Archives: Speakers

I am a biopharmaceutical executive and board member with more than 25 years of experience working at the intersection of strategy, capital markets, operations, and M&A, spanning early clinical development through global commercialization. I have served as Chief Financial Officer of five public companies and currently serve on multiple boards, including as Audit Chair and Compensation Chair. My experience includes defining corporate strategy for global commercial biopharma organizations as well as early-stage clinical companies, across multiple therapeutic areas and both public and private environments. Over the course of my career, I have led more than $4 billion in public and private financings, including IPOs, follow-on offerings, convertibles, preferred equity, high-yield debt, and structured credit facilities. I have also executed over $1.2 billion in strategic transactions, including M&A, licensing, and platform partnerships, with post-transaction integration efforts generating meaningful and durable cost savings. In operating roles, I have worked closely with CEOs and leadership teams to guide capital allocation, portfolio decisions, investor engagement, and organizational scaling, often during periods of transition or strategic inflection. Earlier in my career, I was CFO of Serono, then the third-largest global biotechnology company, and a member of its executive management board. In addition to board service, I contribute to industry dialogue as a member of the Life Science Leader Editorial Advisory Board and as a frequent guest on the Business of Biotech podcast. I enjoy partnering with boards, CEOs, and leadership teams on strategy, execution, and governance, particularly where clarity, judgment, and disciplined decision-making can unlock long-term value.

A board-certified radiation oncologist, David Raben, M.D. is currently the CMO at Bicara Therapeutics with more than 25 years of academic translational oncology experience and 4 years in pharma, having most recently served as vice president of global product development and product general manager, oncology, at Amgen. At Amgen, his work centered on driving the anti-DLL3 program in neuroendocrine cancers. Prior to that, Dr. Raben served as vice president and franchise leader, clinical development oncology, at Genentech, focusing on precision medicine and immunotherapy trials in head and neck and thoracic cancer, in both late-stage and locally advanced settings. His career started at the Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham for 1994-1998 followed by over 20 years as a professor and member of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, where his main areas of focus included evaluating and combining novel biologic therapies for patients with locally advanced cancers of the head and neck (HNC) and lung. His expertise also includes translational experience in areas such as EGFR signaling, DNA damage repair, TGFb and checkpoint inhibition. Nationally, Dr. Raben served on the NRG Oncology Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) steering committee for the past 15 years and established and led the Radiation Developmental Therapeutics Committee at the NRG. He remains an active member of the American Head and Neck Society, IASLC, ESMO, AACR and ASTRO and currently serves on the ASCO Research committee. Dr. Raben holds a Batchelor of Arts degree from Duke University and earned his M.D. from Wake Forest University. He completed residency training in Radiation Oncology at the John Hopkins Hospital.

Regulatory professional with experience managing Phase 1-4 programs across multiple therapeutic areas.

Camilla Thoma is a strategic leader in private markets and sustainable investment, serving as CFO and Executive Board Member at Tavis Capital AG, a FINMA‑regulated Swiss asset manager. Her work centers on shaping sophisticated investment strategies across private debt, private equity and alternative structures, with a strong emphasis on building resilient, future‑oriented financial ecosystems.

She is also Chairperson and CEO of MOVEAIR Energy Global AG, where she advances decentralized energy solutions and fosters cross‑industry collaboration in the transition toward climate‑positive technologies.

Known for her ability to connect investors, innovators, and institutional partners, Camilla plays a catalytic role in developing networks that accelerate capital formation and scalable impact. Her perspective blends financial discipline with entrepreneurial vision, making her a sought‑after voice on sustainable finance, emerging investment architectures, and the evolving interplay between technology, capital, and global markets.

Arijit Mukherjee is a senior technology leader with exposure spanning financial services, e-commerce and government contract industries, both in permanent positions and offering niche consultancy services.

He has led complex transformations for more than a decade and a half, including data‑centre migrations, commercial card onboarding modernisation and architecture solution contributions for EU licence submissions of a UK bank.

Currently heading the Architecture function within Close Brothers Asset Finance, Arijit enables organisational strategy through close collaboration with C‑Suite stakeholders, technology teams and external partners. He combines commercial awareness, innovation and a ‘white‑glove’ approach to delivering change.

Arijit holds an MSc in Software Engineering from the University of York and is qualified in TOGAF and AI‑Powered Productivity apprenticeship.

Rick Penney is a Manager for the Anti Illicit Trade Operations, Americas Region at JTI. While being based in the country office of JTI-MacDonald in Mississauga he is part of the Global AIT function reporting into Geneva, Switzerland but has a primary responsibility for all AIT functions in Canada and support to other Americas and Caribbean markets.

Born in Newfoundland, Rick joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police where he held Senior Policing positions focused on organized crime and national security spanning a 30 year career. Following his retirement, he has performed key roles as a Global Director of Corporate Security and contract consultant to both private industry, government, and policing.  He is the recipient of Commissioners and Commanding Officers Letters of Recognition, Letters of Appreciation from Heads of State, Ambassadors, and numerous partners in law enforcement both domestic and international.

Rick completed his undergraduate studies in Cultural Anthropology at Wilfrid Laurier University (1986) and is currently pursuing studies in Law for the University of London (U.K.)

Rick has lectured and taught internationally on areas of human intelligence gathering and major case investigative techniques and strategies.

Executive Director at ICON with 15+ years of global leadership in drug development, clinical operations, and program management. Proven track record in delivering complex Phase I–III clinical trials across the USA, Europe, and Africa, with therapeutic expertise in Oncology, Vaccines, and General Medicine.

Recognised for building strong strategic partnerships, optimizing clinical development strategies, and advancing business growth through innovation, collaboration, and disciplined execution. Committed to transforming clinical research through performance, quality, and leadership.

Andrew Gough has spent his career helping large, regulated organisations adopt transformative technology; from the earliest days of cloud computing with Google and AWS through to AI-driven process automation at Pegasystems. A former Royal Navy officer, he brings an operational discipline to technology sales that tends to focus on what works rather than what looks good on a slide. At ai4process, he leads EMEA commercial strategy, working with firms across sectors to turn process transformation from a concept into a measurable outcome. He’ll be available throughout the event to discuss how ai4process works in practice.

Mohamed Kheir is Field CTO for EMEA at SingleStore, where he works with leading financial institutions to design and deliver real-time data platforms powering modern wealth and banking services.

Partnering with enterprise architecture and engineering leaders at organisations including Goldman Sachs and Santander Wealth, Mohamed helps firms transform fragmented data environments into real-time intelligence platforms that support AI-driven applications, advanced analytics and next-generation client experiences.

His work focuses on enabling financial institutions to move faster from data to decision – supporting use cases such as real-time portfolio insight, advisor intelligence, fraud detection, and personalised client engagement.

As a strategic technical advisor on some of SingleStore’s most complex financial services deployments, Mohamed helps institutions modernise critical data infrastructure, reduce operational complexity and unlock new value from data to support innovation, regulatory resilience and growth in an increasingly digital wealth landscape.