European Health Parliament (EHP) Third Edition 17th of October 2017, 15.00 - 17.00h ’s Library Reading Room (ASP 5D)

Speakers Bios

Alojz Peterle is a Member of the European Parliament for the EPP since 2004, the same year as Slovenia became an EU Member State.

In May 1990 Mr Peterle became the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Slovenia after DEMOS coalition, which was composed of six pro-democracy parties, won the parliamentary elections. Previously, in 1990, he was elected chairman of the newly founded Slovenian Christian Democratic party (SKD). His government introduced major democratic and economic structural reforms and most importantly conduced the country to become an independent sovereign state on 25th June 1991.

Since being elected an MEP, Mr Peterle has been a Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and a substitute Member of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. He is a Co- chair of the ENVI Health Working Group and the President of the “Members against Cancer” group (MAC). As an active promoter of fight against cancer, in particular as the chair of the informal all- party forum “Members against Cancer”, Mr Peterle has devoted considerable efforts to raising the political awareness of fighting and preventing cancer all across Europe, following his own personal experience with the disease.

Mr Peterle is an active promoter of democracy, respect for human dignity, freedom of speech and peaceful dialogue among cultures, nations and religions.

Tibor Szanyi is a Hungarian economist and politician. From 1998 he was a Member of the Hungarian Parliament with the Socialist Party (MSZP) and since 2014 he has been a Member of the European Parliament. Between 2002 and 2004, he was the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and from 2004 to 2006, he held the position of Political Secretary of the Ministry of Economy and Transport.

He is a Substitute Member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.

Karin Kadenbach is an Austrian social democratic politician. She is Member of the European Parliament since 2009. Within the Parliament, she is a member of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and a Substitute Member of the Committee on Agriculture as well as the Committee on Budgetary Control. Furthermore, Karin Kadenbach is Vice-

Chair of the Delegation for relations with Japan. Prior to joining the European Parliament in 2009, Ms. Kadenbach served for sixteen years as municipal councillor in her municipality Großmugl and was a member of the Lower Austrian Regional Assembly for seven years. From 2007 to 2008, she was regional minister, holding the portfolio "health and nature protection" in the Lower Austrian Regional Assembly. After graduating in Advertising and Marketing (university course) at University of Economics and Business, she worked at J. W. Thompson advertising agency.

Brando Benifei, 31, European Federalist, is one of the youngest MEPs and is from La Spezia, Italy. He has been chair of European affairs for the Young Democrats and Vice-President of ECOSY (youth organization of PES) for 4 years. He joined the PES working group, which originally drafted the European Youth Guarantee. His main fields of legislative work in the EP are Employment and social affairs and Foreign affairs. He is Vice-Chair of the Youth Intergroup and of the Disability Intergroup.

Lieve Wierinck is a Belgian politician for the liberal Open VLD party. Mrs. Wierinck holds a pharmaceutical degree from the VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). In addition, she obtained a Post-graduate degree of Pharmaceutical management in 2006 at the University of Hasselt. In line with her educational background, she has been a pharmacist for nearly 30 years.

Before joining the European Parliament, Lieve was leader of the party fraction in Zaventem, followed by her twelve-year presidency of the OCMW (Public Centre for Social Welfare), where she managed a staff of a 150 people. She combined this with her obligations as a fulltime member of the City Council of Zaventem. From December 2011 until June 2014, she was a member of the Belgian Federal Parliament, where she was a member of the Committee for Public Health, Environment and Social Renewal, and of the Advisory Committee on Societal Emancipation.

In May 2016, Lieve replaced Mr De Backer as a Member of the European Parliament, in which she is currently seating and, where she is a full member of the Industry, Technology, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) and a substitute Member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary affairs (ECON).

Named one of Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” in health care, Eleni Antoniadou is leading the chase to reach one of the holy grails of biotechnology: creating organs in the laboratory that could be transplanted into sick patients who need them.

And that’s just one of the ambitious goals the young scientist has set for herself in the next ten years — which includes revolutionizing health care through the widespread adoption of regenerative medicine, bio-nanotechnology and the use of stem cells. For the short term, though, she’s focused on finishing her PhD, and helping NASA 2

prepare for a mission to Mars — which is only appropriate for someone whose interest in science and space began in childhood.

“If you don’t chase your dreams, you will never get a hold of them,” says the now 29-year-old Antoniadou, whose main focus today is as the co-founder and chief of scientific research of the start-up Transplants without Donors, which aims to jumpstart the use of lab-generated organs in clinical transplants.

People started paying attention when her University College London project to develop a tissue engineered trachea — and a business plan for the experimental product to become a clinical product — was awarded the top prize at UCL’s Translation to Clinic and to Commercialization of Nanotechnology Products Competition. Shortly afterwards, the product of her research was implanted into a 36-year old patient, Andemariam Teklesenbet, who suffered from late stage tracheal cancer — in the first successful artificial organ transplant in the history of medicine.

In the course of her graduate work in regenerative medicine, Antoniadou was selected from among 1,200 candidates to attend the NASA Ames Academy for Space Exploration — which led to a job at the Center for Nanotechnology and Mars Exploration at Silicon Valley, where she remains a visiting researcher.

Maya Matthews is Deputy Head of Unit Strategy and Coordination, in the DG Health and Food Safety (SANTE) of the European Commission.

She was previously with the Permanent Delegation of the to the United Nations in Geneva where she conducted health related negotiations on different files.

Camille Bullot joined EPF in November 2013. As EPF Director of Operations & Engagement, her role is to oversee the efficient and effective day-to-day operations of the organisation, ensuring the smooth delivery of EPF’s work plan. She also coordinates stakeholders’ engagement with the goal to enhance the organisation's visibility and profile.

Zeger Vercouteren is Vice President EMEA, Government Affairs & Policy with Johnson&Johnson.

Zeger Vercouteren is Vice President Government Affairs & Policy, Johnson & Johnson EMEA, responsible for developing / leading the Enterprise & Sector strategies, talent development and resource allocation and as such serves on the WW Corporate Office’s GA&P 3

Global Leadership Team.

He has a long-standing European/International LifeSciences track record, led GA&P Medical Devices EMEA, served on the Management Board Global Surgery Group EMEA.

Prior to Johnson & Johnson, Zeger headed the Baxter Europe’s European GA&P, covering the interests of the devices/biotech/pharm/vaccines sectors and was Eucomed’s Deputy Director General, having joined from a business services background.

Zeger received the ‘Corporate Public Affairs Professional of the Year’ EPAD Award 2008, is a Johnson & Johnson Trust Board member and Board member of The European Policy Center and AmCham EU, where he was also elected as Chair of the Brexit Task Force.

Zeger has an honors law degree from the FNDP-Namur/KULeuven/UC-Barcelona Universities; honors Business Administration Master's Degree from the Solvay Business School/ULB.

He speaks Dutch, French, English, Spanish, Catalan & understands German.

Adam Mouchtar

Adam is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of EU40 asbl, the network of young Members of the European Parliament.

He is a Governmental and Public Affairs expert, who provides political, communication and strategic consultancy to a number of Members of the European Parliament. He has worked as a political consultant inside the European Parliament for ten years, serving more than a dozen MEPs from different political groups in this time. He has taught Political Science theory to first year students at the University of Aachen (RWTH Aachen) and holds a Master’s degree in Political Science, Economy and Development Studies.

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