Tech4Eva Conference 2022

Lan is the Deputy Managing Director of EPFL Innovation Park and an Expert of Innosuisse – the Swiss Innovation Agency.  She has 23 years of hands-on professional experience in industry as well as in the ecosystem of innovation & entrepreneurship.

Lan started her career at R&D department of Rolex, in charge of creating new computer aided design and optimisation tools in the product development process. She was later appointed as Head of Operational Planning at Pictet, working closely with a startup to design, develop and implement a management information system for group operation control. As the Managing Director of Geneva Creativity Center, she connected large corporations, SMEs, startups and researchers to initiate innovative joint R&D projects.

Currently at EPFL Innovation Park, she is leading entrepreneurship training and acceleration programs and is helping startups to establish business partnership with large corporations. Lan has a PhD degree from EPFL, an MBA from HEC Lausanne and postdoctoral applied research experience at Stanford University.

Carole Clair is an Associate Professor in medicine at the University of Lausanne. She works as a general internist and researcher at the Center for Primary Care andPublic Health (Unisanté), where she currently co-directs the Unit gender and health.

After her clinical training, she did a post-doctorate from 2009 to 2011 at the Tobacco Research and Treatment Center of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston(USA). In parallel, she completed a Master in Science in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. She obtained her Master of Science in 2012.

She has developed a research interest around gender and health and currently leads several research projects to better understand the influence of sex and gender in clinical medicine. She also leads a project to implement gender in the pregraduate teaching of medical students at the University of Lausanne. She is a member of the European Commission’s Gendered Innovations 2 Expert Group.

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Semira Gonseth Nusslé is a medical doctor specialized in prevention and public health. She co-founded and is the Chief Medical Officer of Genknowme SA, an epigenetic laboratory that measures the impact of environment and lifestyle on the genes in Epalinges, which is a spinoff of the Lausanne University Hospital and of the University center for general medicine and public health in Lausanne (Unisanté). She is also in charge of promoting innovation as a part-time executive at Unisanté.

Prior to this position, she led a research career in the field of epidemiology of chronic disease, and in particular she studied the epigenetics of cancer in UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco where she developed the idea of an epigenetic testing company in the UC Berkeley incubator Skydeck. She came back to Switzerland and founded her company in the Swiss Health Valley ecosystem in 2019.

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Dr. Bettina Ernst is a biotech entrepreneur and investor. She has been investing in healthcare companies for the past 10 years. She also serves on the board of several early-stage biotech companies, on the board of the Swiss Biotech Association, and as a member of the advisory board of the Swiss Entrepreneur Fund and of the Innovation Council of Innosuisse. Bettina is a co-founder of two biotech companies. Prior to her investment and entrepreneurial activities, she worked for 10 years in fundamental immunology in the US (Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, CA) and in Europe. Bettina holds a PhD in immunology and an undergraduate degree in natural science from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Bettina resides in Switzerland.

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Samira Jafari is the Global Head of Advanced Technologies and Innovation at Datwyler Schweiz. She has Bachelors and Masters in aerospace engineering and completed her studies as a PhD in mechanical engineering at ETH Zürich. She has a decade of experience of working in different industries in engineering and manufacturing sector.

She is also a member of the innovation council in Innosuisse, Swiss innovation agency, since 2022.

Samira is a published author. She published a book series for children about space during her bachelor studies.

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Ellen Kocher is an Economist and Certified Workplace Wellness Consultant in Switzerland and the USA. She holds a master’s degree in Workplace Wellness and Coaching, is an ICF Professional Certified Coach, and is a Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach. Educated in the USA, Ellen has lived in Switzerland for over 30 years. After 10 years in the Finance Industry, she made a personal lifestyle shift and has dedicated the past 20+ years to workplace well-being. She has accompanied dozens of organizations to understand, assess and implement holistic well-being to sustainably improve the bottom line.

As a Consultant, Coach, Author, and Speaker, Ellen currently holds board positions and distinctions including Global Leader of the International Coaching Federation Health and Wellness Coaching Community, National Wellness Institute Circle of Leadership Award for outstanding contributions in the field of Wellness, and Multicultural Competency Committee, Vice-Chair Global Wellness Institute Health and Wellness Coaching Initiative, ICF Mentor Coach for multiple globally recognized training programs.

Ellen resides in Geneva Switzerland with her husband and 3 children.

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After starting his career in Finance, Jean-Michel soon realized that adding the human dimension to his responsibilities would be important for him. This prompted him to re-orient his career in Human Resource, initially focusing on Compensation and Benefits. As Benefits steadily gained importance in the corporate world, he further specialised in Benefits and now covers the 13 countries in Europe and Asia where global asset manager Capital Group has established an international presence. The challenge of meeting the diverse health and wellness needs of Capital Group’s associates while supporting the firm’s global business strategies is what keeps him highly engaged.

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Rob has over 30 years experience in financing and bringing ground-breaking medical technology and software to global markets, with the past 20 years focussed on women’s health.   Co-inventor of 6 OvuSense patents and co-author of several clinical publications, he is also CEO of viO HealthTech Inc., the company’s wholly owned US subsidiary. Rob has worked for Roche, Oxford Instruments, and was formerly a member of the Operations Board of Huntleigh Healthcare following the successful sale and integration of the Sonicaid Fetal Monitoring and Medilog Cardiology businesses. He brings extensive experience in international sales & marketing, M&A, sub-contract manufacturing, finance and systems.

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Elena Osto is Assistant Professor funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation PRIMA-Grant at the University Hospital and University of Zurich. She obtained her MD and PhD degrees at the Universities of Padova, Italy, where she also became a board-certified cardiologist.

Her research focuses on cardio-metabolic research and she is specialized in endothelial metabolism and function in immuno-metabolic disarrangements like obesity, diabetes and aging. Her clinical expertise focuses on advanced non-invasive cardiac imaging and sex-differences in coronary microvascular dysfunction. She is recipient of prestigious awards and member of international professional associations in the field of cardiology and vascular biology.

She is particularly interested in sex- and gender-related aspects in medicine and very active in Gender Equality Promotion.

Since 2018,she is Member of the Commission Sex and Gender in Medicine (SGIM) of the medical Faculty of University of Zurich and University Hospital Zurich and in the Board of the Swiss Gender Health Network of Swiss Universities for Implementation of Sex and Gender aspects in the Curriculum of the SWISS Medical Faculties.

In May 2022, she became President of SGIM in Zurich. Since 2020, she is a Mentor in the COMET (COACHING, MENTORING AND TRAINING): Career Program for Female Postdocs at the University of Bern. Since 2021, she is a Mentor in the Réseau romand mentoring femmes. Mentoring Program for women scientists at the Swiss universities.

Cofounder and Chief Medical Officer of IMMA health, Nadia is a French MD, specialized in Laboratory Fertility Medicine. After studying medicine at Paris V, completing a residency at the Claude Bernard Faculty in Lyon and a Fertility Medicine Fellowship at the Pitie Salpetriere Hospital in Paris.She is a former head of UNILABS-IVF laboratories in Paris for two years before joining the team of the only public IVF Laboratory in the French Caribbean for 7 years.

She holds 2 master’s degrees in Infertility Medicine and Research as well as Degrees in Medical Hypnosis, Sexual Therapy and Andrology and an MBA from Reichman University in Israel. Former General Secretary of the SALF (Société d’Andrologie de Langue Française) and a member of several Medical Societies, she has published more than a dozen medical papers in peer reviewed medical journals, and spoken at medical conferences around the world, notably on the emergence of the Zika virus epidemic in the Caribbean and its impact on human fertility.

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Cristina is a mother, entrepreneur and a data analyst. After her masters in Physics and the PhD in Biophysics, she started her academic career in the most prestigious European universities. She is author of numerous scientific publications, received prestigious research grants, and is a medical faculty lecturer. In December 2019, she co-founded b-rayZ, a spin-off of the University Hospital of Zürich developing AI solutions for the early detection of breast cancer. The company has reached an exceptional traction with commercial, technical, and clinical success in a short time.

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Dr. Antonella Santuccione Chadha is Chief Medical Officer at Altoida, a precision neurology company pioneering non-invasive brain health diagnostics using AI and augmented reality. Dr. Chadha is a medical doctor and internationally recognized expert in clinical pathology, neuroscience, neurological disease, and psychiatric disorders. Prior to joining Altoida, Dr. Chadha served as the Head of Stakeholder Engagement for Alzheimer’s Disease at Biogen. She is the co-founder and pro-bono CEO of the Women’s Brain Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing the influence of sex and gender on mental health, brain health, and neurological diseases.

She is a decorated researcher, having studied novel immunotherapies for Alzheimer’s disease in the laboratory of Roger Nitsch and Christoph Hock at the University of Zurich where aducanumab, the first amyloid treatment for Alzheimer’s, was discovered. Her additional experience spans the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products, Roche Diagnostics and Roche Pharmaceuticals, the EU Commission Directorate for Health and Food Safety, the OECD, the CEOi, and several other Alzheimer’s Disease organizations.

Dr. Chadha is listed among the Top 100 Women in Business in Switzerland since 2018, and was elected Woman of the Year in Switzerland by the Magazine “Women in Business.” She also received the World Sustainability Award for her involvement in advancing Precision Medicine, and “Premio Medicina Italia” for her contribution to the management of the pandemic. She is also the recipient of the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Awards 2022.

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COO of Groupe Mutuel since 2013, Sophie Revazis Director of the "Individual services" area, which brings together more than 1,000 employees, more than 65% of whom are women.  These departments are at the heart of insurance since they are dedicated to contract management, reimbursement of benefits, price negotiations and payment traffic& litigation.  A lawyer by training, Sophie Revaz was previously in charge of the legal part and human resources.  She is also a member of the Swiss Circle of Directors.

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Ursula joined the EPFL as Vice President for Innovation on March 1st, 2021.

Prior to that, Ursula spent 20 years in Silicon Valley and Asia working in open innovation and with start-ups. First, she worked in the telecom-IT industry and then in Life Science. She led digital innovation initiatives and corporate transformation programs. She holds a PhD in physics from EPFL.

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Oana Gharbi is a FemTech business consultant, professional fertility patient advocate and certified health coach.

Having experienced secondary infertility first hand, Oana brings unique perspectives gained from her battlefield experience to the organizations she works with, gaping a bridge between the real needs of fertility patients and FemTech business initiatives.

Oana is Head of Partnerships for Proov and is a professional member of Resolve, the European Fertility Society and ESHRE".

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Anna holds a MSc from Stockholm School of Economics, as well as diplomas from the Karolinska Institutet and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH).

She is passionate about the mix between economics, technology and the human aspect of healthcare.

In her current role she is responsible for the Innovation activities carried out at Groupe Mutuel, aiming to constantly bringing new topics and trends to the table.

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After a stint in an energy startup, Iohannes joined the EPFL Innovation Park in 2019 to organise the Innosuisse entrepreneurship trainings. He has since contributed to the success of various acceleration programmes and in 2020 took over the reins of the early stage startup incubator La Forge. In 2022 he started the Future of Health Grant program, a non dilutive grant funded by an insurance company.

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