Speaker Bios:  (back to Event Summary)

Åsa is Chief Executive Officer of Principal Asset management Europe and Regional Head of Distribution since June 2021. In addition to her role with Principal she is a Chair at ICI EMEA Steering Council. Åsa has worked in the asset management industry for over 25 years. She was previously Head of Global Strategic Alliances at Aberdeen Standard Investments for 3 years and a Board Member of the Standard Life UK Pension Scheme. At Standard Life Investments she spent 12 years latterly as Head of European Business Development. Prior to this she held the role as Vice President Nordic Region at Britannic Asset Management. She started her finance industry career at Edinburgh Fund Managers in 1995 working within the European equity portfolio management team. Åsa received an MSc in Economics from the Hanken School of Economics (Svenska Handelshögskolan) and was awarded an Erasmus Scholarship from the Strathclyde University Business School.

Shiho is a member of the alliance management team at Novartis Pharma AG, based in Basel Switzerland, where she manages multiple partnerships within Novartis' development and commercial portfolio. Trained as a pharmacist, Shiho started her business development career in her home country Japan, but soon stepped out of her comfort zone and worked in various small-mid-large international pharma companies in Europe over 20 years always related to alliances and partnerships.

Shiho has a deep expertise in negotiations and managing collaborations in the areas of technical R&D, manufacturing & supply, drug development and commercialization as well as implementation of divestments and M&A.

Sean is an experienced executive leader with a demonstrated track record of business results and is also passionate about leading, developing and coaching high performing diverse global teams. Sean currently leads a global group level Partnering ecosystem (from developers and startups to strategic multinationals) and Devices (Including handset core business accountability) team with a focus on commercial growth, innovation and device portfolio management - including scouting and incubation with teams situated across Europe, United Kingdom, Silicon Valley, Israel, India, China and Korea. Sean has more than 25 years of telecom, mobile devices, consulting and software industry experience in the areas of corporate strategy, strategic partnerships, startups, innovation, marketing, digital, product development and MGMT, business development and sales - B2C/B2B. Sean holds an MBA in Technology and Marketing and has also volunteered by sitting on key industry and charitable boards/councils in telecom, innovation, gender/diversity and underprivileged children's causes.

Dee is an entrepreneurial Senior Executive with significant experience in mobile communications with a consistent promotional track record to Board level in devices management.

Adriana is an experienced ecosystem builder and strategic partnerships leader with a strong focus on startups and corporate innovation, well-versed with global operations. Some of previous work includes: fundraising (both from private and public institutions), setting up and running accelerators (London, Berlin, Amsterdam), and managing the global expansion of programs (Creative Coffee, Rockstart, Philips). Starting 2023, she joined Unilever as Global Head of Strategic Partnerships.

Stéphane Gervais has more than 25 years of experience in the high-tech industry as global marketing, business development, project management, and product designer.

He has worked for multinational companies in Europe and in Asia. Stéphane also has experience in emerging technologies and markets. His current position is executive EVP Strategic Innovation at LACROIX Group : Industrial Internet-of-Things (IoT), new technologies, electronics, smart mobility and smart city are some of his favorite’s topics.

Stéphane holds a Doctorate degree (Ph. D) in Electronics from the University of Bordeaux (France) and an MBA degree from Newcastle University, Australia.

Before becoming global head alliance management healthcare at Merck, Markus was Chief Business Officer Healthcare New Businesses, Global Head Strategy and Operations General Medicine & Endocrinology, and similar leadership roles at Merck including the Country General Manager for Merck Austria.

Markus also has worked in the PwC network and Procter & Gamble.

Nicolas Becker is a seasoned BD&L professional currently serving as Sr. Director of Alliance Management at Bayer's Pharmaceutical division in Berlin, Germany. Nicolas oversees and manages Bayer's late-stage development and commercial global partnerships. His primary responsibilities encompass contract execution, partnership optimization, and relationship management. Nicolas ensures that partnerships are successfully executed, while also fostering strong and mutually beneficial relationships with partners. Before assuming his current position, Nicolas served as the Head of Business Development and Licensing at Bayer in Beijing, China. Nicolas holds a Diploma in International Business Administration from the University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden, Germany.

For more than 20 years already, Frank has been working for SAP in consulting, pre-sales, product management, business development and partnership roles. Since April 2022, he co-leads SAP’s industry partner management team and have the ability to cover a broad field of partner activities across all industry verticals that SAP serves with its line of business and industry-specific solutions. Earlier he focused on Energy and Natural Resources includes Chemicals, Mill Products & Mining, Oil, Gas & Energy, and Utilities. But now this larger variety in industries allows him to work with many different and highly experienced teams, working on numerous topics from strategy and ideation to monetization and go-to-market.

Frederic Bonfils is the Corporate Alliance Management Director for the Pierre Fabre Group, a position he has held since 2014.

He has been awarded the Certification Strategic Alliance Professional (CSAP) by the ASAP (Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals). He is an active member of the ASAP French chapter.

Frederic Bonfils joined the Pierre Fabre Group in 2005, and prior to taking on his current role in Alliance Management, he held various positions in marketing, international key account management and marketing/development. During this period, he worked in a wide-range of business units and therapeutic areas, including Oral Care, OTC, Urology, Respiratory and CNS. In all of these activities, the management of external partnerships played a prominent part of his responsibilities. Before joining Pierre Fabre, Frederic worked for Sanofi during 15 years, in Finance, local and international marketing and management of a profit center abroad. 

Frank joined ICW as Chief Executive Officer at the start of 2023. He started his career at CIBA Geigy where he worked as a chemist in their pharmaceutical research Laboratories. He then spent over 30 years with BSI, starting as a client manager, then working in new product development, product management, and was Operations Director for Continental Europe Middle East and Africa region overseeing BSI assessment delivery across the whole region. He then went on to be Regional Director for the Northern European region, where he had R&L responsibility for Germany, France Holland, and Scandinavian countries. He became EMEA Compliance & Risk Director, and in moved in 2021 into the role of UK&I product Certification Director. Frank was responsible for the introduction into the BSI Portfolio of a number of new products including integrated management systems, OHSAS 18001 (now ISO 45001), BS 11000 (now ISO 44001). He developed the ISO 44001 Certification scheme now used for the certification of organisations to ISO 44001. Frank has been a Fellow of ICW since 2014 and was the Collaborative Leader of the Year in 2018.

Keith leverages more than 15 years of cybersecurity experience and more than 20 years of experience in the broader technology space, assisting companies to establish and grow their channel and alliances strategy. He is responsible for Kroll’s Cyber Risk partner ecosystem and program, leveraging relationships with resellers, integrators, MSSP’s distributors and consultancy partners to drive Kroll’s growth in the cybersecurity sector.

Prior to joining Kroll, Keith served as a worldwide vice president of channels and alliances for Claroty, an industrial cybersecurity specialist. Before that, he spent more than five years as the vice president of Channels Alliances and Commercial Sales at Palo Alto Networks. Keith has also held positions at Polycom, Orange Business Services, AdaptiveMobile, Dimension Data and Cisco.

Having owned his own technology company startup, Keith is also a board adviser for a publicly listed media and communications business, helping set their cybersecurity strategy, chairing executive steering committees to ensure business resilience and continuity. He is an active member of channel forums and societies, providing thought leadership on all aspects of channel and indirect sales go-to-market strategies.

Carl-Marcus has spent 27 years in the IT industry, starting later in his career as an alliance manager, in 2019. He's played a key role in shaping strategy for Iver Group, a leading Nordic digital transformation partner with strong multi-cloud capabilities.

With a focus on competence-, service-, and co-selling development, he holds a Certification of Achievement in Alliance Management (CA-AM) since 2022. He also serves as a Board Member at the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP), contributing to industry collaboration and advancement.

Catriona Hansbauer works as Director, Alliance Management in the Alliance Management Department in Business Development & Licensing. She manages priority and complex alliances across the BioPharma R&D Therapy Areas.

Prior to her current role, Catriona worked as External Innovation Manager in the Strategy and External Innovation Department within the CV, renal and metabolism area (CVRM). In that role, she managed key collaborations and supported the enhancement of the CVRM portfolio through in-licensing opportunities.

Before joining AstraZeneca in 2015, Catriona worked as a patent paralegal for the patent law firm Mitscherlich in Munich supporting patent attorneys in all phases of the patent prosecution process. Catriona has a MSc from the University of Gothenburg and a BA from the University of Regensburg in Germany. She is CA-AM (Certification of Achievement – Alliance Management) certified.

A recognised global leader in digital technology and business strategy with 27 years of experience building digital ecosystems for the leading FTSE100 and Fortune 500 companies. A successful leader with a robust track record and reputation for his energetic multinational team leadership, sales, technology background and strategy, value-based & consultative selling, business development and strategic marketing abilities. Extended expertise in the enterprise space across different industries and technology, with strong international experience, working in a matrix and complex environments and a proven track record of improving company performance and exceeding company sales revenue and targets through strategic business initiatives, marketing activities and customer relationships.

Ard-Pieter de Man PhD is a board room consultant and professor of Management Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is an internationally recognized thought leader in the areas of organizational forms, ecosystems, platforms, and alliances. As a consultant he advises organizations on these issues on a strategic level. He is the author of over a hundred articles and fifteen books: How to survive the organizational revolution, that helps managers make sense of new organizational forms, and the widely used Alliances: An executive guide to designing successful strategic partnership.

Christophe is responsible for strategic alliances within Dassault Systemes.

Pinard is also president of the French chapter of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP)

Bonnie holds more than thirteen years of experience successfully building, managing and retiring third-party partnerships across the pharma, diagnostics and healthcare industries.

With a background in biochemistry and cellular biology, Bonnie has navigated drug and device lifecycles across multiple geographic territories -- leading global, cross-matrixed teams through early discovery, clinical development and commercial operations.

Stephan is leading negotiations for collaboration, license, clinical supply and other agreements with biotech, pharma and academia to deal execution.

His Alliance Management experience includes: Contract management (expansion / termination of existing alliances), governance management, orchestration of interdisciplinary workflows, relationship building and conflict resolution.

Lasse is Associate Director, Alliance Management at Genmab. He was previously Senior R&D Alliance Manager at LEO Pharma for 3 years, and perviously Innovation Lead at Biosyntia.

Antony is formerly Strategic Partnerships Director at Pfizer.

Kaushik is an experienced professional with a demonstrated history of working in the pharmaceuticals industry. He is competent in leading Project teams and skilled in Research and Development (R&D), Good Laboratory Practice (GLP), Life Sciences and CRO Management. He has a Six Sigma training focused on portfolio and project management across the spectrum of pharmaceutical industry, CRO and academia.

Julie is Associate Director Strategic Alliances, leading Cancer Research Horizon’s team that manages a portfolio of long-term, strategic alliances with one or more external partners in Europe, US and Japan, to translate novel academic research based on shared values and common goals to address a cancer challenge. The team supports building of new alliances and are also responsible for business intelligence, data analysis and post-deal administration. She also played key roles in establishing alliances with Merck Healthcare KGaA, AstraZeneca, and Abcam. Cancer Research Horizons is the commercial arm of Cancer Research UK. Julie joined Cancer Research Horizons in 2012 transitioning into business development, after a career of nearly 25 years in discovery research, predominantly involving antibody technology, at Unilever plc and Genzyme.

Mikel is Head of Partnerships EMEA at CyberProtonics. Mikel was recently Innovation PM at Venture Lab; ecosystem orchestrator and author.

He is a Chemist by training, entrepreneurial in nature, with international experience in open innovation: digital health, pharma, energy, cleantech & mobility. He has recognized expertise in bringing eclectic stakeholders and enabling constructive collaboration to a shared outcome. He previously worked for Bayer G4A (Digital Health Start-Up Accelerator) and the Bayer CoLaborator (Biotech Start-Up Incubator) in San Francisco.

He is a Published Author of Today’s Superpower: Building Networks and Co-Author of the academic paper: What Corporates Can Do to Help an Innovation Ecosystem Thrive — and Why They Should Do It

Jeremy Gréant has an extensive background in strategic partnerships and alliances. Jeremy currently holds the position of Head of Strategic Partnerships at Lighthouse, where they are responsible for identifying, selecting, building, and nurturing partnerships within the hospitality and travel technology ecosystem. Prior to this role, they served as a Strategic Partnerships Manager at Lighthouse, overseeing and managing a portfolio of 100+ partners and driving partner revenue. Before joining Lighthouse, Jeremy worked at International SOS as a Strategic Partnerships and Alliances Senior Programme Manager, where they devised and executed partnership strategies, built and managed partnerships and alliances, and ensured effective coordination and communication between stakeholders. Jeremy also served as a Business Analyst and Operations Coordinator, providing analytics, managing day-to-day operations, and implementing processes supporting partnership activities.

Nicole Colwell is an accomplished tech industry leader with over 25 years in the industry, making her mark at influential organizations like GE, Hewlett Packard, and Avaya. Currently as EVP/Chief Alliance Officer at the PraSaga Foundation, she champions collaborative alliances to drive tech innovation. Recognized among the top women in Web3, Nicole is also founder of WESAGA, empowering women in emerging technology. Nicole's insights have graced global stages, including the United Nations, spotlighting her expertise in shaping technology's future through strategic alliances.

Keith Buchanan Smith, PhD, has worked on collaborations and licensing in various industries including fine & heavy chemical, forestry, music, food, biotech, large pharma and consultancy as well as 3 business start-ups. He is also a professional touring musician.

Nada was born in Lebanon in 1965 and holds a degree in Electrical Engineering, Ecole Superieure d'Ingenieurs de Beyrouth (ESIB) and an MBA from HEC (Paris). She moved to France in 1995, after 8 years as Head of Sales Department in Matelec - Electrical equipment manufacturer in Lebanon. In 1999 she joined Suez Group as Business Development manager. In 2002, she integrated the Renault Group and occupied several Corporate positions in the Communications - Facilities Management and the Insurance Departments. Since 2012, she has developed her expertise in the implementation of new strategic partnerships, mainly JVs in China, as well as project management in partnerships for the Alliance (Nissan/Mitsubishi), Avtovaz, Mercedes Benz, Renault Trucks, Hyvia and Minth. As of November 2023, she joined Ampere, the new electric and software company of Renault Group, to set up and manage the Business Office in charge of the partnerships portfolio of the company.

Mirjam Ros is a business strategist who believes in simplifying the complex and in making ‘common sense more common’. She is driven by a people and user-centric approach to open innovation, business strategy, collaboration, commercial contracting and Intellectual Property (IP). Mirjam works as an innovation & strategy consultant and coach at nlmtd, an Innovation & Consultancy Agency in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Her customers work at start and scale-ups, SME’s, corporates, accelerators, universities and institutes.
 Mirjam wrote 'the Innovation Matrix' with Deepika Jeyakodi. Mirjam worked more than 25 years in the high tech industry, of which 15 years in Leadership and Management Team roles. She holds two Master degrees, in Business Law and in Public Administration & Policy.

Jan Twombly, CSAP, is president of The Rhythm of Business, a service provider with expertise in partnering, alliances, and collaboration offering consulting, education, data-rich assessments, and workflow automation. For over 20 years, she has been a leader in advancing the practice of alliance management. Her current emphasis is on ensuring alliance professionals focus on delivering the services of greatest value to stakeholders; upskilling alliance managers, alliance leaders, and team members, and digitizing alliance management workflow. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP), overseeing its editorial and content strategy. She is a frequent contributor to Strategic Alliance Quarterly, regularly speaks on collaboration and partnering, and is co-author of The Partnering Guide™ blog and numerous whitepapers. Visit rhythmofbusiness.com/insights for our most recent publications.

Mark has 18 years of global enterprise sales experience covering Europe and Asia-Pacific. He has proven expertise in implementing growth strategies with new offerings, alliances and channels (SaaS, Services, Consulting and Outsourcing). He has a track record of successfully growing accounts, adding new logos and building high performing teams.

to be added

Lisa is a experienced Alliances Director with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology sector, working across both Public and Private sector. At Oracle, her role is to work with the Oracle partner community, customers, and influencers to drive the adoption of Oracle Applications across the Public and Private sector.

She ensures her Partner community is able to utilise the resources and relationships within Oracle to help customers have a truly engaging experience when working with them.

Ard-Pieter de Man PhD is a board room consultant and professor of Management Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is an internationally recognized thought leader in the areas of organizational forms, ecosystems, platforms, and alliances. As a consultant he advises organizations on these issues on a strategic level. He is the author of over a hundred articles and fifteen books: How to survive the organizational revolution, that helps managers make sense of new organizational forms, and the widely used Alliances: An executive guide to designing successful strategic partnership.

Annick De Swaef was until recently CEO of Belgian Road Research Center. She joined BRRC in 2017, bringing more than 20 years of management experience in the public sector and consulting industry.

Previously, De Swaef founded Consensa Consulting in 2009, a Belgian based company specialized in strategic partnerships and alliances. Prior to that, she spent 7 years at the Public Administration of the Brussels Capital region, where she held a variety of management roles from leading a team of road contract managers to implementing organizational change programs.

Annick De Swaef graduated from Ghent University in 1995, earning her master’s degree in construction engineering. She is passionate about guiding organizations on their journey to build and operate successful long term business collaborations. She’s been an active member of ASAP and a strong advocate for the added value of the ASAP community and best practices for business leaders.

Lili Zhou, a qualified lawyer in PRC in corporate laws and Joint Venture establishment. In the last 8 years, alone with her move from China to Germany, Lili switched her focus on HR M&As. From both corporate and business perspectives, she has successfully led over 40 M&A projects in HR area for ~20k employees’ transfer all over the world. Lili’s knowledge and experience in laws, HR, project management and culture exchanges made valuable combination for successful HR M&A management. In addition, she has built up different knowledge management platforms to always inspire new ideas, share lessons learnt and enhance professionality

George entered the field of alliance management as the first Global Alliance Director at Roche following a 15 year career in Medicinal Chemistry at Wellcome and GlaxoWellcome and biotech  consulting . After a 9 year career at Roche in UK and Switzerland in alliance management, BD and M&A integrations he joined GSK Biologicals in Belgium to establish and head a new Alliance Management and Operations function managing a range of strategic alliances in Vaccines development. In 2015 George joined UCB in Brussels where he developed a Centre of Expertise and a Community in Alliance Management creating a recognized and value-adding capability within the company for managing external partnerships. George joined Ipsen in 2019 as VP Head of Strategic Alliances Europe where he also developed the Alliance Management Centre of Excellence which has been instrumental in training the company’s alliance managers.  George holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Birmingham, UK.

After over 27 years in biotech and big pharma and 17 years at the frontline of business development and alliance management, Knut has seen many success stories as well as failures of collaborations. By sharing his experience and deep insights he enables companies to drive innovation through creating tailored collaborations and executing their alliances with excellence - generating new value for all parties.

At Novartis, Knut served as vice president, global head of alliance management where he strengthened the corporate alliance management function across five divisions, managing a team of seasoned alliance leaders who were responsible for a portfolio of over 300 alliances. Previously, he served as global head of BD&L for two franchises, ophthalmology and respiratory. Knut's teams were responsible for all business development activities, in- and out-licensing, all variations of collaborations, M&A activities and due diligences, and managing the alliance portfolio. In the early years of his 20-year career at Novartis in Switzerland, Knut was leading clinical stage R&D and commercial projects.

Steve is currently president of a newly formed consulting firm. Steve previously had responsibility for AstraZeneca's global late-phase and commercial alliance and integration management (AIM) strategy and execution capabilities. Steve's team led the integration of asset acquisitions, the transitions for divestments, and management of key late-phase alliances for AZ. Steve joined AZ in January 2015, after spending 26 years at Eli Lilly and Company where he was a founding member of Lilly's Office of Alliance Management. Steve is a well published author in Pharmaceutical Executive, PLG's Business Development & Licensing Journal, and Strategic Alliance Magazine and has been a board member and treasurer of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals.

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