Biomanufacturing Platform – Policy Summit 2023

Hilary Stiss

Director, International Affairs, BIO Program Director, ICBA

As a Director for International Affairs at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), Hilary is responsible for managing the industry association’s program of international advocacy and outreach for multilateral organizations. Hilary also manages the association’s engagement in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey and South Africa regions. In this position, she engages with foreign officials in these regions to promote policies that support a strong biotechnology industry as well as to resolve policy issues relevant to the industry. Hilary also acts as Program Director for the International Council on Biotechnology Associations (ICBA).

Claire Skentelbery

Claire holds a PhD in biochemistry and has worked in the development of scientific networks and associations for over 15 years. She started her career as part of the Cambridge biotech cluster in the UK within the cluster business network and was a founder of the Council of European BioRegions, a network of biotech clusters across Europe. She brought herself and CEBR to Brussels in 2009 where she also took on the role of SG for the European Biotechnology Network, working across sectors, organisations and countries as part of the EBN mission to facilitate partnerships. In January 2017, Claire took up her role as DG of the Nanotechnology Industries Association which she successfully led until recently.

Dr. Ute Schick

Senior Vice President Research, Development and Innovation, Evonik

Dr. Schick has a 20-year track record in global profit and loss responsibility at CEO and Senior Manager level within Food, Health, Cosmetic Industry and Material Science. Before her current role with Evonik, she held roles as SVP of Supply Chain and Business Processes and VP of new Growth Business. Prior to working at Evonik she held roles at DuPont and DSM.

Wojciech Nowak

Group Senior Director, Global Governmental and Public Affairs, Novartis International, Switzerland.
(Functional responsibility for ca. 30 countries incl. Western & Eastern Europe, Central Asia).

Multicultural, inclusive and reflective leader who lived in 6 countries on 3 continents.
Robust understanding of the global healthcare policies and life-sciences business with more than 20 years of experience in policy creation related to healthcare systems, EU integration and global pharmaceutical market.

Started his career at the Ministry of Health (Poland) counselling policy leaders on European integration and healthcare matters, followed by assignments in the Ministry of Health and Solidarity of the Republic of France (Paris, France) and Health Directorate of the European Commission (DG SANCO, Luxembourg).

After joining private sector has been serving in a number of senior leadership roles of growing
responsibility in healthcare companies(GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott, Novartis) on country, regional and global levels (Poland, Belgium, Switzerland).

Educated in Poland, United States, Nederlands, Switzerland, with the background in political sciences, international relations (Warsaw’s University, Poland; European Institute of Public Administration, Maastricht, Nederlands) and business administration (IMD Business School Lausanne, Switzerland) he is an expert in healthcare systems, global healthcare policies and international business.

Passionate about delivering access and best healthcare outcomes to patients around the World.

Tineke Van Hooland

Deputy Secretary general of bio.be/essenscia

Tineke Van Hooland is Deputy Secretary general of bio.be/essenscia, the Belgian federation of companies active in life sciences & biotechnologies. She’s also a board member at EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries, from which she also chairs the NAC, National Associations Council. Prior to this, Tineke held several leadership positions in biopharmaceutical companies at the corporate level over the past years. She has in-depth expertise in Governmental Affairs, Market Access, Communication and Patient Advocacy. Tineke graduated with High Distinction as Industrial Pharmacist from Ghent University in 2003.

Tineke is also the founder and CEO of epic 10, a boutique external affairs consultancy firm, and a respected board member in various other organizations.  She is known for her dynamic and no-nonsense approach, is a female leadership advocate and has authored a number of opinion pieces on sustainable health policy and empowering women.

Kristin Schreiber

Kristin Schreiber leads the Directorate Ecosystems I: Chemicals, Food, Retail, Health in DG GROW, the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.

Prior to her current Director position, she served as Director for Governance of the Single Market and International Affairs in DG MARKT (until 2015) and Director for SME policy in DG GROW (until March 2021).

Kristin Schreiber was Head of Cabinet of Employment Commissioner Vladimir Špidla, Deputy Head of Cabinet of Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier and member of the Cabinets of Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen and Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert. She also served as Head of Unit for International Affairs in DG Employment and Social Affairs and was a member of the Merger Task Force of DG Competition.

Stefaan Fiers

Corporate Communications, Public Affairs and Patient Advocacy Takeda

Stefaan is Head of Corporate Communications, Public Affairs and Patient Advocacy at Takeda Belgium, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Belgium. With his team, he secures the healthcare policy analysis, engages with external stakeholders and coordinates the company’s communication strategy. Additionally, he oversees Takeda’s public affairs activities in 24 mid-sized European countries.

Before joining Takeda in June 2020, he was Director of Communications and Public Policy at the Belgian pharma industry association pharma.be and held public policy positions in the pharma industry, at Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium/Luxembourg and at MSD Belgium.

Next to his activities at Takeda, Stefaan is an Associate Professor in Public Affairs and Comparative Politics at KU Leuven, a Board member of PACE (Public Affairs Community Europe), and the author of several books and peer-reviewed articles.

Philippe Moyen

VP, Chief of Staff to CTOO and Head of CMC Program Management – Technical Operations, PTC Therapeutics

Following a university focus on therapeutic systems, followed by formulation and industrial development, Philippe has worked across the biotechnology spectrum including Baxter Healthcare, Fresenius Kabi, Stallergenes Greer, and PTC Therapeutics where he has a strong focus on operations.

Kristin Thompson

VP, Chief Business Officer

Kristin Thompson is a former head of strategic partnerships in microbiomes at Bioaster. Before that, Dr. Thompson was senior BD manager at Famar and BD manager of the French biotech company DaVolterra. She worked in research at French INSERM and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Ulm, Germany.

Nicoló Giacomuzzi-Moore

Executive Director ad interim, Circular Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking

Nicoló Giacomuzzi-Moore is CBE JU’s Executive Director ad interim and Head of the Administration and Finance Unit. He has been working in European affairs for more than 20 years, focusing on research and innovation policy, program implementation, and enterprise support.

Before joining BBI JU (now CBE JU) in 2016, he worked for the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency, where he was responsible for financial and legal support in implementing European research projects.

Nicoló also worked for an Italian business association dealing with industrial policy and stakeholder management at the EU level. He holds a degree in economics and international trade.

Peter Dröll

Director for Prosperity, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation

Peter Dröll has been working in the European Commission for more than 20 years with positions in the environment, enlargement negotiations, industry policy, innovation, and research. He was a Cabinet member of Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen and Head of Cabinet of the Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik.

Since 2010 he is at the Directorate-General of Research and Innovation where he was first responsible for Innovation and then for Industrial Technologies. Following the re-orientation of DG Research and Innovation towards sustainability, his competencies have been enlarged to include industrial R&I agendas and business intelligence as well as knowledge valorization policies.

Before joining the European Commission in 1991, Peter worked as a lawyer in a German law firm. Peter is a lawyer by training with a doctorate degree in German constitutional law and European law.

Jeroen Hofenk

Founder and Chief Science Officer, SwiftPharma

Jeroen is a serial entrepreneur and scientist with a background in bioengineering and genetics. He has broad experience in CRISPR engineering and various expression platforms including microbial-, animal cell-based, and plants.  In the last 10 years of his career, Jeroen has built a strong track record in plant-made-pharmaceutical manufacturing and the optimization thereof. He obtained 3 patent grants and holds 13 pending patents to his name.”

Peter Wehrheim

Head of the Unit for the “Bioeconomy and Food System” within the Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission in Brussels

While working for Phil Hogan, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, he contributed to the EU Bioeconomy Strategy. From 2010 to 2018 he was Head of the Unit for Land Use and Climate Finance in DG Climate Action. Before 2004 Peter worked at the Universities of Bonn/DE, Maryland/US (with a Heisenberg scholarship from the German Research Foundation), and Kiel/DE. He received his doctoral degree in agricultural economics from the University of Giessen, Germany