АI_4_LIFE:
Biotech Future Forum

Miloš Vučević is the Prime minister of the Republic of Serbia. Vučević graduated from the Faculty of Law in Novi Sad. He was elected Mayor of Novi Sad in September 2012, after which he stopped working as a lawyer. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) from 2015 to 2016. After the local elections in 2016, he was elected Mayor of Novi Sad for the second consecutive term, and in 2020 he was elected Mayor for the third time, which happened for the first time in the history of the city. From October 2022 until May 2024, he served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence. He received several awards, including the charter of honorary senator of the Senate of the Economy of Serbia in 2014.

Ana Brnabić is the President of the National Assembly of Serbia.  She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Northwood University, USA, a Master’s degree from the University of Hull, UK, and has over a decade of experience in international organizations, foreign investments, local governments, and the public sector in Serbia. From 2017 to 2024, she served as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, From 2017 to 2024, she served as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, during which she implemented intensive reforms in digitalization, modernization of public administration, and innovation development, establishing Serbia as a regional leader in the IT sector and biotechnology. She played a key role in founding four science and technology parks, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR), the BIO4 Campus, and the Institute for Artificial Intelligence. These projects significantly contributed to Serbia’s technological and economic progress, as well as to improving its reputation on the international stage.

Mirek Dušek is the Managing Director of the World Economic Forum responsible for global programming and the Head of Europe and Eurasia, plays a pivotal role in shaping the Forum’s strategic vision and organizing its major events, including the prestigious Annual Meeting in Davos. He previously gained significant experience in public diplomacy, working at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and as the Director of the American Center at the U.S. Embassy in Prague. His academic qualifications include an MA in International Studies from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom and a BA in Political Science from Charles University in Prague.

Dr Jelena Begović is the Minister of Science, Technological Development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia. Minister Begović, as the Director of the Institute for Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering in Belgrade and Scientific Advisor at the Institute since 1998, has made significant contributions to molecular genetics and biotechnology with over 60 scientific publications. She has represented Serbia on the Board of Governors of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology since 2011, securing substantial resources for scientific projects. She also played a key role in establishing Serbia’s national genomic data bank and advancing biomedicine and biotechnology development through the BIO4 campus project. She graduated from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Belgrade, where she also completed her master’s degree and defended her doctoral dissertation in the field of molecular genetics.

Ivana Živković is the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (RBEC) since 2022. Previously, she served as the Director-General for Economic Affairs and Development Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia. She was engaged in various positions related to development, regional cooperation, trade, and economic diplomacy, and had a leading role in setting up the framework for international development cooperation in Croatia. She holds a master’s degree in International Economics from the Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Zagreb.

Christopher A. Voigt is the Head of the Department of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he also holds the title of Daniel I.C. Wang Professor. Voigt is a leading figure in the emerging field of synthetic biology, serving as co-director of the Synthetic Biology Center at MIT and co-founder of the MIT-Broad Foundry. Prof. Voigt obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics at the California Institute of Technology. He continued his postdoctoral research in Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley. His academic career commenced at the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California-San Francisco. Voigt joined the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT as Associate Professor in 2011.

George D. Yancopoulos is a co-Founder, President, co-Chairman of the board, and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. As one of the co-founders of the company, serving as lead inventor and developer of Regeneron’s medicines, Yancopoulos has contributed to making Regeneron one of the leaders in biotechnology, developing numerous Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs and research products, almost all developed in the company’s laboratories. During his career, Yancopoulos has been among the most highly cited scientists in the world, with significant publications in the fields of cloning, the biology of various growth factors, and other discoveries that have contributed to the development of Regeneron’s medicines and technologies. He earned his M.D. from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Adam Rottenbacher is the Chief Operating Officer at the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). With over 20 years of experience in implementing EU innovation and regional policies, as well as extensive hands-on experience in both the public and private sectors, Adam plays a crucial role in managing the operational activities of the EIT. He oversees the institute’s core business units to ensure the achievement of its objectives and supports the EIT Governing Board in strategic decision-making and supervisory functions.

Alla Voldman-Rantzer is the Vice President of Strategy and Policy at the Good Food Institute Israel. Alla handles strategic relationships, driving government and strategic partners to maximize funding, resources, and infrastructure to facilitate the growth of the alternative protein sector, elevating the recognition of the field as a climate and food security technological solution. Alla brings more than seven years of experience leading large-scale, long-term engagements with companies in the U.S., India, and Europe. Before joining GFI, Alla served as a project director with Goldratt Consulting Ltd. She holds a BSc in Chemistry from Tel Aviv University and an MSc in Material Science from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Anne Geubelle is the CEO of Prologica Healthcare and serves as the VBHC (Value-Based Healthcare) Center Europe Ambassador for Data & IT. She plays a pivotal role in advancing digital healthcare frameworks, particularly within the European Health Data Space (EHDS). With over 25 years of experience in healthcare technology and management, she has guided Prologica’s emphasis on leveraging artificial intelligence and business intelligence to enhance the use of healthcare data. Under her leadership, Prologica has been dedicated to transforming healthcare by unlocking the potential of data, a key component of the EHDS framework. Geubelle’s engagement in value-based healthcare (VBHC) further supports the EHDS’s goal of improving healthcare delivery through data-driven decision-making and better patient outcomes.

Aytug Goksu is the Head of Network and Government Affairs at the World Economic Forum. Before taking this role, Aytug was responsible for the World Economic Forum’s engagement with the governments in South East Europe and key European Commissioners. Before joining the Forum,  served as a commercial diplomat at the Embassy of Turkey in London and held various positions with the Ministry of Trade of Turkey. Aytug holds an Master of Public Affairs (MPA) from Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, USA and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Ankara University, Turkey.

Mr. Barna Kovacs is currently working as a counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU and serves as the Secretary General of the BIOEAST Initiative, the Central-Eastern European Initiative, which offers a shared strategic research and innovation framework for advancing sustainable bioeconomies in Central and Eastern European countries. Before his current role, Mr. Barna Kovacs served as a scientific and policy officer in the European Commission’s Directorate General Research and Innovation, Bioeconomy Strategy unit, where he was also appointed Secretary for the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research. He has experience working in the European Parliament in Brussels, as well as at the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and the Hungarian Statistical Office. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Business Administration and Management from Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration.

Bence Horvath is the CEO of Spicy Analytics. With 15 years of experience in healthcare analytics, he has held leadership positions in market research and analysis departments at Aventis Pharma, later at Sanofi Aventis, and Egis Pharmaceuticals. After several years at various multinational pharmaceutical companies, in 2006 Bence founded Thesys Labs Ltd., which later evolved into the leading pharmaceutical consulting company, Thesys Group, where he became the Managing Director. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management from IBS International Business School.

Dr. Branka Rakić is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Novi Sad. After completing her studies in molecular biology in Belgrade, Branka Rakić obtained her PhD in Austria in the field of epigenetics. She worked as a toxicologist in the pharmaceutical industry and collaborated as a scientific consultant with research centers in the USA. After returning to Serbia, she decided to start her own startup but also to return to science and research through her work at the institute. As a team leader, she is actively engaged in the application of AI in healthcare and life sciences, and is recognized as one of the leading experts in this field both nationally and regionally.

Dr. Fabio Scano is the WHO Representative in Serbia and Special Envoy of the Regional Director for the Western Balkans. He has over 20 years of experience in public health program management and policy development in areas ranging from disease control, outbreak response to regulatory strengthening. He took on many important assignments with WHO Headquarters in Geneva. In China, Dr Scano supervised all communicable and noncommunicable disease programs in the WHO China Office.  Since January 2020, he has been at the forefront of the WHO COVID-19 response in China and then has supported the WHO European office in managing the COVID-19 response. Dr. Scano holds an M.D. from the University of Padua in Italy, a postgraduate degree in Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, and he is a Yale World Fellow.

Karim Engelmark Cassimjee is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of EnginZyme, a deep- tech start-up dedicated to transforming the field of chemistry for the better. EnginZyme’s mission is to lead the chemical industry’s shift towards sustainability through technology that significantly reduces the environmental footprint of chemical manufacturing. Karim is the inventor of the company’s foundational technology and co-founded EnginZyme in 2014. He holds a Master of Science in Biotechnology (Civ. Ing.) with a focus on Biochemistry, Biotechnology, and Enzymatic Synthesis, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Biotechnology from KTH Royal Institute of Technology. He also completed his postdoctoral research at Stockholm University.

Dr. Mihailo Jovanović is the Director of the Office for Information Technology and e-Government. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Belgrade. He received a PhD in Economics in 2012 and defended a second doctoral thesis in Mathematics and Computing in 2022 at the University of Criminal Investigation and Police Studies in Belgrade. Dr. Jovanovic contributed to the establishment of the Government of the Republic of Serbia’s Office for IT and e-Government in 2017, where he served as Director from 2017 to 2022. He held the position of Minister of Information and Telecommunications from 2022 to 2024. He is credited with advancing e-Government services and infrastructure, fostering the digital transformation of public administration, and promoting the development of the digital economy, as well as strengthening the recognition, trust, and confidence of citizens in e-Government. Through the establishment of the State Data Center in Kragujevac and the implementation of numerous e-services on the e-Government Portal, such as “Baby, Welcome to the World,” e-Kindergarten, e-Enrollment, My High School, e-Inbox, and cloud-based electronic signatures, he has left an indelible mark on the digitalization of public administration in Serbia.

Dr. Vladimir Cmiljanović is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Swiss Rockets AG and Founder, Vice-Chairman, and CEO of Rocketvax AG, both based in Basel, Switzerland. Dr. Vladimir Cmiljanović is a renowned serial biotech entrepreneur, cancer scientist, and medicinal chemist with over 15 years of experience in oncology drug development.  In 2011, he founded PIQUR Therapeutics and developed it into an international biotech company. In 2014, he won the Northwest Switzerland Young Entrepreneur Award, and in 2015, the Swiss Economic Forum Award. In 2016, he founded TargImmune Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on cancer cell-targeted immunotherapies. In 2018, he founded Swiss Rockets, and in 2020, RocketVax AG. In 2021, he founded Torqur AG and was awarded the Nikola Tesla Award from the Government of the Republic of Serbia for his outstanding scientific and entrepreneurial contributions, and in 2023, he received the Tesla Spirit Award from the US Tesla Science Foundation.

Vladimir Gligorijevic is the senior director of AI-ML at Prescient Design, within Genentech R&D (gRED). He earned a master’s degree in theoretical physics from the University of Belgrade. He then studied computer science and bioinformatics, with a focus on data integration via machine learning, with applications to protein and genome annotation, completing his Ph.D. at Imperial College London. Afterwards, he joined the Flatiron Institute, where he stayed for almost four years. Gligorijevic’s work on protein structure-function prediction served as motivation and foundation for several approaches to macromolecular design. Gligorijevic co-founded Prescient Design and has co-led the integration of the company into the Roche family and Large Molecule Drug Discovery (LMDD) at gRED.

Georgio Francis is the EMEA Channel Manager at Gleamer, a company headquartered in France. He is a Biomedical Engineer specialized in Medical Imaging and Artificial Intelligence, holding a Master of Science in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering from Arts et Métiers – École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers, a prestigious engineering school in France, and a Bachelor of Engineering from Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK). Gleamer is renowned for its innovative contributions to artificial intelligence, particularly within the healthcare sector.

Henrik L. Ibsen is the founder and CEO of E-HealthBrains, a Denmark-based company specializing in e-Health and MedTech solutions. He is widely recognized as a pioneer in e-Health and virtual care in Denmark. Henrik is an eHealth expert with over 30 years of experience in IT, more than 20 years in healthcare IT, and over a decade in virtual care and telehealth. From Systems Developer to Project, Delivery, and Account Manager, and eventually Director of Sales, he progressed to roles such as CEO/Consultant at Silverbullet Consulting Aps, CEO/Senior Consultant and Founding Partner at Silverbullet A/S, CEO/Senior Consultant and Founding Partner at OpenTelehealth Aps, International Business Development Director at Doccla Ltd, UK, and is currently serving as CEO/Senior Consultant and Founding Partner at eHealthBrains Aps.

Jelena Bojović is the Director of the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, that was established in 2022 by the Government of Serbia and the World Economic Forum, and she is the Program Director of NALED, the biggest public private association in Serbia. Her education background is in the field of molecular biology. As an expert in the area of regulatory reform and implementation of local economic development policies, Jelena has worked since 2000 on reforming the legislative process for businesses, attracting investments, programmes supporting the economy and building partnerships between the public and private sector.

Jérôme Fabiano is the Deputy Managing Director at EIT Health France and leads the European Health Data Space (EHDS) initiatives within EIT Health. EIT Health, a Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), plays a significant role in promoting and facilitating the implementation of EHDS across Europe. This initiative aims to enhance the exchange and accessibility of health data while maintaining high standards of data protection and privacy. He holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs and European Studies from CY Cergy Paris Université, and two Master of Science degrees from SKEMA Business School: one in Business Administration and Management, and another in Competitive Intelligence and Knowledge Management.

Katarina Pavičić currently serves as an Advisor to the Prime Minister of Serbia, specializing in budget and finance. She has extensive experience in public finance and administration, having held various high-level positions across multiple government bodies in Serbia. From 1995 to 2018, she worked at the Ministry of Interior Affairs, where she served as Head of Accounting and Head of the Budget and Finance Department. Following this, Katarina focused on political financing oversight at the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption from 2018 to 2020. In 2021, she joined the Ministry of Defense as Assistant to the Minister for Budget and Finance.

Kevin D’Silva is the Founder & CEO of Ideateplus, the Founder of  Nestlé’s employee-driven innovation program (InGenius), and Co-founder of Serendipity Collective Ventures, an innovative platform dedicated to fostering groundbreaking ideas and solutions to address global challenges. Kevin has spent the past 24 years as an IT professional in a variety of executive management roles ranging from Procurement, Vendor Management, Strategy and Innovation. He has primarily worked in a corporate environment within the sectors of FMCG (Nestlé), Pharmaceuticals (Merck Serono) and Telecommunications (Vodafone, Orange). He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Civil and Structural Engineering with a focus on Project Management from the University of Technology Sydney.

Ksenija Drašković is the Senior Vice President at Afiniti and the CEO and Founder of GlorifAI.ai. She is also the Founder and President of KDSS Corporation, which delivers production-grade data science solutions across various industries. With over 20 years of experience in predictive analytics and machine learning, Drašković is a prominent data science leader and practitioner. Previously, Ksenija served as Head Data Scientist and Associate Fellow at Verizon, where she led an award-winning data science team that contributed to maintaining an industry-leading churn rate for over five years.

Ligia Kornowska is the Managing Director of the Polish Hospital Federation and the Chairperson of the Board at Data Lake. Ligia has been featured in Forbes’ 25 Under 25 and 30 Under 30 lists, and has also been named among the top 100 Women in AI and the top 100 Most Influential People in Polish Healthcare. She is a leader in AI in medicine, telemedicine, and medical data, as well as an experienced startup manager, investor, and consultant who helps drive digital transformation in healthcare.

Martin Molan is machine learning specialist focused on user modeling, educational AI and support of high performance computing systems. Martin Molano holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Ljubljana, a Master’s degree in Machine Learning from Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Data Science and Computation at Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, where he focuses on using machine learning to support high-performance computing operations at CINECA – the largest and most significant computing center in Italy and one of the largest in Europe.

Nenad Paunović is the advisor in the Office of the President of the National Assembly and the former Director of the IT and Entrepreneurship team in the Office of the Prime Minister of Serbia, where he was responsible for growing the digital and biotech economy in the country. He is a co-creator of the BIO4 Campus in Serbia, which is being developed as a new European bioeconomy hub. Previously, he was a co-founder of the Belgrade Venture Forum, the largest innovation, investment, and entrepreneurship forum in the region, and has 20 years of experience as a growth strategy consultant.

Peter Goodhand is the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) and President of GA4GH Inc. He played a critical role in the inception and development phase of the GA4GH as the Executive Director, prior to becoming CEO. Goodhand previously served as President of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and President and CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society. Before joining the charitable sector, he had a 20-year career in the global medical technology industry, including strategic leadership roles with multinational healthcare companies and as the founding Managing Director of the Health Technology Exchange (HTX).

Prof. Vladimir Crnojević is a leading expert in ICT for the agrifood sector and serves as the Director of the BioSense Institute. He holds a Full Professorship in Computer Sciences at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, and is also an Associate Professor Extraordinary at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. With a background in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Image Processing, Prof. Crnojević has a rich academic history. He founded the BioSense Institute, a regional leader in EU projects like ANTARES, IoF2020, and SmartAgriHubs. His research focuses on machine learning, image processing, remote sensing, big data, and IoT, applied to agrifood and biosystems. Prof. Crnojević’s team won the 1st Prize at the 2017 Syngenta Crop Challenge for their innovative smart seed selection algorithm.

Smiljana Krivokuća is the CEO of BIO4 Ltd. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and Finance and a Master’s Degree in International Economic Relations, both from the Faculty of Economics, University in Belgrade.

Smita Pillai serves as Senior Vice President of Culture and DEI and Chief DEI Officer. Ms. Pillai has an accomplished global DE&I career spanning the life sciences, technology, financial services, and media sectors. Most recently, she was Vice President and Global Head of DE&I at Zendesk. Prior to that, she was Chief Diversity Officer for Dow Jones, including its flagship brand, The Wall Street Journal. She has also led global marketing research, corporate strategy, and DE&I efforts at Fortune 50 companies such as Prudential Financial, Johnson & Johnson, and ACNielsen. A certified DE&I professional, Ms. Pillai received her BBA from KS School of Management, India, and her MBA from Symbiosis International Business School, India.

George D. Yancopoulos is a co-Founder, President, co-Chairman of the board, and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. As one of the co-founders of the company, serving as lead inventor and developer of Regeneron’s medicines, Yancopoulos has contributed to making Regeneron one of the leaders in biotechnology, developing numerous Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs and research products, almost all developed in the company’s laboratories. During his career, Yancopoulos has been among the most highly cited scientists in the world, with significant publications in the fields of cloning, the biology of various growth factors, and other discoveries that have contributed to the development of Regeneron’s medicines and technologies. He earned his M.D. from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.