. Ashraf was also heading the Corporate Development division focusing on
growth, diversification and globalization of Amgen's business and was one of the key
executives in the Global Strategy and Commercial Development Executive Team.
In 2006, Ashraf moved to Dubai to establish Amgen's operation in the Middle East,
Turkey, and Africa region which in less than six years became one of the leading, top
companies in the region. From 2001 to 2004 he has served at Johnson & Johnson as
the Managing Director, responsible for managing the group’s umbrella of diversified
medical device & diagnostics companies based in Cairo.
Prior to J&J, Ashraf worked for Eli Lilly & Company in a variety of senior general
management, sales, marketing, management development and business development
roles in the USA, Europe, and the Middle East. He was also the Director of Global
Economic Affairs and Pricing based in Indiana, USA, having previously been based in
Geneva, Switzerland as the Head of Area Sales and Marketing Operations for Central
Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa.
Dr. Ashraf Allam
CEO of the Pharmaceutical Investment Company (PIC)
DR. Pierre J. Magistrett
Pierre J. Magistretti, received his MD in 1979 from the University of Geneva and his PhD in Biology in 1982 from UCSD. He is Distinguished Professor at the Division at Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering at KAUST where he has been Dean from 2012 to 2020. He is also Professor Emeritus at the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL and at the Departments of Psychiatry at UNIL/CHUV and UNIGE. Since January 2020 he is the Director of KAUST Smart Health Initiative (https://smarthealth.kaust.edu.sa/). Pierre J. Magistretti’s laboratory has discovered some of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the coupling between neuronal activity and energy consumption by revealing the key role that glial cells, in particular astrocytes, play in this physiological process. These findings are particularly relevant for understanding the origin of the signals detected by functional brain imaging, and are revealing a role of astrocytes in neuronal plasticity and neuroprotection. He is the author of over 250 publications in international peer-reviewed journals; he is on the Clarivate list of highly cited scientists, with an h-index of 103 and > 45’000 citations. He has given over 70 invited lectures during the past five years. He has been elected at the International Chair 2007-2008 of the Collège de France, Paris. He is member of Academia Europae and of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. Among other recognitions, Pierre Magistretti has been awarded the Camillo Golgi Medal Award, the Emil Kraepelin Professorship, the Goethe Award of the Canadian Psychological Association and the Ott Prize of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2016, he shared with David Attwell and Marcus Raichle the IPSEN Foundation Prize. Pierre Magistretti is a honorary member of the Chinese Association of Physiological Sciences. He is the Past-President of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and Past‐President of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO). He has been on the Board of Trustees of the Human Fontiers Science Program Organization from 2003 to 2020 and a Fellow of the American College of Psychopharmacology. He is and has been member of several academic scientific advisory boards including the Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation. He is the Vice-Chairman of the European Dana Alliance for the Brain (EDAB) since 2002 and is member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives (DABI) and in this capacity he is strongly engaged in the public understanding of neuroscience. He is the co-founder of two start-up companies based on his research, LynceeTech and GliaPharm.
DR. Pierre J. Magistrett
Director
KAUST Smart Health Initiative
DR. Abdulrahman Alnuaim
Abdulrahman, American board and Canadian fellowship certified in internal medicine and endocrinology.
He has over 3 decades experience as practicing endocrinologist both at King Saud university hospitals (KSUH)and king Faisal Specialist Hospital Research Centre(KFSH&RC).
Strong track record of academia, professor of medicine since 1999 with 75 papers published in peer reviewed journals, principal investigator for multicenter international clinical trial of biologic drug for thyroid cancer patients.
Abdulrahman, certified physician executive by the American Certified Physician Commission. He has extensive executive management experience spanned over 20 years, both at KSUH and KFSHRC. He was the associate dean for administration of the medical school at KSU.He was the medical director, then, the chief operating officer and assistant to CEO of KFSH&RC.
After retiring, Abdulrahman was recruited for period of about 3 years as vice president and consultant for foreign pharmaceutical company. He was responsible for regulatory matters and advanced therapeutics of vaccines and biological molecules.
He is, currently, consultant to HE the minister of indsutry for pharmaceutical industry.
Abdulrahman is lifetime learner, avid reader and pursuing innovations in relevant healthcare categories. He has acquired, over the years, knowledge and experience in categories such as :Health Information Technology, Healthcare delivery and innovation of model of care, innovation in medical technology with emphasis on miniaturing ,robotics,and affordability of medical technology, advanced therapeutics and localization of industry of critical drugs such as the vaccines and startsup with impactful services.
Current medical subjects of interest: Pandemic control and localizing vaccine manufacturing, Longevity, healthy aging, maintaining wellness and delivering acute care services outside hospital boundaries.
DR. Abdulrahman Alnuaim
MD, FRCPC, FACP, CPE
Professor, Physician, healthcare executive and pharmaceutical industry Consultant at Ministry of Indsutry
Dr. Elie Haddad
• Managing Director, BCD Group of Companies
• Expert Advisor, Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone and Fellow Aerotropolis Institute of China
• Former Group CEO & CFO, Bio City Development Company, Istanbul and Amsterdam
• Former General Manager of Damac Real Estate Group
• Former CEO, Al Oula Capital, Abu Dhabi, UAE
• Former Investment Banker and VC expert
• Electromechanical Engineer, St Joseph University
• Masters in Finance, ESCP Paris & Oxford
Mr. Haddad is an expert in developing greenfield biotech ecosystems around the world and has successfully developed and delivered Biotech Cities, Healthcare Cities and complete lifestyle ecosystems focused on the knowledge economy in various emerging markets (Turkey, China, South East Asia, etc.).
Prior to leading the Riyadh Biotechnology City initiative at RCRC, Mr. Haddad was the BCD Group CEO from 2012 to 2020 after spending 3 years serving as the Group CFO. During his tenure, he developed the Bio Cities concept based on the model of a research-based Smart City built around a tertiary care children hospital and a sustainable real estate cluster.
Before joining Bio City in 2009, Mr. Haddad was successively the General Manager of the largest real estate private developer in the Middle East, Head of Investment Banking and then Chief Executive Officer of Al Oula Capital, a 2bn USD Abu Dhabi based Investment Bank with close ties to the Royal family. Prior to that, he was the Head of Investment Banking at United Gulf Financial Services in Qatar, a member of the prestigious 30bn USD Kuwaiti KIPCO Group.
Mr. Haddad has conducted and closed more than 50 transactions throughout his career for a total of 22bn USD in deal value. Mr. Haddad speaks 5 languages and has transacted in over 30 jurisdictions in his business life.
Dr. Elie Haddad
Senior Advisor & Project Lead Riyadh Biotech City Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC)
Dr. Malak AlThagafi
Dr Malak Abed AlThagafi is an American board certified physician-scientist in Clinical Pathology , Anatomical Pathology , Neuropathology, and Molecular Genetics Pathology.
She studied and worked in world renowned universities like Georgetown, University of California San Francisco, Stanford, Johns Hopkins and Harvard.
She is a national and international awards winner in her field and published over 100 papers in prestigious peer review journals and conferences. She wrote multiple book chapters most recently for the WHO tumors classification “ blue book” in CNS and pediatric tumors.
She is Director of General Directorate For The general directorate of the National RDI coordination/ Associate research professor at King Abdulaziz city of science and technology (KACST) ,Consultant physician subspecialty in molecular and neuropathology, Director of satellite research administration, founding chair of the genomics research department and primary investigator of the Saudi Human genome lab at King Fahad medical city (KFMC) research center in Riyadh, Adjunct associate research professor at Baylor college of medicine in the department of Molecular and Human Genetics .
Dr. Malak AlThagafi
Director of the General Directorate for the National RDI
King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology
Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld
Bio: Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld is an international manager, investor and entrepreneur. Dr. Kleinfeld is the CEO & Chairman of Constellation, a NYSE listed SPAC. He also founded K2Elevation a company that invests in and develops international enterprises in the technology and biotech segment. Currently his portfolio consists of activities in Germany, Austria and the US. He also advises a number of corporations as well as different organizations. He is a member of the supervisory boards of NEOM, Konux and Ferolabs.
Prior to this he was the first CEO of NEOM. He is a member of the NEOM board and advises the Kingdom in economic development matters. From 2008-2017, he served as Chairman and CEO of Alcoa/Arconic. He stirred the company through one of the worst commodity crises in history while building out high value add aerospace, jet engine and automotive businesses and positioned the company in innovative high-tech sectors finally allowing the company to be split into Alcoa and Arconic.
Previously, Dr. Kleinfeld had a twenty-year career with Siemens. He became CEO of Siemens AG early 2005, and successfully lead the company through a substantial transformation. Prior to this, he was President and CEO responsible for the largest Siemens region, the Siemens US Corporation. In this function he successfully restructured the US operations resulting in a sustainable turnaround. During his tenure with Siemens Kleinfeld held various positions in the Medical, Telecommunication, IT, Automation and Power Generation businesses. Before Siemens he worked as a product manager in the pharmaceutical industry in Switzerland. He started his career in consulting.
Dr. Kleinfeld is an Honorary Senator of the Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting, an Honorary Trustee of the Brookings Institute, a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Metropolitan Opera Board. He was appointed as advisor to several US Presidents in various roles, also was as a member of the Premier of the Chinese Peoples Republic Li’s Global CEO Advisory Council, a member of the Major of Shanghai’s International Business Leaders Advisory Council and served as a member of the Foreign Investment Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of Russia, the Chairman of the US Russian Business Council and the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum. He served on the board of the Center of Disease Control, Turner Construction, Bayer, Citibank, Hewlett Packard and Morgan Stanley. Kleinfeld was born in Bremen, Germany. He holds an MBA from the University of Goettingen and a PhD from the University of Wuerzburg, Germany.
Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld
Senior Advisor
Ministry of Industry, KSA
Professor Dr. Horst Domdey
Quote: “The past months have clearly demonstrated that it is just the biotech industry – supported by big pharma – which is currently saving the world from one of the largest health threats mankind has ever experienced. Since its inception which is about 50 years ago modern biotechnology has delivered the major breakthroughs in the treatment of human diseases, and it will certainly continue to do so. Therefore also countries like Saudi Arabia should yearn for becoming an acknowledged partner in the worldwide activities in the field of life sciences which have the goal to develop products which will definitely contribute to the well-being and prosperity of humanity”
Bio: After earning his doctorate in biochemistry in 1979, Horst Domdey worked as a scientist at various German, Swiss and US institutes such as the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, the Swiss Institute of Cancer Research ISREC in Lausanne, the University of California at San Diego UCSD and the California Institute of Technology CalTech in Pasadena. From 1984 to 1994 he headed an independent research group at the Gene Center of the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich where he was appointed Professor of Biochemistry in 1994. In the same year he co-founded Medigene, one of the first German biotech companies. In 1996 he successfully led the Munich Biotech Initiative into the German BioRegio Competition. Since 1997 he has been the Managing Director of BioM, the cluster development and management organization of the Munich Biotech Cluster. Since 2006 he also oversees the Bavarian Biotechnology Network. From 2010 to 2015, he was the head of the Munich leading edge cluster program m4 – Personalized Medicine and Targeted Therapies. He has been cofounder of BIO Deutschland, of the Association of the German BioRegions and of the Council of the European BioRegions (CEBR). Among others, he is currently member of the boards of the Peter and Traudl Engelhorn Foundation, the Foundation for Stem Cell Research and Applied Regenerative Medicine, and of the Translational Research Group of the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research.
Professor Dr. Horst Domdey
Chief Executive Officer
Biotech Cluster Development
GmbH, Germany
Dr. Mehmoud Khan
Bio: Mehmood Khan, MD, is Chief Executive Officer of Hevolution Foundation, a first-of-its-kind non-profit organization that will target grants and early-stage investments to incentivize healthspan science across disciplines and borders for the benefit of all. Prior to joining Hevolution, Dr. Khan served as Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of Life Biosciences Inc., which focuses on advancing scientific research and developing innovative new therapies to improve and extend healthy lives for everyone. In his role as CEO, Dr. Khan provided strategic direction and operational oversight across Life Biosciences and its six daughter companies, pursuing his vision of a more efficient and effective drug development pathway that will drive innovation in the science and technology Life Biosciences advances.
Before his role at Life Biosciences, Dr. Khan previously served as Vice Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer of Global Research and Development at PepsiCo, a Fortune 50 company employing upwards of 250,000 employees across 22 brands. At PepsiCo, Dr. Khan played a pivotal role in the company’s global R&D efforts to create breakthrough innovations in food, beverages, and nutrition, including the incorporation of healthier and more nutritious offerings across its portfolio. Dr. Khan also oversaw PepsiCo's global sustainability initiatives based on the belief that success in business is inextricably linked to the sustainability of the world we share. Prior to joining PepsiCo, Dr. Khan served as President of Global R&D at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, leading the global efforts of one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world by revenue.
Before moving into industry, Dr. Khan had a distinguished medical career as a faculty member in endocrinology at the Mayo Clinic and Mayo Medical School where he served as Director of the Diabetes, Endocrine and Nutritional Trials Unit. He also spent nine years leading programs in diabetes, endocrinology, metabolism and nutrition for the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
Dr. Khan is a member of the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology for the National Institute of Standards and Tech and the International Commission for Healthy Longevity for the National Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Khan earned his medical degree from the University of Liverpool Medical School, England, and completed a fellowship in clinical endocrinology and nutrition in the Department of Medicine and Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London and a Fellow of the American College of
Endocrinology, and holds two ad honorem PhDs in humanities and international law. He has been exclusively featured in numerous publications including Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business.
Dr. Mehmood Khan
Chief Executive Officer
Hevolution Foundation
Dr. Richard Smith
Quote: “Each and every day the discoveries made within the biotech industry are becoming more impressive and important – 100 monoclonal therapies approved by the FDA, a therapy for Alzheimer’s, mRNA vaccines to combat COVID-19, and more. There is so much more promise and opportunity. With its investments today, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is poised to make a real and meaningful difference in this sector. ”
Bio: Richard Smith is the Chief Operating Officer at Rockland Immunochemicals, Inc. (“Rockland”). Rockland is a leading, privately-held, global life science company that provides antibodies, analytical assays, and related products and services to life science companies and leading academic research institutions that are working to advance the sciences and bring about a better world. At Rockland, Richard is responsible to set company strategy, direct day-to-day business operations, and insure that Rockland’s value proposition is well understood by key partners and constituents. He joined Rockland’s executive team in 2010 and sits on its Board of Directors.
Previously, Richard was a partner at KPMG, a global accounting firm where he advised and consulted on matters with Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies. He served in numerous rolls, including: Chief Administrative Officer for the international firm; Vice Chair, Tax Services for the U.S. firm; Member of the U.S. Management Committee; Partner-in-Charge, Washington National Tax Operations; and Member of the Audit Committee, U.S. Board of Directors.Richard has significant operational and management experience in all aspects of a commercial entity. He has led and managed professionals in various-sized businesses and has been responsible for the financial performance of small and large business groups in the U.S. and abroad. Richard’s expertise is centered on matters involving corporate joint ventures, partnerships, limited liability companies and real estate. He has extensive experience in structuring domestic and international transactions, and he has served as a lead advisor with respect to many joint ventures involving global interests between and among both individual and corporate investors.
Richard served in United States government in multiple roles. He worked as a senior advisor in the Office of Chief Counsel in the National Office of the Internal Revenue Service. He worked extensively on major policy, legislative and regulatory issues impacting partnerships and limited liability companies. Representing the IRS Chief Counsel, he developed and coordinated tax legislation impacting passthrough entities with the U.S. Treasury Department and the tax committees of the U.S. Congress. Richard received his bachelor of arts degree with majors in business administration and history from Gettysburg College and earned his juris doctor from the Catholic University Columbus School of Law.
Dr. Richard Smith
Chief Operating Officer
Rockland Immunochemicals, Inc. USA
Dr. Manal Alaamery
Dr. Manal Alaamery, is currently the Chairman of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Department (IED) and Head of the Developmental Medicine Department (DMD) at the King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) at the Ministry of National Guard-Health Affairs (MNGHA). She is also the director of the satellite lab for the National Saudi Genome Program at KAIMRC, and a Principal Investigator at the Center of Excellence for Biomedicine (CEBM) at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and Brigham Woman’s Hospital (BWH) in association with Harvard Medical School. Formerly, she was an instructor at the Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston.
Dr. Alaamery received her clinical and postgraduate training at Harvard Medical School Genetics Program. She completed her clinical training at the Laboratory of Molecular Medicine (LMM) at Harvard focused on the areas of Hypertrophic and Dilated Cardiomyopathies, Neurological disorders, Muscular disorders, Hearing loss, Noonan spectrum, Pharmacogenetics. Dr. Alaamery also holds a Doctoral (Ph.D.) degree in Molecular Genetics/Biology from Boston College and a Master of Science degree in Clinical Microbiology from Thomas Jefferson University.
During Dr. Alaamery’s work and career, she has established herself as a research leader, and published in prestigious peer-reviewed scientific journals as well as patenting a number of novel ideas. Dr. Alaamery also taught several courses, led many initiatives and held several committee positions. In addition, Dr. Alaamery is the recipient of several awards including the Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical Research Award, Harvard Partners In Excellence Award for team work, the Donald J. White Teaching Award at Boston College, and the Ambassador Award for academic excellence .
Dr. Manal Alaamery
Head, Developmental Medicine,
Chairman Innovation and Entrepreneurship,
King Abdullah International Medical Research Center,
King Saud bin AbdulAziz Uinversity for Health Sciences,
Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs
Dr. Ronald DePinho
Quote: “To alleviate disease, we must convert scientific breakthroughs in the laboratory into new diagnostics and new drugs that improve the lives of patients in the clinic. Biotechnology companies play an essential role in bridging the gap between knowledge and clinical impact. A vibrant and productive biotech ecosystem requires the coordinated contributions of academia for workforce STEM training and laboratory research, hospitals for conducting innovative clinical trials, private sector for rigorous evaluation of opportunities and sufficient capital, and government for providing high-risk early capital and efficient regulatory framework that embraces innovation”
Ronald ‘Ron’ DePinho, M.D., PhD (hon) is currently Professor and Past President of MD Anderson Cancer Center. He began his career at Albert Einstein where he was the Feinberg Senior Scholar in Cancer Research. At Dana-Farber and Harvard Medical School, he was an American Cancer Society Professor and founding Director of the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science whose mission was to improve the effectiveness of cancer drug discovery. As President of MD Anderson, he expanded its global network to reach one third of the human population and conceived the Cancer Moon Shots Program that inspired the Biden national program, produced practice-changing advances, and catalyzed cancer control legislation such as Tobacco-21. As a researcher, he made fundamental contributions to our understanding of cancer, aging and degenerative disorders. His most celebrated discoveries include the elucidation of a core molecular pathway for aging, determination of the link between advancing age and increased cancer, elucidation of the role of telomeres in cancer and aging, and demonstration that aging itself is reversible. Driven by the loss of his father to cancer, he has been devoted to the translation of knowledge into clinical advances as reflected by his founding of several private and publically-traded biotechnology companies, some of which have generated FDA-approved drugs and new diagnostics for cancer patients. In the last few years, he founded 4 biotechnology companies and launched Sporos Bioventures, a new model for creation, funding and development of new biotechnology companies. He is co-founder and chairman of Opa Health, a non-profit focused on enhancing the health and resiliency of underserved communities. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, member of National Academy of Medicine, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, recipient of honorary degrees, scientific and public service awards including AACR Clowes Award, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and Portuguese knighthood.
Dr. Ronald DePinho
Professor and Past President
MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA
Dr. Paul Rothmann
DR. PAUL ROTHMAN is the Dean of the Medical Faculty for the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Chief Executive Officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine, a $9 billion academic medical enterprise and health system with a global reach. As Dean/CEO, Dr. Rothman oversees both the Johns Hopkins Health System and the School of Medicine. A rheumatologist and molecular immunologist, he came to Hopkins in 2012 after serving as Dean of the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. Previously, he served as Head of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa, and prior to that as Vice Chairman for Research and Founding Director of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he joined the faculty in 1990.
A 1980 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rothman received his Medical degree from Yale University in 1984, earning a place in the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He then trained at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in internal medicine and rheumatology and accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University prior to joining its medical school faculty.
Rothman's research focused on immune system molecules known as cytokines. Specifically, he investigated the role these molecules play in the normal development of blood cells, as well as the abnormal development of these blood cell that leads to leukemia.
Dr. Rothman is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He has served as president of the Association of American Physicians and the Society of Medical Administrators, and was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. In addition, Dr. Rothman serves on the boards of Merck, as well as the King Faisal Specialty Hospital, and receives compensation for this.
Dr. Paul Rothmann
Chief Executive Officer
Johns Hopkins Medicine, USA
Mr. Brady Huggett
Brady Huggett received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Wake Forest University and a master's in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been with Nature Biotechnology since 2007, covering technology transfer, translational science and bioentrepreneurship.
Mr. Brady Huggett
Business Editor
Nature Biotechnology
Dr. Eric Kmiec
Bio: Eric B. Kmiec, Ph.D., is the Founder and Director of the Gene Editing Institute (GEI) at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute at Christiana Care Health System. The Gene Editing Institute has recently been endowed by the Ammon Foundation. His research centers on understanding the process of gene repair and gene editing with a focus on CRISPR-directed genome engineering in human cells. He is widely recognized for his pioneering work in the fields of molecular medicine and gene editing having discovered many of the molecular activities that regulate the efficiency of human gene editing. Throughout his professional career, Dr. Kmiec has led research teams in developing gene editing technologies and genetic therapies for inherited disorders such as Sickle Cell Disease. Research efforts in GEI now centers on the mechanism of action, the genotoxicity and the regulation of gene editing based and how best to translate these discoveries into novel therapeutics for Sickle Cell Disease, Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma and Melanoma using a patient-centered approach.
Dr. Kmiec received his BA in Microbiology from Rutgers University, MS in Cell Biology from Southern Illinois University and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Microbiology from the University of Florida School of Medicine. His Post-doctoral training was done at University of Rochester. Dr. Kmiec holds faculty appointments at the University of Delaware and the Wistar Institute. He has also held faculty appointments at Thomas Jefferson University, University of California at Davis and Georgetown University School of Medicine.
Dr. Kmiec has served as the Principal Investigator for research projects supported by the National Institute of Health (R01, COBRE and R21 grants), the National Science Foundation, the NIST-BIRD Foundation, the March of Dimes, the State of Delaware and the American Cancer Society for over 35 years. He serves on numerous editorial boards, has authored 165 peer-reviewed publications as primary or senior author, numerous reviews and has edited several books and journals in gene therapy.
Dr. Kmiec has been the primary thesis mentor for 18 Ph.D. students, 4 MS students and numerous postdoctoral fellows and residents. He has held or holds major administrative posts on various NIH regional and State biomedical research grants, including IDeA Network of Biomedical Research (INBRE) and Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) as well as NIH study sections. Dr. Kmiec was also honored as the Eminent Scholar in residence at Marshall University (Huntington, West Virginia) in 2009-2011 and was elected as an Honorary Medical Commander of the 436th Air Wing at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware for in 2013 and again in 2014. Dr. Kmiec has 15 issued patents, has founded two biotechnology companies and has received numerous service medals and awards, including the Genome Canada Lectureship, the Proudford Research Award in Sickle Cell Disease, multiple Delaware Bio Science Innovation Awards, and the Philadelphia- Israeli Chamber of Commerce Life Science Innovator Award.
Dr. Eric Kmiec
Founder and Director
The Gene Editing Institute
Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute
Christiana Care Health System
Dr. Hitesh Sanganee
Bio: Hitesh is currently a Head of the Emerging Innovations group in AstraZeneca. The group is involved in three main areas. Execution of the open innovation strategy, externalisation and internalisation of repurposed assets. Promotion of Entrepreneurial activity within and outside of AZ and bringing emerging innovations into AZ.
Previously his role was in the science function within the AstraZeneca. His main role was as a chemistry cluster lead inputting into external and internal drug repositioning projects and potential in-licensing projects. Other roles also have included CDL (candidate drug leader) working on regenerative medicine, and a Team Leader in the respiratory & inflammation therapeutic area.
He originally received hsis BA and DPhil from Oxford University in chemistry and subsequently held a postdoctoral research position at Florida State University. He joined AstraZeneca as a Medicinal Chemist in 1999 conducting research within respiratory & inflammation related disease areas and has led teams to successful milestone transitions in all phases of drug discovery. He recently obtained an MBA from Cambridge University.
Dr. Hitesh Sanganee
Executive Director & Head of Emerging Innovations
AstraZeneca
Dr. Philip Larsen
Philip J. Larsen is Senior vice president, Global Head of Pharma Research and Early Development at Bayer AG. Prior to taking his current role he has served as Chief Scientific Officer and member of the executive board at Grünenthal GmbH. Before joining Grünenthal he served in various senior executive roles in pharmaceutical R&D organizations within multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Sanofi, AstraZeneca, and Eli Lilly. Philip is an MD PhD from the University of Copenhagen. After four years of medical practice (internal medicine, neurology) he went from academic medicine to life sciences industry. In addition, Philip holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Copenhagen and a PhD in neuroscience. Philip has 20+ years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry experience in the field of diabetes and obesity. After few years of work at NovoNordisk and Zealand Pharma, Philip co-founded the Danish biotechnology company Rheoscience in 2001 also concentrating on obesity and diabetes. In 2008, Philip took up a position as chief scientific officer for diabetes research at Eli Lilly, and in 2012, Philip took up the role as Global head of Diabetes Research and Translational Science at Sanofi. In his current role, Philip is overseeing research, translational medicine, and early clinical development in Bayer’s core areas: oncology, cardiovascular medicine, and reproductive endocrinology.
Dr. Philip Larsen
Senior Vice President
Global Head
Pharma Research and Early Development
BAYER AG, Germany
Dr. Sara Alom Ruiz
Bio: Dr. Sara Alom Ruiz is a Senior Director with Alvarez & Marsal Strategy and Performance Improvement in Dubai. She brings over 16 years of healthcare experience and has served in senior executive roles leading private healthcare providers in the region.
Prior to joining A&M, Dr. Alom served as Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer at King’s College Hospital London. She was also part of the founding executive leadership team. Dr. Alom was responsible for developing and executing the growth and commercial strategy and focused on the differentiation strategy of the service offering, launch of the greenfield brand, business development and marketing strategies, pricing and insurance management, service line management, and integration projects with the London campus.
Previously, Dr. Alom served as the Director of Business Performance Improvement at Mediclinic Middle East post-merger with Al Noor Hospital’s Group, leading strategic projects that resulted in significant cost savings, efficiency of business processes and revenue diversification. She was also heavily involved in the business integration of the UAE’s largest healthcare merger and in setting the combined group’s strategy. Prior to that, at Al Noor Hospital’s Group Plc, she was a member of the senior leadership team and held leadership roles including Hospital COO of the flagship hospital, leading operations and strategic growth. Dr. Alom also served as Corporate Director of Quality and Government Relations, leading quality, governance and pay for quality reimbursement programs.
Dr. Sara Alom Ruiz
Senior Director
Alvarez & Marsal
Strategy and Performance Improvement
Dubai, UAE
Dr. Majed Al Jeraisy
With a Bachelor degree of Science in pharmacy from King Saud University, Riyadh 1991, a Master of Science degree in Clinical Pharmacy KSU, 1996. Further on completed Doctor of Pharmacy from university of Tennessee, USA 1999. And in 2009, completed Master of Science in medical Education, KSAU-HS, Riyadh.
Currently, I am an Associated Professor, Collage of pharmacy, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for health science as well as pediatric Clinical Pharmacy consultant, King Abdullah Specialized hospital.
I am appointed Director of Clinical Trial Services, in addition to Chairman of Research Office, King Abdullah International Medical research Center.
I participated in a number of workshops and courses including American College of Clinical Pharmacy, Master class in Effective Leadership and Anti- Thrombosis Certificate program.
I am a reviewer of some local and international peer reviewed journals, also authored and co-authored numerous and relevant papers in the field of Pediatrics, Pharmacotherapy, General Medicine, Biochemistry, Pharmacology and Toxicology that were published in reputable Journals
Dr. Majed Al Jeraisy
Chairman, Research Office Director, Clinical Trial Services King Abdullah International Medical Research Center
Dr. Ali AlQarni
Dr Al Qarni obtained MBBS from King Saud University, Abha branch and completed residency training in internal medicine at King Fahad Hospital, Riyadh Saudi Arabia. He did fellowship training in endocrinology and metabolism in University Of Calgary, Calgary, Canada. He also obtained high diploma in research methodology from University of Beirut and King Abdullah international Medical Research Center combined program. In addition he has Master Degree in medical education from King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences.
Dr Al Qarni is currently consultant endocrinologist, Deputy Executive Regional Director-Medical Services, King Abdulaziz Hospital and Head of King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Ministry Of National Guard Health Affairs, Eastern Region.
Former Appointments include internal medicine residency training program director and Head of endocrine section at King Abdulaziz. In Addition Dr Al Qarni has served as member in the diabetes national committee under Saudi Health Counsel and member of the endocrine fellowship exam committee under Saudi Commission For Health Specialties.
Dr Al Qarni main research interests are centered around diabetes and obesity in addition to medical education and quality and patient safety.
Dr. Ali AlQarni
Head, King Abdullah international Medical Research Center- Eastern Region Deputy Executive Regional Director-Medical Services, MNGHA
Dr. Rifat Atun
Bio: Dr. Atun is Professor of Global Health Systems at Harvard University. In 2008-12 he was a member of the Executive Management Team of the Global Fund as Director of Strategy, Performance and Evaluation where he chaired the panel that oversaw annual investments of ~US$4 billion each year.
In 2006-2013 Dr. Atun was a Professor of International Health Management at Imperial College London and Head of the Health Management Group. He is a visiting professor at University of Kyoto, Japan. He has been involved with new ventures in biotechnology, health technology and health IT as an investor, founder and director.
Professor Atun’s research focuses on health system transformation and innovation. He has published more than 400 articles in leading journals including NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, Academy of Management Journal, Lancet Oncology, Lancet Global Health. He has led and participated in More that 10 Lancet Commissions. In 2020 he was recognised by Web of Science, Clarivate as one of the World’s Highly Cited Researchers.
Dr Atun has advised many governments, the World Bank, WHO and leading companies. Professor Atun served as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine Committee on Health Systems. He also served on the Advisory Boards of WHO Research Centre for Health Development in Japan and the Norwegian Research Council’s Programme for Global Health Research. He Chaired the STOP TB Partnership Coordinating Board in 2009-2011 and was as a member of the UK Medical Research Council’s Global Health Group. In 2013-19 he was a member of the Advisory Committee to the Editors, Disease Control Priorities 3. In 2019-20 he was a senior advisor to the G20 Presidency. He is a member of the Longitude Prize Committee – the largest science prize in the world.
Dr. Rifat Atun
Professor Global Health Systems
Director of Global Health Systems Cluster
Harvard University, USA
Dr. Lynda Chin
Bio: Dr. Chin is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, a renowned cancer genomic scientist and a leader in application of technologies, AI/ML and big data in medicine. A mother of 3 teenagers, Dr. Chin is also a serial entrepreneur who has founded or co-founded cancer therapeutics and biomarker companies. Presently, Dr. Chin is the President and CEO of Apricity Health, a next-generation precision oncology company she co-founded to bring expert oncology care from cancer centers to patients at home on a learning platform to improve care and accelerate therapeutic development.
A dermatologist by training, Dr. Chin conducted research in cancer genomics and cancer biology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, served on the executive subcommittee of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and co-led development of the Firehose pipeline at the Broad Institute. As the founding chair of Department of Genomic Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center, she launched initiatives to develop technology-enabled platform capabilities to accelerate translation and democratize evidence-based care. Later, as Chief Innovation Officer of the University of Texas System, Dr. Chin created the Institute for Health Transformation to create technology-enabled ecosystem that can improve access to care for the underserved. Throughout her career, Dr. Chin has been a champion for cross-industry collaboration. She was the scientific director at the Belfer Applied Cancer Institute of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and later at the Institute for Applied Cancer Science of MD Anderson Cancer Center, both built on a novel organizational construct designed to bridge across academia and industry to enable and accelerate science-based drug discovery. Foreseeing the paradigm shift of clinical care and research to real-world settings, Dr. Chin left her academic research career to launch Apricity Health, a digital medicine company that brings together technologies, patient data, science and clinical expertise to change the paradigm of care for all patients living with cancers.
Dr. Lynda Chin
President and Chief Executive Officer
Apricity Health LLC, USA
Dr. Ali Alessandro Ayach
Bio:Dr. Ali Ayach is a Senior Director with Alvarez & Marsal Strategy and Performance Improvement in Dubai. He brings more than 15 years of experience in management consulting across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Dr. Ayach’s notable engagements include establishing an R&D transformation office for a major healthcare regulator, including design and launch of its international scientific journal. He designed and led the digital strategy and operating model for the national centralized booking system to access care for a large public provider and led the identification and activation of multiple AI use cases and IOT’s for another large public provider, both in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Ayach led the set-up and implementation of a National Healthcare Command Center in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Prior to joining A&M, Dr. Ayach spent four years with GE Healthcare Partners, the consulting arm of GE Healthcare, most recently as Managing Director for the Middle East and Gulf countries. He supported and grew a range of businesses and engagements, creating trusted relationship with key accounts, executives and decision makers.
Prior to that, Dr. Ayach worked at Philips Consulting as the healthcare consulting lead for the Middle East. He has also served in a senior advisory role with the Dubai Government. Previously, he worked with Accenture in Europe on a variety of strategic and operational projects.
Dr. Ali Alessandro Ayach
Senior Director
Strategy and Performance Improvement
Alvarez & Marsal
Dubai, UAE
Dr. Joshua LaBaer
Joshua LaBaer is one of the nation’s foremost investigators in the rapidly expanding field of personalized diagnostics. His efforts focus on the discovery and validation of biomarkers—unique molecular fingerprints of disease—which can provide early warning for those at risk of major illnesses, including cancer and diabetes.
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, LaBaer used his proven capability in diagnostics to repurpose existing equipment and personnel to accelerate testing. The new ASU Biodesign Clinical Testing Laboratory developed a diagnostic test under FDA emergency use authorization, based on qPCR technology, to detect coronavirus for individuals who may have been exposed. This lab gained CLIA certification initially for testing nasopharyngeal swab samples and then became the first in the USA to offer and run public saliva tests for coronavirus.
LaBaer was recruited to the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University as the first Piper Chair in Personalized Medicine in 2009. Previously, he was founder and director of the Harvard Institute of Proteomics.
For his ability to bring teams together to address the world’s greatest health challenges, LaBaer received the Jon W. McGarity Arizona Bioscience Leader of the Year Award by AZBio in 2020. Under his leadership, the Biodesign Institute won Innovator of the Year – Academia at the Arizona Governor’s Celebration of Innovation Awards 2020.
LaBaer is an associate editor of the Journal of Proteome Research, a recent member of the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Advisors, Chair of the Early Detection Research Network Steering Committee and recent president of the U.S. Human Proteome Organization. He has contributed more than 250 original research publications, reviews and chapters.
After earning a medical degree and doctorate in biochemistry and biophysics, from the University of California, San Francisco, LaBaer completed a medical residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and clinical fellowship in oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, both in Boston.
Dr. Joshua LaBaer
Executive Director
The Biodesign Institute, USA
Dr. Hiep Tran
Dr. Hiep Tran is the President and Chief Science Officer of Abzyme Therapeutics LLC having more than 25 years of academic and industrial experience and a broad knowledge in yeast genetics and molecular biology, immunology, host-agent interaction, cancer biology, antibody production and engineering, protein purification, and DNA recombinant technology and assay development for diagnostic application. Dr. Tran is author of more than twenty peer-reviewed publications and inventor of seven issued US patents plus two pending US patent applications.
In 2010 Dr. Tran co-founded Abzyme Therapeutics and since then served as a President and Chief Scientific Officer after successful completion of his appointment at Rockland Immunochemicals Inc. (www.rockland-inc.com) - an antibody production and assay development company. At Rockland Immunochemicals, Dr. Tran led the company R & D programs working in various areas of polyclonal, monoclonal anybody, protein and antibody engineering, enzymatic and immunoassay development as well as providing customized molecular biology service, and has been a successful and accomplished PI in a number of Rockland SBIR grants and contracts resulting in two Phase II awards.
Prior joining Rockland, Dr. Tran served as Director of R & D at Lifesensors where he led the efforts to develop variety of yeast-based assays. By using engineered yeast strains, constructs for expression of nuclear receptors and highly robust and responsive gene reporters his group has developed a number of patented assays for drug discovery and diagnosis. Under his management, his group also has developed a novel SUMO-fusion system to enhance protein expression and secretion. The SUMO-fusion becomes the core technology of Lifesensors Inc. and successfully commercialized.
Dr. Tran obtained his PhD in 1992 in Molecular Genetics at Department of Genetics, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia, and undergone intensive and productive post-doctoral training at NIEHS/NIH (with 13 peer-reviewed publications, first author in six). He is well-versed in both molecular biology techniques, antibody production and assay development and still enjoy much working on a bench.
Dr. Hiep Tran
President and Chief Scientific Officer
Abzyme Therapeutics LLC
USA
Dr. Fouad Atouf
Fouad Atouf is Vice President, Global Biologics, for USP. He leads all scientific activities related to the development and maintenance of documentary and reference standards for biologics and advanced therapies, and oversees the biologics laboratories in USP–U.S. and USP–India. Dr. Atouf has been at USP for over 15 years and served in a variety of scientific leadership roles including being the regional champion for the Middle East and North Africa Region, where he helped facilitate, programs designed to enhance the understanding of the role of regulations and standards in the registration of medicinal products. Dr. Atouf has strong background and experience in the development and regulation of cellular and tissue-based products. Prior to joining USP in 2006, his research at the U.S. National Institutes of Health focused on developing methods for the in vitro generation of cell-based therapies for diabetes. Dr. Atouf is the author of numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals and a frequent speaker at national and international scientific conferences. Dr. Atouf earned his Master’s degree in Biochemistry and his Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the Pierre & Marie Curie University, Paris, France.
Dr. Fouad Atouf
Vice President, Global Biologics
US Pharmacopea, USA
Mr. Markus Peterseim
Bio: Markus Peterseim is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal in Frankfurt, leading the Healthcare and Life Sciences group in Germany. He is deeply involved in serving the private equity sector.
He brings over 25 years of experience in strategy development and execution and performance improvement consulting as well as interim management in the healthcare industry. Mr. Peterseim has worked with clients in Europe, CEE/CIS and the Americas on a broad range of healthcare products and services, including pharma, CROs, CDMOs, wholesale, pharmacies and retail, medtech, HC providers and payers. He also served the chemical industry on performance improvement projects.
Recently, Mr. Peterseim completed numerous commercial due diligences for PE investors as well as strategy projects. Amongst others, he analyzed hospitals, a hospital procurement provider, a locum tenens platform, specialist physician networks, pharmaceutical as well as medtech companies. He led a range of value creation blueprints in major industrial carve-out situations and large-scale secondary buyouts, delivering comprehensive views on strategic and operational value drivers.
During his career, Mr. Peterseim served three years as interim CEO of ASTA Medica/Viatris – the former pharma division of Degussa. He was responsible for developing the strategic blueprint to sell the business. He developed a separation plan of the group and took over the CEO role for the largest division (c. € 500m in global sales). He drove the turnaround, all major performance improvement initiatives and sold the business to a PE fund.
As Partner of BCG he was responsible for the German payers and providers as well as private equity in healthcare. He led large-scale payer programs on financial strategy and cost management and assisted PE clients in due diligence and value creation. Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Peterseim was a PwC Deals Strategy Partner delivering diligence support for PE and corporates.
Mr. Markus Peterseim
Managing Director
Alvarez & Marsal
Frankfurt, Germany
Dr. Waldemar Radziszewski
Waldemar Radziszewski MD, PhD is currently an Executive Medical Director, Global Clinical Development at Amgen Biosimilars based in California, USA, overseeing the Inflammation Biosimilars portfolio and scientific affairs teams. He spent more than 20 years in leadership roles of increasing responsibility within big pharma (Merck & Co, Janssen R&D, Sandoz Biopharmaceuticals) and biotech companies leading early and late stage clinical development teams, with small and large molecules.
Dr. Radziszewski received his M.D. and his Ph.D. from Jagiellonian University Medical College in Krakow, Poland, where he held academic appointments, and worked as a physician at the Clinical Pharmacology Unit. He completed Fogarty Foundation (NIH) post-doctoral Fellowship in pharmacology and then trained in Anatomical and Clinical Pathology at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA. Dr Radziszewski is a member of American Heart Association (AHA) and is an associate editor in the Journal of Translational Medicine (JTM).
Dr. Waldemar Radziszewski
Executive Medical Director
Global Clinical Development
AMGEN
Dr. Hani Alhashmi
Dr. Hani Al-Hashmi completed his undergraduate studies in Medical Technology at King
Abdulaziz University in 1999 and then pursued his medical education at McMaster University
in Canada where he graduated with an MD degree in 2003. He received his post-graduate
training in Internal Medicine at university of western Ontario and Hematology Fellowship at
McMaster University, Medical Oncology and bone marrow transplantation Fellowship at
University of Calgary Canada. He spent the last part of his training at the Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center working with the BMT group.
Dr. Al-Hashmi is currently the Senior Medical Director of Medical Affairs at Pfizer Saudi. He
previously led the Oncology Center at King Fahad Specialist Hospital in Dammam (KFSH-D)
and the National Strategy for Cancer Care and Specialized Oncology Services at the Ministry
of Health. Over the past ten years, he helped in establishing 5 stem cell transplantation
programs and more than 10 oncology departments throughout the Kingdom, in addition to his
participation in developing future strategies, clinical services and education and research in the
field of hematology, oncology and cellular therapy at the national and regional levels. He also
worked on several national committees at the level of the Ministry of Health and the Saudi
Health Council.
Dr. Al-Hashmi has wide range of research activities and publications in peer-reviewed journals
in the field of stem cell transplantation, leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.
Dr. Hani Alhashmi
Senior Medical Affairs Director, Pfizer, KSA
Dr. Jamila Louahed
Quote: “Emerging Life Science Technologies are providing unique opportunities to bring faster Innovative Vaccines and Immunotherapies to unlock remaining medical needs”
Bio: Jamila Louahed leads the Belgium Research and Development Organization of GSK Vaccine, covering discovery, early and late development activities and is Head of the Rixensart site in Belgium She joined GSK in 2005, taking on roles of increasing responsibility in immunology, translational research and biomarkers for patient stratification. She was heading the research and development of cancer immunotherapeutic from discovery to late clinical development. After heading the cancer vaccine program, she was appointed in 2015 Head of the global Vaccine R&D Belgium center. She is in charge of the life cycle management of the commercial vaccines, the discovery and the development of the elderly and therapeutic vaccine portfolio. She has also recently been appointed Head of the Rixensart site (Center for the Vaccines Research and Development). Before joining GSK, Jamila obtained her Ph.D. in Immunology and Molecular biology at Université Catholique de Louvain in Brussels and completed her post-doctoral training at Magainin Pharmaceuticals in Philadelphia. Her research has focused on the discovery and characterization of two immune molecules (Interleukin-9 & Interleukin-22) as well as their role in cancer and chronic disorders. Following her post-doctoral training, Jamila held a senior researcher position at the Brussels branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.
Dr. Jamila Louahed
Vice President and Head
Global R&D
GSK, Belgium
Dr. Naif Al Harbi
Dr. Alharbi is working at King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) as a Research Scientist; Director of Vaccine Development Unit and Director of Research Quality Management; He is a visiting academic at the University of Oxford; Member in CEPI/WHO taskforces and groups for MERS and COVID-19 vaccines and serology. Member of Pandemic Preparedness Leading team in the HWG at Saudi G20 Submit; Consultant to a Biopharmaceutical Company; Member of the Saudi COVID-19 Vaccine National Scientific Committee; Member of Lab Biosafety Committee in MoD, KSA. Member of several committees of research management, governance, and regulations; he also lead quality assurance of clinical trials. Furthermore, Dr. Alharbi has been involved in academic teaching activities in different universities since 2012 to present.
Dr. Alharbi completed his B.Sc. in Medical Microbiology at Qassim University, Saudi Arabia, Master degree in Molecular Medical Microbiology at the University of Nottingham, UK, and a DPhil (Oxon) degree in Clinical Medicine (Molecular Virology and Vaccinology) at the University of Oxford focused on viral vector vaccines. He continued his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford where he co-developed ChAdOx1 MERS vaccine with Prof. S. C. Gilbert and team. Dr. Alharbi continues the development of this vaccine from mice, through camels and human clinical trials.
He has published > 20 papers, book chapters, presented in more than 20 international conferences. Dr. Alharbi is a Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-Investigator (Co-PI) on various research grants on vaccines, viruses, and immunology
Dr. Naif Al Harbi
Director, Vaccine Development Unit Director, Research Quality Management Research Scientist, Infectious Diseases Research Department King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre
Dr. Jon Heinrichs
Jon Heinrichs is an Associate Vice President and R&D New Targets Franchise Head in Portfolio Strategy and Execution at Sanofi Pasteur in Swiftwater, PA where he leads vaccine projects in the Pre-Development and Early Development spaces as well as serving as the Global Project Head for Nirsevimab, a next generation RSV monoclonal antibody in late stage development in collaboration with AstraZeneca. Prior to joining Sanofi, Dr. Heinrichs headed the Microbial Vaccine Research group at Merck Research Labs where he led a team of scientists developing vaccines for several bacterial pathogens including Clostridium difficile, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Chlamydia trachomatis.
Dr. Heinrichs previously held positions of increasing responsibility at the biotechnology company MedImmune (now part of AstraZeneca), where he contributed to the identification of vaccine candidates for numerous bacterial pathogens, particularly S. pneumoniae. He was also involved in research on the efficacy of monoclonal antibodies for the prevention of infectious diseases and the treatment of cancer and was head of the In Vivo Biology group. Dr. Heinrichs earned his doctoral degree in microbiology and molecular genetics from Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, by elucidating the pathogenesis of the food-borne organism Bacillus cereus, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology at The Rockefeller University where he examined global regulation in S. aureus.
Dr. Jon Heinrichs
Associate Vice President and Franchise Head
Sanofi Pasteur
Mr. Sven Frie
GM, Commercial Enterprise Solutions
over 23 years of industry experience Zurich / Switzerland
MSc Biotechnology Engineering – Hamburg University of Applied Sciences / Germany
Qualifications:
since Sep. 2018: GM, Commercial Enterprise Solutions, GEHC Life Sciences, South Korea / Switzerland (since Aug. 2019)
2014 to 2018: Modality Leader Enterprise Solutions ASIA (& EMEA - until March 2016) plus Fast Trak BD Lead ASIA since Dec. 2017, GEHC Life Sciences, Switzerland / South Korea
2013 to 2014: Head of Business Dev. Biosimilars plus CMO-Mammalian Slough / UK from April 2014 onwards, Lonza AG, Switzerland / United Kingdom
2010-2013: Head of Business Dev. Small Molecules & HPAPI, Lonza AG, Switzerland
2008-2010: Head of Sales Central & Southern Europe, Lonza AG, Switzerland
2005-2008: Global Head of Project Evaluation Microbial Biopharma Operations, Lonza AG, Switzerland
1997-2005: Executive Project Engineer, Pharmaplan GmbH (now part of NNE-Pharmaplan), Germany
Experience:
23 years as service provider to the bio-pharmaceutical industry, thereof:
8 years in project engineering and project management
Conceptual Design, Authority Engineering, Basic & Detail Design, IQ/OQ; Project management & execution from CD to handover of qualified facility.
Client base from emerging biotech to globally operating Pharma organizations with focus on biologics and blood plasma fractionation.
9 years at leading, globally operating CMO:
Global Lead for evaluation & offering in microbial biopharma; M&A and integration; multi-level technical & commercial customer interactions.
Sales Team Lead for Lonza’s CMO portfolio (Biologics, SM/HPAPI, ADCs, Peptides ) in Central and Southern Europe, 3-4 direct reports.
Global Business Development responsibilities in SM/HPAPI, Biosimilars and mamm. Biologics.
6+ years at leading Solutions and Services provider for Life Sciences.
Mr. Sven Frie
General Manager
Commercial Enterprise Solutions
Cytiva
Dr. Paolo Martini
Bio: Paolo Martini is the Chief Scientific Officer for Rare Diseases, Hematology and Rare Alliances at Moderna. With more than 20 years of experience in drug discovery working on molecular mechanisms underlying monogenic and multigenic metabolic and fibrotic disorders, his laboratory is focused on identifying novel therapies and applying translational approaches for drug development in Rare Diseases and Hematology disorders. Currently exploring the identification of several targets and key animal models for translating messenger RNA therapeutic in human patients.
Previously at Shire Pharmaceutical in Lexington, MA, as Senior Director of Discovery Biology and Translational Research, Massachusetts, his focus was on fibrotic diseases of muscle, kidney, skin, lung, bone marrow and metabolic liver diseases with particular emphasis on different therapeutic modalities for pathway modulation. He has been supporting phase 1 and 2 clinical studies for lysosomal storage and chronic kidney diseases.
He has also worked at EMD-Serono prior to Shire in Discovery Research. After graduating at the University of Milan, Italy, he moved to Germany for a post-doctoral work at Schering AG (now Bayer) in Berlin, Germany, and then to the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign (USA). He has been collaborating with organizations supporting research and clinical development of rare metabolic disorders and fibrotic diseases and served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Keystone Symposia.
Dr. Paolo Martini
Senior Vice President
MODERNA, USA
Mrs. Bouchra Bensaoud
Bio: Mrs. Bouchra Bensaoud is currently the President Middle East, Africa & Turkey of Danaher Corporation. From 2018 – 2019, she was Vice President Finance MENA & Turkey of Danaher Corporation. From 2015- 2017 Group CFO Emitac. Bouchra was at Procter & Gamble between 2010 – 2015 as Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa – Distributor Operations Regional Finance in United Arab Emirates. In this role, she provided a Financial leadership on Distributor Operations via leading cost saving program in the whole cost chain (including distributor supply chain) and Re-investing savings in projects supporting faster growth. Re-Designed and executed a regional Cost-to-Serve bench marking analysis leading to a step-change in Distributors financial health. Designed and deployed a Financial Distributor Model to enable all organization to success new coverage plans. Enabled a Strong Internal controls and Governance results in distributor businesses. From 2007 – 2010, Bouchra was Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa – Marketing & Product cost Re-design Manager at Procter & Gamble in United Arab Emirates where she had designed the Marketing support activities and total Delivered costs processes for the CEEMEA region with budget authorization, tracking and reporting being fully compliant with our global procedures. Delivered the lowest transaction cost while supporting the business decision making process in its most efficient way.
Mrs Bouchra Bensaoud has also held a number of other senior positions in finance management in different countries, including Morocco and France.
Mrs. Bouchra Bensaoud
President
Danaher Corporation
Middle-East, Africa and Turkey
Mr. Iain Sharp-Paul
Career history with Danaher:
Joined Cepheid in 2011
Worked in Commercial Leadership and Marketing roles across Europe, Africa, and Emerging Markets
Over 10 years have been based in France, South Africa, US, and UAE
current role description:
Drive growth across EMEA through unified strategy, messaging and execution
Sustain and enhance customer engagement
Deliver effective product launches to accelerate core growth
Drive add-on opportunities with existing accounts
Increase market share by capturing new customers and expanding to new segments
Key achievements:
Drove rapid growth across Southern and Eastern Africa from $30M to over $70M
Led global strategy for Emerging Markets to ensure sustained growth and execution
Revitalised EMEA marketing during the COVID pandemic to provide effective growth support for the commercial team while providing vision, strategy & direction for the org
Mr. Iain Sharp-Paul
Vice President EMEA Marketing
Cepheid
Mr. Sherif Harydi
Career history with Danaher:
June 2011, Regional Sales Manager ME
Jan. 2013, General Manager ME
Jan. 2014, General Manager ME & Turkey and Central Asia
Jan. 2017, General Manager ME, Turkey and South Europe (Greece, Cyprus and Malta).
Jan. 2021, General Manager ME.
current role description:
Leading the regional operation with full responsibility over the delivery of the corporate goals and strategic business plan/objectives.
Enforce and secure Compliance, business ethics, conduct, policies within the work environment
Lead the local selection & hiring process, in addition to the regional team engagement and development through motivation, coaching, identifying various needs and fulfill related requirements.
Attend regional meetings with governmental officials, NGO's and none-profit organizations representing Cepheid.
Key achievements:
Build successful strong engaged Cepheid local team of 24 members.
Distribution net work of 18 investors and > 50 dedicated team members.
Sustainable growing business with 10y CAGR 42.5%
Mr. Sherif Harydi
General Manager
Middle East
Cepheid
Mr. Perry Frederick
Senior Director of Strategic Research for Europe, Middle East, and Africa at GE Healthcare – a leading global medical technology company providing a broad portfolio of products, solutions and services used in the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of patients. Responsible for initiating and growing sustainable collaborative research relationships via leadership of Regional Research Managers and Clinical Research Scientists supporting relevant sponsored studies across the region. Plays an essential role in delivering evidence for GE Healthcare’s strategic research needs.
Previous positions/experience include: ‘10-‘17 – Regional Academic Research Manager, US West Coast; ‘02-‘09 – Strategic Account Director, Stanford University; ‘97-‘02 European Product Marketing Manager; ‘91-‘97 – MR Product Development Manager; ‘88-‘91 – Edison Engineering / Technical Leadership Program.
Presentations at numerous Med Tech Society meetings; several patents in Healthcare Imaging and IT-related domains
Mr. Perry Frederick
Senior Director
Strategic Research
Europe, Middle East, and Africa
GE Healthcare
Dr. Ahmed Al Zahrani
Mr. Ahmed Al Zahrani works closely with multidisciplinary team of healthcare providers to address the workflow challenges, and transform it to an improvement opportunity, towards digitizing and automating the processes to an innovative business model.
Currently; he is MBA candidate in Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College for Business & Entrepreneurship, he has a bachelor degree in Biomedical Technology with more than 13 years’ experience in Healthcare IT solutions, He is certified with several credentials such as CPHIMS, and PMP.
Dr. Ahmed Al Zahrani
Director of Healthcare Technology Development Information Technology Department, MNGHA
Mr. Elie Chaillot
Bio: Elie Chaillot is Vice-President and CEO of Services Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) at GE Healthcare, responsible for the development and execution of service solutions and operations in the region’s more than 100 countries. Elie began his career with GE Healthcare in 2001 as an Account Manager based in Paris, France. He subsequently served as a Product Manager for the MR and IT peripherals portfolio covering Europe, Middle East & Africa, and then as Manager for GE Healthcare’s interventional modality for the Middle East, Africa & Turkey. Elie relocated to Dubai in 2007, presiding over record growth while leading the Levant and Middle East businesses before his appointment as Executive General Manager, Imaging, for the Eastern Growth Markets. Elie then served as the Chief Commercial Officer for GE Healthcare in Japan until his appointment in 2018 as President & CEO of GE Healthcare in the Eastern Growth Markets. Elie earned a Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Economics and Hospital Management from Institut Lillois de l’Ingenierie de la Sante (ILIS), the prestigious health sciences institution at Lille II University Law & Health in France. He completed his undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from ILIS as well. Elie is fluently trilingual in English, French and Arabic. In his personal time, he enjoys scuba diving, piano and spending time with his wife and two daughters
Mr. Elie Chaillot
Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer
GE Healthcare, EMEA
Mr. Raymond Berglund
Bio: Raymond Berglund is a Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal Healthcare & Life Sciences in London. He heads the European Healthcare & Life Sciences practice.
Mr. Berglund brings 17 years of experience in transformation, turnaround and financial leadership in medical device and healthcare organisations. Focusing on top-and bottom-line performance, he has led growth and commercial operations transformations, cost reduction initiatives, organisational transformations and acquisition integration in corporate and private-equity-owned businesses. He is known as a hands-on leader, and often takes interim leadership roles to partner with senior leadership and drive sustainable change.
Mr. Berglund’s notable recent healthcare transformation engagements include overhauling finance and procurement for the largest UAE private healthcare provider and leading the design and implementation of a new operating model for the leading UK care home operator, with 300 facilities, 14,000 residents, and 16,000 employees. In the medical device field, he recently managed the turnaround of the European commercial region for a global wound care leader through indirect and direct sales channel organisational change, implementing pricing and contracting controls, and strengthening the finance and commercial organisations. He has also been a speaker at Guy’s & St. Thomas Innovation Day, MedTech by Advamed and Dreamforce.
Previously, Mr. Berglund led the transformation of portfolio management of wound care and orthopaedic companies while serving as the finance leader for the companies. Under his leadership, improvements in the R&D process meant that the pace of innovation and new product output grew from four to twenty product launches in two years. Mr. Berglund also established global shared services in a medical device business, along with sales growth initiatives, including orthopaedic customer targeting, and inventory reductions of 100 million by implementing global supply chain changes.
Prior to joining A&M, Mr. Berglund was the Commercial & Innovation CFO at KCI in the wound care industry and VP of Global Business Services and VP of Finance at Smith & Nephew. He began his career at GE, serving as CFO of Respiratory at GE Healthcare, Audit Manager of GE Corporate Audit Staff and Operations Management at GE Transportation.
Mr. Raymond Berglund
Managing Director & Head
Healthcare and Life Science
Alvarez & Marsal-EMEA
Dr. Bader Alahmari
Dr. Bader Alahmari obtained MBBS from King Khalid University in 2005 and finished his Residency in Internal Medicine from King Abdulaziz Medical City- Riyadh and obtained the Saudi Board in Internal Medicine in 2010. He then carried on to complete his clinical fellowship in Hematology/ Oncology in 2016 as well as the fellowship in Bone Marrow Transplant from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA in 2017. He also obtained Master of Science in Clinical Investigation, Translation Medicine Track from the same institution in 2017. Currently, he is a consultant in Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Division, Department of Oncology, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs-Riyadh. He has multiple publications focused in the development of novel therapeutic targets for graft versus host disease (GVHD) in experemental murine GVHD model. His current research work focuses in the development of cellular theapy for cancer management.
Dr. Bader Alahmari
Director, Hematology Fellowship Program Consultant, Adult Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapy Department of Oncology, King Abdulaziz Medical City Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs-Riyadh
Dr. Joseph Fraietta
Dr. Joseph Fraietta completed his training as a postdoctoral scientist in Carl June’s laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) where he conducted research on the mechanisms underlying the persistence of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. In 2016, Dr. Fraietta assumed directorship of the Product Development Laboratory (PDL) in the first-of-its-kind Center for Advanced Cellular Therapeutics in the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. During this time, he developed novel approaches for the treatment of cancer through genetic modification of T cells that contributed to the initiation of multiple clinical trials (NCT01029366, NCT02167360, NCT02640209, NCT03089203 and NCT02209376). He is currently the Director of the Solid Tumor Immunotherapy Laboratory at Penn where his research is focused on enhancing the specificity and efficacy of genetically-redirected T cells, developing mechanisms to render T cells resistant to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and improving the processes of engineering lymphocytes for infusion into patients. He also played an integral role in defining the metabolic requirements underlying chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell activation, as well as the signaling pathways that regulate cross-talk between macrophages and tumor cells. In a further effort to define the mechanisms of successful clinical responses to T cell therapy, he is currently investigating the role of epigenetics in the effectiveness of T cell responses. More specifically, these research efforts are focused on how epigenetics relates to T cell differentiation, immune exhaustion, vector silencing and the persistence of adoptively-transferred lymphocytes which may impact treatment outcomes. As a young investigator and junior faculty member, Dr. Fraietta has made several contributions to the field of immunotherapy and his high-impact findings have been published in Nature, Science, Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, Cancer Discovery, Immunity and Blood.
Dr. Joseph Fraietta
Director of the Solid Tumor Immunotherapy Laboratory University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
Dr. Khaled AlSayegh
Khaled Alsayegh is an Associate Research Scientist at King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) at the National Guard hospital. He received his PhD from the Medical College of Virginia in Virginia Commonwealth University, specializing in Human and Molecular Genetics. He did his postdoctoral training at the Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (ABMES) in Tokyo Women's Medical University. Dr. Alsayegh research interests focus on bridging the gap between Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) Cells technology and clinical application. He works on bioengineering robust and clinically safe iPS-derived cardiac tissue and on improving hematopoietic differentiation of iPS cells.
Dr. Khaled AlSayegh
Associate Director, Biomedical Research King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre
Dr. Amin Hajitou
Quote: Biotechnology has made important contributions to the current technological revolution that humans are experiencing and caused dramatic changes in our social and economical conditions, at a global scale. These include consequences in various domains such as agriculture, health and environment. In healthcare, biotechnology will continue to contribute to technological advances that will benefit medicine. The human genome sequencing and proteomic analyses will still have to be exploited to predict and prevent genetic diseases, certain cancers and reduce the cost of healthcare. The world has witnessed how technologies developed because of biotechnology, have rapidly led to the design of vaccines to combat Covid-19. Further progress in biotechnologies should help to design future vaccines that allow eradication of other infectious diseases, AIDS and malaria. Gene therapy is back to the clinic proving more and more successful studies, with an enormous potential to treat human diseases and should have a major impact in the practice of medicine.
Amin Hajitou completed his PhD at The University of Liège, Belgium. During his PhD work he acquired extensive experience in gene delivery technologies using eukaryotic viral vectors. Then, he completed his postdoctoral training in the world leading MD-Anderson Cancer Center in Texas-USA, where he gained expertise in bacteriophage (phage)-guided gene delivery and phage display technologies in vitro and in vivo. Importantly, he designed a novel hybrid phage vector for targeted gene transfer. The hybrid phage showed first success of systemic gene targeting to cancer in vivo. His team and independent groups reported efficacy of intravenous cancer gene therapy in rodents and pet dogs with natural cancers.
In 2008, Hajitou established his research team as a Lecturer, at Imperial College London, where he became Senior Lecturer in 2013, then Reader in 2016 and Professor/Chair of Targeted Therapeutics in 2019. His research team has become a leading authority in phage-guided gene delivery technologies, focusing on optimisation and development of superior phage derived vectors for Nucleic Acid delivery to human diseases including DNA vaccines. His leadership in the field has resulted in various awards for his research, numerous high profile publications and more than 6 patent applications, with most already granted in the USA. His patents have contributed to the creation of two start-up companies in the USA; he also is a Scientific Co-Founder of a Spin-Off company at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. Hajitou also received a Royal Decoration, in 2015, by his Majesty the King of Morocco.
Dr. Amin Hajitou
Professor and Chair
Targeted Therapeutics
Imperial College London, UK
Dr. Miriam Fuchs
Dr. Miriam is a Global Therapeutic Area Lead in Regulatory Affairs at Novartis. Over the past years, she has focused on innovation in Hematology, including the development and registration of Kymriah, the first approved CAR-T therapy. Miriam is a molecular biologist trained at the Max-Planck Institute (PhD) and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School (Post-Doctoral Fellow) and has over 20 years of industry experience in Regulatory Affairs and Program Management.
Dr. Miriam Fuchs
Global Therapeutic Area Lead
Cell and Gene Therapies
Regulatory Affairs
Novartis
Prof. Majid Alfadhel
Dr. Alfadhel is currently Deputy Executive Director of King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre (KAIMRC), Chairman of Genetics and Precision Medicine department at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Director of Medical Genomic lab at King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre (KAIMRC), and Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS).
Additionally, he is founder and editor in chief of Journal of Biochemical and Clinical Genetics, Editorial board member of International Journal of Health Sciences, Editorial board member of the Journal of Nature and Science of Medicine (JNSM), Editorial board member of BMC Pediatrics, Editorial board member of Frontier in Pediatric Neurology, Authors of 3 books and one chapter in a book and editorial board member of several international journals. Has more than 155 publication in high impact factor journals and more than 100 abstracts. He is supervisor and teachers for plenty of fellows, residents and medical students.
He was successful in contribution in discovery of 50 novel genes specifically for disorders involving the brain.
Prof. Alfadhel’s foresight and passion for innovation, earned him an award for inventing a new application in the Apple store and Goggle play for the treatment of inborn errors of metabolism.
Prof. Alfadhel received his bachelor degree in general medicine and surgery from King Saud University in Riyadh. He obtained his pediatric residency from King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh and received the Pediatric Saudi Board certificate followed by Pediatric Arab Board certificate and the Canadian Board in Biochemical Genetics. In addition, he carries a Neurogenetics fellowship certificate and Master of Health Science (MHSc) in epidemiology. He is also a Chair at the Newborn Screening Program of King Abdulaziz Medical City, member of advisory board of national Newborn Screening Program and member of Middle East Hyperammonemia and UCDs Scientific Group (MHUSG). Prof. Alfadhel’s foresight and passion for innovation, earned him an award for inventing a new application in the Apple store for the treatment of inborn errors of metabolism. He has published several research papers in the field of Genetics disorders, and participated in several conferences and symposia. Prof. Alfadhel’s current research interest is focused on studying clinical genetic disorders and inborn errors of metabolism epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment, novel gene discoveries in this area, gene therapies and prenatal genetics.
Prof. Majid Alfadhel
Deputy Executive Director King Abdullah International Medical Research Center Chairman, Genetics and Precision Medicine Department King Abdulaziz Medical City
Dr. Hicham Fenniri
Dr. Hicham Fenniri was educated at the University of Strasbourg, France, receiving his undergraduate degree in chemistry and biochemistry, and his M.Sc./Ph.D. degrees in supramolecular science and engineering. He then joined the Scripps Research Institute in California, USA, where he carried out his postdoctoral training in biomedical sciences. Dr. Fenniri is currently Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA. HE is also Chief Science Officer at MAScIR Foundation, Morocco.
Dr. Fenniri has achieved international recognition as a leader in the areas of supramolecular chemistry, nanomedicine, and materials science and engineering. His group works at the forefront of applied nanosciences, in collaboration with various academic institutions, federal laboratories, and with the private sector. Dr. Fenniri’s contributions appeared in over 240 publications, 21 patents and patent applications, and over 500 contributed national and international conference papers. Dr. Fenniri has also presented his work in over 200 invited distinguished lectures, colloquia and seminars around the globe.
Dr. Fenniri is the recipient of several academic and professional honours and awards, including the Xerox UAC Award, the 3M Faculty Award, the Showalter Trust Fund Award, the Trask Trust Fund Technology Innovation Award, the Cottrell Teacher Scholar Award (2000–2005), and the US National Science Foundation Career Award. In 2019 he was elected fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Dr. Fenniri is editor or member of the editorial board of several scientific journals and serves on several national and international scientific boards, panels, and committees.
Dr. Hicham Fenniri
Professor
Departments of Chemical Engineering
Bioengineering, Chemistry & Chemical Biology
Northeastern University, USA
& Chief Scientific Officer, MAScIR Foundation, Morocco
Dr. Madhuri Hegde
Dr. Hegde is the VP and Chief Scientific Officer, Global
Laboratory Services. She joined PerkinElmer on October 1, 2016.
The focus of her clinical work is the development and
implementation of high-throughput next generation sequencing
(NGS) strategies for genomic disorders using sequence capture
technologies, robotics, clinical exome and genome sequencing,
and oligonucleotide array platforms.
Dr. Hegde has over 20 years’ experience in clinical diagnostics
which includes laboratory administration, management, extensive
business and consulting experience in life science, genomic tools,
and molecular diagnostic companies, from start-up to established
organizations, and a proven record of driving revenue growth and
profitability through growing existing businesses, building new businesses, and developing
strategies to enter new markets by effectively influencing others to achieve shared goals.
Dr. Hegde has extensive knowledge of CLIA regulations related to LDTs and NGS and a strong
understanding of current reimbursement landscape and new CPT coding guidelines. Most
recently Dr. Hegde was with Emory Genetics Laboratory in Atlanta where she was Professor,
Human Genetics and Pediatrics and Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of Emory
Genetics Laboratory.
She received a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. from the University of Bombay, India, and a Ph.D. from the
University of Auckland, New Zealand. She completed post-doctoral studies at Baylor College of
Medicine and is American Board of Medical Genetics certified in Clinical Molecular Genetics.
Dr. Madhuri Hegde
Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer PerkinElmer
Dr. Majed Al Ghoribi
Dr Majed Alghoribi is currently Chairman of the infectious Diseases Research Department and Associate Research Scientist at King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre (KAIMRC). Member of COVID-19 National Research Committee in Saudi Arabia; Member of National Public Health Laboratory Committee in Saudi Arabia; Member of Food Safety and Risk Assessment Advisory Committee at Saudi Food and Drug Administration; Member of National Antimicrobial resistance program In Saudi Arabia. He has been involved in postgraduate teaching and training in different national and international universities.
Dr Alghoribi completed his Bachelor of Science in Microbiology at Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia, Master degree in Molecular and Medical Microbiology at the University of Manchester, UK, and PhD in Infection, immunity, inflammation and repair at the school of Medicine at The University of Manchester. In addition, Dr Alghoribi obtained another master degree in Leadership and Management for Healthcare Practice at the University of Salford, UK. He continued his postdoctoral fellowship at Public Health England, London, UK working at the Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare-Associated Infection (AMRHAI) reference unit with Prof. Neil Woodford group. Dr Alghoribi established the National Guard Health Affairs (NGHA) whole-genome sequencing-based surveillance of clinically important pathogens, including AMR, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2. He has a wide range of research activities and publications in peer-reviewed journals in the field of microbial genomics and antimicrobial resistance.
Dr. Majed Al Ghoribi
Chairman, infectious Diseases Research Department, Associate Research Scientist
King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre
