keynote speakers

Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian (since 1991) and Croatian (since 2014) chess grandmaster, former world chess champion, writer, and political activist. From 1986 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for 225 out of 228 months. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. Kasparov also holds records for consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess Oscars (11).

With over 20 investments in start-up companies, Rainer is one of Europe’s most experienced venture capitalists in Life Sciences. Joining Wellington Partners in 1997, he became a Partner in December 2000. His nineteen years of investment activity have involved financing of some of the most successful European biotech, medtech, diagnostics and healthcare IT companies.In the late 1990s he co-managed Wellington’s investment in Swiss biotech player Actelion, today a listed company with a market cap of more than fifteen billion euros. He was also responsible for the investments in Grandis (acquired by Novartis), NoemaLife (Borsa Italiana:NOE), Wavelight (acquired by Alcon), Oxford Immunotec (NASDAQ: OXFD), Genticel (NYSE Euronext: GTCL), Definiens (acquired by Medimmune), immatics as well as mtm laboratories (acquired by Roche).

Dr. Gil Bar-Nahum is a Managing Director in the Global Healthcare Investment Banking Group at Jefferies and focuses on the Life Sciences universe in Europe, Israel and Asia. Dr. Bar-Nahum has over 15 years of investment banking experience and was most recently an Executive Director in UBS Investment Bank's Global Healthcare Group since 2002. Prior to that, Dr. Bar-Nahum worked as a Life Sciences Research Analyst for UBS where he served as an Associate Director covering companies in the Biotechnology and Tools space. Dr. Bar-Nahum has executed and advised on over 100 transactions across the globe in the life sciences space, with particular expertise in Biotechnology. Dr. Bar-Nahum received his PhD in Basic Medical Sciences with a focus in Biochemistry from the Sackler Institute at the New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Bar-Nahum also received an MS from New York University’s School of Medicine in cell and molecular biology and a BS from the University of Illinois in microbiology.

Prior to co-founding Medicxi , Francesco was with Index Ventures for 18 years, having joined the firm in 1997 to launch its life sciences practice. While at Index life sciences, he spearheaded the creation and adoption of the asset-centric investment strategy and led the growth of the firm. At Medicxi he also oversees the firm’s operations.

Francesco’s investments include CellZome (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline), Egalet (NASDAQ: EGLT), GenMab (Copenhagen: GEN.CO), GenSight Biologics (Euronext: SIGHT), Micromet (acquired by Amgen), Minerva Neurosciences (NASDAQ: NERV), Molecular Partners (Swiss: MOLN.SW), PanGenetics (acquired by Abbott), Parallele Biosciences (acquired by Affymetrix, NASDAQ: AFFX), Profibrix (acquired by The Medicines Company), Versartis (NASDAQ: VSAR) and several others. 

Chas is Professor of Translational Medicine in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine and Associate Member of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford. He is also a Visiting Professor in Neuroscience and Mental Health at Imperial College, London. Chas is an invited expert on several government and charitable research funding bodies, and an advisor for many academic, biotech and pharma drug discovery programmes.

Nick was previously Director of the NE Thames Regional Genetics Service at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, with responsibility for the strategic and operational management of a genetics service that provides DNA diagnostic testing to a population of approximately 4.5M people. Nick is an honorary Reader at the UCL Institute of Child Health, and has over 25 years of research experience in human molecular genetics. He was awarded a personal chair in Medical Genetics at Cardiff University in 2005 and is a founding CEO of London Genetics Ltd and Programme Director at Oxagen Ltd.

John Chevers is PHG Foundation’s Head of Business Development. His aim is to secure the sustainability of the organisation through building relationships and income streams. He is responsible for understanding the market environment occupied by the organisation and for shaping PHG’s products and services to generate new revenue.

Before joining PHG Foundation, John worked at Eastern Academic Health Science Network, where he was Director for External Relations. Prior to that, he was Chief Business Development Officer at GÉANT, where he established the business development team, led a number of EC initiatives and worked on international data infrastructures for many of the world’s biggest scientific projects. He has also held research and development roles at Marconi and Bookham Technology.

John is a physicist by training and completed his PhD in Fluorescence Spectroscopy at the University of Strathclyde.