Bogi is an associated partner at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies (CIFS). He comes from the Faroe Islands and is educated in Political Science from the University of Aarhus, Denmark. He has been employed in the Faroe Business Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and worked as a consultant over the last ten years for politicians, the public sector and private companies.

Bogi is one of the initiators of the ambitious genome project FarGen which aims to sequence the genomes of the whole population of the Faroe Islands. As CIFS health expert Bogi sets the future stage of genomics and health framed with the holistic vision of making genomics usable.

He calls himself a knowledge broker whose expertise lies in combining various fields of knowledge.

Prof. dr. Annemieke Roobeek obtained her PhD in Economics, from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

She is currently a Supervisory Board Member of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, ABN AMRO Group and Abbott Healthcare Products (NL). She serves as the Chairperson of the Advisory Board for Responsible Investments of PGGM Investments, Member of the Advisory Board of CPI Governance and Chairperson of Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Development, directed by his Royal Highness Prince Carlos de Bourbon Parma.

Prof. dr. Annemieke Roobeek is a Co-initiator and Co-owner of XL Labs B.V, which goal is designing of business ecosystems around innovation and societal challenges, as well as creating a new interactive landscape for innovation driven enterprises in a multi-helix context.

She has been a Full Professor of Technology and Economics at Nyenrode Business Universiteit in Breukelen, Netherlands, since 1989.

Dr. Stoyan Radkov is director and founder of Priority IP Ltd.

He obtained his PhD in viral oncology from Imperial College London, UK.
Stoyan has a wealth of experience in undertaking DD work, FTO, patentability, validity and infringement opinions, IP landscape analysis, patent application drafting and filing, global patent prosecution, life-cycle management and strategic advice.

One of his strengths is his ability to rapidly grasp technically and scientifically demanding concepts, which clearly and succinctly to explain to others, especially to the members of EPO. His main area of expertise is in the field of Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals.

Since February 2017, Stoyan has been elected as European Patent Institute Council Member, UK.

Dr. Rossen Koytchev is a medical doctor and specialist in Clinical Pharmacology. He is one of the founding members of CCDRD AG, a pioneer in clinical biosimilar development located in Hoppegarten, Germany, and took over the position of CEO in 2001.

Rossen has overseen the planning, management, evaluation and medical writing of more than 900 phase I-IV clinical trials. On behalf of CCDRD AG clients, Rossen is directly involved in numerous scientific advice procedures with European regulators.

Since 2004 Edward Abrahams is President of the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), Washington, US. Representing a broad spectrum of academic, industrial, patient, provider and payer communities, PMC seeks to advance the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts and products for the benefit of patients. It has grown from its original 18 founding members in November 2004 to over 160 today.

Previously he was Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association. Earlier he had been Assistant Vice President for Federal Relations at the University of Pennsylvania and held a senior administrative position at Brown University. Dr. Abrahams worked for seven years for the U.S. Congress.

The author of numerous essays, Dr Abrahams serves on the editorial board of Personalized Medicine and has taught history and public policy at Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Daniel Granfeldt holds a PhD in medical microbiology from the University of Gothenburg where he worked on the role of calcium in regulation of the inflammatory process. During a subsequent post-doc period at Chalmers University of Technology he studied the role of the GABAA receptor in neuronal signal transmission, both through experiments and through Markov modelling of discrete receptor states. He also contributed to the development of novel tools for studies of ion channel function, at both single-cell level and for high-throughput screening.

Daniel left academia to move into the industry sector where he worked for 8 years at Cellectricon AB, a biotech company focused on development of tools for ion channel screening and electroporation. During his time at Cellectricon he held positions as Application Specialist, Senior Application Development Scientist, and finally as Product Manager. Throughout this period, Mr. Granfeldt worked in close contact with cutting edge product development of hardware and software, marketing/key account managing, and business development offering unique insights into these processes and the significant synergies that can be gained through close and effective cooperation.

He now holds a position as Senior Manager Health Economics & Outcomes Research at Nordic Health Economics/Pharmalex where he has worked in a number of different fields, including schizophrenia, endocrine disorders, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, cancer, asthma, surgery, and dermatology. He has wide experience from drug reimbursement applications and HTAs, health economic modelling of health outcomes and costs, register-based research studies, market access, Delphi panels, as well as resource use and unit-costing projects. He has extensive experience from direct interaction and meetings with Nordic reimbursement authorities.

Dr. Pierre Meulien is Executive Director of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI).

From 2010 to 2015, Dr. Meulien was President and CEO of Genome Canada, where he raised significant funds for the organisation and oversaw the launch of novel projects and networks in the field of genomics-based technologies. Prior to that from 2007 to 2010, he was Chief Scientific Officer for Genome British Columbia.

From 2002 to 2007, Dr. Meulien served as founding CEO of the Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre (now Molecular Medicine Ireland), which linked medical schools and teaching hospitals in Dublin to build a critical mass in molecular medicine and translational research.

Dr. Meulien also worked in the private sector with the French biotechnology company Transgene, and with Aventis Pasteur (now Sanofi Pasteur). He has a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Edinburgh and carried out a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.

Prof. Dr. Michael Rossbach is a seasoned life and health sciences professional, with expertise in diagnostics, cell-based therapeutics, neuroscience and genomics.

Michael holds academic appointments at the National University of Singapore (NUS), at the German Institute of Science and Technology (TUM Asia) in Singapore (Biochemistry, Cell biology, and Bioorganic Chemistry), at INSEAD Management School (Entrepreneur-in- Residence) and he is Prof. and a member of the Faculty of the Witten School of Management (Germany).

Since 2016, Michael is the VP Global Pharma Partnering of Vela Diagnostics and focuses on the development of companion diagnostics (NGS and qPCR-based) to advance precision medicine.

Prior to joining Vela Diagnostics, Michael served as the Director for Strategic Alliances & Scientific Program Management of the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) for five years. Prior to the GIS appointment, he was a group leader at the Institute of Reconstructive Neurobiology, University of Bonn (Germany), and the Business Development Manager of LIFE&BRAIN.

Michael is the Director of Roßbach & Company (Advisors in Health and Life Sciences), Associate of the Biotech Developpement Conseils in Paris, and Partner of Ryan-Kay Sarl in Switzerland and serves on the Advisory Board and Board of several biotech companies.

Michael studied biochemistry (PhD in immunology) at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia), at the University of Witten/Herdecke (Witten, Germany) and at Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA).

Mr. Kaloyan Staykov is a Senior Economist at the Institute for Market Economics where he is working on analysis in the fields of public finances, energy, and healthcare. Prior to joining the IME team, he worked as an economist at the Center for Economic

He is a part of the author’s team, which prepared the book Anatomy of the Crisis, published in 2015, with a focus on the development of the public finances during and after the economic crisis. In 2017, he was a part of the team that prepared the book Flat Tax in Bulgaria: Background, Introduction and Results, with a focus on the policy in the field of corporate taxation. In recent years he has been involved in the preparation and presentation of IME’s annual “Alternative State Budget”. He is a member, and the vise-chair of the board, of the Bulgarian Macroeconomic Association.

Mr. Staykov holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Management in Energy, Infrastructure and Utilities and holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Economics and Business with Finance Specialization from Amsterdam University, the Netherlands.

Erik Steinfelder earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Analytical Chemistry from the Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Deventer, Netherlands, and subsequently completed a degree in Foundations of Management at Nyenrode Business University in Breukelen, Netherlands.

In 2008, he joined Thermo Fisher Scientific, a multinational biotechnology product development company based in the US. In his position as first Biobank Commercial Leader EMEA, he went on to head the complete biobank portfolio and range of activities and, most recently, became Corporate Accounts Executive. Additionally, between 2014 and 2017, he was also President-elect, President and past President of ESBB, the European, Middle Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking.

Since August 2017 Erik Steinfelder is General Director of BBMRI-ERIC. His vision for the coming years is to “build and strengthen value-added sustainable biobanking for all stakeholders”.

Mrs. Piarella Peralta is a social psychologist and has been involved with inspire2live since 2010, after her family experienced firsthand the tragedy of cancer. She began to work with inspire2live and its Costa Rican fundraiser Poás 8 (Pocho) with the idea that everyone can make a contribution in the fight against cancer.

Mrs. Peralta works at the Instituut voor Interventiekunde in Amsterdam. In her profession, she specializes on appreciative inquiry. Much like current cancer research emphasizes the study of healthy cells to understand how to combat neoplastic cells, she focuses on the positive aspects of life to promote improvement.

After finishing his PhD on leukaemia research in 1991 in Northern Ireland, Colin completed early research at St George’s Hospital Medical School (London) Department of Haematology working on Chronic Anaemia’s & Stem Cell Disorders. In 1999, he founded and became Director of the Stem Cell Therapy Laboratory specialising in Stem Cell Research and regenerative medicine. In 2005 he was appointed the UK’s first Professor of Regenerative Medicine (Newcastle University), leading clinical research in adult stem cells through to patients. He strongly believes in international cooperation and collaboration working internationally and with industry.

In January 2009 he became President of the Cell Therapy Research Institute, Lyon, France, an Adult Stem Cell association and CTI-Biotech, a biotechnology company. Prof. McGuckin’s group were first in the world to characterise and produce embryonic-like stem cells from a non-embryonic source – Umbilical Cord Blood. They are also first to make an artificial liver and nervous, pancreatic and a range of other tissues from Umbilical Cord, Cord Blood, and Adipose related stem cells. Prof. McGuckin is on the editorial board of international journals, international reviewer [Eg. European Commission], and an advisor to several medical and science organisations. He has been invited to speak internationally, including European Parliament, Bundestag German Parliament, Austrian Parliament, French Senate, the Vatican, Rome, and the US Senate on Capitol Hill.

His group are currently pioneering some new treatments for children with Cerebral Palsy and Cleft Palate birth disorders and is part of the new 43M Euro IMODI cancer project in France.

Dr. Forraz completed his PhD at Kingston University and St George’s Hospital Medical School, University of London, UK, where he investigated the Multi-Tissue Differentiation Potential of Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cell Populations with applications to Haematology, Oncology, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.

In 2004-2005, Dr. Forraz worked as a Senior Researcher in the Stem Cell Therapy Programme directed by Prof. McGuckin at Kingston University. In 2004-2005, he was funded by the British Department of Trade and Industry to promote research links and business activities in the field of Regenerative Medicine, Tissue Bio-Engineering, Space Medicine and Oncology with Research Institutions in Texas, USA. In 2005, he was appointed Senior Research Associate and Business Development Manager in Prof. McGuckin’s Regenerative Medicine research group at Newcastle University.

In 2008, he co-founded CTI-BIOTECH with Prof. McGuckin in France, focusing on stem cell research for biotechnology and clinical applications.

Dr. Forraz was also a visiting scientist at Rice University, USA and the University of Texas Medical Branch, USA.

Dr. Forraz received the Creative Pioneer Programme award in 2006, for his joint work with Prof. McGuckin, by the British National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) providing Business Development support and training for commercialization. Dr. Forraz is a finalist of the UK Research Councils Business Plan Competition 2006 and he won the North East Universities Science and Technology Blueprint Business Plan Award 2006 for his vision and concept for biotechnology commercialisation.

Mr. Morehouse has been in private practice in the United States for 25 years assisting domestic US and overseas clients to generate, develop and enforce IP portfolios. At the Washington, DC based law firm of Kenealy Vaidya, he performs expert services with regard to patent prosecution, post grant proceedings, patent invalidity and infringement analyses, IP licensing, and patent infringement litigation.  Mr. Morehouse also helps to manage Dulany Street Capital, which funds patent infringement actions in the US and overseas.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Virginia Military Institute, USA in 1986, and received his law degree cum laude from Widener University School of Law, Wilmington, DE, USA in 1993.

Marco is currently Chief advisor at the Ministry of Science and Education, Republic of Croatia, from 2008 till 2018 Marko was a PhD student and Postdoc at the Ruder Boskovic Institute in Zagreb. His scientific interests were in the area of molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease, especially the role of lipids in neurodegeneration. During his research career he worked in laboratories in Munich, Munster and Bonn.

Upon graduation from Moscow Medical Academy, Dmitry became fascinated with tropical diseases. After a few years working in some research institutes in Moscow, he finally realized that there are not so many tropical diseases in Russia… This later brought him to Israel where he had a chance to research these diseases and the parasitic germs that cause them. These experiences sparked his interests in science and brought him to Germany where he did an MSc in molecular biology and immunology. After that Dmitry moved to Switzerland where he is now pursuing a PhD degree, investigating how our immune system battles these microscopic monsters.

Savina is an epidemiologist, working at the National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (NCIPD) in Bulgaria. She has a MSc in Molecular and Cell Biology from Heidelberg University, and has completed the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training, a two-year fellowship organised by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Her experience in the area of infectious diseases includes laboratory research (sleeping sickness, hepatitis C), infectious disease surveillance, and prevention efforts in the field during outbreaks (measles, cholera). Savina is now completing her PhD in Epidemology at NCIPD, focusing on hepatitis A in Bulgaria.

Lyubov Kostova is the Country Director of British Council in Bulgaria and regional lead for Science in the EU region for the British Council. She has been developing science programmes since 2004. Her contribution to science communication projects include the launch and development of FameLab International. From 2007 to 2013 she was the global manager of FameLab International on behalf of the British Council. She has introduced and developed a number of science communication and science education event formats and trainings, as well as worked extensively with the media in Bulgaria on promotion and reporting on science. In 2011 with colleagues she created the concept and launched and partners the Sofia Science Festival, to date the only event of this type in the country.

Currently Dr. Esteban Pombo-Villar is CEO of TargImmune Therapeutics AG, a private Swiss-based biotechnology company developing novel targeted immuno-oncology drugs that will improve the treatment for cancer patients. He was Chief Operations Officer and Director of Oxford Bio Therapeutics over 4 years, and prior to that he worked at Novartis for over 23 years, initially in several research positions of increasing responsibility, and over the last 12 years had several roles in business development activities, and held the role of Head of Strategic Alliance Management in Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.

Dr. Esteban Pombo-Villar received his BSc, MSc and PhD in Chemistry at University of Warwick, UK, and conducted research in the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK) and the ETH in Zurich (Switzerland). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), member of several professional societies, including the Licensing Executives Society.

Among his specialties are: Biopharmaceutical General Management, Strategy and Operations, Organic and Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Discovery and Development for Small Molecules, Antibodies and Antibody Drug Conjugates, Research Management, Business Development and Licensing.

Dr. Borissov is an expert in drug policy and pharmaco-economics. He holds a PhD in Medicine from the Medical University in Sofia and MSc in Business administration and health management. He has specialized in university centres in Marseille and Cambridge and has worked in La Beaulieu-Salpetrière, Paris.

From 1998 to 2004 he was the Executive Director of the Bulgarian Drug Agency. After leaving the BDA, he founded Prescriptia, a specialized consulting company in the field of drug regulation. In 2010 he founded a Bulgarian subsidiary of Sinexus Clinical Research, UK and in 2015 opened the first specialized medical centre for clinical trials.

Dr. Borissov is a Member of the Management Board of the Bulgarian Association of Clinical Research. He is a member of the French Society of Pharmacoeconomics and ISPOR.

Dr. Georgiev is founder and CEO at Paralax Life Sciences and Bulgarian Biotech Entrepreneur. He is also Director of Medical centre ASCENDENT.

He is a Member of the Management Committee of Cost Action CA15210, European Network for Collaboration on Kidney Exchange Programmes (ENCKEP).

He holds a PhD in Medicine from the Medical University in Sofia (Medical Specialty Obstetrics and Gynaecology) and a Master degree in Healthcare Management form the UNWE in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Paul Jones is the EMEA lead for Population Genomics at Illumina, based in the UK. In this role Paul is responsible for nurturing large-scale Population Genomics programmes that look to combine translational research with clinical care, often in the context of a national health system.

Paul brings three decades of experience in life sciences from a range of different organizations where he has driven innovative new approaches at the interface between pharma and healthcare. His particular interest is in the new business models that are being stimulated by genomics.

Paul was the founding CEO of Genomics Enterprises, the commercial arm of Genomics England (GeL), where he led all aspects of the commercial agenda for the 100,000 Genomes Project. As part of this role, he set up and ran the GENE Consortium, involving a dozen companies working together to steer industry engagement with the program. He was also responsible for identifying and enabling other commercial partnerships of relevance to the GeL agenda.

Prior to this, Paul led the Global Life Sciences business at Cisco where he advised pharma and biotech companies on the use of technology to drive commercial innovation. He has also held senior positions at IMS Health, Novartis and PwC Consulting.

Dr. Stanimir Hasurdjiev is one of the founders and the chairperson of the National Patients’ Organization (NPO) – the biggest union of patients’ organizations in Bulgaria, recognized as a national representative organization for protection of the rights of patients in Bulgaria. NPO comprises more than 80 organizations from the whole country, representing patients with different socially important and rare diseases.

In 2005, Dr. Hasurdjiev initiated the establishment of the National Association for Fighting Hepatitis “Hepasist” and since then until November 2009, he took the post of secretary, after which he was chosen as a chairperson of the organization, the position that he currently holds. In 2011, 2015 and 2016, he represented the Bulgarian patients as a member of the Oversight Council of the National Health Care Fund and since then he has participated in multiple working groups, sessions and forums, focused on health care.

Since 2012, he has been actively involved in the topic concerning the inequalities in the health care of the member states in the EU. As a result, in December 2014, the partnership on European level for access to high quality health care – Patient Access Partnership – was set up by the National Patients’ Organization and the European Patients’ Forum, in which Dr. Hasurdjiev took the position Secretary General of the Partnership.

Dr. Hasurdjiev is also the Chairperson of the Bulgarian Association of Personalized Medicine (BAPEMED).

Jivko Ivanov is manager and entrepreneur with extensive experience in finance, accounting, tax advisory and venture capital and Co-founder of TIDIT, Clarion Ventures, and Bulgarian Business Angels Network.

Prior to establishing Simbula, he has gained experience in the financial management of a number of companies in the healthcare, financial services and IT sectors. Among others, he has been Head of Finance and Accounting Department of Tokushukai-Sofia, Member of the Board of Directors of Tokuda Hospital Service, Procurator of Tokuda Hospice, CFO of ProDuCt – Project Development Consulting, and Member of the Supervisory Board of Cooperative Clinical Drug Research and Development (CCDRD), based in Berlin, Germany, etc.

Mr. Ivanov has two Master Degrees – in Financial Management and in Bank Management and have participated in a number of post-graduate trainings in Corporate Finance, Financial Analysis, Strategic Management, Project Management, Financial Planning and Modelling in Bulgaria, Japan and Germany.

Dr. Ivan Georgiev is Delivery Unit Head for Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Turkey and Managing Director for Bulgaria at IQVIA. He has medical background and over 10 years of experience in clinical research, including monitoring, clinical team leadership and line management.

Dr. Georgiev is Chairman of the Managing Board of the Bulgarian Association of Clinical Research (BACR).

Dr. Theodor Zamfirov graduated with excellent academic performance from the Medical University of Sofia in 1995. Until 1999 he worked for Bulgarian representative offices of different biotechnological companies.

Since 1999 he has been founder and majority shareholder in ELTA ‘90M, which is a distributor and representative of worldwide companies in the field of biotechnology and laboratory equipment – Nikon, Panasonic, Thermo Fisher, Sysmex, etc. With its own offices in four countries and sale authorization for more of the countries in the Balkan region, ELTA ’90M is a leader in its field with more than 58 highly qualified employees, committed to the idea for provision of timely and quality services for its clients.

Boris Kirov is a bioengineer with academic background in the fields of Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Biosensors and Synthetic Biology. He works at the BioInfoTech lab where his main focus is on converting the newest scientific discoveries in the fields of Biology, Medicine and Engineering into affordable technologies. Boris is a firm believer in Open science and his Lab is hosting a number of independent projects among which is the Bulgarian team for the international student competition in Synthetic Biology “iGEM”.

Mr. Ivanov is a serial entrepreneur who has founded variety of start-ups. In January 2017, Milen founded the largest angels group in Bulgaria – CEO Angels Club, currently including 30+ members encompassing top executives and entrepreneurs from the local ecosystem. He is also Director of Founders Institute, Sofia, Bulgaria.

Mr. Ivanov has extensive experience in incubating, mentoring, event organization, and networking in the start-up ecosystem.

Milen Ivanov has a MBA degree from City University, Seattle and Washington, USA and has received various awards for entrepreneurship, innovation, and business.

He is a Member of the Advisory Board of “For Our Children Foundation”.

Prof. Victoria Sarafian, MD, PhD, DMSc is head of the Department of Medical Biology and of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Medical University – Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Currently she holds the position of Vice Rector of Research. She acts as an expert in Immunology and Medical Biology, as well as in Science Management at different national and international institutions.

Prof. Sarafian is a member of Editorial Boards and a reviewer for a number of scientific journals. Her research interests are in the field of Molecular Oncology and Immunology.