meet our speakers

Shah Nawaz

Miles Congreve

Philip Tagari

Shane Lewin

Yue-Wang Webster

Dirk Van Hyfte

Petrina Kamya

Claudette Fuller

Zoran Krunic

With a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Zoran continues to explore and contribute to the evolving relationship between quantum computing and artificial intelligence, fostering groundbreaking advancements in healthcare technology.

Mark Adams

Zhiyong (Sean) Xie

Ethan Pickering

Peter Henstock

Daniyal Hussain

Yves Fomekong Nanfack

Satarupa Mukherjee

Monica Wang

Hans Bitter

Maria Florez

Alexander Horspool

Veera Padmanabhan

Veera is currently managing a team of 40+ scientists, establishing robotics, lab automation predictive analytics and advanced chemometrics in next generation biologics manufacturing at AstraZeneca. He has 25+ years of experience, with expertise crossing R&D, manufacturing operations and supply chain.

Sreyoshi Sur

Yi Hong

Ilknur Icke

Professor Roger Kornberg

Tarun Walia

Marcos Camara Donoso

Yochi Slonim

A serial entrepreneur in software and biotech, Yochi Slonim has built multiple companies as a founder and CEO through all phases of growth all the way to IPOs and large M&A exits. As a Co-founder and CEO of Anima Biotech, he is driving the company’s strategy and business development at the intersection of mRNA biology and AI.

Prior to Anima, Yochi was a co-founder of Mercury Interactive. As CTO and VP R&D from the company's early days, he created product vision and strategy and led a multi-product organization of 200 developers. After going public and reaching revenues of over $1B annually, Mercury was acquired by HP for $4.5B.

As Senior VP of products and marketing for Tecnomatix, a public NASDAQ company, he led a 500 people organization of 4 divisions that generated revenues of $100m until the company was acquired by UGS for $230m.

In 2000, Yochi was founder and CEO of Identify. The company reached revenues of $50m in less than 5 years and was acquired by BMC in 2006 for $150m in cash. 

Yochi founded ffwd.me, a unique startup acceleration program where he led a team that worked with over 25 startups in diverse areas and technologies, developing strategy, products and go to market operations while raising multiple rounds of financing from VCs and private investors. 
 
As one of Israel's leading speakers on the subject of startup positioning and company building, several of Yochi's approachable and amusing lectures can be found on Yochi Slonim's Youtube.

Crystal Culhane Ph.D.

Crystal Culhane, Ph.D., applies her extensive academic background in organic chemistry to help life sciences organization protect their products and innovations through U.S. and foreign patent prosecution, client counseling, due diligence, patentability and freedom to operate opinions, patent opinions, and post-grant proceedings.

Known as a responsive communicator with a strong depth of knowledge, Crystal works with clients ranging from universities to start-ups and growing companies to multinational organizations to prepare intellectual property strategies that suit their business goals.

In recent years, Crystal has worked with a number of pharmaceutical clients in high-impact patent prosecution. Her clients include a large pharmaceutical company for which she has helped develop and manage a portfolio of several hundred patent families and another which in 2021 received its first-ever FDA approval for a new drug that treats a rare liver disease.

Crystal earned her doctorate in chemistry at Johns Hopkins University, where her research focused on the design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel optical and radioactive small molecule prostate cancer imaging agents. She has significant experience in various scientific disciplines, including synthetic organic chemistry, radiochemistry, biology, radiobiology, and small animal imaging.

Justin Byers

Justin Byers is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Axio BioPharma, an AI biomanufacturing company revolutionizing how monoclonal antibodies are developed and produced. Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Axio launched in 2024 with a mission to accelerate and de-risk the development of recombinant proteins and monoclonal antibodies through AI-driven process design and U.S.-based manufacturing.

Under Justin’s leadership, Axio has pioneered a data-rich, machine learning–powered approach that reduces process development timelines from years to days unlocking faster, more cost-efficient pathways for biotech partners. He has steered the company’s rapid growth, from establishing its state-of-the-art facilities to securing strategic partnerships, including collaborations to advance next-generation drug delivery technologies.

With a background at the intersection of biomanufacturing, technology, and entrepreneurship, Justin brings a vision of scaling biologics development with speed, reliability, and accessibility. He is committed to building Axio into a trusted partner for innovators worldwide, combining scientific rigor with cutting-edge AI to bring life-changing therapies to patients faster.

Steve Gibson

Steve has held a range of C-Suite positions in technology companies ranging from financial technology services, to data science consulting. Currently he serves as Chief Commercial Officer at Strangeworks; an advanced compute platform as a service (PaaS) company based in Austin, Texas. Prior to Strangeworks, Steve helped build several startups from the ground up, the most successful being Honest Dollar which was the first startup acquired by Goldman Sachs in their 147 year history. Prior to Honest Dollar, Steve worked for a number of large multinational corporations in the European aerospace sector delivering platforms for military, civil and space applications. Steve holds a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Systems Engineering from the University of Coventry in the UK.

Tobias Hahn, PhD

Tobias Hahn is R&D Director of chromatography mechanistic modeling activities at Cytiva. As former co-founder and CEO of GoSilico, now part of Cytiva, Tobias is responsible for delivering simulation software and workflows for in silico process development. He received his undergraduate education in computational mathematics and technical physics in Karlsruhe and Stockholm, earning his PhD in chemical engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). During his doctoral studies, he utilized his background in mathematics and software engineering to create the simulation software now known as GoSilico™ chromatography modeling software.

Mike Eckrote

Mike Eckrote is Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions & Technology at Advarra, where he leads efforts to advance innovative approaches to clinical research and development. He brings more than a decade of experience in real-world data, technology solutions, and clinical trial optimization, with leadership roles spanning HealthVerity, Medable, and Medidata Solutions. Throughout his career, Mike has specialized in applying AI/ML, real-world evidence, and data-driven strategies to improve trial design, site selection, and patient outcomes.

Tom Oliver

Tom Oliver is Head of Product at Faculty, where he leads the strategy and roadmap for Faculty Frontier™, the company’s decision-intelligence platform that helps enterprises operationalize AI in day-to-day decisions. Tom partners with executives and cross functional teams, including product managers, engineers, data scientists, and designers, to discover, build, and scale products that solve real problems for technical and business users. He collaborates closely with Faculty’s leadership and with key stakeholders and clients across pharma, retail, consumer goods, and healthcare, turning complex challenges into measurable outcomes. Before joining Faculty, Tom held leadership positions at PwC, focusing on technology enabled transformation, operating model change, and enterprise technology selection and deployment. His public writing explores the future of work, AI ethics, and human centric design, asking how powerful systems can advance human flourishing, not only efficiency. He holds a degree from the University of Oxford.

Harris Bell-Temin

Anshu Jain, MD

Dr. Anshu Jain is Zephyr AI’s Chief Business and Clinical Officer. A double board-certified radiation oncologist and clinical informatician, he leads business development, clinical strategy, medical affairs, and partner collaborations—translating Zephyr’s AI and large-scale real-world data into solutions that help biopharma and diagnostic partners advance precision medicine for patients. Prior to Zephyr, Dr. Jain served as Chief Medical Officer at Aster Insights.

Dr. Jain has authored peer-reviewed publications in Nature Communications, Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), and JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics, and has served as a principal investigator for early- and late-phase oncology trials. He has advised the FDA Office of the Commissioner and the Oncology Center of Excellence, and provided clinical leadership to large-scale data initiatives including the NCI SEER program.

He serves on the Board of Directors of the Community Oncology Alliance, the Board of Advisors for the Duke Cancer Institute, and is an Assistant Professor at the Yale School of Medicine.

Dr. Jain trained in internal medicine and radiation oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Columbia New York Presbyterian Hospital. He earned his M.D. with Highest Distinction from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and a degree in Economics from Duke University.

Andrew Brooked

Andrew leads Faculty’s technical teams and developed the backbone of Faculty’s AI operating system, Frontier. His accomplishments span building the NHS Covid Early Warning System and mission critical projects for the UK Ministry of Defence. Before Faculty, Andrew led an engineering team at investment management firm BlackRock. He holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Warwick.