Speaker Biographies

Steve is AI startup ‘force multiplier' / Quintessential 'Merchant of Light'. He built a recognized personal brand as AI startup ‘force multiplier' ( advised 25 AI startups past 7 years ) shaping serendipity to connect and illuminate the dots that matter leveraging deep relationship capital with incisive business strategy to deliver the best results. An ‘Intentional Learner' for decades he treats every experience as an opportunity to learn with a curious and growth mindset where intelligence can be nurtured, expanded, and changed over time. Steve advises numerous AI startups ( mostly early stage ) that includes mi10.ai a Physician-Led Healthcare AI Strategy and Education consulting firm with others listed here on www.forcemultipliersteveardire.com. He's an active speaker whose fav topic is #AugmentedIntelligence will become #futureofwork for healthcare, enterprise, HR, edtech, AR/VR, and more. Connect https://www.linkedin.com/in/sardire/ follow @forcemultstevea and reach out at sardire@gmail.com

Alán Aspuru-Guzik’s research lies at the interface of computer science with chemistry and physics. He works in the integration of robotics, machine learning and high-throughput quantum chemistry for the development of materials acceleration platforms. These “self-driving laboratories¨ promise to accelerate the rate of scientific discovery, with applications to clean energy and optoelectronic materials. Alán also develops quantum computer algorithms for quantum machine learning and has pioneered quantum algorithms for the simulation of matter. He is jointly appointed as a Professor of Chemistry and Computer Science at the University of Toronto. Alán is a faculty member of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Previously, Alán was a full professor at Harvard University where he started his career in 2006. Alán is currently the Canada 150 Research Chair in Quantum Chemistry as well as a CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute. Amongst other awards, Alán is a recipient of the Google Focused Award in Quantum Computing, the MIT Technology Review 35 under 35, and the Sloan and Camille and Henry Dreyfus Fellowships. Alán is a fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. He is a co-founder of Zapata Computing and Kebotix, two early-stage ventures in quantum computing and self-driving laboratories respectively.

Dr. Amelia Averitt is a health research scientist with an interest in translating biomedical data into actionable knowledge. She received her doctorate from Columbia University, Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), where she developed novel machine learning methods that support causal inferences from big observational data. Prior to her time at DBMI, Dr. Averitt studied Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health. Currently, she works as a Manager of Clinical Informatics at the Regeneron Genetics Center. In this role, she uses her experience to help bridge clinical and genomic data towards better patient care. To learn more about Dr. Averitt’s work, follow her on Twitter (@AJAveritt) and review her website (http://ajaveritt.com).

Director, Machine Learning, Data Sciences Platform Puneet Batra is a machine learning scientist, software engineer, and physicist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Batra co-leads the Machine Learning For Health group at the Broad, which creates new machine learning tools to drive biological discovery and clinical impact. After a successful academic career as a theoretical particle physicist, Batra decided to move to Silicon Valley to work on the emerging data problem of our time: how do we derive meaning from the vast amounts of data captured by the internet? Working across multiple domains, including healthcare and spatial analyses, Batra became a pioneering entrepreneur and data scientist known for building world-class teams and scalable data infrastructures. Batra joined the Broad in 2019 to tackle the next great data problem of our time: how do we apply machine learning on the vast rams of clinical and genomic data to drive breakthroughs in how we prevent, diagnose, and treat disease? Batra completed his B.A. in physics at Harvard University and has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Stanford University.

As Principal at Evident Health Strategies, Paul Bleicher, MD, PhD, is a consultant, advisor and Board member to healthcare and life science businesses, internationally. Prior to that, he was the chief executive officer of OptumLabs, an open, collaborative research and innovation center founded by Optum and Mayo Clinic to accelerate improvements in patient care and value through clinical, policy and product innovation driven by new insights from big data. Before OptumLabs, he was chief medical officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Humedica, a next-generation clinical informatics company that was acquired by Optum in January 2013. Before Humedica, Dr. Bleicher was a founder of Phase Forward, a company which pioneered the development of web-based electronic data capture for clinical trials. He was the original chief executive officer of Phase Forward, where he served in various capacities and as a member of the Board of Directors until its acquisition by Oracle Corporation. He had previously led clinical development at a biotech company (Alpha-Beta Technology), and began his career in industry at PAREXEL, where he assisted pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with the clinical development of novel therapies. Dr. Bleicher earned his BS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MD/PhD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He trained in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital, in dermatology at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital, and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in molecular biology before beginning his career as an assistant professor at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He has held various leadership positions in the Drug Information Association, Massachusetts Life Sciences Leadership Council and was a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s Leadership Consortium for Value & Science-Driven Health. He has received numerous awards for entrepreneurship and leadership in the pharmaceutical and health care industries.

Graham leads data and cloud investing for .406 Ventures, focusing on highly disruptive, deep tech companies in the data stack, AI, and cloud enablement space with a specific focus on healthcare and financial services. Graham has been at .406 Ventures since 2007, and in addition to investing, runs the firm’s college outreach program. At .406 Graham has led and been involved on the boards for 20+ investments including: Abacus Insights, ChaosSearch, ClosedLoop, Corvus Insurance, indico, Gamalon, Linea, Promethium, Reltio, and Simon Data. Exited companies with previous involvement include: AbleTo (recapitalized by Optum), AdTuitive (acquired by Etsy), Compass (NYSE: COMP), and Digitalsmiths (acquired by TiVo). Prior to .406, Graham was an engineer and DBA at ALK Technologies, Cofounder and Head of Sales at Accentus and BizDev/Corp Dev for Bose Corporation. Graham holds an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth where he was a Tuck Scholar and an engineering degree from Princeton University where he majored in computer science.

Órlaith is responsible for driving a strategic program of highly collaborative, innovative R&D projects. Generating value for Accenture and our clients, by solving the biggest problems across their businesses in a new way with a focus on diversity, impact, and value. This portfolio focused on 'Data in Health' is a strategic programme, with the ultimate goal of improving patients’ lives through all aspects of the Medical, Pharmaceutical and Health Care Ecosystem through innovation.

Dr. Chang attended Johns Hopkins University for his B.A. in molecular biology prior to entering Georgetown University School of Medicine for his M.D. He then completed his pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital National Medical Center and his pediatric cardiology fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He then accepted a position as attending cardiologist in the cardiovascular intensive care unit of Boston Children’s Hospital and as assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. He has been the medical director of several pediatric cardiac intensive care programs (including Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Miami Children’s Hospital, and Texas Children’s Hospital). He served as the medical director of the Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. He is currently the Chief Intelligence and Innovation Officer (CIIO) and Medical Director of the Heart Failure Program at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. He has also been named a Physician of Excellence by the Orange County Medical Association and Top Cardiologist, Top Doctor for many years as well as one of the nation’s Top Innovators in Healthcare. He has completed a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in Health Care Administration at the University of Miami School of Business and graduated with the McCaw Award of Academic Excellence. He also completed a Masters in Public Health (MPH) in Health Care Policy at the Jonathan Fielding School of Public Health of the University of California, Los Angeles and graduated with the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence. He later taught Global Health there. Finally, he graduated with his Masters of Science (MS) in Biomedical Data Science with a subarea focus in artificial intelligence from Stanford School of Medicine and has completed a certification on artificial Intelligence from MIT. He is a computer scientist-in-residence and a member of the Dean’s Scientific Council at Chapman University. He has helped to build a successful cardiology practice as a startup company and was able to complete a deal on Wall Street. He is known for several innovations in pediatric cardiac care, including introducing the cardiac drug milrinone and co-designing (with Dr. Michael DeBakey) an axial-type ventricular assist device in children. He is a committee member of the National Institute of Health pediatric grant review committee. He is the editor of several textbooks in pediatric cardiology, including Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care, Heart Failure in Children and Young Adults, and Pediatric Cardiology Board Review

Christos Chatzichristos is a Postdoctoral Researcher affiliated with Clinical Research and Innovation, Janssen Pharmaceutica, as well as with the department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT) of Katholiek Universiteit Leuven (KUL). He gained his PhD in 2019 from the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, Un. of Athens and was awarded a Marie Curie Skolodowska fellowship for the completion of his PhD research. Christos obtained a MSc in Biomedical Engineering and a Diploma in Electrical and Computer engineering. He has been the first author of a paper received the best paper award in IEEE SPMB 2020, and a member of the team that won the first price in the Neureka Challenge 2020 for seizure detection

Dr. Jie Cheng received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1998 and completed his postdoctoral training in AI & Machine Learning in 2000. He has more than 15 years of experience in applying machine learning and predictive modeling to clinical and biomarker data analysis. Dr. Cheng is a senior director at Takeda, leading patient subgroup identification and preclinical biomarker analysis.

A former neuroscience researcher, Andrea’s portfolio career has included leadership assignments at the intersection of science, technology and business development. She has built and led informatics and scientific teams across the entire pharmaceutical value chain. Most recently, Andrea focused on building the Pharma Artificial Intelligence market at NVIDIA. Through this experience she has travelled the world advising biopharmaceutical, academics, research institutes, and startups in the potential of machine learning and artificial intelligence across every discipline in our industry. Prior to her role at NVIDIA, Andrea held leadership positions at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Amgen, and Roche. In the last three years, Andrea’s work at Eli Lilly & Company has focused around empowering the LRL Research organization with greater computational, analytics-intense experimentation to raise the innovation of our scientists. As the Global Head of Data Sciences and Advanced Analytics, Andrea leads four organizations: The High-Performance Computing Team, the Data Engineering team, the AI/ML team and the Translational Informatics team for LRL. Additionally, Andrea serves as a strategic advisor for the NIH HubMap Advisory Team. She has a B.S. in Animal Physiology from UC Davis, a Master’s in Health Administration from University of San Francisco, and an MBA from MIT Sloan. Her leadership has gained her international recognition as a leader in Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Data Sciences.

F. J. Díez is full professor of artificial intelligence at UNED, the largest Spanish university. He built DIAVAL, one of the first Bayesian networks for medicine. He has been principal investigator in several national and international projects and published his work in some of the most relevant journals of AI, including Artificial Intelligence, IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, and Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, and health decision analysis, such as Medical Decision Making and PharmacoEconomics. He is the leader of a research group that built OpenMarkov, an open-source tool for PGMs, especially tailored to medicine, which has been used in more than 30 countries. He has been teaching probabilistic graphical models to computer science students for 25 years. He is the director of a modular program that has taught around 2,000 health professionals since 1996, and a co-founder of DeciSupport AI, a spin-off of UNED.

Victor has spent the last 8 years building and growing AI and technology ventures in life sciences. In 2012 he founded a company developing AI technology for CRISPR genome editing, sold to a cell therapy company in 2018. Victor has extensive experience consulting for life science companies and funds on the topics genome editing, next generation sequencing and venture creation. Victor joined Owkin as Commercial Operations Director in January 2020 where he is responsible for the commercial development of Owkin’s collaborative machine learning platform for medical research.

 

Andrew’s executive and entrepreneurial experience spans nearly 20 years in B2C and B2B, for startups and Fortune 500 companies. Andrew founded and sold three technology companies and today is the CEO and Founder of ClosedLoop.ai.?In 2012 Andrew co-founded the mobile software company Boxer. Boxer develops mobile productivity software for individuals and large corporations. Boxer's flagship email product was downloaded by millions of users and received significant industry praise for its exceptional user interface, including a 2015 Webby Nomination as one of the top 5 productivity applications in the world. Boxer was purchased by VMWare (one of the top 10 largest software companies in the world) in 2015.Prior to Boxer, Andrew co-founded the cyber security firm Ciphent in 2007. Ciphent grew to nearly 100 employees with 1,000 customers by 2010 before being acquired by Accuvant (now Optiv). With a three year growth rate of 8900%, Ciphent was recognized by Inc. Magazine as the #16th Fastest Growing Private Company in the United States. During his tenure as SVP of Services at Accuvant, Andrew oversaw a $50mm, 200 person organization and was responsible for doubling revenues in 18 months.Andrew also served as CEO of Bodkin Consulting Group where he worked with Fortune 500 brands and technology companies to define their interactive marketing strategies. Andrew began his career as a software architect working with NASA, i2 technologies, and the US Marine Corps. Andrew graduated Summa Cum Laude from Virgina Tech with a degree in Management Information Technology. Andrew lives in Austin, TX with his two daughters and champion “Dock Dog” Sophie.

As senior vice president of AI products and platforms at Optum, Sanji is responsible for the design and development of leading-edge AI models and analytics for the enterprise, as well as the platforms needed to accelerate the development and deployment of these solutions. Previously, Sanji led the OptumLabs Center for Applied Data Science (CADS). The CADS team applied breakthroughs in AI and machine learning to solve complex health care challenges for UnitedHealth Group (UHG) by developing and deploying new software product concepts. Prior to joining Optum in 2014, Sanji worked at Nokia, where he created their first data science team. Before that, Sanji spent nine years at Nokia in various corporate roles with Nokia’s Multimedia Division, Nokia Research Center and Nokia Ventures. Sanji was also a co-founder and VP of Engineering at Vettro, a venture-backed mobile software company. Sanji began his career in consulting with Viant and Accenture. Sanji is a graduate of Trinity College with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. He lives in the Boston area with his wife and their three boys. In his free time, Sanji enjoys coaching his sons in basketball and baseball.

Coryandar (Cory) Gilvary obtained her PhD from Weill Cornell under the direction of Olivier Elemento, where she completed her PhD in record time (~ 3 years). At Weill Cornell her research focused on developing new machine learning techniques for drug development spanning different disease areas such as cancer, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. Outside of her biological research, she spent time developing cutting edge machine learning models at one of the world’s leading quantitative hedge funds. Currently, Cory leads OneThree’s data science and computational biology efforts and much of her early research work formed the core OneThree platform. She has spearheaded OneThree’s unique approach of combining distinct types of noisy, high-throughput data to maximize algorithmic performance, while also building interpretable models that allow for a deeper mechanistic insight to the mode of action of therapeutics. At the beginning of 2020, she spearheaded OneThree’s internal efforts to provide free toxicity screening to any researchers working on treatment for COVID-19.

John Goldader is a Managing Director and Partner with BCG based in its London office. At BCG, John focuses on emerging technology, innovation, and commercialisation particularly in the space of MedTech and BioPharma. Prior to BCG, John was a serial entrepreneur, investor, CIO, and medical device researcher.

Gregory Goldmacher is Associate VP in Clinical Research, and Head of Clinical Imaging at Merck Research Laboratories. His team of radiologists and imaging scientists oversees the generation of efficacy and safety endpoints in over 200 trials. He has led internal research efforts and external collaborations focused on artificial intelligence, novel oncology response methods, imaging biomarkers, data standardization, and educational programs. He also supports business functions, including due diligence for M&A, internal venture capital funds, and an internal startup accelerator. Prior to joining Merck, he was a senior medical director, and the head of oncology imaging at a global CRO. Greg obtained his BA from the University of Chicago, his MD and PhD (in neuroscience) from the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and his MBA from Temple University.

José-Felipe Golib-Dzib received his PhD on Integrative Biology from Paris Diderot University in 2011. Felipe is a trained computer scientist, and he has a master's degree in models and systems in biology. In 2015, Felipe joined Janssen as a scientist in Janssen's Toledo Spain research unit for identification of bioactive molecules using artificial intelligence techniques. In 2017, he directed Real World Evidence and technological innovation projects in Spain. Starting last year, he is an innovation lead for clinical research initiatives on artificial intelligence.

Vibhor has a breadth of experience in life sciences through his work in industry and academia over the last two decades. Prior to Pangaea, Vibhor started and built the European business for Quantum Secure, which was an enterprise software solutions provider headquartered in Silicon Valley and was successfully acquired by a global corporation in 2015. Following his work at Quantum Secure, Vibhor served as Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy and Sales at Seven Bridges Genomics, which was founded at Harvard and provided a cloud based bioinformatics platform. Vibhor has also worked as a management and technology consultant for Deloitte. Vibhor’s academic career focused on conducting molecular biology studies and building bioinformatics tools and machine learning models with epigenetic, genomic, transcriptomic and clinical trial data in the context of oncology and infectious diseases. Vibhor has access to an extensive global network in the Life sciences industry and is regularly invited to speak at international conferences, government funded programs and investment summits.

Colin Hill is a leading voice in healthcare technology and precision medicine and brings impressive leadership experience in commercializing machine learning technologies in the biopharmaceutical and managed care industries. He co-founded GNS Healthcare, a leading AI-driven precision medicine company, in 2000 and has since served as Chairman & CEO. In 2020 the company launched the in silico patient, a highly accurate computer model of disease. Colin sits on board of Biotelemetry Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAT), the leading mobile health information company, and PPD, a leading global contract research organization. He is also a founding board member of TMed (Transforming Medicine: The Elizabeth Kauffman Institute), a non-profit foundation (501c3) dedicated to the advancement of personalized medicine. In 2016, he was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to the Massachusetts Digital Health Council. Colin was a founding member of the Board of Directors of AesRx, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of new treatments for sickle cell disease (acquired by Baxter in 2014). He was the founding chairman of O’Reilly Media’s Strata Rx in 2012, the first healthcare big data conference in the industry. In 2004, Colin was named to MIT Technology Review’s TR100 list of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.He is a frequent speaker at national and international scientific and industry conferences and has appeared in numerous publications and television programs, including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC Morning Call & SquawkBox, Nature, Boston Globe, Politico, Forbes, Wired, and The Economist. He graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in physics and earned Master’s degrees in physics from both McGill University and Cornell University.

Mr. Howell currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer for the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC) a non-profit organization that supports the military in their medical R&D initiatives. In this role, he works closely with the military to identify medical research needs and oversees the solicitation and award process to satisfy these needs within combat trauma; infectious diseases; operational medicine; clinical and rehabilitative medicine; and medical informatics, modeling, and training simulations. He further supports outreach activities to garner emerging technology companies into the consortium and works with outside funding sources to grow the organizations funding capabilities. In prior assignments, he served 34 years in the Department of the Army with the vast majority within the medical care, research and material missions. He served as the senior Acquisition Office for the Army Medical Department and held various positions of project management significance. He holds a BA in History from Furman University, a MS in Logistics Management from the Florida Institute of Technology, and a MS in Strategic Resource Management from the Industrial Collage of the Armed Forces.

Bevan Emma Huang, PhD, is the Director of Data Sciences External Innovation at the California Innovation Center, where she sources, evaluates, and facilitates external partnering opportunities in data sciences across all sectors of Johnson & Johnson. She also serves as J&J Program Co-Director of the Innovate for Health Initiative with UCSF and UC Berkeley, which aims to positively impact healthcare through cutting-edge research enabled by data science. Prior to joining J&J Innovation, she led Population Analytics in Janssen Research & Development from 2015-2018. Her group helped to develop and support precision medicine initiatives through integrating multiple data modalities such as omics, sensors, and electronic health records for risk prediction, target and biomarker discovery. From 2007-2015, Emma held positions at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Brisbane, Australia, where she received the CSIRO Julius Career Award from 2011-2014, and an Australian Research Council DECRA grant from 2012-2015. Emma received her BS in Mathematics from the California Institute of Technology, and her PhD in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she focused on development of methods for statistical genetics in population-based studies.

Jake earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Harvard University in 2003 under the mentorship of Professor David Evans. Jake then began his career in the Process Research group at Merck where he contributed to several late-stage projects. Jake also co-led the team that was responsible for the design, development, and implementation of a new manufacturing route for Januvia using a highly evolved transaminase enzyme. This work was published in Science in 2010 and was recognized by the Presidential Green Chemistry Award as well as the 2014 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award for this project. In 2011, Jake moved to Bristol-Myers Squibb where he leads a Chemical Process Development Technology Group, which endeavors to discover and optimize manufacturing routes using robotics, machine learning, HTE crystallization/solubility, chemocatalysis, and biocatalysis. Recently his team’s work, in collaboration with Princeton University, reported in Nature a new Bayesian Optimization software package for mixed data type which significantly reduces the number of experiments required to optimize complex chemical reactions. In addition, Jake co-lead the development of a BMS scientific search and knowledge management platform and is working with leading technology companies for next-generation data stewardship and knowledge management NLP/NLU capabilities https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-janey-4aa7613 and Twitter @Phlogiston1

Faisal M. Khan, Ph.D. His team focuses on the applications of AI and data science throughout the drug discovery lifecycle, from target identification through Phase 3 trials and beyond. His interests focus on the intersections of data science, biostatistics, bioimaging, personalized medicine, and healthcare delivery. His career has encompassed all aspects of healthcare and biomedical analytics, including diagnostics, devices, clinical trials/therapeutics, and payers/insurance. Dr. Khan has worked or consulted across academia and industry with both startups and Fortune-50 companies. He has over 90 published papers, abstracts, and patents

As a product leader and a strategist for more than a decade, Chandi has helped more than 60 pharma and biotech companies harness the power of data to better manage clinical trial complexity. Before joining Takeda, Chandi helped build clinical and operational analytics platforms for a number of pharmaceutical companies, CROs and technology vendors. At Takeda, he is responsible for Product Strategy for Medical & Development Systems and developing new innovations to support Takeda R&D. Chandi holds a Master’s of Science in Computer Science from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Isaac Kohane, MD, PhD is the inaugural Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics and the Marion V. Nelson Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School. He develops and applies computational techniques to address disease at multiple scales—from whole healthcare systems as “living laboratories” to the functional genomics of neurodevelopment with a focus on autism. Kohane’s i2b2 project is currently deployed internationally to over 120 major academic health centers to drive discovery research in disease and pharmacovigilance (including providing evidence on drugs which ultimately contributed to “boxed warning” by the FDA). Dr. Kohane has published several hundred papers in the medical literature and authored a widely-used book on Microarrays for an Integrative Genomics. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Emily Kunka is a Digital Transformation Project Lead at UCB, based in San Francisco, CA. In her role, Emily leads projects that help solve some of the most interesting, innovative, and pressing issues which must be addressed to deliver the promising future of digitally transformed healthcare through high-quality digital products and solutions. Joining the organization in 2020, and utilizing her deep knowledge of digital design, strategy, and product and project management, Emily is a leader, influencer, and change agent within UCB. Emily translates patient and caregiver needs into an achievable digital vision and roadmap that will improve patient experiences and outcomes by bringing transformational projects to life. Prior to UCB she worked at Science 37, at the forefront of virtualizing trial design and democratizing trial access by putting patients first. As a thought leader in the Decentralized Clinical Trial (DCT) and hybrid trial models, she designed and implemented trials which could be conducted within the patient’s home using telemedicine and in-home nursing. Emily wholeheartedly believes that the future of healthcare delivery will no longer be confined to the four walls of a doctor’s office and is convinced that emerging technologies, real world data, and connected health can (and will) provide insights that will allow us to better predict, diagnose, and manage diseases, ultimately improving patient outcomes. Emily received a Master of Science in Clinical Research from Northwestern University but considers herself a lifelong learner. Her specific interests include human-centered design, in silico medicine (particularly implementing AI using digital twins), immersive learning experiences like augmented reality and virtual reality, domotics, and the internet of things.

Dr. Jin Lee is the Director of Digital Health Product/Commercial Strategy at Astellas pharma. She was formerly at the innovation centers and venture arms of Humana, 4th largest health insurance company, and Providence St. Joseph Health, 3rd largest nonprofit hospital system, focused on series A & B digital health investments and pilots. Dr. Lee also co-founded and worked in multiple startups in maternal/child health, radiology, and education. Based in San Francisco, she advises multiple digital health startups and accelerator programs. Dr. Lee received her Ph.D. in neuropsychology from the University of Oxford and BA in biology and neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Nimita Limaye leads the Life Sciences R&D Strategy and Technology program at IDC, providing research-based advisory and consulting services, as well as market analysis. She is passionate about the interplay of AI, data, technology and analytics in transforming drug development. She is an executive business leader with over two decades of life sciences leadership experience working across the pharma / CRO / life sciences-tech consulting industry. She has served as a mentor for start-ups on the Mass Bio Digital Health initiative, has served as the past chair of SCDM and is actively associated with the DIA. She was the recipient of the DIA Inspire award in 2024. She has chaired several conferences, led industry roundtables, given keynote talks, led panel discussions and has authored over 40 publications / white papers, several focused on topics such as the role of AI/GenAI in drug discovery and development, decentralized clinical trials, 'patient-centricity', predictive analytics and RBQM.

Jeffrey is a Principal at Novo Ventures where he leads investments in next generation life sciences and technology companies with a target initial investment size of $40M to $200M. He serves as a board observer on Exscientia. He joined Novo Growth from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) where he established the firm's therapeutics practice and began his interest as an active investor at the intersection of life sciences, healthcare, and technology. He led a16z's Series A investment in Erasca and completed investments in Accolade (ACCD), Alpha Health, Bayesian Health, BioAge Labs, CAMP4 Therapeutics, Ciitzen, Devoted Health, Elegen, Genesis Therapeutics, Incredible Health, Insitro, Jungla (acquired by Invitae), Octant Bio, The One Health Company, and TwoXAR. He served as a board observer for Freenome, PatientPing, Omada Health, Apeel Sciences, Cardiogram, Rigetti Computing, BioAge Labs, and Asimov. Jeffrey received an MD from Yale School of Medicine, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and an AB in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Harvard. He was named to Forbes 30 under 30 in Venture Capital in 2019.

Brian joined AbbVie in 2018 as the head of the newly formed RAIDERS team within Research & Development’s Information Research division, focused on accelerating, scaling, and amplifying the work of AbbVie’s R&D community using Artificial Intelligence technologies like machine learning, deep learning, graph computation, and cognitive computing. Brian is a part of the leadership team building and directing the AbbVie R&D Convergence Hub (ARCH) as part of the R&D Convergence initiative and a member of the ACOS Scientific Innovation Council. Brian came to AbbVie after spending five years in technology consulting across many industries, and over a decade of additional experience before that working in trading and financial markets technology. During his consulting time, Brian was the architect of the United States’ Common Securitization Platform and the technology founder of Publicis.Sapient’s AI practice. While his primary focus is AI technologies, he was also a co-founder of the QuPharm quantum computing community and the Pistoia/QED-C Quantum Community of Interest. He is a frequent presenter at conferences on topics as diverse as optical networking, quantum computing, blockchain, cognitive architecture, and other emerging technologies that are all part of digital transformation. Brian holds a B.S. degree in Computer and Cognitive Science from Alma College and a M.S in Computer Science from the University of Chicago. He is a board member for the Chicago Innovative Executives League and for the Mundelein High School Business Incubator program. He has been involved with the Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School and as a panelist/reviewer for the National Science Foundation Secure and Trusted Cyberspace grant division. Brian lives in Lake Bluff, Illinois with his wife and four children.

Haven Nichols is the Director of Partnerships for MassChallenge’s HealthTech and FinTech Programs. In this role, Haven is focused on setting the standard for accelerators removing barriers to innovation and delivering value to partners. Prior to MassChallenge, Haven held positions in the public and private sectors advising leadership on policy, legislative and external affairs, corporate governance, marketing, and partnerships.

Raj Nimmagadda is Global Head R&D Data Office at Sanofi, leading the establishment of data strategy and data governance framework, data policies, and procedures. Prior to this she worked at Novartis where she was responsible for Central Operational Services in leading data strategy and implementation of transformative solutions in R&D. She brings a wealth of experience in Data Strategy and Data Governance. Prior to this role, Raj spent several years at BioClinica (Formerly Core Lab Partners Inc.) and J&J in leadership roles of increasing responsibility in Clinical technology, Clinical data management and Submissions. She holds an MBA in Strategy and Leadership (NYU Stern School of Business) and Masters in Computers (Osmania university).

Reza is a systems and data scientist with over 25 years of experience in machine learning and its applications in life sciences, finance, and technology. He is currently the global head of AI and Deep Analytics (AIDA) at Sanofi R&D managing a team of data scientists and life scientists with diverse backgrounds in the US, France, and Germany. Reza received his Ph.D. and S.M. degrees from MIT in 2001, and 1997, respectively, and completed his postdoctoral studies at Caltech. He was an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth College (2005-2012) and left Academia to pursue his entrepreneurial passions in AI. He was a Sr. Data Scientist III at AbbVie (2014-2017) working on biologics drug design using deep learning. He has also served as the Chief AI Scientist of EY’s advanced technology lab with hubs in Cambridge, MA and London. He is the recipient of the 2010 PECASE award from President Obama at the White House for his pioneering role in distributed decision-making and effective consensus and cooperation in large networks of entities. His inventions form the foundations of autonomous transportation technology with self-driving vehicles and privacy-conscious distributed learning and computing.

Lauren Palestrini, Ph.D., is the Director of Research at MTEC, where she serves as the lead technology officer within the medical product development activities, oversees the development of technology solutions that will meet industry commercialization targets, conducts initial technology assessments, and maintains adequate coverage of military clinical needs. Dr. Palestrini is also working on generating external funding streams through fundraising. Dr. Palestrini earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University, and a Doctoral Degree in Biomedical Engineering from Stony Brook University. Her graduate work focused on the development of a biodegradable, electrospun fiber mat for the topical delivery of a novel fibronectin-derived peptide for the limitation of burn injury progression. Until recently, she served as the Director of Research at the New Jersey Center for Biomaterials at Rutgers University where she managed a cross-disciplinary set of research projects in support of the Department of Defense-funded Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) cooperative agreement within regenerative medicine. In addition, her prior experience includes process development at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, research and development at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, and human resources at Deutsche Bank.

As the Executive Director of the American Board of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (ABAIM), Mijanou Pham works with a team of clinicians and data scientists to educate stakeholders in the domain of artificial intelligence in clinical medicine and healthcare. She is responsible for producing multiple virtual learning events every week, and operating the ABAIM's online Educational Certification platform. (abaim.org) Mijanou also serves as Director of Business Development & Marketing for Medical Intelligence 10 (MI10), a group of healthcare AI strategy and education advisors. In this role she works with hospital and health system leaders, healthcare educators and administrators, and AI company executives and investors to implement effective and ethical AI strategies. (mi10.ai) Mijanou has over 10 years of experience producing events for clients in the healthcare, nonprofit, and corporate sectors. She has overseen a number of different medical conferences including AIMed, a series of events focused on AI in medicine, and PEDS 2040, a conference dedicated to pediatric innovation for the International Society of Pediatric Innovation (iSPI).

Mali Poorfarhani has been with Bayer Pharma for 16 years and currently is the director of global Digital Health sourcing. This role spans from technology scouting to data acquisition, building digital health supply chain and periodic performance evaluation in Bayer. Mali holds Masters of Science in System Engineering from University of Maryland, Leadership and negotiation certificate from Carnegie Mellon and AI in Healthcare certificate from MIT. Mali throughout her career at Bayer, design and implemented multi-disciplinary complex software and hardware system applications deployed in healthcare environment. Her current focus is to enable the Digital Health solution businesses across Bayer Pharma by scouting external partnerships.

Uzair Rashid serves as Head of New Product Development at Cardinal Health (Biopharma Solutions), where he focuses on exploring and commercializing new offerings that improve market share, the customer experience, brand value, the healthcare ecosystem, operational excellence, and P&L impact. Prior, Uzair served as Director of Innovation at BCBSMA where he generated incremental and transformative innovations that were aimed at delighting members and consumers. Previously, Uzair led Healthcare Strategy and Innovation at CVS Health where he implemented programs that re-imagined care delivery, payor solutions, finance transformation, and future-proofing technology initiatives. Early career, Uzair ran a boutique tech consultancy group and served as a Managing Principal at a Fortune 200 Technology Service Firm.

Bill Reichert is a Partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures, focusing on deep technology investments, including quantum computing, next-generation chips, and AI. He is also Chief Evangelist of Startup World Cup, the largest and richest venture capital competition on the planet, with over $1.5 million in cash prizes, including a $1 million grand prize. Bill is co-author of the pitching guide, “Getting to Wow! Silicon Valley Pitch Secrets for Entrepreneurs.” He has been a venture capital investor for 20 years, originally as co-founder and Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, a seed and early-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. He has taught at Stanford and Berkeley, and has delivered keynotes and workshops around the world. He began his Silicon Valley career as an entrepreneur, taking two companies public as co-founder or senior executive. Early in his career he worked for McKinsey & Company, the global management consulting firm, in Los Angeles, and the World Bank in Washington, DC. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. You can contact Bill at bill@pegasusventures.com

Caitlin Reimers Brumme is the Senior Vice President of MassChallenge Boston. Prior to MassChallenge, Caitlin led the Impact Collaboratory at the Harvard Business School, a multi-faceted effort to develop world class academic leadership on the topic of “Investing in the 21st Century” including sustainable, ESG and impact investing. Caitlin holds an MBA with high distinction from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar, and a B.A. with honors from The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Michael Ringel is a Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG, and the Global Topic Leader for Innovation Analytics. He is a frequent author and speaker on R&D and innovation analytics topics. His TED talk on innovation can be viewed at TED.com. Prior to BCG, Michael worked in academia, pursuing research in theoretical population dynamics and conducting field experiments in the Amazon basin near Manaus, Brazil. Michael holds a B.A. summa cum laude in biology from Princeton, a Ph.D. in biology from Imperial College, and a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School. He sits on the Board of the ATOM Consortium, a public-private partnership with a mission of transforming drug development using advanced analytics.

Leo brings a practical perspective on how technology can be used for our patients to improve their lives. His background in computer science, business knowledge and global experience adds value on how we can build complex solutions in digital health. He believes in communication and good partnerships as key factors for innovation success and is an early adopter of new technologies, currently developing his Machine Learning capabilities. Currently he is developing an AI strategy over emerging markets at AstraZeneca and across many of our projects, to grow AI capability. Supporting International Region in maturing the approach to Artificial Intelligence via upskilling business & IT teams on AI; helping create and pilot AI capabilities; maintaining inventory of AI needs and partners/solutions; measuring success, risk and scale up of AI capabilities across the region. At AstraZeneca Brazil he is leading the AI Medicine & Imaging initiatives with startups and key partners, and is also searching for trends that will cause real impact in the way we care for health.

Enrico Santus is a senior data scientist at Bayer. After obtaining his PhD at the Chinese and Bilingual Studies department of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, he worked in several academic institutions, including CSAIL (MIT), in the group of Regina Barzilay. Enrico has published over 50 papers on topics related to the application of Artificial Intelligence to Precision Medicine, Epidemiology, Oncology and Cardiology. His work includes research on natural language processing approaches for the automatic fake news detection and sentiment analysis. Enrico collaborated to the creation of The Prayer (artist: Diemut Strebe), a mouth-shaped robot which produces original prayers and that was exposed at the Centre Pompidou of Paris. He is the first author of a fact sheet about Artificial Intelligence for the American Congress (https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/technology-factsheet-artificial-intelligence) and, in 2019, he was invited speaker at the Record Management Office of the White House. Claim to fame: From art to science, from politics to healthcare, Enrico has shown how natural language processing and machine learning will be impacting our lives in the years to come.

After four years in management consulting at Roland Berger, Arthur built two investor-funded startups: one in 3D printing, and one in mobile messaging. Arthur holds an MS in Maths and Physics from Ponts et Chaussees, and an M.Eng. from Cambridge University. He had 3 knee surgeries in his 20s and had to go through 18 months of cumulated physical therapy. He knows how difficult it is to comply with the rehab protocol and wants to improve the process.

Tatiana is a Solutions Director for Data Science & AI at Novartis. She is a data science evangelist, a former entrepreneur and a digital transformation leader in healthcare. At Novartis, Tatiana has held various leadership roles in data science, ranging from early drug discovery innovation to commercial analytics and patient personalization. Prior to Novartis, Tatiana founded Parceed, an AI assistant to medical students, and led data science at Prognos, the largest lab data aggregator in the United States. Tatiana is a public speaker on data & digital and an educator. She is an Adjunct Professor of AI in Marketing at Rutgers Business School and an Associate Instructor of Data Analytics at Brainstation. Tatiana also serves on the Board of Directors of Pharmaceutical Management Science Association (PMSA). She holds Master of Science degree from Columbia Business School and Bachelor of Science from Moscow State University.

Prior to joining Accenture, Mike was VP & CIO, R&D IT at Merck, where he had global responsibility for IT and informatics in support of Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) from discovery, through clinical, regulatory, safety and RWE. At Merck, Mike led a broad ranging 5 year strategy and talent planning initiative driving thought leadership on pre-competitive business models. Prior to Merck, he led scientific businesses serving the pharmaceutical, biotech and research industries. 

Lisa Suennen is the leader of Manatt Digital and Technology and the firm’s venture capital / emerging companies practice. With more than 30 years’ experience as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, board member and strategic advisor, she has focused broadly on new technologies and how they are transforming businesses. She has spent much of her career helping companies adopt and leverage digital technologies, develop strategies for growth through innovation and investment, and build strong collaborations between established players and entrepreneurs. Lisa heads the firm’s digital and technology businesses as well as the firm’s venture capital fund. She also works closely with Manatt Health, engaging with payers, health systems and companies to provide strategic advice on innovation, digital strategy and growth. Lisa serves as managing partner of Venture Valkyrie LLC, an advisory firm focused on helping healthcare organizations adopt venture capital and innovation programs and develop new business creation models and digital health strategies. Lisa spent the past 20 years as a venture capitalist, first as a partner with Psilos Group, then leading the healthcare fund at GE Ventures. Prior to that, she was part of the leadership team that built Merit Behavioral Care, an $800 million behavioral healthcare company, guiding it through its successful IPO and exit. Her earlier career focused on product management and marketing in the technology sector. Lisa currently serves on several private company boards and chairs the advisory board of the NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health. She is also on the faculty at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, and is cofounder of CSweetener, which matches women in and nearing the healthcare C-suite with mentors. Additionally, Lisa writes the Venture Valkyrie blog and hosts the Tech Tonics podcast. Education University of California, Berkeley, M.A., Political Science University of California, Berkeley, B.A., Political Science, summa cum laude University of California, Berkeley, B.A., Mass Communications, summa cum laude

Michael Townsend is a Research Director for IDC Health Insights responsible for Commercial Life Sciences Strategies. He provides research-based advisory and consulting services, as well as market analysis on key topics within the commercial life science industry. Mr. Townsend's research expertise includes sales and marketing, supply chain, manufacturing systems, and emerging technologies and market trends. Mr. Townsend brings 20+ years of engineering and operational management experience at manufacturers serving the Life Sciences industry including Carl Zeiss, Ametek, and Danaher. He served as President and CEO of Dover Instrument Corporation prior to and including its merger with Danaher Corporation. He has been involved in the specification, design and operation of ERP and CRM systems in various management roles. Mr. Townsend holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from the University of Connecticut including post-graduate work at Babson College.

Hong Truong is a senior program investment officer for the CHCF Health Innovation Fund, where she makes mission-driven investments in health care information technology and tech-enabled service businesses, and leads CHCF’s grant portfolio on data exchange and interoperability. Prior to joining CHCF, Hong was an investor for multiple health care corporate funds, including Summation Health Ventures, the venture capital arm of Cedars-Sinai and MemorialCare Health Systems, and Kaiser Permanente Ventures. Hong holds bachelor’s degrees in human biology and international relations from Brown University, and a master’s degree in public health from Yale University.

Özgür is currently an Investment Partner with Ascension Ventures’ Life Fund and the CEO & Executive Director of a UK biotechnology firm called Stablepharma. He has over two decades of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry with deep expertise in executive leadership, strategy, M&A and investments. Most recently, he was Global Vice President in IQVIA, leading company’s Financial Investors practice. In that role, Özgür was involved in more than 300 industry-shaping transactions with valuations of $100m-10bn+, working with world’s leading Private Equity & Venture Capital investors. More recently, as the co-founder of the Ascension Life Fund, he is involved at board-level in early stage healthcare and life sciences technology companies in the UK. Prior to IQVIA, Özgür spent over 6 years in USA working for Pfizer in New York and Pharmacia in New Jersey before moving into management consultancy. He was the founding Managing Partner of SARGA Associates, a boutique advisory firm with offices in New Jersey, USA and London, UK. Özgür has lived and worked in the UK, USA, France and Turkey. He holds an MSc in Management Sciences from the London School of Economics and a BSc in Business Administration from the Middle East Technical University (Turkey).

Master's in Applied Statistics, Master's in Experimental Psychology with a concentration in Behavioral Neuroscience, Ph.D. candidate in Systems Engineering

Chris is an entrepreneur turned investor and has 10+ years of experience in the early stage investment market. He has completed over 140 transactions during his career and has run funds for both Ascension Ventures and Angels Den. He is the Investment Director for the Ascension Life Fund, an early stage HealthTech and Life Sciences fund. He also manages the Ascension Syndicate Club, an investment group built on the Ascension Ventures network.

Gordon is the CEO and Co-Founder of Rain Neuromorphics, a startup building brain-inspired microchips for artificial intelligence. Gordon studied public policy at Duke University, and mathematics at the University of Florida. Before working at Rain, Gordon had a short career working in electoral politics in the state of Florida. Gordon lives in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco, and enjoys cooking, weightlifting, and staying curious about the world.

As a Partner at Echo Health Ventures in Boston, Jessica A. Zeaske, PhD, MHS, MBA, identifies and invests in emerging and growth stage companies for Echo. She is a seasoned venture capitalist and board leader having worked at independent, corporate, and university funds and written dozens of investment themes over the years. She previously served as Director of Healthcare Investments at GE Ventures where she invested in precision health companies. Jessica came to GE Ventures from Lemhi Ventures, a fund investing in health care services with a focus on market disruption. Prior to joining Lemhi, Jessica worked on forming and spinning out MedTech and Life Science companies based on University intellectual property at U of Minnesota and Oregon Health & Science University. Jessica began her career writing software for a start-up health care delivery company. She then moved to a merchant bank, Greenspring Advisors, where they launched and invested in data-driven health care start-up companies. Jessica received an undergraduate degree with honors from Stanford University, graduated from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health with a Master of Health Science and PhD, and completed her MBA with a focus on Healthcare Administration at Regis University. Jessica currently serves on the Boards of Avalon Healthcare Services, Genome Medical and Wildflower Health and is a Board Observer at Abacus Insights. Her previous Board of Director experience includes Apervita, Arcadia.io, PlanSource, OneHealth, PokitDok, Orasi Medical, Medication Management Solutions, plus significant work at Bind On-Demand Health Insurance. Jessica also serves on the Board of DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement, is a Trustee for Boston Medical Center's Exceptional Care Without Exception Trust, is an Advisory Board member for Boston Children's Hospital, and is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Jingqing is the Head of AI at Pangaea Data Limited. He received his BEng degree in Computer Science and Technology from Tsinghua University, 2016, and MRes degree with distinction in Computing from Imperial College London, 2017. He was awarded National Scholarship of China (top 1%) in 2015. He is the founder and main contributor of some popular deep learning tools including TensorLayer 2.0 and PEGASUS. His projects receive over 8,000 stars on GitHub. Jingqing is also the final year PhD student at Imperial College London with research interest in clinical natural language processing and was a research intern at Google Brain prior to Pangaea.