Archives: Speakers

Ellen Van Strijdonck is the Operational Manager Clinical Operations at SGS Belgium Health & Nutrition, with extensive experience in the field and project management skills. Quickly after her start as Clinical Research Coordinator at the SGS CPU, she continued her career as a Project Manager in Early Phase trials and Human Challenge trials. Ellen successfully implemented eSource at SGS CPU and grew further as Head of the Clinical Project Managers. Ellen has M.Sc. BioMedical Sciences from the University of Antwerp.

More than 25 years of successful early phase drug development experience delivering pivotal registration studies​ Holds a Neuro & Molecular Pharmacology Master’s degree​ Scientific expertise includes design and delivery of cell therapies, targeted small molecules, immune-oncology clinical development plans across rare indications, solid tumor, and hematological malignancies​ Experience leading global teams and all phases of oncology clinical development programs for both large and mid-size pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients​

Anastassia is holding master’s degree in Biology and spent 5 years in cancer research laboratory to specialize thereafter in regulatory affairs, policy and patient engagement in the scope of clinical research. She was part of several IMI and EU funded projects, has been closely following the development and implementation of EU directives and regulations relevant to clinical research, including GDPR, but also others such as clinical trials regulation, in vitro medical device regulation, etc. After almost 20 years of work at headquarters of one of the largest European non-for-profit clinical research sponsor (EORTC), Anastassia joined MyData-Trust to bring her expertise at the service of a large circle of organizations active in life science.

Alina Pszczółkowska is holding a position of the Head of Study Management Late-Phase Development in Respiratory&Infection and CVRM (Cardivascular Renal Metabolic) areas, supporting AstraZeneca clinical operations worldwide. Being a physician, she has been involved in managing and leading clinical research projects for more than 20 years. Her international experience includes the leadership of AstraZeneca Site Management and Monitoring organization in 40 countries across the globe as well as 2 years spent in AZ core science site in Gothenburg, where she led program level operational management of cardiovascular portfolio. She has also had a pleasure to play one of key roles in shaping and transforming AstraZeneca’s global Clinical Trials Centre in Warsaw to become the largest and truly unique centre of this kind among all innovative pharmaceutical companies in the country, currently employing more than 1000 people in R&D function. For over 20 years Alina has been supporting and initiating activities in the area of CSR as well as inclusiveness and diversity , which is her true passion.

Accomplished and growth-focused professional with 17+ years’ experience managing operations in healthcare sector across multiple locations, including Europe, US and Canada. Proven track record of success in optimising current processes to deliver quality services, establishing and growing businesses through effective change management strategies, and increasing staff performance via exercising strong leadership role. Skilled in collaborating with top businesses / clients across all pharma segments, managing large budgets, as well as directing multidisciplinary global teams to exceed company KPIs. Instrumental in managing projects in all clinical phases, while monitoring operations in line with industry regulations. Possess high degree of commercial awareness and understanding of business drivers within life science industry, including pharma industry, Labs/Analytics, manufacturing, and medical corporations. Exceptional organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills with ability to maintain long-term professional relationships at all levels.

Benoît has a Master degree in IT from the University of Compiègne France and has worked 25+ years for the digitalisation of the clinical trials process for start-ups and world leading medical device and pharmaceutical companies.

As Chief Digital Trust Officer for Partners for Patients, Benoît aims at proposing disruptive digital approaches to specific challenges in the industry like health data access.

As the founder of the PicAps association, Benoît intends to implement one of such propositions: empowering the patients while keeping their anonymity well protected

Dr. Bhargava Reddy has over 16 years of experience working in the pharmaceutical industry. He is currently Head of Advanced Insights at Janssen Pharmaceutical supporting clinical operations by providing data science solutions. Prior to this role, he was Associate Director of Advanced Analytics at UCB. In this role, he was responsible for the development and application of machine learning methodologies supporting clinical decision making within Immunology and. He was also leading the analytics work supporting Risk Based Monitoring. Prior to this role, he managed a statistical programming group and was also overseeing a large statistical programming group offshore. Dr. Reddy has published several methodology papers in peer reviewed academic journals in the areas of machine learning and deep learning. He is actively involved as an associate editor for the Frontiers in AI journal and also as a reviewer on several journals. He has a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University and MS from Northwestern University.

Alvaro Arjona is Editor-in-Chief at GlobalData Media, with extensive experience in leading editorial teams covering Pharma & Healthcare. Former Editorial Director of Thomson Reuters Drug News, Alvaro started his career making significant contributions to the field of Immunology at Yale School of Medicine. He has also led scientific communications at UCB Pharma and developed data-driven clinical intelligence products at Informa Pharma Intelligence.

Since 2000, Kai has been a pioneer in patient-facing solutions for clinical trials working with young innovative technology companies. In 2012, Kai co-founded eClinicalHealth, the developers of the Clinpal decentralized clinical trial platform. In 2019 Kai co-founded the DEEP initiative to co-create a novel integrated ecosystem for the development, validation and acceptance of digital measures. Kai continues to work with DEEP, which is now an independent company. Through his involvement in technical, operational and scientific roles, he has gained deep and holistic understanding of the clinical trial process and the key mechanisms of our ecosystem.

Kai brings his entrepreneurial spirit and creative mindset to support Janssen’s global regulatory policy work across a range of topics. Kai has a passion for broad pre-competitive collaboration and is motivated to modernize the ways our broader ecosystem works together to advance the adoption of novel tools and methods to support efficient and patient-centric pharmaceutical R&D.

Dr. Eriksson is a strategy, operations and board advisor working with some of the most innovative companies in Life Sciences. He is the former CEO and current Strategic Advisor at Trialbee, a leader in the digitization of clinical research whose clinical trial patient recruitment & enrollment platform is used across the industry in global clinical trials to help biopharmaceutical and medical device companies meet enrollment timelines. An executive with extensive experience in clinical drug development at the clinic, sponsor and CRO levels including Merck & Co. Inc., PAREXEL and ICON. Dr. Eriksson is trained and skilled in clinical pharmacology, clinical research, clinical research operations with emphasis on health care alliances, site operations, feasibility, study start-up & implementation and patient recruitment. He is a strong business development and leadership professional with an innovative and creative mind to address clinical development challenges and realize new opportunities. Dr. Eriksson is an Associate Professor in Clinical Pharmacology at Lund University, Sweden and at Rutgers University School of Health-Related Professionals in New Jersey, USA.