SPEAKER BIOS CAREER TRANSITIONING EPFL, SV Building, Lausanne 7 October 2015 1. MELANIE BLOKESCH: Tenure-track Assistant Professor, EPFL Melanie Blokesch holds a PhD degree from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich (Germany). From 2005 to 2009 she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine and the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at Stanford University (USA). In 2009 Dr. Blokesch was appointed as tenure-track assistant professor within the School of Life Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, where she is currently the head of the Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology. The research of the Blokesch laboratory primarily focuses on how bacteria evolve in natural environments to emerge as human pathogens and how horizontal gene transfer contributes to such pathogen emergence. The model organism for these studies is the causative agent of the devastating diarrheal disease cholera. The methodologies used in Dr. Blokesch’s group include microbiology, bacterial genetics and genomics, basic biochemistry, and cellular biology-based microscopy imaging. 2. TOBY ENBERG: Executive VP, Coulter Partners Toby has over 19 years of experience across a range of industries, having worked both as a management consultant and in leadership roles within multinational corporations, including Reuters, Novartis and a privately-held medical technology company. Toby has been working in executive search for the past 4 years, specializing in international, senior roles for the life sciences industry, across the value chain. A Swedish and Swiss national, he sees himself as a global citizen and has a passion for working with people across cultures and regions. Toby has a BCom from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and speaks English, French and Swedish. He has his home base in the Nyon region, but works across the whole of Switzerland and Europe for Pharma, Biotech, Med Tech and Life-sciences clients. 3. ROLF ILLUM-ENGSIG: Head HR, Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences Rolf Illum-Engsig is head of HR for Nestlé Research and Development, located at the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences since 2014. He joined Nestlé Nespresso Globally Managed Business in 2008 and transferred to Nestlé Research and Development in Germany in 2011. He holds a Doctorate of Business Administration and Master of Science in Economics degree 4. CAROLYN LUTZ: Founder and Manager Partner, Lutz Partners Carolyn Lutz has almost twenty years of Swiss-based executive search experience with pan-European and global assignments for multinational companies. A generalist firm, areas of particular expertise include industrial, consumer and luxury products, life sciences, in particular medical devices. After beginning her search career in Geneva with Korn/Ferry, Carolyn was the founding Partner of the Geneva office of Heidrick & Struggles. Prior to becoming a search consultant, she was in marketing with Procter & Gamble in Geneva and with La Prairie in Zurich as Director of International. Just after college, Carolyn served five years in the United States Marine Corps, as an FAA-certified Air Traffic Control Officer and as aide-de-camp to the Commanding General, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in Asia, earning the rank of Captain. She earned a B.Sci. in psychology from Vassar College and was a fellow at the Lauder Institute of International Management, combining an MBA from Wharton and a Master's in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Carolyn serves on the Geneva Board of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce and is an Advisory Board Member of W.I.N., the Women’s International Networking Forum. 5. FREDERIQUE PEDRETTI: Vice President International Quality, Edwards Life Sciences https://ch.linkedin.com/pub/frederique-pedretti-abel/12/959/13/en 6. VERENA VOELTER: Executive Director, Disease Team Lead Dr Verena Voelter is a board certified specialist M.D. in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. She spent 12 years in academia as an investigator focusing on translational research in GI cancers and melanoma. Since 2004, as an attending physician at the University hospital, pluridisciplinary oncology center in Lausanne (CHUV-CePO), she focused her research on immunotherapy for melanoma involving specific vaccination approaches as well as adoptive cell transfer protocols. In 2008, she joined Celgene International at their European headquarters in Neuchâtel/Switzerland as Medical director for the lymphoma R&D program. She then moved to European & global Medical Affairs lead M.D. roles for the lymphoma program before spending 2 years in Far East Asia setting up and consolidating the Medical department functions at Celgene Korea and Taiwan. From 2013 to 2014, she held the position of Medical director at Celgene Belgium-Luxembourg with focus on Medical Affairs and contribution to successful reimbursement of new medicines hemato-oncology in Belgium. Since January 1st 2015 she holds the position of Disease Team Lead for the Multiple Myeloma franchise in Europe, Middle East & Africa. In this role, Verena is responsible for strategic planning and operational execution for all MM aspects in Europe and shares business accountability for commercialized MM products with the country organisations. .