Speakers

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.

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.

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.

Dr. Danilo Mandić is a professor of Signal Processing and Machine Intelligence at the Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London. He specializes in Statistical Learning Theory, Machine Intelligence, and Statistical Signal Processing, with particular applications in Biomedicine and Finance. He has authored over 600 journal articles, conference papers, and research monographs. Prof. Mandic is a Fellow of the IEEE and the 2019 recipient of the Dennis Gabor Award for “Outstanding Achievements in Neural Engineering,” awarded by the International Neural Networks Society (INNS). He is also the 2018 winner of the Best Paper Award in IEEE Signal Processing Magazine and the 2021 winner of the Outstanding Paper Award at the IEEE ICASSP conference. Additionally, he received The Prize in the 2023 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Prize Paper Awards and has co authored six more award-winning articles. He is a Core Member of the Machine Learning Initiative at Imperial and serves as the President of the International Neural Networks Society. In 2014, he received the President’s Award for Excellence in Research Supervision at Imperial College. Dr. Mandic received the Ph.D. degree in nonlinear adaptive signal processing in 1999 from Imperial College, London.

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.

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.

Barna Kovacs is currently working as a counselor 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 bioeconomy in Central and Eastern European countries. Before his current role, Barna 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 worked 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.

Bojana Mirosavljević is the Director of Patient Advocacy Strategy at the Center for Rare Diseases at ICON in Serbia. She brings over 15 years of expertise in Rare Disease Patient Advocacy Strategy, particularly in the clinical development process. She is a chemist and embryologist specialized in pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT). Dr. Bojana Mirosavljević is the founder and president of the ZIVOT (LIFE) Patient Organization, an association dedicated to supporting children with rare diseases and advancing research in this field. Bojana has extensive experience in creating and implementing patient advocacy strategies for rare diseases in both the pharmaceutical and contract research organization (CRO) sectors. Her efforts have led to successful lobbying for Zoya’s Law, which significantly increased access to diagnosis and newborn screening in Serbia. Additionally, she is a certified EUPATI Patient Expert for Rare Diseases and has been recognized for her impactful work by receiving the prestigious EURORDIS Black Pearl Award.

Dalibor Ratković serves as the Chief Operating Officer at PULSEC, a technology company specialized in designing and implementing advanced cybersecurity solutions.

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 Brynne Stanton is the Thematic Lead in Bioeconomy at the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, World Economic Forum. Over the years, Dr. Stanton has held leadership, strategic, business development, founder, and technical roles. Prior to joining the Forum, she built multiple early stage companies. Brynne spent five years at Ginkgo Bioworks as a Program Director & Biological Engineer, playing a key role in growing the company into the leading company in the synthetic biology industry. From there, she co-founded Joyn Bio, where she spent over four years as Head of Strategic Innovation & Microbial Engineering. She also served as a Venture Partner at Sapir Venture Partners before transitioning to the Forum.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry and French from the University of Oregon and a PhD in Biomolecular Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr Drasko Draskovic is the Head of Exploration at the UNDP Accelerator Labs, United Nations Development Programme. He has extensive and diverse experience working in innovation, collaborating with governments, the private sector, and NGOs. Previously, he served as an Innovation Expert for the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva and as a Senior Fellow at CERN, where he was responsible for developing new instruments for the HiLumi upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider. Drasko has been recognized as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum and named among the Top 100 Digital Shapers in Switzerland by DigitalSwitzerland. He earned his PhD in wireless communications from the University of Westminster in London and has taught several subjects in this field at universities in London and Madrid. He was also a recipient of the Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship for outstanding young researchers, awarded by the European Union.

Dr. Elcin Zan is the Chair of the Division of Nuclear Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in the United States. She is a dual board-certified radiologist specializing in Neuroradiology and Nuclear Medicine. Prior to her current role, Dr. Zan served as the Director of Nuclear Theranostics at NYU Langone Health for six years, and was also an Assistant Professor of Clinical Radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine and an Assistant Attending Radiologist at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Campus. Dr. Zan earned her M.D. from Ankara University School of Medicine in Turkey, completing her residency in Radiology in 2004. She subsequently completed a Neuroradiology Fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2016.

Hanko Balazs is currently serving as the minister of Culture and Innovation in the Government of Hungary. Hankó has held advisory roles in Hungary’s ministries related to health and pharmacy development since 2010. He served as Ministerial Commissioner for Higher Education Institutions (2017-2020) and has been State Secretary for Higher Education, Innovation, and Vocational Education since December 2022. He earned his PhD in Pharmacy from Semmelweis University in 2005 and holds specialist qualifications in pharmaceutical organization and hospital-clinical pharmacy. He became Head of Department and Chief Pharmacist at Semmelweis University, later serving as Deputy Rector for Strategy and Development. He has two decades of teaching experience and was named a university professor in 2023.

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.

Filipe is the Senior Editor at Nature Biomedical Engineering. Prior to his current role, he studied the influence of the biomechanics of the tumor microenvironment at The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and most recently developed composite biomaterials for the delivery of anticancer drugs at NOVA University of Lisbon. Previously, at Queen Mary University of London, where he obtained his PhD in 2015, he studied how skin cells respond to their microenvironment by using advanced microfabricated biomaterials and developed micropatterned surfaces for high-content drug screening.

Dr. Igor Pesko is the Vice Dean for Development and Finance and Head of the Department of Civil Engineering and Geodesy at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad. He is also a co-founder of DigiCon, a member of the Board of Directors in BIM Serbia, and serves as the President of Commission U442 for Building Information Modeling. His field of research is construction and project management in construction industry. As author and co-author he published more than 70 scientific papers in international and national journals and conferences. Also, Igor has participated in several projects founded by Serbian Ministry of Sciences. Dr. Igor Peško obtained his Doctor of Science degree in Construction Management with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence from the Faculty of Technical Sciences at the University of Novi Sad.

Dr Ivan Tanasijević is an accomplished professional with a strong background in applied mathematics and theoretical physics. He obtained his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge, UK, where his research interests spanned various areas, including biophysics, fluid mechanics, motile microorganisms, artificial microswimmers, collective motion, and synchronization.

Prior to his Ph.D., Ivan completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and a Master of Mathematics (MMath).

With a strong academic foundation and a Ph.D. from one of the world’s leading institutions, Ivan now works as a Postdoc at the Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research and Development of Serbia (IVI), focusing on the “AI assisted small molecule design” project. He has previously conducted research as a Research Intern at the School of Engineering, University of Liverpool, and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), University of Cambridge.

Ivan Tanasijević brings a wealth of knowledge and research expertise to his role as the Head of the Belgrade office, contributing to the institute’s mission and expanding its presence in the field of artificial intelligence. The focus of his research lies in the application of artificial intelligence in healthcare and natural sciences. Additionally, his work extends to the field of drug development, where AI technologies are leveraged to accelerate the discovery and optimization of new therapeutic compounds. By integrating advanced machine learning models and biological data, his research aims to streamline drug discovery processes, enhance precision medicine, and improve patient outcomes. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, his efforts contribute to bridging the gap between AI innovation and practical applications in pharmaceutical research and healthcare systems.

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. Miljana Tanić is a molecular biologist with a PhD in human cancer genetics from the Autonomous University of Madrid, currently serving as Research Associate Professor at the Institute of Oncology and Radiology of Serbia and a researcher at University College London in the United Kingdom. Her track record includes 15 publications in top-tiered academic journals, numerous scientific communications and personal awards and fellowships, including “L’Oreal/UNESCO For Women in Science National Fellowship” and the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions COFUND Fellowship. Dr. Miljana Tanić leads the TRACEPIGEN project funded by the Science Fund of Serbia to develop and apply new epigenetic biomarkers for tracking systemic therapy resistance in NSCLC and CRC. She is the Founder and CEO of PuppyPrint Genomics, a company dedicated to improving the health and well-being of domestic dogs through state-of-the-art genomics technology and innovative bioinformatics analysis.

Dr Milos Dordevic is Principal Research Fellow at Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade. He is an experienced high-energy physicist and a 20-year member of the CMS experiment at CERN, with expertise in Higgs boson measurements and online event reconstruction algorithms. At CERN he held prestigious positions (Research Fellow, Corresponding Associate) where he was also a leader of several research groups. In the last years, his main focus has been biophysical Monte Carlo simulations of radiation impact on cells and DNA, with the main goal of improving cancer therapy. He is a member of Geant4 and Geant4-DNA collaborations and leader of the bilateral project “Pavle Savic” with France. He has published more than 25 papers and given more than 30 invited talks on high-energy physics and biophysics at leading international conferences.

Dr. Nadežda Gračeva is the Head of Operations in Nuclear Medicine at Swiss Rockets AG. She is a scientist with a strong background in Radiochemistry and Radiopharmacy. Nadežda earned her Ph.D. from ETH Zurich, where she focused on the development of novel radioactive nuclides for Targeted Radionuclide Therapy. After furthering her education in Clinical Research at University Hospital Basel, she joined RocketVax to support Clinical Studies Management and Clinical Science. Dr. Gračeva is also an accomplished author of several scientific publications and a co-author of the best contribution at the European Association of Nuclear Medicine Congress (EANM), for which she received the EANM Marie Curie Award in 2018.

Dr. Nataša Jovanović Lješković has been working at the intersection of the business- innovation -academia internationally and in Serbia for more than 20 years, combining her strong scientific background with various leadership/managerial roles. Nataša is a networker by nature who enjoys to recognize and to create the opportunities and to facilitate collaborations.

She is dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy Novi Sad and she has been engaged in s various positions related to commercialization of innovation, tech transfer, business development, biotech, digital health (FIP, World Bank, NALED, IMGGE; Vinča). Previously, she held managerial roles in the pharmaceutical companies (BioConnection and MSD in The Netherlands). Nataša holds PhD in pharmaceutical sciences (biotechnological medicines) from Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

Dr. Nenad Tomašević is the CEO and founder of Dren Bio, a biopharmaceutical company focused on pioneering innovative therapies that aim to redefine treatment possibilities for patients with cancer and other serious diseases. Prior to his current role, Dr. Tomašević served as Vice President of Research at Allakos, the company he co-founded.  During his time at Allakos, he was responsible for all research and nonclinical development functions. Prior to co-founding Allakos, Dr. Tomašević previously held positions at KaloBios and Nuvelo, where his focus was on the development of therapeutic antibodies. Dr. Tomašević began his career at Cytokinetics after receiving his PhD in protein chemistry from the University of Belgrade and completing his postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health (NIDDK, Genetics and Biochemistry Branch) in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Nevenka Dimitrova is a Biomedical Data Science and Technology Executive at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the United States. Her recent position was a Vice President of Data Science and Data Engineering at GlaxoSmithKline, where she combined her technology innovation in AI/ML, with advanced cloud data architectures and healthcare informatics to serve the whole biopharma R&D (10,000people) including target discovery, biomarker, clinical and manufacturing. Previously, as CTO of Oncology Informatics and Genomics in Philips, she took products from research to market success and helped open new business opportunities in clinical informatics. With a PhD in Computer Science, 140 scientific articles and over 70 granted patents in machine learning, Nevenka was recognized for her technical leadership and external collaborations with the Gilles Holst award, the highest peer recognition at Philips. Her expertise and interests are in improving clinical outcomes in oncology, epidemiology, and immunology.

Dr. Richard P. Baum is the President of the International Centers for Precision Oncology (ICPO) Academy, Board member of the ICPO and Consultant of the Advanced Center for Radiomolecular Precision Oncology (RPO) at Curanosticum Wiesbaden-Frankfurt, Germany. For 22 years, until end of 2019, he was Chairman of the Center for Molecular Radiotherapy and Molecular Imaging at Zentralklinik Bad Berka. Prof. Baum is a clinician scientist who has been involved in the introduction of Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) for neuroendocrine tumors (NET). He performed the first PRRT in Germany at Frankfurt University Medical Center. He was honored by many prizes such as the Mallinckrodt Award in 1990, the GLORINET Award in 2014 and the Saul Hertz Award in 2019 by the SNMMI (one of the most prestigious life time awards in the field of nuclear medicine therapy). Currently, Richard P. Baum holds several guest and associate professorships across the continents. He earned his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree with a specialization in Endocrinology from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

Dr. Sadra Bakhshandeh is the Senior Editor at Nature Reviews Bioengineering. He received his BSci in mechanical engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology, and his MSci in biomedical engineering from Delft University of Technology. He then completed his PhD studies in the groups of Amaia Cipitria and Peter Fratzl at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany. Dr. Bakhshandeh joined Springer Nature in March 2022 for the launch of Nature Reviews Bioengineering and is based in Berlin, Germany.

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.

Dr. Shadab Khan is a Healthcare AI researcher and a founding advisor of AI at Ruya Genomics. Most recently, he was the SVP of AI and Applied Sciences at M42, where he led a team of scientists and engineers to solve problems in Healthcare AI. At M42, his team developed Generative AI solutions such as Med42. He also led M42’s work in Genomics AI. Before joining M42, he was a Healthcare AI researcher at Inception (G42) in UAE. At Inception, Dr. Khan was a founding faculty member at the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of AI (MBZUAI). Prior to moving to UAE, Dr. Khan was a Fellow in Radiology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital. He studied for a PhD at Dartmouth College (2016), where he was a recipient of the highly selective William H. Neukom 1964 Fellowship in Computational Sciences for his research in building medical devices and medical data analysis tools.

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 Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution with 20+ years of experience in public policies, public-private partnerships, and digitalization. As an expert in regulatory reform and implementation of local economic development policies, Jelena has worked since 2000 on reforming the legislative process for businesses, attracting investments, programs supporting the economy and building partnerships between the public and private sector. She started her career in the International Republican Institute (IRI), after which she worked for five years as the team leader for local economic development in the USAID Programme for Support to Economic Municipal Development. Since 2010, Jelena joined NALED, first as the Program Director and then as Policy Director.

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.

Katherine Foster, a former Canadian diplomat who served as the Climate Attaché to the USA and on Kofi Annan’s Human Security Network, has been pioneering innovation at the intersection of technology, policy, and finance for over 30 years. Katherine held leadership roles with Europe’s Climate Flagship Initiative Climate-KIC and served as Executive Director of the Green Digital Finance Alliance including as Sherpa to the UN Secretary-General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the SDG. Katherine’s contributions extend to blockchain, AI and digital finance innovation pilots and collaborations for the Bank of International Settlement, the World Bank, and UN Task Forces. She is an experienced keynote speaker, a published thought leader, and serves on advisories ranging from the UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub and the COP28UAE TechSprint to acceleration and investment initiatives, and to award winning digital technology startups.

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 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.

Marco Foracchia holds the position of Vice President of the Italian Association of Healthcare Information Systems and Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the Reggio Emilia Local Health Authority. He is also currently an adjunct professor at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, and serves as a Consultant for Clinical IT Systems at the University Hospital of Modena. Additionally, he has been visiting scholar at the University of Washington (Seattle, USA). Marco has extensive experience in Research and Development for private companies, mainly in pharmacokinetic modelling, medical device design, medical image analysis, robotics simulation and scientific computing. He earned a Master’s Degree in Electrical and Biomedical Engineering from the University of Padua (Italy), a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics from the University of Patras (Greece), and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Image Analysis from the Politecnico di Milano (Milan, Italy). 

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.

Prof. Dr. Vera Artiko is the President of the Serbian Society of Nuclear Medicine, Director of the Center for Nuclear Medicine at the Clinical Center of Serbia, Head of the Department for Specialist Studies in Nuclear Medicine, and a member of the Council of the Faculty of Medicine and the Council for Biotechnical Sciences at the University of Belgrade. She is a member of the Committee on Infections and Inflammatory Processes of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) and a representative at the European School for Multimodal Imaging and Therapy (ESMIT), where she also serves as a lecturer. She is a coordinator in the network for imaging of the Central European Exchange Program for University Studies (CEEPUS). She is the national representative in the Forum for Medical Applications of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). She is a leader and participant in numerous projects of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Erasmus Plus, and the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia. Prof. Dr. Vera Artiko has received multiple awards, is a member of editorial boards for international journals, and is a lecturer and organizer of numerous domestic and foreign professional meetings.

Purushottam Kaushik is the Centre Head of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) India. He joined the World Economic Forum in March 2020, bringing with him twenty-five years of experience in the telecom and information technology sectors, where he held leadership roles in sales and management consulting. He began his career in 1995, working in various telecom companies, including Alcatel Systems, Lucent Technologies, and Nortel Networks, in sales leadership roles until 2009. From 2009 to 2016, Puru worked at Cisco Systems India, where he served as Managing Director of Sales from 2014 to 2016. He then took on the role of Senior Advisor at McKinsey from December 2016 to June 2018. In April 2018, he joined Larsen & Toubro Ltd. as Head of Strategy and Mega Business. Puru holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, and an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, BHU, Varanasi.

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.

Zsolt Bubori is the Ecosystem Lead for Hungary at EIT Health InnoStars. He is a manager with a strong track record in business and ICT consultancy, change management, and project management. He possesses extensive experience in leadership and in building networks for innovation, IT, and business acceleration/incubation. Currently, leveraging his deep knowledge of the healthcare industry, he facilitates collaboration among startups, institutions, and large companies on cross-border innovation and business projects. Zsolt Bubori obtained his Master of Economic Sciences with specializations in Management, Organisation and Strategy from Corvinus University of Budapest.