INSIGHTS: A Founder's Guide to Interviewing: Asking the right questions and spotting red flags - Tariq Ahmed (HR Expert and Coach)
Tariq Ahmed has a wealth of experience gained across multiple business sectors. In his last role as Executive Vice President, People at Achilles Therapeutics he helped navigate their growth from a small private bio-tech to a NASDAQ listed company.
INSIGHTS: Creating Buzz Around Your Startup: How to raise visibility and build momentum - Iraj Ali (former CEO Achilles Therapeutics)
A well-orchestrated narrative can accelerate your venture. When it's misaligned either too cautious or too promotional, it limits optionality rather than creating any. Iraj Ali has worked at that edge. He raised significant capital, led a UK-based company through a U.S. IPO during a global crisis, and maintained credibility through market shifts and programmatic changes. His perspective will offer you a unique view into how narrative clarity, when actively managed, reinforces strategy not just externally, but inside the organisation as well.
INSIGHTS: Executive Presence - The Key to Investor Confidence in You - Joel Garfinkle (Author and Executive Coach)
In early-stage biotech, investors aren’t just betting on the science, they’re betting on you. Your groundbreaking science got you this far, but in investor meetings, how you show up matters as much as what you’ve discovered. Your executive presence is what transforms brilliant science into investor confidence. Joel Garfinkle is based in the US, on the West Coast. He is the bestselling author of Executive Presence: Step Into Your Power, Convey Confidence, & Lead With Conviction and has coached over 2,500 leaders worldwide, including helping pharma and biotech executives become confident, commanding leaders. He is a Master Certified Coach and recognized as one of the top 15 executive coaches in the world.
INSIGHTS: The Importance of Company Culture in Early Start-Ups - Kevin Pojasek (Founder and CEO of Enara Bio)
Kevin brings a broad vantage point to the culture conversation: as a repeat CEO and a Venture Partner/EIR inside venture capital firms on both sides of the Atlantic, he has seen culture done well and done less well. He has brought his insights into authentic and people-focused leadership to Enara to help build the company’s culture from its earliest days as a seed-funded company through to where it stands today. Enara’s internal work was recently validated through the iEVP survey that we ran withing the LifeScience ORG community, developed by Harvard’s Amy Edmondson and INSEAD’s Mark Mortensen, revealing a rare alignment between leadership intention and employee perception. Kevin draws on frameworks from Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux, but applies them within the high-consequence environment of early-stage life sciences.
INSIGHTS/ The CEO: Pedro Gómez (Orbem ) - Platform Thinking, Practical Strategy
Pedro Gómez - CEO and co-founder of Orbem
Orbem is a Munich-based techbio company unlocking new applications for AI-powered imaging. Founded as a spin-out from the Technical University of Munich, Orbem has raised over >€50 million and built strategic partnerships across sectors including agriculture, health, and logistics. Pedro holds a PhD in Biomedical Imaging and Informatics and has led the company from academic research through product development, fundraising, and commercial deployment.
INSIGHTS/ The Expert- Emma Tinsley (CEO Weatherden): Your Asset is not your Strategy: Build the Path to Value at Speed.
Emma Tinsley - CEO and co-founder of Weatherden
Prior to co-founding Weatherden, Emma was part of SV Health Investors, where she specialised in venture capital company creation, forming five biotech companies across immunology and oncology. Earlier in her career, she worked within the Life Sciences team at KPMG.
INSIGHTS/ The Experts (Cooley LLP and M Ventures): Navigating Term Sheets Through the Founder and Investor Lens
Tom Goodman and Ellen Dewhurst - Cooley LLP
Nadiya Ishnazarova and Christian Uhrich - M Ventures
We asked an investor and a law firm to join us for this conversation, as these two perspectives will illuminate the nuances founders must understand - across legal protections, economic rights, and governance control.
WORKSHOP: Florian Burgdorf (The Boston Consulting Group) - Negotiation Best Practices and Exercises (Part2)
Florian Burgdorf - Global Head of Procurement Academy 4.0 and Negotiation Trainings at Boston Consulting Group
Florian holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and is a leading member of BCG's Operations and Industrial Goods practice areas, with a focus on procurement and R&D transformations, both digital and conventional.
WORKSHOP: Florian Burgdorf (The Boston Consulting Group) - The Foundations of Negotiating (Part 1 )
Florian Burgdorf - Global Head of Procurement Academy 4.0 and Negotiation Trainings at Boston Consulting Group
Florian holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and is a leading member of BCG's Operations and Industrial Goods practice areas, with a focus on procurement and R&D transformations, both digital and conventional.
INSIGHTS/ The Expert: Jill McCullough (LBS) – You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression
Jill McCullough - Personal Impact Coach
With over 30 years of experience coaching C-suite leaders from global organizations like KPMG, Mercedes, EY, and British Airways, Jill McCullough specializes in helping leaders refine their communication skills to project authority and inspire trust.
INSIGHTS/ The CEO: Josua Jordi – Partnering as Part of Your Strategy
Josua Jordi - Co-Founder of EraCal Therapeutics
Josua co-founded EraCal Therapeutics in 2018 as a spin-off from the University of Zurich and Harvard University, with a mission to develop first-in-class treatments for obesity and metabolic disorders.
INSIGHTS/ The CEO: Vanessa King - Mastering Uncertainty and Conflict: Building Cohesion Among Founders, Teams, and Boards
Vanessa King - Former CEO Tenpoint Therapeutics
Vanessa is a serial biotech CEO and Board member with global breadth. She brings a track record of significant financings, strategic partnerships, and of building exceptional organizations.
Empowering Women Leaders: Workshop 3 - Advocating for Equality in your Team - Cheryl Strauss Einhorn
Cheryl Strauss Einhorn - Founder and CEO of Decisive
Cheryl is a long time educator, teaching at Columbia University and at Cornell University’s SC Johnson School of Business and Cornell Tech. She has also authored three books.
Empowering Women Leaders: Workshop 2 - Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Goals - Cheryl Strauss Einhorn
Cheryl Strauss Einhorn - Founder and CEO of Decisive
Cheryl is a long time educator, teaching at Columbia University and at Cornell University’s SC Johnson School of Business and Cornell Tech. She has also authored three books.
Empowering Women Leaders: Workshop 1 - Navigating Female Leadership - Cheryl Strauss Einhorn (Workshop 1 of 3)
Cheryl Strauss Einhorn - Founder and CEO of Decisive
Cheryl is a long time educator, teaching at Columbia University and at Cornell University’s SC Johnson School of Business and Cornell Tech. She has also authored three books.
INSIGHTS/ The CEO: Koenraad Wiedhaup (Leyden Labs) - Building your investment case
Koenraad Wiedhaup - Founder and CEO at Leyden Labs
Koenraad has a background in science, studying Life Sciences and Biotechnology at the Universities of Leiden and Delft and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York.
INSIGHTS/ The CEO: Barnaby Balmforth (BioFidelity) - Competing on the international stage
Barnaby Balmforth - CEO and Co-Founder of BioFidelity
Barnaby’s strategic approach to team building on both sides of the Atlantic - emphasizing the recruitment of top talent, fostering an agile and innovative culture, and aligning the team with BioFidelity’s global mission - has been critical to the company’s rapid growth and international success.
INSIGHTS / The Experts: Tom Goodman (Cooley)/ Simon Burr & Campbell Stewart (Novo Venture Holdings) - Getting ready for Due Diligence
Tom Goodman - Partner at Cooley
Mark Jones - Associate at Cooley
Simon Burr - Senior Associate at Novo Ventures Holding
Campbell Stewart - VP at Novo Ventures Holding
INSIGHTS / The Investor: Sean Kendall (Partner Arch Ventures)- Succeeding in fundraising from US investors
Sean Kendall - Partner at ARCH
A chemical engineer and synthetic biologist by training, Mr. Kendall was an early employee with LS9, Inc. (acquired by Genomatica), where he developed an automated experimentation and analysis platform for their synthetic biology platform.
INSIGHTS / The CEO: Jan Lichtenberg (InSphero) - Thinking Bigger
Jan Lichtenberg - Co-founder and CEO at InSphero
Jan is an engineer and laboratory automation expert with 20 years of experience in the life sciences. Jan earned his PhD in Microtechnology and Microfluidics at the University of Neuchâtel. He is a former Head of R&D and Product Management in the medical-device company Hocoma AG and Uwatec AG.
Female Founder Exchange - Marina Udier (CEO of Nouscom)
Marina Udier - CEO at Nouscom
In our new Female Founder Exchange Series, we will be asking seasoned life science CEOs to name the three biggest challenges (personal and/or professional) that they have encountered or are encountering by virtue of being a female leader and share what they did or are doing to overcome them.
INSIGHTS / The Experts: François Candelon & Leonid Zhukov (BCG Henderson Institute) - How can GenAI expand your workforce?
François Candelon & Leonid Zhukov - BCG Henderson Institute
François Candelon is currently a Partner at Seven2, a French private equity firm. Previously, he served as the Global Director of the BCG Henderson Institute (2019-2024).
Leonid Zhukovis the Director of the BCG Global AI Institute, where he plays a pivotal role in exploring how artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI (GenAI), can transform industries.
INSIGHTS/ The CEO: Billy Boyle (Owlstone Medical) - Challenges when building your team
Billy Boyle - CEO at Owlstone Medical Ltd
Billy is an engineering graduate from the University of Cambridge. He is one of the original co-founders of Owlstone Inc,.