Programme

Company Group Chairman, Medical Devices & Diagnostics, EMEA – Chairman of the Eucomed Board of Directors

Guy J. Lebeau, M.D., Company Group Chairman, Johnson & Johnson oversees the Medical Devices & Diagnostics (MD&D) business for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). In addition to his leadership role with the company, he also serves as the Chairman of Eucomed, Europe’s medical technology industry trade association.

Dr. Lebeau has broad international experience in business management and medical technology. He joined Johnson & Johnson in 1991 in research & development and later moved to MD&D business units where he held positions of increased responsibility in sales, marketing and general management.

In 2001, Dr. Lebeau was named Worldwide President of Biosense Webster and several years later was appointed Company Group Chairman for the Cordis Franchise. He joined the MD&D EMEA region in 2005 as Company Group Chairman.

Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Lebeau served as Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Digestive Surgery Department (Organ Transplant Unit) at the University of Rennes (France) School of Medicine. He graduated from the University of Rennes (France) and Paris (France) and holds Master degrees in cellular biology and transplant immunology. He is also certified in general surgery and has authored journal articles and book chapters in the fields of hepathology, liver transplant and general surgery.

Iain Scott is a managing editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit, where he specialises in healthcare issues. Before joining the EIU he spent 10 years as an editor and journalist, covering the healthcare and life science sectors, in London and Australia.

Dr. Christopher Wasden is a managing director and Global Healthcare Innovation Leader at PwC. He is a named inventor on 20 issued and pending patents. He has been a leader in nine separate startups both venture and corporate backed.

He has over 25 years of executive leadership experience in public and private companies across several industries: banking (JP Morgan), energy (Koch), utilities (Azurix), and healthcare and technology startups. He works with leaders to enable their organizations to create spontaneous and continuous innovation by: 1) establishing enterprise innovation processes, structures and practices that remove barriers to innovation and creates an innovation culture, and 2) addressing significant growth challenges for clients and then helping structure and run campaigns to overcome them through innovation. He advises private equity and venture capital firms, governments, and corporate clients on strategic and commercial risks, uncertainties and opportunities associated with their growth and innovation strategies including: mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate venturing, entrepreneurial ventures, and new product and business development.

He holds a doctorate from George Washington University, and MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA, and a BS in Accounting and BA in Asian Studies from Brigham Young University

John Dalli served as a Cabinet Minister in the Maltese Government since 1987 having been first elected to the House of Representatives of Malta on behalf of the Nationalist Party in 1987. He has served as Parliamentary Secretary for Industry (1987-1990), Minister of Economic Affairs (1990-92), Minister of Finance (1992-1996, 1998-2003) Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Investment Promotion (2004). Between March 2008 and February 2010, John Dalli served as Minister for Social Policy which includes the Health, housing, employment and industrial relations portfolio.

As a qualified accountant, Dalli has also worked in the private sector in Malta and abroad, both in industry and as an independent consultant.

In February 2010 John Dalli was appointed as European Commissioner responsible for Health and Consumer Policy.

John Dalli was born on 5th October 1948. He is married and has two daughters.

Principal and Healthcare Technology Leader

Jamie Cattell is a Principal and leader of McKinsey & Company’s Global Healthcare Technology practice. He joined McKinsey in 2003 and has almost exclusively served medical devices and pharmaceutical players. Recently at McKinsey he has been leading an initiative on how ‘big data’ is impacting the healthcare industry.

Before joining McKinsey he spent 10 years in Asia and focused on technology in a broad range of sectors. His experiences included: serving as a regional CIO for a large global advertising major (WPP), based in Japan where he pioneered one of the world’s first mobile based marketing platforms; and founding a successful technology start up in Singapore.

He holds a MBA from INSEAD, and a BA in Chemistry from Oxford University.

Jens Kr. Gøtrik holds a position as managing director at Medicoindustrien – trade organization for the Danish Medical Technology Industry – since 2007.

Graduated from University of Copenhagen as medical doctor in 1972 and later qualified as orthopaedic surgeon.

Jens Kr. Gøtrik has for 20 years held leading positions in the national health care system as head of department, medical director and national chief medical officer.
Has served as chairman and member of a number of boards nationally and internationally related to health care.

Professor Brian D Smith (SDA Bocconi)

Brian D Smith is a world-recognised authority on competitive strategy in medical technology and pharmaceutical markets. He has worked in the sector for over 30 years, first as a research chemist then in an ascending series of commercial roles.

For the past 13 years, he has combined the roles of academic, author and adviser to many of the industry’s leading companies. He is Adjunct Professor at SDA Bocconi in Milan and a visiting research fellow at the Open University Business School in the UK. His research area is the creation and execution of strategy in medical markets. He is the author of over 200 papers and articles in this area and four major books, including his latest “The Future of Pharma”. As an advisor, he leads Pragmedic (www.pragmedic.com), a specialist consultancy that helps medical technology and pharmaceutical companies to identify and develop the capabilities they need to adapt to the rapidly changing business environment.

He welcomes comments and questions at brian.smith@pragmedic.com

Vicepresident of the Government of the State Basel Minister of Public Health

Since 2000, Dr. iur. Carlo Conti is member of the Government of the State Basel and Minister of Public Health. Since 2009 he is Vicepresident of the Government of the State Basel. In addition he is Chairman of the board of Directors of the SwissDRG Corp. and Vicepresident of the executive committee of the Swiss Conference of the State Ministers of Public Health.

After his studies and doctorate in jurisprudence at the University of Basel, he worked as a lawyer. Later on he was head of the legal department and Public Affairs at Hoffmann-La Roche AG, in Basel.

Laura Piccinini is the President of Stryker Europe, the largest international division of Stryker Corporation.

As President, Ms. Piccinini is responsible for a $1+ billion P&L and approximately 2000 employees across functions, including HR, Marketing, Sales, Operations, RA/QA, Public Affairs, Legal and Compliance.

An experienced senior healthcare executive with a distinguished international career, Ms. Piccinini joined Stryker in 2008 as the Vice President and General Manager of Stryker’s Orthopedics franchise for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Prior to joining Stryker, Ms. Piccinini worked for Tyco Healthcare International (Covidien) as President Surgical and Energy Based Devices for Europe, Middle East, and Africa based in Zurich, Switzerland.

Mirella Marlow, Programme Director – Devices and Diagnostic Systems, Centre for Health Technology Evaluation, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) – biographical notes

Mirella Marlow joined NICE in 2004, having previously worked for 15 years in senior roles for various payers in the English National Health Service, commissioning general acute, mental health and specialised services. She managed NICE’s Interventional Procedures Programme (assessing the safety and efficacy of novel procedures) and latterly has led the planning and development of new programmes at NICE for evaluating medical devices and diagnostics.

Mirella has an MBA and a Masters in Medical Ethics and Law from Keele University, where her interests included the ethics of measuring the cost-effectiveness of interventions to improve the safety of healthcare, and legal cases relating to healthcare rationing. She is a contributor to work with the European Network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) on integrating ethical considerations when determining the value of health technologies.

Nationality:British

Education:
1983 - 1984: Ecole Nationale d’Administration, Paris
1976 - 1979: Magdalen College, University of Oxford
1968 - 1976: Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe

Professional experience in the European Institutions:
2010 - Director-General for Information Society and Media
2004 - 2010: Director-General for Health and Consumer Protection
1997 - 2003: Director in DG Trade
1993 - 1997: Member, then Deputy Head, of Cabinet to Sir Leon (now Lord) Brittan, Vice-President European Commission.
1979-1992: British Civil Service, serving mainly in London and Brussels

Vladimir Makatsaria is the President of Johnson & Johnson EMEA with responsibility for Ethicon, a leading provider of surgical products and solutions, as well as the Medical Device & Diagnostics (MD&D) businesses in the Emerging Markets.

Mr. Makatsaria began his career at Johnson & Johnson in 1996 and has since held various positions within MD&D business, including Managing Director of Russia, Vice President of Eastern Europe, and Vice President of Strategic Affairs for EMEA. He is a seasoned senior leader with a proven track record of growth, execution and talent development.

Born in Moscow, Russia, Vladimir received a Bachelor of Arts degree in physiology, an MBA in strategic management and a Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration from University of Minnesota.

John F P Bridges is Assistant Professor and Director of the Masters of Health Science in Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy & Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), New York, and a Visiting Professor, Department Health Technology and Services Research, University of Twente, The Netherlands, and has held appointments within the schools of medicine at Case Western Reserve University (2002-4) and the University of Heidelberg, Germany (2004-6).

Dr. Bridges is the founding of editor of The Patient – Patient Centered Outcomes Research, the first medical journal to take the patient’s perspective, and serves on the editorial boards of six other comparative effectiveness journals. Currently, he chairs the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research’s (ISPOR) Patient Preferences Methods – Conjoint Analysis Working Group and was the Chair of the Good Research Practices for Conjoint Analysis in Health Taskforce. In 2006 he received the ISPOR Bernie O’Brien New Investigator Award and in 2011 received an ISPOR Distinguished Service Award.

Dr. Bridges conducts comparative effectiveness research on a variety of medical and public health topics, focusing specifically on the patient’s preference over treatments and outcomes. A critic of cost-effectiveness methods, he advocates for the use of stated preferences methods such as conjoint analysis to identify, measure and value health outcomes directly from the patients. His recent applications include women’s preferences for cancer screening, preferences of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, the demand for preventative services in developing countries and preferences for assistive devices such as hearing aids. He has authored some 60 articles applying comparative effectiveness research to these topics, as well as quality of care, patient empowerment and health care system reform.

Vice President and General Manager, Respiratory and Monitoring Solutions, EMEA – Member of the Eucomed Board of Directors

Roland Pfleger, is an Austrian national and holds a ‘best honours’ degree in Economics, from Vienna University (1986), majoring in Advertising, Market Research and Controlling. He is fully bilingual in German and English, and also has a fair knowledge of Portuguese.

Pfleger has worked for leading healthcare companies including Eli Lilly, Boston Scientific and currently with Covidien. He worked for Eli Lilly in various roles between 1988 and 1997 as a financial analyst; a Business Development Manager in the Pharmaceutical Division for Eastern Europe; and as the General Manager of Lilly Portugal and later became the Controller for Lilly in Germany. In August of 1997, Roland joined Boston Scientific, where he became the CEO of Schneider Europe following the acquisition by Boston Scientific from Pfeizer. He was Director for Strategic Planning before joining Boston Scientific as the General Manager of Germany.

Pfleger joined Covidien (formerly Tyco Healthcare) in August 2003 and was General Manager of Germany. He currently serves as the Vice President and General Manager, in EMEA for Respiratory and Monitoring Solutions.

Anne-Kirstine Dyrvig is MSc. in Public Health from the University of Southern Denmark. She is recently enrolled as ph.d. student at Odense University Hospital and University of Southern Denmark within the field of HTA and telemedicine with special focus on transferability of results across countries.

Since 2008, Ms Dyrvig has been employed in the Quality & Research/Health Technology Assessment department at Odense University Hospital & Svendborg Hospital (OUH), where she is part of the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) team. The HTA team supports the clinical departments in writing and completing mini-HTAs that are a standard tool at OUH prior to the purchase and implementation of new devices etc. The HTA team and their services are also in high demand from external organisations, which means that the team holds a leading position in not just the Region of Southern Denmark, which is the regional health authority, but also at a national level. Ms Dyrvig is a central part of the team and has worked extensively with completion of full HTA reports as well as teaching and support for the hospital departments in their work with mini-HTAs. Also, she is frequently used as a teacher in courses on systematic literature review, HTA and mini-HTA by many other organisations than OUH.

Her work not only extends to Denmark, but given her broad HTA experience, Ms Dyrvig competences are sought internationally as well. Ms Dyrvig teaches mini-HTA to other European health organisations and she plays a main role in the evaluation of telemedicine services in an ongoing EU project called RENEWING HEALTH (CIP PSP Pilot A), which involves 9 European regions and 26 different telemedicine services, where Ms Dyrvig tasks involve evaluating the effectiveness of the different telemedicine solutions in a telemedicine-adapted HTA framework based on prospective data collection.

Jacqueline Minor
Director Consumer Affairs, European Commission DG SANCO

A lawyer by training, Jacqueline Minor began her career in the European Institutions at the Court of Justice in 1984. She moved to the Commission three years later to work on the recognition of diplomas and later enjoyed a second spell at the Court working as referendaire to the British judges Gordon Slynn and David Edward.

Returning to the Commission in 1992, she spent 16 years in the Directorate-General responsible for the internal market, heading, successively, the units responsible for the regulated professions, policy co-ordination and resources. A director since 2003, she has been responsible for the knowledge economy (including intellectual and industrial property regulation) and for horizontal policy development, participating for example on the Commission’s Single Market Review in 2007.
On 1 April 2008, Jacqueline Minor became the Director for consumer policy.

The Directorate deals with the integration of consumers' concerns into other areas of the Commission's work, consumer credit, cosmetics and medical devices, product safety and cross-border co-operation in solving consumers' problems and protecting their interests. It is also responsible for monitoring of consumer markets and produces the Consumers' Scoreboard.

Catherine Mazzacco joined Abbott France in 1989 as a Sales Representative for the Abbott Diagnostics Division. In 1996 she was named Product Manager, Hospital Products Division, and in 1999 she progressed her career as Group Product Manager. In 2002 Catherine was appointed as Business Unit Manager, Immunology, Abbott France and in 2006 she was promoted to General Manager, Humira, Abbott International, in France. In April 2008 Catherine joined Abbott Diabetes Care as Divisional Vice President, Western Europe Canada – this Area was restructured at the end of 2009 to become Canada, Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA). Starting July 1st 2011 Catherine was appointed Vice President, Abbott Medical Optics, Commercial Operations.

Catherine received her Masters degree in Biology, Immunology and Nutrition from the University of France and her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce (ESSEC) in France.

Jan Van Emelen
Director Innovation of the Independent Health Insurance Funds
President working Group Disease Management AIM

Jan Van Emelen (MD) graduated in 1975 as a general practitioner at the KULeuven, and ever since never stopped educating himself in various aspects of health care, such as tropical diseases, nutrition, statistics and epidemiology, decision making in health care and occupational medicine.

He started his career working as a physician in Congo and Ecuador working for ABOS (the Belgian administration for development cooperation), WHO and Development Assistance, a research unit on development studies.
From 1900 till 1999 he was involved in occupational health within the Belgian labor administration.
From 1999 on, he has been assigned as governmental advisor and expert in health care and social protection..

Since 2003, Jan Van Emelen is Director Innovation of the Independent Health Insurance Funds, where he coordinates innovative pilot projects, in collaboration with other parties on health care and health care systems. Specifically Disease Management is his main occupation, at the national Belgian level, but also as president of the international working group on disease management hosted by AIM (Association Internationale de la Mutualité).

Dr James Smith, Public Health Registrar, NHS Sustainable Development Unit, UK

Dr James Smith is a public health doctor working for the National Health Service Sustainable Development Unit (NHS SDU) in England. James trained in medicine at the University of Cambridge and worked as a doctor locally in general practice before moving into public health. James has recently completed a NHS Clinical Leadership Fellowship and is a current scholar on the NICE Scholars programme.

The NHS SDU is collaborating across the health system, including with pharmaceutical and medical device companies, to move towards a low carbon sustainable healthcare system. James has been coordinating work to understand how we might better describe the environmental sustainability of technologies used by the NHS and how we might use this information to inform decision making whether it is by commissioners, clinicians, patients or regulatory bodies. As part of this, James works closely with the NHS National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Professor Sir Kent Woods
Chief Executive, Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency

Kent Woods was appointed as the first Chief Executive of the MHRA in January 2004 and since June 2011 has also been Chairman of the Management Board of the European Medicines Agency. He had previously held Department of Health appointments as Director of the National Health Service Health Technology Assessment Programme (1999-2003) and Regional Director of Research & Development, NHS Trent (1995-1999), commissioning research in and for the NHS. A graduate of Cambridge and Harvard School of Public Health, he was a consultant physician at Leicester Royal Infirmary from 1984-2003 and was appointed Professor of Therapeutics at Leicester University in 1996. His clinical and research interests have been in coronary heart disease. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and an honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine.

Stephanie Stock, MD, PhD, health economist (ebs)

Stephanie Stock is a physician and health economist and senior lecturer at the Institute of Health Economics and Clinical Epidemiology of the university of Cologne where she has been involved in health care reforms targeting the improvement of quality and coordination of care for chronically ill. Her studies have been published in journals such as “Health Affairs” and “Health Policy”. Other areas of research include patient information as basis for individualized treatment in oncology, cost-effectiveness – analyses and cost of illness studies for chronic diseases such as diabetes. Stephanie Stock has been a Harkness / Robert-Bosch Fellow in 2007 / 2008 at the University of Pennsylvania where she examined new models of physician – nursing collaboration and strategies for implementing best practice in home healthcare. She studied medicine at the university of Ulm and at Tuft’s Medical School, Boston, USA and earned her degree in health economics from the European Business School.

Alexandre Conroy (Becton Dickinson)
President Western Europe

48 years old – married - 3 children
President for BD Western Europe since August 2009, striving to increase BD impact on healthcare while fostering higher growth, efficiency and collaboration across businesses, countries and functions. $2 bn revenues-

Alexandre started his career in the pharmaceutical industry in marketing at Roussel-Hoechst, now part of Sanofi Aventis first in France, then in Argentina. Back to France in 1987, Alex joined Roche in a partnership with Amgen as a marketing and project leader in the then emerging area of biotechnology. Alex joined BD in 1991 first as Marketing Manager Europe for BD Medical Pharmaceutical Systems, unit of the Medical segment of BD developing, manufacturing and commercializing drug delivery systems for the pharmaceutical industry worldwide.
In 1995, he was appointed as Marketing and Business Development Director in the US in the area of prefillable drug delivery and in 1997 as Vice President and General Manager for Pharmaceutical Systems US.

Alex came back to le Pont de Claix in 1999 as Worldwide Vice President and General Manager for Pharmaceutical Systems leading all key functional areas and regional units. Alex became worldwide President in 2005. As part of the Pharmaceutical Systems leadership team, Alex led the unit through double digit growth over 10 years having fun with many challenges and opportunities around capacity building, quality and drug delivery innovation. BD Pharmaceutical Systems is the world’s leading supplier of differentiated drug delivery systems for injectable medicines. Graduated from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) in 1984. Law degree. Fluent in French, English and Spanish

Dr Paul Kielstra is a Contributing Editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit. He has written on a wide range of topics, from the implications of political violence for business, through the economic costs of diabetes. He was a contributing researcher to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2010 study on the future of healthcare in Europe. Dr Kielstra has also written extensively in the field of sustainability, renewable energy, and corporate carbon reduction/energy efficiency efforts. A published historian, Dr Kielstra has degrees from the Universities of Toronto and Oxford, and has worked in business, academia, and the charitable sector.

1983–1989: academic studies of psychology, Ruhr university, Bochum, diploma thesis: psycholinguistic models of simultaneous translation
1989–1995: post-graduate studies, research and academic teaching, university of Paderborn, doctor of philosophy (1994), doctoral thesis: simulation of verbal memory by associative neuronal networks
1995–2002: post-doc research assistant, university of Erlangen-Nuremberg, main area of work: sustaining independent living in old age by means of physical and cognitive training since 2003: research assistant, Central Research Institute of Ambulatory Health Care in Germany, ZI, Berlin, project office disease management programmes, Cologne, main area of work: programmes’ evaluation and feedback reporting to the physicians

Petra Wilson
Senior Director, Connected Health and Care
Internet Business Solutions Group
Cisco Systems, Inc.

Petra Wilson is senior director of the European Health and Care team in Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG). Her work focuses on helping health and care providers develop their strategies for making good use of communication and collaboration technology to demands of care provision for an ageing society, where patients’ needs become wider and demands on health and care providers straddle many of the established silos of care organisation.

Previously, she was deputy director of the European Health Management Association (EHMA), a membership organisation committed to improving healthcare in Europe by raising standards of managerial performance in the health sector.

Prior to EHMA, Petra worked for the European Commission in its eHealth Directorate. She worked specifically on the European eHealth Action Plan, which commits all member states of the European Union to adopt road maps for the implementation of Connected Health solutions. Petra also advised the Commission on legal and ethical issues surrounding use of information technologies in healthcare.

Alongside her role at Cisco Petra holds several positions with eHealth interest groups. She acts as secretary general for the European branch of Continua Health Alliance and is also co-lead of its European Policy Working Group. Petra is also active with the Health Information Management and Systems Society, where she serves as a member of the European Governing Council and is Chairperson elect for 2012-2013. She also acts as an advisor to the Health on the Net Foundation.

Outside her healthcare work Petra is also a dedicated and passionate supporter of inclusion and diversity in the workplace. She has for the past 3 year co-lead the Cisco Belux Inclusion an Diversity team. In this capacity she has been involved in a wide range of thought leadership, training and external activities. Cisco Belgium was the proud winner of the 2010 Special Award for Diversity from the Great Place to Work Institute.

Originally trained in law, Petra spent several years as a lecturer and Senior Research Fellow at Nottingham University, UK, specializing in healthcare law. She has a Ph.D. in public health law from Oxford University, and has published widely on the legal aspects of using information technologies in healthcare. Originally from the UK, she is fluent in English, German, and French.

Director for Environment, Health and Safety Development; Coloplast A/S

Lone Stubberup is responsible for Environment, Health and Safety Development in Coloplast, and she has the overall responsibility for safer products as regards biosafety, environmental sustainability including climate issues, phasing out potential problematic substances such as phthalates and for a better working environment.

Lone Stubberup has more than 15 years of experience in this area. Lone Stubberup was appointed director in 2008 and she continues to work with raising the environmental standards in Coloplast and environmental challenges Coloplast is facing.

Coloplast develops products and services that make life easier for people with very personal and private medical conditions. The business areas includes ostomy care, urology and continence care, and wound and skin care

Michèle Thonnet, French, neuropharmacologist, PhD,

(Mrs) Michèle Thonnet is also graduate in applied mathematics and medical informatics, political sciences and public law and from the national industrial strategies institute. Michèle is a health, information systems, telecom and security specialist, with more than 25 years experience and over 200 publications.

She used to held different positions in the pharmaceutical industry as well as the computer and telecom ones including the international standardisation, moving from the research (at INSERM1 and INRIA2) and teaching area (associate professor in well known french « grandes écoles » and in Paris University) to the industry sector (software and networks) then back to the Health domain first at AP-HP 3 Paris hospital, followed by different positions in public innovation agencies. Auditor for the french Research and Industry ministries before joining the french Health ministry, Michèle as e-Health strategist has also participate to European research & health projects regarding innovation, telematics, quality of Health and patient safety, as well as acting as evaluator for the European Commission.

Previously within the ministry of Health in charge of the information system architecture & exchange unit, including evaluation of telemedicine projects and involvement on quality process in the e-Health area, then ‘general rapporteur’ of the french High Level Council of Health Information System, senior advisor and at the European level also President of the pan-european EHTEL organisation (European Health TELematics association).

For the time being, she is the official representative of the french ministry of Health in the European & international e-Health domain, member of the strategic committee of the Health technologies national network, member of different boards (eHPMR, HON: Health On the Net foundation,..), in charge of the e-Health European and international programmes and initiatives and chair of the European eHealth interoperability Roadmap. She is also involved as expert on international cooperation in developing countries.

Steven Cuypers

President and CEO, responsible for general management, R&D and Marketing & Sales, specialized in polymers for specific medical applications and in international business

Steven Cuypers is President and CEO of Orfit Industries. He is responsible for the general management of the company, its R&D activities and its Marketing and Sales department.

Steven Cuypers who holds a Masters Degree in language and Literature, with a specialization in neurolinguistics, joined the family-owned company Luxilon Industries in 1983 as Product Manager medical polymers. In 1991, he became Managing Director of Orfit Industries, a spin-off company of Luxilon Industries. From the beginning, Cuypers made Orfit Industries grow thanks to the continued expansion of its product portfolio and its export to an increasing number of countries.

A Belgian native, Steven Cuypers speaks fluent Dutch, French, English and German. He is 53, married with Christine Van Malderen. He has one son, Matthias (27) and two daughters, Emilie (25) and Chloé (22). Steven has a passion for skiing, (motor) cycling, cars and travel. He finds rest in listening to different styles of music and he deeply enjoys smoking a Cuban cigar.

Elena Bonfiglioli leads the Microsoft Health Industry business for Europe, Middle East and Africa and she is part of the World Wide Public Sector Health Industry Team. Prior to this role, Elena was Director of Corporate Responsibility and Government Affairs. Elena is also the co-founder of the Women in Leadership (WiL) Network, a joint effort between Microsoft, INSEAD and the Women Forum.

Elena has been with Microsoft for more than nine years. At the start of her Microsoft career, she run the Community Affairs and CSR team responsible for Microsoft’s social investments programs in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), leading the kick off and development of the Unlimited Potential program in the region. In this role Elena lead Microsoft’s grant giving strategy and program’s execution in EMEA working with NGOs and grantees to foster IT skills development for disadvantaged communities. She set up the employee volunteering program and the Microsoft in kind giving program for software donations and PC refurbishment.

She has been one of the founders of the European Alliance on Skills for Employability. Over the last five years, Elena held leadership positions in various CSR and ICT trade associations such as Digital Europe, the European e-Skills Association - a coalition of leading companies and stakeholders committed to developing skills for an inclusive, sustainable and competitive Europe, CSR Europe – the leading EU wide Network on CSR - and she is currently a member of the Supervisory Board of the Academy of Business in Society. For a few years she served as Council member for AccountAbility. In 2008 she has been part of the EU Commission DG INFSO Expert Group on Digital Literacy.

Before joining Microsoft, Elena worked for CSR Europe as Director of Corporate Programmes. In this position, she shaped strategies for engagement with companies around specific CSR themes such as Sustainability Reporting, SRI, Diversity and Entrepreneurship. She worked on good practices’ identification across companies and stakeholder engagement, and she contributed to the development of the CSR agenda at policy level in Europe. Elena pioneered and founders of the European Academy of Business in Society and initially served EABiS as interim Executive Director for the first year and a half of activity.

Elena started her career working as a researcher for the Italian government and the University of Bologna in the field of fiscal economic reform. Elena holds a cum Laude degree in economics from the University of Modena, Italy, a Master’s degree in European studies from the College of Europe, in Belgium and a Licénce from the University of Montpellier (France).

Elena is a very proud mom of one child; she speaks four languages (Italian, English, French and Portuguese). She is an active traveler with a particular interest in emerging markets where she has lived for some time (Brazil). Beside a strong passion for macro photography, she is a yoga meditation practitioner since 15 years and in this framework she is part of CEL (Center for Evolutionary Learning), a group of professionals studying the impact of meditation on individual transformation, corporate performance and organizational change.” She lectures in various business schools and programs on CSR.

To know more please visit:
www.microsoft.eu/health
www.enablingtechnology.eu
www.wileurope.org

Nicola Bedlington

Director, European Patients’ Forum (EPF)

Nicola Bedlington is British and studied business and human resource management in the UK. She was appointed the first Director of the European Patients’ Forum in June 2006. Nicola was also the first Director of the European Disability Forum, a Brussels-based umbrella organisation uniting European disability NGOs to advocate for the human rights and inclusion of disabled citizens in Europe (1996 to 1999). Prior to this, she headed the NGO unit within HELIOS, a European Commission Action Programme promoting equal opportunities for disabled people (1991-1996). From 2004 to mid 2006, she was mandated to lead the Environment and Schools Initiatives Secretariat (ENSI), an international government-based network set up by OECD focussing on innovation, action research and policy development in the field of Education for Sustainable Development. She has also worked as an independent consultant/evaluator, specialising in European social and development policy and health advocacy.

Duncan Eaton is currently Chairman,Kimal Holdings Ltd.,a UK based medical device company,Executive Advisor to the Associate Parliamentary Health Group and is a non executive director and advisor to several other healthcare and public sector related companies and organisations. He had a 40 year career in NHS and civil service management.

He established and was Chief Executive of the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency from 2000 to 2006 responsible for providing national level purchasing and strategic procurement direction to the NHS in England. From 1992 to 2000 he was Chief Executive Bedfordshire Health Authority

He is a past president of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and the Healthcare Supply Association

Andrew Bowers

Director Environment, Health & Safety and Sustainability; Baxter

Andrew Bowers is responsible for Environment, Health and Safety implementation and management throughout Baxter’s operations in Europe, Middle East & Africa. As part of his role, he coordinates the region’s progress towards Baxter’s Sustainability Priorities, which include areas such as enhancing product stewardship, EHS Management Systems, greening the supply chain, reducing the carbon footprint and reduction in natural resource use. A senior EHS professional, Mr. Bowers has more than 16 years experience in the EHS&S field.

Through its expertise in medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology Baxter Healthcare creates products that advance patient care worldwide.

Remi De Brandt

CIO Manager at NVSM

CIO Manager at National Union of Socialist Mutualities May 2008 - Present (3 years 5 months)

Advisor at National Union of Socialist Mutualities September 2007 - April 2008 (8 months)

Advisor at Secretary of State for Informatisation September 2003 - September 2007 (4 years 1 month)

Federal employee at Fedict May 2003 - September 2003 (5 months)

Federal employee at National Office for Pensions Belgium January 2000 - April 2003 (3 years 4 months)

Advisor at Cabinet of the Vice- Prime Minister for Public Health and Consumer Affairs July 1999 - January 2000 (7 months)

Advisor at Cabinet of the Minister for Public Health and Pensions April 1996 - June 1999 (3 years 3 months)

2000-2011 Chief Economist Statistics Netherlands and Spokesman on Economics and Labour Market. Analysis and publication of the latest statistics on economic growth, labour market, prices, housing market, income distribution, government spending, deficit and debt, health sector spending, consumer and producer confidence.

2000 Macro-economic consultant at the World Bank in Indonesia

1973-2000 Economist at CPB (Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis)

1991-2000 Head of the Public Finance Department : Establishing and analysis of the macroeconomic effects of policy measures on the economy and the effects of economic developments on the budget. Effects of coalition agreements, alternative programs from opposition parties, trade-unions, employer organisations.

1976-1991 Research, short and long term forecasts for the construction industry, housing market policy and infrastructure. From 1978 onwards Head of the department.

1973-1976 Business cycle analysis

Sophie Peresson is the Regional Manager of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) European region office, based in Brussels. IDF Europe represents 62 member associations in 45 countries in Europe. These member associations are either organizations representing patients or health care professionals or a combination of both. The activities of IDF Europe aim to influence policy, increase public awareness and encourage health improvement, promote the exchange of high-quality information about diabetes, and provide education for people with diabetes and their healthcare providers.

Ms Peresson is a graduate of the Sorbonne Law School and holds a post graduate degree from the Johns Hopkins University. She has held several senior positions in health related organisations, most recently the Standing Committee of European Doctors.