Jean-Dominique Vassalli, former Rector of the University of Geneva, is a Swiss scientist and physician. After obtaining a Swiss Federal Diploma of Medicine at the University of Geneva in 1972, he earned a PhD degree from The Rockefeller University, New York, in 1977 and a Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Geneva in 1984. In 1986, he became professor of developmental biology in the Faculty of Medicine. His laboratory was involved in studies on extracellular proteolysis in mammalian embryogenesis, inflammation and neuronal function, and on translational control of gene expression in gametogenesis. From 1991 to 1999, he was Vice-Dean of the Faculty of medicine, then Vice-Rector of the University of Geneva until 2003. From 2003 to 2007 he was President of Basic Medical Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine. He was appointed Rector of the University of Geneva in 2007, and ended his second term in 2015. He is a recipient of the Cloëtta Prize (1988), of the International Society for Fibrinolysis and Thrombolysis Prize (1994) and an ad personam member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (2001). Since 2011, he is president of the Brocher Foundation, which encourages multidisciplinary research in the ethical, legal and social implications of the development of medical research and biotechnologies. Jean-Dominique is Professor emeritus of the Faculty of Medicine.

Robin Offord taught and researched at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, U.K. from 1962-1980, collaborating with, among others, the Nobel Prize winners Frederick Sanger, César Milstein, Dorothy Hodgkin and Aaron Klug. In 1980 he became a Departmental Director at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, and later served as President of the School of Basic Medicine there. Robin became an Emeritus Professor in October 2005. He was a co-founder of the Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics. He served for ten years as a member of the Geneva government’s Council for Regional Economic Development. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies (Port St Lucie, Florida and San Diego) and is the first non-US President of the American Peptide Society. Robin Offord shared the 2002 “Man of the Year, Switzerland” award of the Swiss financial newspaper L’agefi and in 2005 received the American Peptide Society’s Makineni Award. Robin serves as a board member and is Chairman of the Advisory Board of Eclosion

Emanuela Dose-Sarfatis qualified as an attorney. She managed the legal department of a private bank in Lausanne and was a member of her local council before joining Geneva cantonal council in 1994. Emanuela is a member of the directorate general for economic affairs within the department of regional, economic and health affairs, delegated by the cantonal counsel to the boards of the Fondation d’Aide aux Entreprises, the Coopérative Romande de Cautionnement en Faveur des PME, the Fondation Genevoise pour l’Innovation Technologique, and Eclosion SA. She also advises the Conseil de Surveillance du Marché de l’Emploi, the Commission Tripartite Préavisant les Demandes d’Autorisations de Travail, the Conseil Interprofessionnel pour la Formation, and the Conseil de Fondation de l’Ecole Internationale de Genève.

Monica Malcarne is currently the Site Lead for Covance Central Laboratory and Director of Sample & Archive Services, servicing all clinical trials for Central and Early Development laboratories based in the US and in Europe. Her responsibilities included Laboratory Pre/Post-Analytical Sample Management, BioRepository Services and Archive Services. She joined SciCor (now Covance) in 1995 as Investigator Services Administrator before moving to a Project Manager role, executing Study Design, Coordination and Management for key accounts.  In 2002 she moved into leadership roles starting with Team Manager in Geneva and Indianapolis where she relocated in 2004. In 2006 she ensured the General Management of our operations in Shanghai, China and then in Zeist, the Netherlands were she transferred until end of 2007. Relocating in Geneva in 2008 she accepted the role of Director of Global Laboratory Support Services before taking the role of Director of Global Sample Services. As the Site Lead of the Geneva site, Monica enabled opportunities and initiatives in a sustainable way while cultivating an inclusive approach, such as events for the employees by the employees in the sport, health and wellness areas, corporate social responsibility and communication. Monica holds a Master of Art degree in Social and Political Sciences from Lausanne University, Switzerland.

François Conquet defended his PhD in 1991, at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, in the lab of François Jacob. Then, he did his Post-doc at Genentech in the US. After that, he joined the GSK Research Institute of Geneva where he worked as a scientist in CNS research until 2001. His main field of interest was to validate metabotropic Glutamate receptors for CNS diseases. Then, he left GSK to found Addex Pharmaceuticals in Geneva, where he stayed CEO until 2005. Addex is a Biotech company dedicated to the discovery of novel treatments for CNS diseases and particularly focused on the development of mGluR5 antagonists. In 2005, he worked as an acting CEO for a VC firm in three different French Biotechs, before joining Merck Serono in September 2006 as Director, Early Stage Licensing, where he managed the in-licensing of several novel preclinical programs. François is the author of more than 40 peer reviewed scientific articles and inventor in 2 patents.

Antoine Geissbuhler is a Professor of Medicine, Chairman of the Department of Radiology and Medical Informatics at Geneva University, Director of the Division of eHealth and Telemedicine at Geneva University Hospitals. He is also President of the Health-On-the-Net Foundation, Past-President of the International Medical Informatics Association, and Fellow of the American College of Medical Informaticians. His research focuses on the development of innovative, knowledge-enabled information systems and computer-based tools for improving the quality, safety and efficiency of care processes, and on the evaluation of their impact on health outcomes, at the local level of the largest hospital in Switzerland, in the regional patient-centered health information system, at the global level with the Health-On-the-Net Foundation, as director of the WHO collaborating center for eHealth, and as director of the RAFT network, an extensive South-South telemedicine network linking hundreds of hospitals in 20+ developing countries (http://raft.network).

Ernest holds MD, PhD degrees, with a specialization in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from Louvain University, Belgium. He was a research fellow at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in the US and is the author of over 90 publications in peer-reviewed journals. After a brief academic career at Louvain University Hospital, he joined Serono as Head of Clinical Development for Reproductive Health (Geneva and Boston). He contributed actively to the worldwide registration of three important biotechnology products. In 2003, Ernest joined Ipsen in Paris as Vice President, Medical Sciences. In 2006, Ernest co-founded PregLem, a Swiss based specialty biopharmaceutical company. As CEO, he led the company up to the successful European registration of Esmya®, its lead product. The company was acquired by Gedeon Richter Plc. in 2010.

In 2012, Ernest co-founded ObsEva and since then has served as the CEO of the company. Ernest was a visiting Professor of Reproductive Endocrinology at Louvain University, Brussels from 2002 to 2010, where he held a full time clinical and academic position until 1991.

François Naef joined Waypoint as Group General Counsel and a Member of the Board of Directors in 2014. His responsibility also includes Waypoint’s Human Resources. Prior to joining, François was Group General Counsel, Head of Legal, Compliance and Internal Auditing of Merck as well as the Chairman of their Swiss board.

François joined Merck following its acquisition of Serono in 2007 and was Chief Administration Officer and Head of Human Resources, Legal and Communications of Merck Serono from 2007 until 2009. Previously he was General Manager of Serono International S.A, the Geneva based operations of Serono, having held many positions in the company since joining in 1988, including as head of HR, Legal and Communications.

Before Serono, François Naef was an attorney in Geneva. He was the Chairman of the Geneva Chamber of Commerce from 2008 to 2012.

Julien Storaï has done all his carrier in Biotech and Pharma Manufacturing. He holds an MSc of Biochemistry Engineer combined with an MSc of Industrial Microbiology. Between 2004 and 2007 he gained a PhD in Industrial Microbiology following a collaboration between CNRS and Sanofi-Pasteur. He joined OM Pharma in 2008 (fully integrated within Vifor Pharma since 2009) as Head of Fermentation Unit and progressively took growing responsibilities in Industrial Operations. Since 2016, Julien is the Site Manager of Geneva Site leading around 200 people.

Beyond a solid Biotech Background, Julien is also Black Belt Certified and was in charge to deploy Operational Excellence on Geneva Site and beyond within Vifor Pharma over the last years.