Archives: Speakers

Braden Adam is a software engineer and entrepreneur with a passion for public health, systems thinking, and mission-driven innovation. His experience includes strategic advisory work at Deloitte and over six years of active investment analysis, sharpening his ability to assess risk, navigate uncertainty, and design solutions built for long-term impact. Currently, he is applying this mindset to one of the most tightly regulated and stagnant industries in the U.S., helping lead the introduction of a next-generation nicotine alternative. By assembling a diverse team of regulatory, scientific, and strategic experts, he is working to deliver a product that not only meets the highest standards of compliance and user experience, but also redefines harm reduction for both people and the planet.

Katherine Ilkhani is an Iranian-American entrepreneur and advocate for climate action, human rights, and public health innovation, evidenced by her previous leadership as Deputy Executive Director at Climate Cardinals, the world’s largest youth-led climate nonprofit, and as a member of the National Solidarity Group of Iran, a leading organization within the Iranian diaspora. Her experience also includes contributions to the launch of a digital fashion platform and her role as a youth advisor to Revolve. Currently, she is actively tackling the critical public health and environmental challenge of smoking-related deaths and illicit nicotine products by spearheading the U.S. entry of a revolutionary sustainable nicotine alternative, forging a strategic alliance with a leading Swedish harm reduction company and assembling a world-class regulatory powerhouse to ensure its swift and impactful entry.

Benjamin Apelberg, PhD is the Deputy Director for Regulatory Science in the Office of Science at FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP). In this role, he oversees scientific divisions responsible for managing the Office’s tobacco regulatory science research program, including the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study and collaboration with CDC on the National Youth Tobacco Survey; serving as expert reviewers and technical project leads (TPLs) for the premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) and modified risk tobacco product application (MRTPA) pathways; and providing scientific expertise in the fields of the health sciences, medicine, pharmacology, epidemiology, social science, evaluation, and statistics to support the Center’s tobacco product regulatory efforts.

Aadil Bundeally is a seasoned transformation professional with over 20 years’ international experience across Banking, Wealth & Asset Management, Insurance, and Impact Investing. He brings deep industry knowledge spanning regulatory landscapes, operating models, organisational design, integrated systems and governance-risk-compliance frameworks. With relentless focus on customer advocacy, operational efficiency and results-driven innovation, underpinned by Data Analytics, RPA, AI-ML and Gen AI, he has deployed numerous platforms and solutions delivering significant cost reduction and quality-of-life improvements for customers, suppliers and staff. A firm believer in the three lines of defence, he maintains rigorous governance whilst managing complex multi-level stakeholder relationships and generating robust C-suite analysis. Experienced in product management, vendor selection, procurement oversight and dispute resolution, he has held senior roles at Lloyd’s of London, Virgin Money, Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group, leading diverse teams across consulting, interim and in-house engagements. He holds four postgraduate qualifications, including an MBA from Melbourne Business School and UCLA Anderson.