Speaker & Panelist Biographies

Dr. Edward Abrahams, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Personalized Medicine Coalition
Dr. Abrahams brings extensive experience in industry, academia, and government to the Personalized Medicine Coalition. As former Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association, Dr. Abrahams managed all aspects of the Association, including public advocacy, media relations, and educational programs, tripling its size and revenues in three years. He also spearheaded the successful effort that led to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's investment of $200 million to commercialize biotechnology in that state. Previously, he had been Assistant Vice President for Federal Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, and also held a senior administrative position at Brown University. Before becoming a university lobbyist, Dr. Abrahams worked seven years for the United States Congress, including as a legislative assistant to Senator Lloyd Bentsen and as an economist for the Joint Economic Committee under the chairmanship of Congressman Lee Hamilton.

Dr. Amir Attaran
Associate Fellow, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, London
Director, The Idealith Research Foundation, Boston
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law and Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa
Amir Attaran is by training both an immunologist (D.Phil. Oxford) and lawyer (LL.B. Vancouver). His current research emphasizes the subject of health and development in poor countries. Current research interests include studying the scarcity of international aid for control of epidemic and pandemic diseases, criticism of policy development in international aid for health, the role of international patent law on access to medicines, and the design of tax and other legal incentives to accelerate research on diseases affecting the world's poorest and sickest populations. His publications have appeared in the leading journals of both the legal and biomedical professions, including the Yale and Stanford Journals of International Law, The Lancet, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and others. He is also the author of a recent book (with Prof. Brigitte Granville) on access to medicines in developing countries. Prof. Attaran has held faculty positions at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University. He is currently an associate fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law and Institute of Population Health at the University of Ottawa. Prof. Attaran has been an invited speaker at the International AIDS Conference (Barcelona), the World Economic Forum (Davos), WHO (Geneva), the Royal Institute of International Affairs (London), the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine (London), the US House of Representatives, and many universities and research institutes. He is also a journalist, having written for the Washington Post, New York Times, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Globe and Mail (Canada), and Boston Globe, among others. Prof. Attaran has acted as advisor on matters of international development to numerous NGOs, United Nations organizations, governments and corporations. Among his clients, both pro bono and paid, are the Government of Brazil, Médecins Sans Frontières, Novartis, the UN Development Programme, and the World Bank.

Dr. Janet C. Ballantyne
Group Vice President - International
Abt Associates, Inc.
Dr. Ballantyne joined Abt Associates in 2002. In her current position of Group Vice President for the International Line of Business, she oversees the operations of a staff in Bethesda, Maryland, and programs in over forty countries. The International Line of Business comprises programs in the areas of agriculture and agribusiness, trade and economic policy, the environment, and health. In the area of international health, Abt Associates has special capabilities in health systems and health finance, infectious diseases (including HIV/AIDS) and health policy. The majority of Abt Associates' international work is funded through contracts with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Prior to joining Abt Associates, Dr. Ballantyne was a career USAID Foreign Service Officer. She served in six overseas postings -- Peru, Bolivia, Nepal, Morocco, Nicaragua, and Russia. In the last two of these, Nicaragua and Russia, Dr. Ballantyne was the USAID Mission Director with responsibility for the direction of all programs of American foreign assistance. She has taught at the American University in Washington, D.C., the Catholic University in Lima, Peru, and the U.S. National War College. She has a PhD in Economics from Cornell University.

Mr. Jed Beitler
Chairman, CEO Worldwide
Sudler & Hennessey
Jed joined Sudler & Hennessey in 1996 in the position of Chairman, CEO Worldwide. In this role, he oversees the broad range of healthcare communications disciplines for the 34 offices of the S&H network in 19 countries around the world. Prior to joining S&H, Jed spent ten years as a partner at Harrison, Star, Wiener & Beitler. There he served as President and Chief Operating Officer for the professional and consumer advertising, medical education and public relations divisions of the business group. Sudler & Hennessey is one of the world's leading healthcare marketing and communications firms, developing strategic promotional and educational programs for a broad array of healthcare brands. Working with many of the leading companies in the healthcare community, from pharmaceuticals, packaged goods and services to governments and both trade and patient associations, S&H provides strategic consultancy and communications support that helps its clients reach a wide range of healthcare professionals, their patients and support networks. Sudler & Hennessey is part of the Young & Rubicam Brands family of companies within WPP, one of the world's leading communications services groups. Jed received his B.S. in biology at Upsala College, completed his course work for an M.B.A. in pharmaceutical marketing at Fairleigh Dickinson, and did postgraduate studies at Wharton School of Business and at Babson College. Among his other business-related activities, Jed has worked on the Treatment Advisory Board for NMAC, the National Minority AIDS Council, and has been a guest lecturer at Harvard Medical School, Tama University in Japan and his daughter's 6th grade science class.

Mr. Lionel Binns
Manager, Life Sciences Program Office in the Corporate High Performance Computing Division
Hewlett Packard Company
A biologist by background, Lionel first became involved in scientific IT when he was leading a team writing scientific software for a major pharmaceutical company in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Subsequently he became the IT manager for a UK subsidiary of a global German chemicals company and for the next few years followed this path until joining Honeywell Information Systems in the late 1970s. From then until joining Digital Equipment Corporation in 1987, as a Pharmaceutical Industry Consultant, Lionel held a number of consultancy, sales, marketing and management jobs in Honeywell and other computer companies. Since joining Digital, Lionel has held a number of consultancy, marketing and management positions, notably as the European Pharmaceutical Practice Manager, Client Director for a major pharmaceuticals outsourcing project, European Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries Director, European Biosciences Manager and recently, following Digital's merger with Compaq, as Compaq's world-wide Life and Materials Sciences Group manager before taking on his current role.

Prof. Dr. Johannes Bircher, MD
Honorary Member
Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences
Dr. Bircher studied medicine at the Universities of Zurich, Lausanne and Munich. He started his postgraduate training in internal medicine with an internship in Trenton, NJ, followed by a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and a residency program in gastroenterology at the University of Zurich. His professional career led him next to the Department of Clinical Pharmacology of the University of Bern, where he studied the use of drugs in man and researched patients with liver diseases. He also was a member of the drug regulatory committee of the Swiss Government. In 1974/75 he interrupted his career to work on a Swiss project of technical cooperation in Addis Ababa, where he served as Chief of Medicine and Medical Director of the Black Lion Hospital. In 1984 he became a full Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Göttingen in Germany and from 1989 to 1997 he served as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the private University of Witten/Herdecke in Germany, where he initiated the first modern curriculum in Germany. He has contributed numerous original articles and several books on clinical pharmacology and hepatology. After retirement he was an invited Guest Professor at the University of Leuven, Belgium and thereafter Medical Director of the University Hospital of Bern, from which he retired definitively in 2000. In 1999 he initiated the project "Re-Orientation of Medicine" at the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences and in 2003 he became honorary member of this Academy.

Dr. Thomas Bohner
Partner and Investment Manager
HBM Partners AG
Dr. Bohner was one of the five founding partners of HBM Partners AG in May of 2001. HBM is now one of the largest life science investment companies in Europe with 35 employees and more than one billion USD under management. Evaluating risks and opportunities of products and technologies, he is responsible for decisions in life science private equity investments at HBM Partners. He has several board responsibilities in life science companies for HBM and joined the board of the Zurich Orient Foundation in 2005. From 1998 to 2001 he worked for Swiss Re in the Risk Management division as a Senior Scientist, responsible for the development of new assurance products for the life science industry (recall, R&D- and brand protection). As a member of Swiss Re's risk management division, he was responsible for risk assessments of the R&D pipelines of pharma- and biotech companies, risk evaluations of clinical trials (pharma, biotech and medical devices). Dr. Bohner studied pharmaceutical sciences in Tübingen (Germany) and holds a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the ETH Zürich ("Expression, Purification, Crystallization and Structure Determination of HSV I thymidine kinase"). His thesis was honored with the ETH-Medal.

Mr. William R. Boyles
Editor & Publisher
Consumer Driven Market Report
Consumer Driven Market Report is an independent newsletter group financed by subscriptions only and accepting no advertising. Mr. Boyles started working in health care in 1971 as a medical claims review analyst for Blue Shield of Michigan, worked in the national offices of Blue Shield (Chicago), then earned an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Michigan (1973) with a specialty in health economics. After graduate school he began covering the U.S. Congress (1976) for a leading newsletter chain with a focus on financing medical schools and teaching hospitals. He is a standing member of the U.S. House and Senate Periodical Press Galleries. In 1984 he founded the first national newsletter on the Health Maintenance Organization product, followed in 1989 by the first newsletter on PPOs, and in 2002 the first newsletter on consumer-driven health care. He is the author of numerous articles and commentaries in trade publications. Consumer Driven Market Report (Washington D.C.) was the first publication in the U.S. to write about consumer-driven health care and the CDH movement. Its readers include health insurance companies, large international consultants, and leading economists and actuaries. The focus is on research trends and expert opinions about emerging products and companies.

Dr. Harry Burns
Director of Public Health
Greater Glasgow NHS Board
Harry Burns graduated in medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1974. Over the next 15 years he worked as a general surgeon and for the last six years of his surgical career was a consultant surgeon at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow. He entered health care management and was, for a time, Medical Director of the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow. Since 1993 he has been Director of Public Health for Greater Glasgow Health Board which is responsible for organising health care and maintaining the health of one million people in the West of Scotland. In 1999 he was awarded a Visiting Professorship in Public Health Medicine, University of Glasgow. He worked for three years on part-time secondment to the Scottish Executive developing strategy to tackle cancer in Scotland. This work culminated in the publication of the Scottish Cancer Plan. He is currently working on the establishment of the Glasgow Centre for Population Health which will examine the ways in which communities can create health through better and closer cooperation between different agencies.

Dr. David J Brickwood
Vice President of International Government Affairs - Europe
Johnson & Johnson
David is the Vice President of International Government Affairs for Europe for Johnson and Johnson family of companies, covering pharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics and consumer products. His career in the industry spans a variety of roles including worldwide Vice President for strategic marketing and Managing Director of Janssen-Cilag Ltd. He has worked in businesses in the USA, France and mostly in the UK. He is currently an elected member of the Board of Management of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and Chairman of the Access Strategy Group for the association which has the responsibility of coordinated activities and policies of the pharmaceutical industry in the United Kingdom with the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) and similar health technology assessment bodies. He is an organic chemist by training with a B.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield in England.

Mrs. Annie Chicoye
Founder
AREMIS Consultants
Annie Chicoye is the founder of A.C.E., one of the two companies that formed AREMIS Consultants in September 2004 together with CLP-Santé. CLP-Santé was set up by Claude Le Pen who is a Professor in Economics in Paris-Dauphine University. AREMIS Consultants is the leading health economics consultancy in France, and the French Member of aegisnet, the International Network for Health Care Research present in 6 European countries and in the USA. Annie Chicoye holds a degree in political sciences from the Paris Institut d'Etudes Politiques. After holding positions of increasing responsibility at the French Ministry of Health (Pharmacy and Drug Division), she joined the French subsidiary of a major international pharmaceutical group (Glaxo, later GSK) where she was a leading developer of health economics within the international organization. In addition to managing AREMIS Consultants in collaboration with Claude Le Pen, Annie Chicoye carries out assignments related to medical products and devices and oversees assignments related to health economics studies, healthcare organization and network projects. Annie Chicoye teaches several post-graduate courses in health economics and is a regular speaker at top-level conferences both in France and abroad. She is the author of numerous publications in the fields of health technology assessment, public health and industrial policies. She is married and has 3 children.

Dr. Yank D. Coble, Jr., MD, MACP, MACE
President
World Medical Association
Dr. Coble became President of the World Medical Association in Tokyo, Japan, in October of 2004. Dr. Coble served as Chair of the WMA's 2003-2004 Committee on Finance and Planning, has been a delegate to the WMA since 2002, and is Past President of the American Medical Association. A graduate of Duke Medical School, Dr. Coble also received a degree in clinical medicine of the tropics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Florida School of Medicine and was formerly Professor of Medicine and Family Medicine and Chair of the Department of Community Health and Family Medicine. Dr. Coble is listed in "The Best Doctors in America" and in 2002 was selected by Modern Healthcare as one of the "100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare." Under the auspices of the Office of International Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), he cared for patients and conducted medical research in Egypt, Nigeria and England from 1964 through 1969. During this time, he made site visits to more than 50 countries. Most recently, he served on the U.S. delegation to the WHO's 2003 and 2004 World Health Assembly. Among his many leadership roles, Dr. Coble has been a member of the Advisory Committee to the Director of the NIH. He co-chaired both the 35th anniversary celebration of the NIH's Office of International Medicine and the 50th anniversary celebration of the Human Genome Project. A distinguished leader in medicine, Dr. Coble is a Past President of the American Society of Internal Medicine, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and American College of Endocrinology. He currently holds appointments on the boards of Research! America, National Osteoporosis Foundation, Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research and Medicine, Campaign for Public Health, and Hospice of Northeast Florida. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the National Quality Forum, the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the National Guideline Clearinghouse of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Dr. Coble and his wife Shereth reside in Neptune Beach, Florida and have five children and ten grandchildren.

Dr. Jenifer Ehreth
Director of Economics and Reimbursement
Medtronic Europe, Sàrl,
In her current position, Dr. Ehreth is responsible for economic analyses in support of health care treatments in the context of government payers. Medtronic is the world's largest medical device company, and has its European office in Switzerland. Dr. Ehreth meets with policy-makers and thought leaders across Europe on issues of system reform and patient access. Prior to this position, she was Vice President for Economics and Pricing World-wide for Aventis Pasteur in Lyon, France. Here she completed numerous evaluations of the economic impact of vaccination and published numerous articles on the topic. From 1995 to 1999, she was responsible for the Health Economic departments of SmithKline Beecham and then Bristol Myers Squibb. Prior to joining industry, she spent 15 years as a professor, teaching and conducting Outcomes and Economic Research at the University of Washington and has over 30 peer-reviewed articles in this area. She received a Robert Wood Johnson Faculty Fellowship in Health Care Financing and spent a year at the Prospective Payment Commission in the US Government. Before receiving her PhD, she was a Coronary Care nurse working in special care units and in open-heart surgery in hospitals in the US and in the Philippines. Dr. Ehreth has one personal aspiration and that is to be a bridge between payers and healers to improve access to appropriate patient care. She has been active in the Academy of Management, the International Health Economics Association, and the Health Economics Study Group, and ISPOR.

Dr. Wendy Everett
President
New England Healthcare Institute
Dr. Everett was appointed as the first President of the New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI) in July 2002. NEHI was established to identify realistic strategies for improving health care quality while reducing health care costs. Dr. Everett leads a team that conducts independent research leading to evidence-based public and private health policy recommendations. With over thirty years of experience in the health care field, Dr. Everett brings a unique perspective to NEHI. She has held executive positions at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF) and at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. In the 1980s, she directed a national demonstration program for The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and subsequently was the Program Director for the national program in health promotion and disease prevention for the Kaiser Family Foundation. Dr. Everett was also the co-founder of a medical software company sponsored jointly by the Harvard Community Health Plan and Electronic Data Systems. Dr. Everett has served as a consultant to many state and national philanthropic foundations and was the coordinator of a multi-foundation consortium in AIDS prevention and evaluation at UCSF. In the mid 1990's, she became a Director of the Institute for the Future, leading the Health and Health Care research team for 6 years and overseeing the creation of ten-year, national forecasts in health/health care. She is a Trustee of many health care and philanthropic boards and currently chairs the boards of the Sierra Health Foundation and the Health Technology Center. Dr. Everett holds a B.S. degree in liberal arts and education, another in nursing, and master's and doctoral degrees in health policy and management from Harvard University.

Dr. Leonard Fass
Managing Director, Academic Relations
GE Healthcare
Leonard Fass was born in London. He graduated in Electrical Engineering and was granted a Ph.D. in Materials Science at the Imperial College London. After initially performing research into the optical and electronic properties of semiconductors, he has spent the last 36 years in the field of medical technology in R&D and marketing roles. He contributed to the development of the first rare earth phosphor based X-ray intensifying screens and solid-state image intensifiers for X-Rays at the 3M Company. At EMI he helped develop the initial CT market in Italy. He has expertise in all medical imaging technologies and had responsibility for the European CT and MR business of GE Medical Systems as well as being country manager for Italy .He served as General Manager for Otsuka Electronics for Europe. In his present position in GE Healthcare he has had responsibility for the development of the molecular imaging market in Europe and managing Academic Relations. He has advised institutions such as the Cambridge MIT Institute, the UK DTI, the European Patent Office and the European Bioinformatics Institute and served on various congress steering committees including the Global Medical Forum, the International Workshop on Implantable Sensors, the NanoForum Congress and was Co-Chairman of the Bio-nanotechnology Patenting Congress. Currently he is a member of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD for New and Emerging Health Related Technologies and a member of the Advisory group for the DTI Beacon projects.

Prof. Dr. Gerd Folkers
Professor for Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Chemistry and Applied BioSciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich)
Prof. Folkers was appointed Professor in 1991 and Full Professor in 1994 for Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the ETH Zurich. He obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Bonn and afterwards completed a significant amount of research abroad in Bern, London and College Station, Texas. He got his habilitation in 1990 with a thesis on drug design at the University of Tübingen. He is Member of the Swiss National Science Foundation and head of the Basel-Zürich Center for Pharmaceutical Sciences. He serves on the boards of several start-up companies and has recently founded his own company on e-learning technologies. As author of more than 200 papers he has also edited or written several books, including a bestseller on molecular modeling, which also appeared in Japanese in 1996.

Dr. Jullien Gaer
Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Harefield Hospital
Chairman, Bio City Development Company Hong Kong
Dr. Gaer's post-graduate training was completed in France & the UK. His surgical interests encompass all aspects of modern adult cardiac surgery and he has published extensively in the scientific literature. A "Chirurgien de l'Espoir", Dr. Gaer has long been involved in the provision of surgery and the training of medical personnel in developing countries. More recently, his interests have diversified into the development of super-specialty hospitals in the People's Republic of China.

Prof. Dr. Walter Gilbert
Managing Director
BioVentures Investors
Prof. Gilbert joined BioVentures Investors, a life science venture capital fund based in the U.S., full-time as a managing director in 2001 after serving as Chairman of its Board of Advisors since inception. One of three managing directors of BioVentures Investors, Prof. Gilbert brings his passion for science and building successful companies to the venture capital community. A renowned molecular biologist, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980 for his discovery of a method for rapid DNA sequencing. He spent his academic career at Harvard University from 1957 to 2001, except for four years from 1981 to 1985 when he left to become Chief Executive Officer of Biogen. He has co-founded a large number of life science companies. In 1978 Prof. Gilbert co-founded Biogen, served as Chair of the Scientific Board of Directors from 1978 to 1983, Co-Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Directors from 1979 to 1981, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Directors from 1981 to 1985, and Chief Executive Officer from 1981 to 1985. In 1992 Prof. Gilbert co-founded Myriad Genetics Inc. and continues to serve as its Vice-Chairman. In 1996 Prof. Gilbert co-founded Paratek and has served as Chairman since its inception. In addition, he is co-founder and director of Memory Pharmaceuticals, Inc., co-founder and Chairman of Pintex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and a director of Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. In 1991, Prof. Gilbert received the New England Entrepreneur of the Year award from the Institute of American Entrepreneurs. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, and a recipient of numerous other awards and honorary degrees for his work in molecular biology. He has more than 150 scientific peer-review articles to his name. Prof. Gilbert earned an A.B. in Chemistry and Physics (summa cum laude) from Harvard College in 1953, an M.A. in Physics from Harvard University in 1954, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Cambridge University in 1957.

Mr. Dominique Gillot
Life Science manager HPC EMEA
Hewlett-Packard International
Dominique Gillot has worked most of his career in providing high performance technical computing solutions. Dominique joined Digital Equipment corporation in 1982 and held different marketing and sales management positions in the field of high performance computing. From managing the High Energy Physics business, he next built the High Performance technical computing business for Digital Equipment in Europe starting in 1995 . Dominique has always remained in the high performance computing world and has recently been focusing on the EMEA life science market. In that role, Dominique is working with large pharma companies, as well as biotech companies and research centers, and building on established relationships with the researchers involved in the decoding of the human genome. He is now tackling new challenges and improving the productivity of life science research through HP product line. The opening of the Vital-IT centre near Lausanne with SIB (Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics), Intel and Oracle in April 2004 has been a very important step towards the discovery of new methods of biomedical research.

Dr. Paul Ginsburg
President
The Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC)
Founded in 1995, HSC conducts research to inform policymakers about changes in the organization of financing and delivery of care and their effects on people. Data are gathered through the Community Tracking Study, which surveys households, physicians, and employers in a sample of 60 communities that represents the nation, and conducts site visits to interview health system leaders in 12 of those communities. HSC is widely known for the objectivity and technical quality of its research and its success in communicating it to policy makers and the media as well as to the research community. Affiliated with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., HSC receives core funding from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Ginsburg served as the founding Executive Director of the Physician Payment Review Commission (now the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission). Widely regarded as highly influential, the Commission developed the Medicare physician payment reform proposal that was enacted by the Congress in 1989. Dr. Ginsburg was a Senior Economist at RAND and served as Deputy Assistant Director at the Congressional Budget Office. Before that, he served on the faculties of Duke and Michigan State Universities. He earned his doctorate in economics from Harvard University. Dr. Ginsburg is a noted speaker and consultant on the changes taking place in the health care system and the future outlook. In August 2003, Modern Healthcare again named him one of the 100 most powerful persons in health care. He is a founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, a Public Trustee of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and served two elected terms on the Board of AcademyHealth.

Dr. Hans H.P. Groth, MD, MBA
Medical Director & Pfizer Global Health Fellow
Pfizer AG
Dr. Groth was appointed Medical Director, Pfizer AG, Switzerland, as of January 2004. His prior assignments had been as Director, Medical Affairs Europe & Canada for Pfizer Inc., World Headquarters, New York, from 2002 to 2003 and Medical Director, Central & Eastern Europe Region for Pfizer GmbH in Karlsruhe/Germany, since 2000. Dr. Groth's responsibilities include relations with healthcare professional organizations, health policy analysis and issue management. He is a recognized expert on a wide range of health policy issues. In 2004, he served in Russia for the Pfizer Global Health Fellow program transferring his expertise and talent to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic. He evaluated the content of HIV/AIDS physician training programs in Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union, made recommendations on improvements to the training program, and supported the development of a national HIV/AIDS treatment protocol for Kazakhstan. Dr. Groth is a qualified physician with additional economics training (MBA), who has 15 years of well-rounded pharmaceutical industry experience starting with clinical trials, medical-marketing, global product planning, sales responsibility, and regional medical/regulatory/safety management in Europe and Canada for Pfizer Inc. In 2004, he was appointed Medical Director, Pfizer AG, Switzerland, where he has functional and financial responsibility for the Medical Department. He began his career in the pharmaceutical industry, when in 1990 he joined Gödecke AG/Parke-Davis GmbH in Freiburg/Germany. A German citizen, Dr. Groth graduated from the Medical School of the Heidelberg University in 1981. From 1982 to 1986, he completed his internship at the Medical Policlinic of the University of Zurich, and from 1987 to 1988, he was a cardiology research fellow at the Pennsylvania State University, Hershey/USA. From 1988 to 1989 he worked as a Senior Cardiology Fellow at the Medical Hospital of the University of Freiburg/Germany. He is since 1990 board-certified in Internal Medicine.

Dr. Chris Hentschel
Chief Executive Officer
Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV)
MMV is a not-for-profit Foundation that aims to facilitate the discovery, development and delivery of affordable new drugs for the treatment of malaria. Dr. Hentschel graduated in biochemistry from King's College, London, UK, and obtained a doctorate from the same institution. His early career focused on basic biomedical research, at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, as a lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, and finally as a Fogarty Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. From 1978-1997 Dr. Hentschel served as Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director of the UK Medical Research Council's Collaborative Centre. He was Head of the Department of Molecular Genetics at Celltech from 1983-1987. In 1999 he became a senior research fellow of the Emerging Technology Program of the Wharton Business School. Dr. Hentschel is also a non-executive Director to two biotechnology companies and an advisor to a European venture capital fund.

Mr. Johan Hjertqvist
Founder and President
Health Consumer Powerhouse
Johan Hjertqvist is the founder and president of the Health Consumer Powerhouse in Brussels, the European do-tank for better healthcare by consumer information and knowledge (2004). Before the Powerhouse, Mr Hjertqvist was the director of Timbro Health Policy Unit, a division of the Timbro Policy Group, Stockholm, Sweden. Mr Hjertqvist has a background in health care policy and welfare entrepreneurship. Starting in 1999 he led a four-year-project analysing the transformation of health care in the Stockholm region. The first report from this project was published in 2000 ("Sjukvårdens kulturrevolution"), followed by "Månfärd eller pyspunka" (2001) and "Slutet på början" (2002). His introduction to the Stockholm process ("The Stockholm health care revolution", 2000 and "The end of the beginning, 2003) is an internationally known manifesto to reform. During the 1990s Mr Hjertqvist played an active role in the transition of internal market ideas to a number of countries including the UK, Norway and Canada amongst others. Mr Hjertqvist has also acted as an adviser to the Greater Stockholm Council with a focus on market infrastructures where purchasers and providers meet. Creating new arenas was another idea behind his projects between 1995 and 1999, bringing health care entrepreneurs and contractors together to strengthen the impact of market pluralism. He is a frequent lecturer on health care reform. He writes newsletters and is a member of international health care networks and institutions such as the Stockholm Network in London, Centre for the New Europe in Brussels and The Frontier Center in Winnipeg. Mr Hjertqvist has a Master of Law degree from the University of Stockholm. In the late 1970s he was instrumental in the founding and building of the Timbro Policy Group, for a long time the sole think tank in Sweden (and still the most influential one). He was editor-in-chief of the NPT, another Timbro operation and the first Swedish news agency to promote business content. In the middle of the 1980s he belonged to a small group of entrepreneurs who founded the first private Swedish venture capital market. He also worked as a Senior Counsellor at the Burson-Marsteller Communications Group. From 1991 to 1994 he was deputy Mayor of his home town Tyresö outside Stockholm. Mr. Hjertqvist is the author of a number of books (fact as well as fiction) on politics and health and has contributed to anthologies on similar subjects.

Mr. Robert Holland
Chief Executive Officer
DXS Systems
Robert Holland has served in his current position since March 2003. As CEO, he is responsible for corporate policy and strategy, new business development as well as implementation of the DXS global distribution strategy. He also serves as chairperson of the DXS Board's Industry Liaison and Corporate Governance sub-committees. In his role as head of the Industry Liaison sub-committee, Robert oversees the work of the DXS business intelligence team that tracks health industry, life science and pharmaceutical industry developments and innovations in the governmental, non-governmental and private business sectors. As part of this responsibility, he travels widely assisting both private and public healthcare institutions with medical information and content management policy and implementation strategy formulation. He has a Masters' Degree in Taxation (Sydney University) and began his career as an international tax and structured finance consultant with Arthur Andersen. Before joining DXS (CEO and shareholder) he worked as an independent investment analyst and specialist taxation consultant focusing on bonds, currency trading and corporate structure efficiency. An Australian by birth, Robert now lives in Geneva, Switzerland.

Dr. Richard Horton BSc MB FRCP FmedSci
Editor-in-Chief & Publisher
The Lancet
Richard Horton qualified in medicine from the University of Birmingham in 1986. He completed his general medical training in Birmingham before moving to the liver unit at the Royal Free Hospital. In 1990, he joined The Lancet as an assistant editor and moved to New York as North American editor in 1993. Two years later he returned to the UK to become Editor-in-Chief. He was the first President of the World Association of Medical Editors, and is presently a member of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. He is an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a Founder Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. A book about controversies in modern medicine, Second Opinion, was published in 2003. He is married with a 4-year old daughter, and lives in London.

Mr. Ed Hubbard
President and Founder
United Devices
Hubbard brings over fifteen years of experience to his job in a variety of roles ranging from engineering to marketing at Dell, Intel and Microsoft. At Dell he played pivotal roles in a number of initiatives for the CTO of Dell as well as Dell's executive team. From starting a new Software and Applications group in Dell labs to acting as the Senior Product Planner for a SFF PC, Hubbard worked with a number of groups and in a number of capacities leveraging both his business and technical backgrounds across Dell. Prior to joining Dell, Hubbard held various marketing and management positions at Intel. Starting in Intel's widely respected Architecture Labs he worked on products and technologies including PC-based video, enterprise servers and in the workstation products group as a financial markets manager. During his tenure, he was responsible for all phases of product and technology lifecycle management, speaking engagements, various contract negotiations, marketing programs, external relationship management, product planning and strategy development. Before joining Intel, Hubbard was a Systems Engineer with Microsoft Corporation. During his tenure he led half of the Windows NT beta support team working with enterprise clients. He also led a team of engineers developing software that shipped in various WindowsT Resource Kits while authoring portions of the original Windows NT MCSE exam. Hubbard is a published author, holds issued patents and is the author of more than 20 patent applications. He has spoken at numerous industry conferences and events including PC Expo ('96) - Top Rated Speaker, Technologic Partners Tech Outlook Conference ('00) - Investor's Choice Award Winner, SOFTBANK's Venture Forum ('00), Red Herring's NDA Conference ('00), Comdex ('01), Constellation Ventures Annual Meeting - Tokyo & New York ('02), Intel CEO Summit ('02), the Highlands Forum ('02), Mobius Venture Capital Forum ('02), IBM Life Science Seminar Series ('03), North Carolina GRID Symposium - Dinner Keynote ('03). Hubbard has also appeared on a number of radio and television programs including broadcast segments on CNBC, CNN, NBC, ABC and TechTV. Hubbard was named a BioIT World Champion in 2002 and in 2004 was recognized as a Computerworld Laureate for his contributions to the technology industry in Medicine. Hubbard is a former ASE certified mechanic, holds degrees in Computer Engineering and Information Systems, and earned an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Dr. Caroline Kovac
General Manager
IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences
As General Manager, Caroline Kovac is responsible for the strategic direction of IBM's global healthcare and life sciences business. She leads her team in developing the latest information technology solutions and services, establishing partnerships and overseeing IBM investment within the healthcare, pharmaceutical and life sciences markets. In this role, Dr. Kovac works closely with a wide variety of leaders in healthcare and life sciences including medical centers and academic institutions as well as leading biotech and pharmaceutical companies to pioneer information-based medicine. The result of information-based medicine is a convergence of information technology and healthcare to accelerate drug discovery, provide better healthcare delivery, and ultimately improve patient care - this affects all of our lives in a very positive way. In more than 20 years at IBM, Dr. Kovac has held a number of executive management positions, including vice president of Technical Strategy and Division Operations, and vice president of Services and Solutions. In the latter role, she was instrumental in launching the Computational Biology Center at IBM Research. Before assuming her current position in 2004, Dr. Kovac was general manager, IBM Life Sciences. Dr. Kovac's business unit at IBM infuses the field of life sciences with high-performance computers, services and leading edge research, addressing information technology's fastest-growing market, with a market potential of more than $20 billion. Starting with only two employees as an emerging business unit in the year 2000, Dr. Kovac has successfully grown the life sciences business unit into a multi-billion dollar business, and one of IBM's most successful ventures to date with more than 1500 employees worldwide. Dr. Kovac holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College. She sits on the Board of Directors of Research!America and Africa Harvest. She has served as a frequent speaker and panelist at numerous life sciences and healthcare forums worldwide. She served as an expert panelist for the 2004 World Economic Forum and the 2003 Time Magazine Future of Life Summit. Dr. Kovac was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 2002, and is a member-emeritus of the IBM Academy of Technology. In 2004, Dr. Kovac had the distinction of being named one of the 50 most powerful women in business by Fortune magazine. She is a role model as a technical leader, and a business leader. She has crossed the chasm from technical to business leadership. Dr. Kovac, her husband and son reside in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Dr. Stephan Kux
Department of Public Economy of the Canton of Zurich
Office for Economy and Labour
Canton of Zurich
Stephan Kux is head of economic development in the Canton of Zurich, the economic powerhouse of Switzerland and the spring-board to the EMEA markets. His main focus is to improve the general conditions of location Zurich and to develop business opportunities. This includes the opening of the labour market, the ease of entry and the availability of places at international schools. In terms of economic promotion, the emphasis is on cluster development. In addition to financial services, Zurich has made considerable progress in diversifying into new economic sectors such as international headquarters, IT and telecom, as well as life science. Stephan Kux initiated an e-government project - e-WorkPermits - which offers fast and simple application for work permits starting 1 December 2002. He initiated the World Cities Alliance, an expanding b2b network between the Greater Washington Initiative, the Paris region, Berlin, Wales, and Osaka (www.worldcitiesalliance.com) and is member of the European Association of Regional Development Agencies (Eurada, www.eurada.org). He got his Master's degree from the London School of Economics and his post-doc from Columbia University and is senior lecturer at the Universities of Zurich and St. Gallen. Kux is also in charge of European affairs and work permits, guaranteeing an efficient one-stop shop for all matters related to FDI and business partnerships.

Mr. Robert Laszewski
President, Health Policy and Strategy Associates, Inc. (HPSA)
Chairman North America, Global Medical Forum Foundation
HPSA is a policy and market place consulting firm specializing in assisting its clients through the significant health policy and market change afoot. Before forming HPSA in 1992, Mr. Laszewski was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Group Markets, for the Liberty Mutual Insurance Group. He has twenty years of health insurance industry management experience-nine of those years as a chief operating officer. The majority of Mr. Laszewski's time is spent being directly involved in the marketplace as it comes to grips with the health care cost and quality challenge. His clients include health insurance companies, casualty insurance companies, HMOs, Blue Cross organizations, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and physician groups. Recently, HPSA has been involved in the development of organized delivery systems, joint ventures between insurance companies and providers, joint ventures between HMOs and insurance companies, the acquisition and divestiture of blocks of health insurance business, the creation of strategies for workers' compensation carriers to manage their costs in the changing health care delivery market, and the strategic planning of numerous clients as they come to grips with their response to policy and market driven change. Mr. Laszewski is very active in the purchase and divestiture of health care and insurance businesses having been involved in a number of such transactions in recent years. Mr. Laszewski has participated extensively in the nation's health care debate, especially on health insurance reform and the impact it will have on existing health insurance programs, the insurance industry, and the evolving role between payers and providers. Bob Laszewski has written and spoken widely on the subject of health care reform and market change. His media appearances include health care features on ABC, NBC, CNN, PBS, and NPR, as well as on The McLaughlin Group and John McLaughlin's "One on One." Additionally, numerous articles about his ideas have appeared in the national and trade press and he has been regularly quoted in many newspapers including The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Bob Laszewski is North American Chairman of the Global Medical Forum Foundation. He also chairs the Forum's activity in China. His opinions are regularly sought by groups such as the Health Insurance Association of America, The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Internal Medicine, the Council for Health Information Management, and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (sponsors of the CEBS designation), as well as other trade associations, state policy makers and regulators, hospital administrators, and religious groups. He has offered his perspective on health care reform in testimony before several committees of both the House and Senate of the U.S. Congress.

Mr. Lawrence "Larry" Leisure
Senior Vice President, Sales and Account Management
Kaiser Foundations Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals
Working with sales and marketing leaders throughout the Kaiser Permanente program, Leisure is accountable for the leadership and development of world-class sales, account management and distribution capabilities. Leisure has direct accountability for the leadership and performance of National Accounts Sales and Account Management; Major Benefit Consultant Relationships; Personal Advantage Shared Services - Individual Products (PASS); Sales Effectiveness; and Sales, and Marketing Systems Planning. In addition, he shares joint accountability with the regional vice presidents responsible for achieving membership and revenue objectives. Leisure is a member of KP's national Health Plan Operations Leadership Team (HPO-LT) and the Marketing Sales and Business Development (MSBD) leadership group. Prior to joining KP, he was Global Managing Partner, Health Services Industry, at Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting). From 1991 to 1996, he was the Health & Welfare Practice Leader at Price Waterhouse. Previously, he was Group Benefits Practice Leader at Towers Perrin. Leisure is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for the Future and a frequent speaker at health and benefit forums, including the Global Medical Forum and World Health Congress. A nationally recognized health benefit consultant and change agent, Leisure has worked with many of the nation's largest employers, insurers, health plans and pharmacy benefits management firms. Leisure received his master's of business administration degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University.

Dr Laurent Leksell
President and Chief Executive Officer
Elekta AB
Dr. Laurent Leksell, born in 1952, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Elekta AB (publ) of which company he has been a member of the board since 1974. Elekta is a leading international medical-technology company offering advanced and innovative clinical solutions and services for precision radiation treatment of cancer and minimally invasive treatment of brain disorders. Elekta was founded in 1972 by the late Lars Leksell, professor of neurosurgery at the Karolinska Hospital. The company is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange since 1994. With its head office located in Stockholm, Sweden, the Company has around 1,200 employees and net sales amounting to approx. 3,5 bn SEK. Dr Leksell received his MBA in 1974 and his Ph.D. degree in Business Administration in 1981. Both degrees were received from the Stockholm School of Economics where Dr Leksell also conducted research. In 1978-79 Dr Leksell was a visiting scholar at the Harvard Business School in Boston. He has been on the faculty of the Swedish Institute of Management, the Stockholm School of Economics and a visiting Professor at INSEAD, France. Before assuming his current position at Elekta AB, Dr Leksell was a partner and founder of an International Management Consulting Firm.

Prof. Raphael H. Levey, MD
Founder and Chairman
Global Medical Forum Foundation
Dr. Levey completed his clinical training in general and thoracic surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital and spent four years in basic research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda and at the National Institute for Medical Research in London. Dr. Levey joined the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School (HMS) in the Department of Surgery at the Children's Hospital and in the Division of Medical Sciences (Immunology). He received tenure at HMS in 1975 and founded the Organ Transplantation Program at Children's Hospital, serving as Chief of Unit for over ten years and performed the first successful bone marrow, kidney and liver transplants at the hospital. He was a Moseley Fellow in Medicine at HMS, a Markle Scholar in Academic Medicine and a Faculty Research Associate of the American Cancer Society. He has held visiting Professorships at many European and North American Universities and was elected a Member of the Collège de France. He is the author of 80 scientific papers in leading refereed journals and has received grants from the American Cancer society and NIH. In the early 1970s, he developed in the laboratory and then transferred to clinical use a new class of immunosuppressive agents and, in so doing, worked closely with pharmaceutical companies and the Food and Drug Administration. In the late 1970s, Dr. Levey founded Health Care International (HCI). The company developed a private, for-profit, highest quality, university hospital in English speaking Europe, closer to an under-served market from Southern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa; the hospital provided the most advanced care for complicated illnesses at reasonable costs. Dr. Levey served as Chairman of the Company, creating what was the largest start-up company in the history of the City of London. He is the Founder of the Global Medical Forum Foundation (GMF) of which he is currently global chairman. GMF is a network of leaders and innovators in medicine, which meets every year in Zurich, Washington, Berlin, Abu Dhabi and Beijing/Shanghai. The mission of GMF is to make a difference in the healthcare debate by bringing the many different constituencies of healthcare into dialogue.

Mr. Tobias Levey
Executive Director
Global Medical Forum Foundation
Mr. Levey completed his undergraduate degree at Duke University and his Degree in Comparative Languages at the Sorbonne. During 1994-95 he worked at General Electric Medical Systems in Paris, France on quality evaluation of their Eastern European and Middle Eastern offices. In 1996 he became a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Delhi, India. From 1997 to 2000 he served as Executive Director of International Healthcare Partners, a healthcare consultancy specializing in cross-disciplinary medical and bio-medical development projects worldwide. In 2000, Mr. Levey co-founded the Global Medical Forum Foundation with Prof. R. Levey. Mr. Levey is also a director of First City Development in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and Vice President of the Zurich Orient Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland.

Mr. Peter Loescher
President and Chief Executive Officer
GE Healthcare Bio-Sciences
Peter Loescher was appointed President and CEO of GE Healthcare Bio-Sciences in April 2004. In this role, Peter oversees the Medical Diagnostics, Discovery Systems, and Protein Separation businesses that make up the Bio-Sciences division of GE Healthcare. Previously, Peter was appointed as the Chief Operating Officer of Amersham plc in 2004, having responsibility for global operations across all Amersham businesses. Peter joined Amersham plc in 2002 as President, Amersham Health, and a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to Amersham, Peter served more than 16 years in senior management roles in the pharmaceutical industry, including a position as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Aventis Pharma Japan from 1999 until 2002. In his last two years in that role, Peter also served as Chairman of Aventis Pharma Japan's Board of Directors. Previously, Peter held a variety of international leadership roles at Hoechst, Aventis' predecessor, which he joined in 1988. Peter is an MBA graduate of the Vienna University School of Economics, and he also has studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and at Harvard Business School.

Dr. Norman Maharaj
Commissioner
Public Service Commission Cape Town
Commissioner Maharaj, a medical doctor by profession, obtained an MBChB degree from the University of Cape Town in 1975. The positions that he has held throughout his career include: Medical Intern and Medical Officer at Livingstone Hospital, Senior Medical Officer at Kimberley Hospital, Senior and Principal Medical Officer at Groote Schuur Hospital, General/Family Practitioner, Acting Senior Medical Superintendent at Conradie Hospital, Senior Medical Superintendent/Chief Medical Officer at GF Jooste Hospital, Provincial Manager for the Coordination of the Placement of Medical Interns and Community Service Doctors - Pharmacists and Dentists, and Chief Director at Groote Schuur and Red Cross Children's Hospitals. Before joining the PSC in April 2004, he was Chief Director and Executive Officer at Groote Schuur Hospital. He attended innumerable training courses, workshops and seminars in South Africa, England, Sweden and France on trade unionism, medical and management skills. His involvement with union activities dates back from 1985 and the positions that he held include amongst others: General Secretary of the Health Workers Union, Chief Negotiator of the Health Workers Union at Provincial and National Bargaining chambers, Health Workers Union representative on the forum for the Western Cape Provincial Health Plan, and Chief Negotiator of the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers Union. He is the founder member of the Health Workers Union as well as the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers Union.

Ms. Gail Marcus
Chief Operating Officer
UnitedHealth Europe
In her current role Ms. Marcus provides oversight for the functional areas of the European business with the vision of improving the ability of European public health systems to meet patients' goals and conserve health care resources. Ms. Marcus has 20 years of healthcare experience working in large insurance and pharmacy benefit management companies. She brings leadership experience with broad business knowledge in healthcare and financial services, including business strategy, product management, marketing, finance and information technology. She has demonstrated results in developing and growing profitable businesses, defining and implementing business, product and marketing strategies, creating and leading high-performance teams and driving business transformation. Before joining UnitedHealth Europe, Ms. Marcus was most recently the Senior Vice President, Client Value and Chief Competitive Officer, at AdvancePCS in Dallas, Texas, a pharmacy benefit and disease management company. Here she improved value propositions for all customer segments, identified and built strategic business opportunities and increased overall client profitability. Previously, Ms. Marcus was a Senior Vice President, for CIGNA Corporation where she was Managing Director for CIGNA, UK with responsibility for growing the healthcare business in the UK. She has also held positions in the US healthcare operations in product management, finance and systems. Ms. Marcus attended school at the University of Pennsylvania, Moore School of Engineering, M.S.E., with majors in Computers and Information Sciences and Wesleyan University, B.A., with majors in Spanish and Mathematics. Ms. Marcus continued her education at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Graduate Division, where she received her M.B.A. Ms. Marcus is a participant in the "Who's Who of Women Executives" and is an adjunct professor for Healthcare Strategy at the University of Connecticut Business School. In addition, she was a contributing author of the Managed Care Handbook, by Dr. Peter Kongstevedt, published 2000. Ms. Marcus has successfully passed all portions of the CPA exam and Certified Cash Management exam.

Dr. Catharina Maulbecker Armstrong
Chairman Europe
Global Medical Forum Foundation
Dr. Maulbecker received her PhD in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989 and then worked for a number of years in applied medical research at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen. She has published and holds a patent in developmental biology and cancer research. She next joined McKinsey & Company and for six years was a core member of the global healthcare and pharmaceutical practice and an affiliate of the corporate finance practice. She has worked with a number of multinational companies both in the Financial, as well as the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device sector. In this function she lectured on disease management, managed care and the emergence of biotechnology start-ups in Europe and worked with a number of pharmaceutical and medical device companies. She has published work on trends in European managed care and physician networks in Swiss and German medical journals, including the Economist Intelligence unit's book on Healthcare Europe in 1998. She founded GetWellness and served as Chief Executive Officer until 2002. For her work with GetWellness she received a number of business awards including the Business Woman of the Year title in 2001 in Switzerland. She helped found and finance companies in the Nutrition, Pharmaceutical and Medical Imaging sectors. She is a board member of a Pharma and medical device company in Europe. She has founded a strategy consulting company in Ohio. Dr. Maulbecker is the Chairman Europe of the Global Medical Forum Foundation.

Dr. Gerald Möller
Managing Director
HBM BioCapital Management GmbH, Heidelberg
Dr. Möller has over 25 years of senior management experience in the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries. He started his career at Boehringer Mannheim in 1975 where he had various responsibilities in Germany, U.S. and Japan including President Decentralized Diagnostics of Boehringer Mannheim Therapeutics and Chief Technology Officer of Corange, the holding company of Boehringer Mannheim. In 1995 he became the CEO of the worldwide Boehringer Mannheim Group, which reached sales of $4 billion in 1997. When the group was sold to Roche in 1998, he became Head of Global Development and Strategic Marketing Pharma and member of the executive committee of Roche. Dr. Möller received his PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Kiel, Germany. Dr. Möller is a board member of several biotechnology companies such as Morphosys AG, MTM AG, Ferraris Group plc and Pelikan Technologies. He is Chairman of FIND, an initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for providing appropriate diagnostic tests for developing countries. He also was Vice Chairman of the Association of the German Pharmaceutical Industry.

Mrs. Noël Obourn
President, National Account Segment
CIGNA HealthCare
Noël Obourn is President of the National Account Segment for CIGNA HealthCare. In this role she leads the delivery and servicing of CIGNA medical benefits, dental coverage, behavioral health coverage, and pharmacy benefits for the largest employers in the United States. Ms. Obourn joined CIGNA HealthCare in June, 2002 to lead the Account Management and Client Service areas of CIGNA HealthCare's National Account Segment. Prior to joining CIGNA she was with United HealthGroup, where she held various sales leadership positions including: the National VP of Specialized Markets, where she led a unique team of attorneys, financial experts and sales professionals to deliver substantial gains in the state and local municipality segment; National VP of Sales Operations, where she directed all sales and account management support functions for a 600 employee organization, and Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Ohio-based health plans, where she led a statewide team of sales and account management professionals to a market-leading competitive position. Earlier in her career she was Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.'s lead benefit consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and spent several years in sales and sales management with Aetna Health Plans in Los Angeles, California and Chicago. A graduate of Northwestern University, Ms. Obourn earned a B. A. degree in English Literature.

Mr. Felix Obrist
Leiter Marketing&Vertrieb Privatkunden
Helsana Versicherungen AG
Felix Obrist was appointed head of marketing & sales at Helsana in 2002. Helsana represents 1.6 million customers and is therefore the largest health insurance company in Switzerland. Felix's daily responsibilities include the definition/execution of the classic marketing-mix, the operational management of all sales channels (e.g. branches, callcenters, internet) and after sales affairs (e.g. customer care entities), all supported by roughly 700 employees. His prior assignments within Helsana have been in marketing and sales. Prior to Helsana he was involved in the transport and tourism industry. Felix is a recognized expert in a wide range of marketing and distribution issues and a content provider for research literature published at St. Gallen University. A Swiss citizen, Felix graduated from the Zurich Advanced School of Economics and earned a BA in business administration in 1994 and an MBA from Bradford University in 1999.

Mr. Joseph Paduda
Principal
Health Strategy Associates
Joseph Paduda is a recognized expert, speaker and author on healthcare, managed care and workers' compensation issues. His expertise lies in analyzing cost drivers in the healthcare system and identifying cost-savings solutions in claims and medical management, pharmacy programs and technology. Health Strategy Associates consults with managed care organizations, pharmacy benefit management firms, insurance companies and self-insured employers throughout the United States to develop products and services that deliver true savings. Recent engagements have included re-engineering the occupational medicine departments of a multi-facility healthcare system in Florida; development and implementation of a comprehensive managed care program at a workers' compensation insurer; implementation of a physical medicine "carve-out" program at a national insurer; and development and implementation of a risk-share program for the State of Georgia's workers' compensation program. Prior to forming his own company, Mr. Paduda was vice president of sales, marketing and account management for MetraComp, a United Health Care Company specializing in managed care for workers' compensation and group disability. He previously worked in executive positions with the Travelers Health Company, Liberty Mutual and American International Healthcare, the managed care subsidiary of AIG. Mr. Paduda's articles have been published in Business Insurance, National Underwriter, Compensation and Benefits Review, Florida Trend, Risk and Insurance, and the Journal of Workers' Compensation and can be found at www.healthstrategyassoc.com. He holds a Master's of Science from the American University, is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Workers' Compensation, and a contributor to the Institute for the Future.

Mrs. Preetha Reddy
Managing Director
Apollo Hospitals
A post graduate in public administration and actively engaged in the healthcare industry for the past 22 years, Mrs. Reddy has initiated and implemented several reforms in the area of healthcare administration in India. She is currently setting up an international accreditation process for quality standards in India for all hospitals and healthcare providers. She holds board level positions in a number of companies and has leadership positions in various chambers of commerce and Indian industry forums. She is responsible for the group's strategic management initiatives as well as new opportunities.

Dr. Mohamad Fathy Saoud
Member of Board of Directors & Higher Education Advisor
Qatar Foundation
Dr. Saoud is a member of the Board of Directors of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development since 2003. He joined the Foundation as Higher Education Advisor in 1997 when he participated in the development of Education City , one of the largest projects of the Qatar Foundation. As a member of the Academic Team of the Foundation, he was engaged in the discussions that led to the agreement with Cornell University in 2001 to establish a branch campus of Weil Cornell Medical College in Education City. Later, he led negotiations with Virginia Commonwealth University, Texas A&M University , RAND and Carnegie Mellon University to establish branch campuses in Education City which offer Design Arts, Engineering, Public Policy Research, Computer Sciences and Business programs. He also participated in the planning of the Science and Technology Park and Qatar National Research Fund together with a major project for reforming K-12 Schooling in Qatar. Dr Saoud started his academic career as Senior Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor of Parasitology at the University of Ain Shams in Egypt and the University of Khartoum in Sudan. Later, he Joined the newly established University of Qatar where he became the founding Dean of Science in 1978. Later, he became the Co Principal Investigator of a collaborative NIH funded research project on schistosomiasis between the University of Ain Shams, University of Lowell, University of Michigan and University of California Los Angeles. During his research career, Dr Saoud established a recognized school in Medical and Animal Parasitology in Egypt, Sudan and Qatar and has published extensively in these fields. An Egyptian citizen, Dr Saoud graduated from Ain Shams University in Cairo Egypt and earned a Ph.D degree from the London School of Tropical Medicine , London University in 1965.

Ms. Patricia Q. Schoeni
Executive Director
National Coalition on Health Care
Ms. Schoeni manages the National Coalition on Health Care, the largest and most broadly based non-profit, non-partisan alliance working for comprehensive health care reform in the United States of America. The Coalition's 100 members represent over 150 million Americans. She joined the Coalition after more than 20 years experience in public relations, government affairs, organizational development and management. In her career in both government and the private sector, Ms. Schoeni has established and directed national and state public affairs programs involving media outreach, grassroots organizing, focus group and public opinion polling, consumer education, TV and documentary production, and advertising. Her subject matter expertise is in health care - Medicare, Medicaid, commercial health insurance, managed care, long-term care - and in health care public policy. In addition to her work with the Coalition, Ms. Schoeni has been a consultant on both organizational and public relations issues to federal and state government agencies, health and life insurance companies, and health-related private and non-profit associations. From 1988 to 1992, Ms. Schoeni was the Director of Communications for the Health Insurance Association of America, the trade group which represents the country's major commercial health insurance companies. At the U.S. General Services Administration from 1980 to 1988, Ms. Schoeni was the Associate Administrator for Administration, with responsibility for public and government affairs, personnel and training. For a 16-month period in 1986-1987, she was Acting Deputy Administrator of the agency, responsible for the day-to-day operation of the 60,000-person organization that is the logistical and management arm of the federal government. In 1977, Ms. Schoeni established the Office of Public Affairs in the newly formed U.S. Health Care Financing Administration, which had responsibility for the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Prior to that time, she had been involved in public affairs activities within the federal government in more than a dozen health care programs. A Summa cum laude graduate of D'Youville College in Buffalo, N. Y., Ms. Schoeni also has a M.A. in English from George Washington University.

Dr. John Urquhart, MD, Dr hc (Utrecht), FRCPE, FAAAS, FISPE, corrFRSE
Chief Scientist
AARDEX Ltd.
Urquhart has a 48-year history of research on the dynamics of actions of hormones and drugs. From 1963-70, he was Professor of Physiology at University of Pittsburgh, where his experimental work on the dynamics of hormonal actions was recognized in his selection in 1969 as the 14th Bowditch Lecturer of the American Physiological Society. From 1971-86, he was Principal Scientist at ALZA Corp, pioneer developer of rate-controlled drug delivery systems. He directed ALZA's R&D during its first epoch of product development, including the GITS (OROS) form of nifedipine (PROCARDIA-XL, the best-selling cardiovascular product in history until 1995, which tamed a hitherto troublesome, hard nonlinearity in the drug's pharmacodynamics), the ALZET osmotic minipumps (used in >7000 published studies), the first transdermal 'patch' product, and other delivery system products, two of which radically widened the therapeutic indices of pilocarpine and scopolamine, old drugs previously limited in their utility by side-effects. In 1976, Urquhart organized a modeling & simulation (M&S) effort with the late Arthur Guyton, Harry Struijker-Boudier, and Pieter Bonsen, to simulate the effects of a group of hemoglobin polymers in acute heart failure, using Guyton's huge model of the mammalian cardiovascular system. The outcome was termination of what otherwise was on-track to be a major product development at ALZA. It appears to be the first pharmaceutical R&D program killed by M&S. In 1986, he co-founded APREX Corp, pioneering electronic means for compiling dosing histories of ambulatory patients, data from which define patient compliance and persistence with prescribed drug dosing regimens. The temporal patterns of drug intake compiled electronically, and their associated patterns of drug action, define what pharmacodynamic models must be able to simulate if they are to project reliably the outcomes of ambulatory pharmacotherapy. The same data also support model-based analyses that drive over half of the within-patient variance out of pharmacokinetic stud-ies in ambulatory subjects, laying the foundation for reliable selection of recommended dosing regimens. In 1995, he co-founded, with Dr. J-M Métry, AARDEX Ltd, based in Zug, CH. AARDEX acquired APREX in 1999. Urquhart is Chief Scientist of the combined firms. Since 1985, he has been Professor (wos) of Biopharmaceutical Sciences at University of California San Francisco Medical Center. In 1986, working on a 20% time basis, he initiated pharmaco-epidemiological research at Maastricht University, and in 1991 was appointed Extra-ordinary Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology, going emeritus in 2004.. He is named as inventor on 42 US Patents, has written over 150 peer-reviewed research papers in various fields of physiology and therapeutics, co-authored 5 books, and has an honorary doctorate from University of Utrecht (1997). He was President of the Biomedical Engineering Society (1976), and is a Fellow of the AAAS, of the International Society for Pharmaco-epidemiology, of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was recently named a Distinguished Alumnus of Rice University, from which he graduated with honors in 1955. He serves on the Boards of Directors of Charles River Laboratories, Biomarin Pharmaceuticals, HBM Bioventures Cayman (Baar, CH), and, since 1983 has been a Trustee of Kettering University in Flint, MI. He has an MD cum laude from Harvard in 1959. He did clinical training in general surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, then cardiovascular research at NIH. He and his wife of 47 years, Joan, reside in Palo Alto, California. They have 3 grown children, Elizabeth, Malcolm, and Thomas, and 4 adolescent grandchildren, Katherine, Natalie, Abigail, and Caleb.

Dr. Jan von Overbeck, MD, MSc
Chief Medical Officer
Swiss Re Life & Health
From 1974 to 1980 Jan attended medical school and became a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Lausanne. From 1980 to 1991, he completed his postgraduate training in internal medicine, infectious disease, tropical medicine as well as conducting research projects. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. From 1991 to 1997, he was a Senior Registrar and Consultant at the University Hospital of Berne and Lausanne and, since 1997, full-time Chief Medical Officer, Swiss Re Life & Health, Zurich. He is also currently a Consultant, Infectious Diseases, at the University Hospital Zurich (Part-time). He is a Member of Senior Management, Swiss Re Zurich; a member of the American Board of Independent Examiner (ABIME); he holds a Board certification in Internal Medicine and infectious disease (FMH) and an MSc in Tropical Medicine and Infections Disease, London University.

Prof. Dr. Gustav K. von Schulthess, MD, PhD
Professor and Director of Nuclear Medicine
Co-Director MR center
University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland
Gustav K. von Schulthess, MD; PhD was elected to preside over the clinical chairs at the University Hospital of Zurich in April 2005. He continues to serve as Professor and Director of Nuclear Medicine and Co-Director of the MR Center at the University Hospital of Zurich, a position which he assumed as acting director in 1987 and as director in 1991. Since 1998 he holds a Visiting Professorship in the Department of Radiology of Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, USA. Von Schulthess has been involved in introducing new imaging medical technologies over the last 20 years including MR, echoplanar MR, interventional MR, PET and most recently PET-CT and SPECT-CT as a very early clinical investigator. He has authored or coauthored more than 200 original articles, 3 books and innumerable book chapters and has been invited as keynote speaker to many scientific meetings all over the world. His credentials which allow him to be consistently involved in the field of advanced medical imaging include his training both as Nuclear Physician (1980-1985) and Radiologist (1982-1987) at Zurich University Hospital and the University of California San Francisco, as well as his earning an MD and a physics PhD degree, from Harvard Medical School and MIT in Boston, respectively (1980). In addition he holds a physics degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (1975).

Sir David Weatherall
Emeritus Regius Professor of Medicine
University of Oxford
Sir David is one of the outstanding clinician scientists of his generation, and pioneered studies in molecular genetics, hematology, pathology and clinical medicine. The results of his laboratory and clinical work over the past decades in the area of thalassemia and other blood disorders helped to explain the molecular pathophysiology and causes of the phenotypic variability of these disorders. His findings provided the basis for ante-natal diagnosis and genetic counseling aimed at preventing abnormalities that affect millions around the world. His work has led to significant improvements in the clinical management of inherited blood disorders and has drawn attention to the challenge of caring for thalassemia sufferers who now survive beyond childhood. Sir David's landmark report to the World Health Organization, Genomics and World Health, published in 2002, had a focus on diminishing the great and increasing divide between investments in research focused on first world and third world diseases.

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