Dr. Okuda is a clinician-scientist and professor specializing in multiple sclerosis within the Department of Neurology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. He currently serves as Director of the Neuroinnovation Program and Director of the Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology Imaging Program. Dr. Okuda’s work currently focuses on end-to-end innovative approaches involving the design, creation and implementation of software, hardware, and manufacturing methods aimed at improving the evaluation, diagnosis, management, and education of patients with multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases. He is known for designing original platforms that improve diagnostic accuracy, treatment optimization, clinical surveillance, and more efficient healthcare methods that reduce cost. Dr. Okuda is a Diplomate of The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Inc., Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, Fellow of the American Neurological Association, and member of the American Academy of Neurology Committees on Neuro-imaging and Ethics.
Dr. Françoise Meunier, MD, PhD, received her medical degree magna cum laude from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and completed a Fulbright Research Fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She holds a Master’s Degree in Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine and a PhD at the ULB. She is certified as Pharmaceutical Medicine specialist in GB and BE and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (GB).
As EORTC Director General from 1991 through 2015, she oversaw its growth into an international world class cancer clinical research infrastructure. The EORTC Fellowship Program is a testimony to her success in educating future generations of clinical oncologists. Since 2015, she remains active as EORTC Director Special Projects where she is busy with cancer survivorship initiatives, fundraising projects, and sits on the board of the EORTC Cancer Research Fund.
Prior to joining the EORTC, Françoise Meunier was Head of Infectious Diseases Department at Institute Jules Bordet, and her personal area of research included the management of infections in patients with Cancer and mainly Invasive Fungal Infections. She has over 150 peer-reviewed published articles.
Françoise Meunier was awarded the Belgian Laureate Prix Femmes d’Europe 2004-2005, conferred the title of Baroness by His Majesty, King Albert II of Belgium in 2007, received the Pezcoller Foundation award in 2009, became a Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences in 2011, joined the Scientific Committee of the Innovative Medicine Initiative of the European Union in 2012, received the ECCO Life time achievement award in 2013, awarded a Ben de Pauw Medal for her dedication to Medical Mycology in 2013, appointed council member of the Federation of European Academies of Medicine in 2014, appointed Chair of Accreditation Council of Oncology in Europe and Member of Alliance for Biomedical Research in Europe in 2015, and has been a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine since 2006.
Franco Cavalli, born in 1942, was the Scientific Director of the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland (IOSI) in Bellinzona (Switzerland) until 2017. He created this institute, which encompasses medical oncology, radio-oncology, nuclear medicine, palliative care, hematology and an important research division. He is currently still President of the Foundation, which manages the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR), located in Bellinzona (Switzerland). He is Professor (Titularprofessor) of medical oncology at the Medical Faculty in Bern (Switzerland). He has an international reputation for the treatment of and research into malignant lymphoma and new drugs. Every second year he organizes in Lugano the International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma,
which is the most important congress on this topic worldwide. He has been very active also in the field of the clinical evaluation of new cancer drugs. The quality of his work has been recognized by the award of 24 national and international prices, including the Petzcoller Award for special dedication to oncology and the ESMO Lifetime Achievement Award. He has published more than
600 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has contributed to many books on cancer, including the Textbook of Medical Oncology, which he edited together with S. Kaye (London), H.H. Hansen (Copenhagen) and D. Armitage (Omaha, Nebraska).
He was Founding Editor and Editor-in- Chief of Annals of Oncology, Europe’s premier medical oncology journal, from 1990 to 2000, and he is on the Editorial Board of several other journals. In 1996, he founded the International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group (IELSG, www.ielsg.org), which encompasses now more than 200 institutions in 4 continents. IELSG is the leading cooperative group in the field of the biological and clinical studies in the field of extranodal lymphomas.
Franco Cavalli has been President of the Swiss Cancer League and is Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the European School of Oncology (ESO) and of the World Oncology Forum (WOF). He was President of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) between 2006 and 2008. He was member of the Swiss Parliament between 1995 and 2007.
Dr. Scott Ketover proudly serves as the President and CEO of
Minnesota Gastroenterology, one of the largest independent
gastroenterology practices in the country. He is also the Chairman of the 3,000-physician member Allina Integrated Medical Network, an ACO. Dr. Ketover previously served as the Founding President of the Digestive Health Physicians Association, a national patient care advocacy organization of 1,800 independent gastroenterologists, and he is the Founding President of the 1,100-physician member Digestive Health Network. In addition to his clinical interests, he is also deeply committed to physician leadership and practice management, and is a Fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association.
Vanessa lives in Brazil and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 17 years ago. She is a journalist specialised in Health and works to bring awareness around diabetes in the media, scheduling interviews for doctors, nutritionists and people with diabetes, especially on the occasion of World Diabetes Day. Vanessa is a member of the Council of Associação de Diabetes Juvenil (ADJ), Member of IDF’s Blue Circle Voices and coordinator of an advocacy programme with 30 Brazilian Diabetes Associations. In her capacity as a journalist she has written 14 articles about diabetes for ‘De Bem com a Vida’ site and is a blogger for Convivência com Diabetes. She helps ADJ to fundraise and to organise events, and is a speaker on behalf of 30 Diabetes Associations in Brazil for improving diabetes treatment.
Shomit’s data-centric vision of the future has helped lead ONSET’s investments in software. Prior to entering venture capital, he was a startup software entrepreneur with a career of operating excellence spanning 19 years. Shomit’s startup roles included three highly successful IPOs as SVP of Operations at Tumbleweed Communications; VP of Worldwide Services at BroadVision; and software engineer at Sun Microsystems. He was also CEO and board member of ONSET portfolio company, Truviso, for two years leading to its acquisition by Cisco Systems.
At ONSET since 2001, Shomit has represented ONSET on the boards of Adara, HyperGrid, Imanis Data, Pancetera (acquired by Quantum), Polymorph, Truviso, Vidder and Vindicia (acquired by Amdocs.) In his private life he has been committed to coaching girls’ sports for many years in softball, high-level club soccer, and club and high school varsity and junior varsity lacrosse.
At the age of 15, Shomit was awarded two academic scholarships to the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated with a degree in Computer Science. He serves on the advisory boards of UC Berkeley College of Engineering’s Sutardja Center, Innovation Center Denmark’s ScaleIT program, and the Lundbeck Foundation Clinical Research Fellowship Program.
Dr. Shaukat M. Sadikot from India is the President of the International Diabetes Federation 2016-2017, and President of DiabetesIndia. Presently working as a Consultant in Endocrinology at the Jaslok Hospital and Research Center, Mumbai, he has been actively involved with the cause of diabetes and associated metabolic disorders for the past 30 years.
He has been closely associated with the activities of IDF for many years and is a member of the IDF Task Force on Insulin, Test strips and Other Diabetes Supplies, the IDF Consensus Group on the Prevention of Prediabetes, Diabetes and the Metabolic Syndrome, and the IDF Consensus group on Diabetes and Obstructive Sleep Apnoea. Presently, he is working on the interactions between phytochemicals and chemokines on the endothelium.
Dr. Sadikot is the editor of the International Scientific Journal “Diabetes and the Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research and Reviews”. He has written four books and has 87 publications to his credit.
Professor John Nolan is Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Development Officer of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD).
A graduate of University College Dublin, Professor Nolan trained in general medicine and completed training in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). His academic career has included positions at UCSD, Trinity College Dublin, and the University of Copenhagen. He is an international authority on insulin resistance and the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. He was appointed to the Chief Scientific Officer position at EASD in April 2017.
From 2011-2016 Professor Nolan was CEO and Head of the Steno Diabetes Center in Copenhagen. During his tenure, he led Steno through a strategic and organisational transformation that enabled it to improve its clinical quality and outcomes, grow its pool of researchers, boost its research income and performance, expand its international partnerships, and increase its income from philanthropy and other non-governmental sources.
Professor Nolan has held several leadership roles, including as a member of the Executive of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, Chair of Postgraduate Education for the EASD, and Deputy Editor of the
journal Diabetologia.
He is Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Dublin and Edinburgh. In 2011 he was awarded honorary Fellowship of Trinity College Dublin.
Magnus Persson brings 20 years of international experience from leadership in Life Science innovation, development and financing and has been a Partner in two Life Sciences Venture Capital firms, one with its base in Sweden and with global reach and one in The Bay Area in California. He has a long experience from medicine, life sciences and biotech financing including leading development teams of Phase II and III programs in the Pharmaceutical Industry. He has founded, and led private as well as public biotech and medtech companies as Chairman of the Board, Board Director and CEO in the Nordic Countries, Europe and USA. All in all, Magnus has more than 100 Board years in the life science industry and has led audit and remuneration committees and several successful recruitment processes for senior management positions. Magnus brings a vast international network in the science and biotech financing communities.
Bethany Ranes, Ph.D. is a senior research scientist from UnitedHealth Group Research and Development who specializes in cognitive neuroscience and mental health. At UnitedHealth Group, she works predominantly on projects related to mental health and chronic pain, but regularly collaborates across multiple projects to assist with developing psychologically-informed interventions for behavior change and nonpharmacologic treatment options for chronic disease management. She has previously served as a principal research scientist for the U.S. Army, where she led studies on soldiers’ return to duty following traumatic brain injury, and Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, where she evaluated and helped develop clinical programs for substance use disorders. Dr. Ranes is passionate about using cognitive neuroscience and psychology research as a means of finding innovative ways of integrating mental and medical health for people who are struggling with chronic conditions.