1st Annual European Healthcare Impact Summit

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Cristina Niculescu is a Life Sciences Specialist at the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg, a role she has held since 16 July 2016. She is responsible for the life sciences and pharmaceutical sector within the Projects Directorate (Life Sciences Division). In this capacity, she has contributed to a number of successful financing operations, including BioNTech, BioVersys, Indivumed, and Median Technologies.

Between 2009 and 2016, she worked at Transgene SA (France), a biopharmaceutical company affiliated with Institut Mérieux, focused on the development of immunotherapeutic products in oncology and infectious diseases. She led several projects spanning pre-IND and early clinical development (Phase I/Ib), including therapeutic vaccines targeting chronic hepatitis B and skin cancers. Earlier in her tenure, she was involved in business development and in-licensing activities, including technology scouting, technical and economic evaluation, market analysis, business planning, go-to-market strategy development, and financial modelling (including risk-adjusted NPV).

From 2006 to 2009, she worked as a researcher in developmental biology at IGBMC in Strasbourg, France. She holds a PhD in Life Sciences from RWTH Aachen University (Germany, 2006), with a focus on P2X receptor assembly and intracellular trafficking, and an MBA at HEC, Paris, France.

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At Panakes since 2016, Barbara brings a specific expertise in cardiovascular sector as well as a broad knowledge of the medical device sector, acquired as former Director of Clinical Affairs, Certifications, Registrations and Quality Assurance at CID SpA (now Alvimedica) and as former Director of Business Development & Global Marketing Director for the Heart Valves Business Unit at Sorin (now Livanova). She was also founder and CEO of Techwald SPA, an operational Holding Company supporting and investing in early stage Med Tech Companies.

Education MSC - 110/110 cum laude University of Perugia (Medicinal Chemistry) Executive MBA cum laude – SDA Bocconi (Milan)

Dr. Cem Baydar is a global strategy, technology and investment executive with over 25 years of experience across healthcare, life sciences, artificial intelligence, private equity and venture capital. He currently advises PE and VC funds, family offices, biotech, healthtech and AI companies on investment strategy, portfolio value creation, M&A, partnerships, fundraising and international expansion.

Cem serves as Senior Advisor and Board Member at Afendis Capital Management, Board Director at Sanovel, Board Advisor to TrustLife Therapeutics, and External Advisory Board Member of PharosAI, a UK cancer-AI venture involving King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and Barts Health NHS Trust.

Previously, Cem was Chief Investment Officer of a €2.5B-turnover diversified multinational group, Executive Vice President and Chief Consulting Officer at Norstella, and Global Head of Portfolio Strategy Consulting at IQVIA. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, focused on applications of Artificial Intelligence.

Chris joined MedImmune in 2014 as a team and project leader for Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism (CVRM) based in Cambridge, UK. Chris transitioned to the AstraZeneca Strategy and Business Development (BD) team in 2018 to coordinate search and evaluation for CVRM together with supporting the local and international biotech ecosystem. In 2024, Chris moved to head the technology search and evaluation BD team for AstraZeneca Biopharmaceuticals R&D supporting CVRM and Respiratory & Immunology (R&I) therapy areas.

Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Chris obtained a First-Class degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Bath and completed a PhD at the University of Oxford. This was followed by a postdoctoral position at Yale University, USA and MBA with the Open University.

Christian joined HTGF’s Life Science team as a Senior Investment Manager in August 2023. Christian studied biology in Giessen and received his PhD in cell biology/biochemistry in collaboration with a pharmaceutical company in Marburg. Subsequently, he did postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego in the field of tumor transformation.

During his 11-year tenure with two start-up companies in California and Wisconsin, Christian led projects on the generation, differentiation, and application of human stem cells in various disease models in the drug discovery process. He has led projects on high throughput human stem cell manufacturing and the introduction of new cell-based products.

In 2018, he moved to Evotec in Hamburg, Germany, where he was able to further advance the application of stem cells in drug discovery and learn about the drug discovery processes in detail.

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Ms Daniel has an engineering diploma from Ecole Centrale de Lyon and a master degree (MPhil) in technology policy from Cambridge University. Upon graduation, she started a career in finance, first gaining experience as an M&A banker in a London boutique. In 2011, she joined FFP (now Peugeot Invest) where she worked on direct investments and private equity fund investments. Since 2016, she has been working at the European Investment Fund, first focusing on Private Equity funds where she has been responsible for the Benelux and the French market. Since 2024, she has been responsible for the unit in charge of Life Sciences and Healthcare equity investments.

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Diana Saraceni is Co-Founder & General Partner at Panakes, a Venture Capital firm dedicated to early-stage investments in Life Sciences primarily in Europe and the US. With over 20 years of Venture Capital experience, she has also co-founded and managed 360 Capital Partners, another leading pan-European Venture Capital firm. She has led investments in a significant number of companies all over Europe and in the US, not only in the Life Sciences sector, and generated several exits as IPO and M&A transactions. Diana is also part of several committees in Europe and in the US for public/private grants and awards allocation to start-ups. She also follows several portfolios in neuroscience, oncology, endoscopy, tissue regeneration, ophthalmology and pain.

Eyal Lifschitz is an entrepreneur and investor with years of experience in establishing and managing life science companies and their business development efforts.

Lifschitz serves as the Co-founder and Managing General Partner of Peregrine Ventures, a global life science venture capital fund dedicated to improving patients' quality of life by investing in and supporting life changing healthcare opportunities. In this role, he oversees all daily operations and mentors entrepreneurs on their journeys to bring innovative medical technologies to market.

On behalf of Peregrine, Lifschitz serves on the boards of Momentis Surgical,Nectin Therapeutics, Restore Medical, Kahr Medical, Cordio Medical, Raziel Therapeutics and others.

Previously, Lifschitz was involved as a founder and a manager in PharmaSys (acquired by Elan Corp. NYSE: ELN), ECR (acquired by AVX Corp. NYSE: AVX), Visioncare Ophthalmic Technologies, BioControl, and as a director of Given Imaging (NASDAQ: GIVN).

Lifschitz serves as Chairman of the Israeli Early-Stage Investors Association (IEI) & Technology Incubator Forum (ITIF), which promotes Israeli high-tech ventures both domestically and abroad. Lifschitz is also a Founder and Chairman of GamVeGam, a non-profit corporation between the Israeli Ministry of Education and the Israeli high-tech industry, which aims to encourage high-tech professionals to become teachers in public schools, and he also serves on the Board of Trustees at Bar Ilan University.

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Jorge is a health tech enthusiast and innovator, passionate about building products that unleash human potential by preserving, extending, and enhancing health. With over 15 years of experience at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and product innovation, he has led the strategy and delivery of digital health solutions across the continuum—from late-stage clinical trials to routine care. His work spans multiple therapeutic areas, including neuroscience, oncology, ophthalmology, and cardiometabolic diseases, and a diverse range of products such as connected drug delivery devices, sensor-based digital biomarkers, digital health platforms, and AI algorithms for medical imaging.

For nearly seven years at Roche, Jorge has held several product leadership roles, where he has been instrumental in shaping and executing end-to-end strategies for remote patient monitoring and digital biomarker solutions. He has guided products from early concept and business model definition through cross-functional development and regulatory clearance, all the way to deployment in both research and clinical settings. His expertise covers the full lifecycle of regulatory-grade Software as a Medical Device (SaMD), with a strong focus on enabling scalable, high-impact digital health innovations.

Previously, at Merck KGaA, Jorge served as Global Product Manager, where he led the development and global launch of SaMD platforms in endocrine and fertility care, including a connected autoinjector ecosystem deployed in over 45 countries. This work was recognized with the PMEA 2017 Excellence in Innovation Award.

Jorge began his career in academia at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, contributing to and leading numerous European R&D projects focused on digital health and wearables for chronic disease management, particularly in Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. His work was recognized with several awards, including the IDEA² Award from the Madrid-MIT M+Visión Consortium, the Young Investigator Merit Prize from the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering, and innovation awards from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Samsung.

He holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, an MBA, and degrees in Telecommunications Engineering. He has held visiting research positions at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (Harvard Medical School), Duke-NUS Singapore, and Politecnico di Milano.

Katrin is an experienced healthcare investor with profound expertise across the healthcare software and data investment spectrum, from Growth Equity to Buyouts. ‍ Before joining MTIP, she was an Investment Principal at Hg Capital in London, responsible for European healthcare software buyouts and growth investments. Katrin also worked as an Investment Banker at Deutsche Bank, where she focused on M&A, capital raises, and IPOs. ‍ Educated in Finland, Katrin holds a master’s degree in finance from Aalto University (former Helsinki School of Economics). She is fluent in Finnish, Estonian, and English.

Lloyd Diamond is a seasoned life sciences executive and entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience leading and scaling innovative medical technology companies. His career spans orthopedics, surgical devices, and bionic vision, with a strong track record in fundraising, global commercialization, and P&L leadership.

As CEO and Board Member of Nitinotes, Lloyd is driving the company’s mission to expand access to minimally invasive treatments for obesity and metabolic disease. He leads the strategic direction, operations, and partnerships supporting the commercialization of EndoZip™, the first automated suturing platform designed to simplify and standardize endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG). His work is focused on positioning procedure-based therapies within a more personalized, continuum-driven approach to obesity care.

Previously, Lloyd served as CEO and Board Member of Pixium Vision, where he led the development of bionic vision solutions for patients with retinal degeneration and successfully oversaw the sale of the company’s assets to Science Corp., where he continues to serve as an advisor.

Lloyd also serves on the Board of Directors of XEOS Medical, a Belgian company advancing intraoperative molecular imaging with its AURA PET/CT system, and Kinvent, a French company developing connected devices that deliver real-time data on strength, balance, and mobility.

Marc Dechamps is the CEO of Bioxodes, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel therapies to prevent and treat thrombotic and inflammatory diseases starting with Heamorrhagic stroke (ICH). He is a biologist with more than 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. His extensive expertise in developing new products ranges from infectious diseases, immunological disorders, oncology and CNS disorders to vaccines. Marc also serves as president of the board of Investsud Tech and Investsud Innovation. He is founder and academic director of the advanced masters in biotech & medtech ventures at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management, and served Ose Immunotherapeutics and HealthTech for Care (HTFC) as an independent board member.

Dr Michalis Papadakis is the CEO and co-founder of Brainomix, a pioneering AI medical engineering company spun out of the University of Oxford. Under his leadership, Brainomix has grown into a global innovator, securing over £49 million in investment and revolutionizing stroke and lung disease treatment through AI-powered imaging solutions. A recognized academic and entrepreneur, he has forged strong industry partnerships and is committed to advancing healthcare technology to improve patient outcomes worldwide. He has a BSc Honors in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and a PhD in neurosciences from UCL School of Pharmacy.

With more than 25 years of healthcare industry experience, across Pharma, Diagnostics and the Life Sciences sectors, Miro is a seasoned business executive, operating partner and experienced board director. Miro has had senior roles within large and mid sized healthcare organizations, including VP Translational Medicine at Novartis, SVP Precision Medicine at Roche, CEO at Sintetica, CBO at Foundation Medicine, Executive Chairman at Stragen and Operating Partner at ARCHIMED. Miro is currently in the Board of several scale-up companies in the field of AI-enabled precision diagnostics as well as enabling technologies in the life sciences space (NovigenixAI, Tivenix, TethisLab, CellPly) and is CEO and President of DIAMANTE Healthcare, based in Switzerland and with offices covering the DACH region.

Dr. Philippe Monteyne, MD, PhD, is Senior Advisor for Life Sciences at AltamarCAM Partners (with over €21 billion in assets under management) and Partner at AltamarCAM's Life Sciences venture capital fund based in Barcelona.

Prior to this, Philippe was a Senior Partner at the Belgian private equity fund Fund+, where he contributed to several successful and profitable investments.

He serves on the boards of several biotechnology companies in Belgium and Spain, and is Chairman of Bioxodes and Accure Therapeutics.

He is also a part-time Professor at Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management.

Philippe Monteyne is a Neurologist and holds a PhD in Viral Immunology from the Catholic University of Louvain, as well as a postdoctoral degree in Neuroimmunology from the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Dr. Monteyne has held senior positions at SmithKline Beecham, GSK, and Sanofi. He served for several years as Head of Global Vaccine Development at GSK and subsequently as Senior Vice President, Head of Development and Chief Medical Officer of GSK Rare Diseases from 2010 to 2012.

He later served as Vice President, R&D France at Sanofi until early 2015 and was a Board Member of LEEM ("Les Entreprises du Médicament") in France.

Since 2015, he has been active in institutional investment in the Life Sciences sector.

Dr Rainer Strohmenger joined Wellington Partners in 1997 and became a Partner in 2000 with responsibility for the Life Science portfolio. During his 28 years in venture capital, he has been responsible for the financing of more than 30 portfolio companies, 7 of which were taken public (including Actelion, Oxford Immunotec and immatics), and 12 were successfully exited through trade sales.

Dr Strohmenger represents Wellington Partners on the boards of portfolio companies Adrenomed, Amboss, eGenesis, HepaRegeniX, iOmx, Quanta and SphingoTec.

Prior to joining Wellington Partners, Dr Strohmenger was involved in research work in the fields of cardiovascular physiology and health economics. He holds a Doctor of Medicine and a Master of Economics degree from Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, and was trained at the Entrepreneurship Center of MIT, Boston (USA).

Dr Strohmenger is a Member of the Senate of the German Association of Small and Medium-sized Businesses (BVMW) and has served on the Venture Capital Council of Invest Europe.

Ricardo Gaminha Pacheco, MD | MBA is an entrepreneurial Physician Executive dedicated to biomedical innovation, specialized in Innovative Medicines Development & Pharmaceutical Medicine. Ricardo began his career by practicing medicine in the NHS and in the Private sector before venturing to the Pharma & Biotech Industry where, over the years, he has held multiple positions of increasing responsibility and leadership at National, Regional European and Global level in worldwide renown companies such as UCB, Nycomed - now Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, AstraZeneca and Roche, bringing 10 years of experience in product development, medical affairs and commercial launch strategy. There he contributed to the development and launch of multiple life-changing medicines targeting Immunologic & Inflammatory diseases, Neurodegenerative disorders, and Oncologic diseases.

In the past few years, with an Executive MBA and professional certificate in Entrepreneurship from MIT Sloan School of Management under his belt, he kickstarted his biotech portfolio career journey, progressively dedicating himself to accelerating European emerging innovative biotech creation & build-up and scaling & growing clinical stage and advanced biotech. He has been focused on shaping biotech’s strategic planning process, augmenting the translation of R&D efforts into meaningful biomedical innovation, designing successful commercial strategies, scaling company’s future growth prospects by creating value through business development & partnering activities.

He is a Global Health, Aging & Longevity enthusiast on the path to advance healthcare through meaningful life-sciences innovation with the potential to expand human health & life span.

Sabin Minguez is Senior Director of R&D Business Development at GSK, leading the search, evaluation, governance and transaction of diverse platform & technology opportunities across therapeutic areas and modalities aligned with GSK´s R&D strategy.

Prior to joining GSK, he held business development & innovation positions at biotech and technology transfer organisations. Sabin is a pharmacist by training, holds a PhD from Strathclyde University (UK) and completed postdoctoral training at the Karolinska Institute (Sweden).

Sandra von Meier currently leads Business Development for Life Sciences at Terra Quantum, an innovative AI-driven company focused on drug discovery.

Previously, she served as Head of Business Development and Project Management at Desitin, a neurology and rare disease company, where she was responsible for all business development deals and cross-functional projects across the organization.

Before joining Desitin, Sandra was Head of Business Development and Licensing at Debiopharm, overseeing all in-licensing and out-licensing activities. During her tenure, she led several high-profile transactions, as well as clinical collaborations. Her most recent public transaction at Debiopharm was the out-licensing of a radiopharmaceutical asset to ITM.

Prior to Debiopharm, Sandra was Senior Director Business Development & Licensing at Bayer, where she was responsible for oncology asset search, evaluation, and transactions, including the M&A transaction with Vividion Therapeutics. Before that, as Director Business Development Oncology at Merck KGaA, she led numerous strategic transactions, including the collaboration on Xevinapant, partnerships with F-star (bispecific antibodies), Vertex (DDR portfolio), and Pfizer for Bavencio (avelumab).

Sandra began her career at Medigene, a publicly listed German biotechnology company, where she closed several transactions, including the commercialization agreement with Astellas for Eligard.

Sarah is President of the Swiss Healthcare Licensing Group (HLG), an association of biopharma dealmakers that supports skills development, education and networking.

Sarah is CBO of the innovative Swiss T-cell engager company CDR-Life, where she focuses on the creation of business development opportunities, corporate communication, business intelligence, and commercial opportunity input.

Previously as CBO of Cureteq Sarah was responsible for building a compelling portfolio of differentiated assets driven by AI insights. Before that, as CBO at VectivBio, Sarah supported IPO on NASDAQ, lead an acquisition to build pipeline and delivered a large Japan Phase 3 partnership. She also introduced VectivBio to Ironwood, leading to the $1bio exit in 2023.

Previously at Lonza Sarah built and led the outlicensing business unit. With a focus on new modalities such as synthetic biology, she drove in-licensing and adoption of novel technology, and led Lonza’s global R&D organisation in 2019.

Sarah knows the innovation and finance landscape in pharma and biotech well having previously led Sanofi’s external science and partnering organisation. Prior to Sanofi, Sarah managed global teams in several roles at Roche and AstraZeneca and has overseen M&A transactions, integrations, spinouts, regulatory submissions and global brand launches.

Sarah holds an MA and DPhil from Oxford University and an MBA from Manchester Business School, where she was also a Visiting Fellow and now sits on the Advisory Board. She is a firm supporter of initiatives supporting women in science and innovation careers.

Stephanie Léouzon is a Managing Director and Vice Chair of European Healthcare Investment Banking. She has worked on over 100 strategic and financing transactions in the biopharmaceutical industry, with an aggregate value of over $75 billion. She joined Stifel in 2023 through the Torreya acquisition. At Torreya, Stephanie held the roles of Partner and Head of Europe. Prior to joining Torreya in 2011, Stephanie was a Managing Director and Senior Advisor at Credit Suisse in London. She was also a Director in Healthcare Investment Banking at Salomon Brothers, and a Vice President in Investment Banking at JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers in New York.

Recent transactions include advising Mithra on the distressed sale of substantially all of its assets to Gedeon Richter for €175m, advising Cinclus Pharma on the partnering in Europe of its P3-ready GI asset with Zentiva, advising Orion Pharmaceuticals on the global partnering of its P3-ready prostate cancer product ODM-208 with Merck for an upfront payment of $290m plus milestones and royalties and advising Calliditas on the partnering of Kinpeygo in Europe with Stada and in China with Everest Medicines.

Stephanie has led financings in life sciences, focusing on biotechnology and specialty pharma. She has worked on more than 15 Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and has led Secondaries, Convertibles, and Private Placements. A recent example includes advising SparingVision on its €44.5m Series A extension.

Stephanie currently serves as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of BioPharma Credit PLC and also as a Patron of Great Ormond Street Hospital. She earned a B.A. cum laude from Mount Holyoke College and an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia.

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Uriah is the CEO of Nucleo Technologies Inc ("NucleoTech") a US Biotech developing targeted therapeutics.

NucleoTech has a unique approach to BBB-transmigrating protein carriers for Drug delivery to the CNS of Biologics and and RNA therapeutics.

As a molecular neurobiologist, Uriah has a broad interest in Brain cell-biology, RNA biology as well as biochemical and molecular tools. He brings with him a track record in Biotech strategy and intellectual property. Uriah's research years (w. Prof. Hermona Soreq) focused on neurodegenerative conditions using a variety of scientific methods and procedures of molecular biology, biochemistry, and bioinformatics.

Uriah is passionate about how well-planned R&D generates strategic IP, which in turn provides the edge needed in the biotech space.