Niamh McKenna

Managing Director, Accenture’s Health Business, UK

Niamh McKenna, managing director, is responsible for leading Accenture’s Health business in the UK. Niamh has worked across many different industry sectors in Accenture leveraging a wide range of skills from management consulting to technology delivery. Her particular passion is helping clients to make sense of the many and varied technology changes that are taking place in the market at the moment – transforming the way healthcare will work for clinicians and patients. She helps find the path between the buzzwords and focus on what really makes a difference in the day to day challenges in her clients. She is currently working on how we can place humans at the heart of future health services and deal with some of the thornier challenges that technology can bring.

Niamh studied Social & Political Science at Cambridge University and is a globetrotter and has lived and worked in several different countries – finding those different cultural experiences ever more useful in our increasingly connected, digital world.

Dr. Qinxian Jin, Ph.D

Dean of the Office of Technology Transfer and Deputy Secretary General of Tsinghua University, China

Dr. Qinxian JIN, Dean of the Office of Technology Transfer and Deputy Secretary General of Tsinghua University, leads the University’s effort in connecting the research-driven academia with market-driven industry to create technology innovations.

Previously, he served as Deputy Director of Beijing Tsinghua Industrial Research and Development Institute, Director of R&D Management Department of Tsinghua University, Director of International Technology Transfer Center of Tsinghua University, and Assistant to President of Tsinghua Holdings Co. Ltd.

He also possesses rich academic experience, serving as Associate Professor at Department of Environmental Engineering of Tsinghua University for several years.

Dr. Jin obtained his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree from the Department of Environmental Engineering at Tsinghua University.

Dr. Eduardo Cordioli

General Telemedicine Manager, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Brazil

Eduardo Cordioli holds a Medical degree from the Federal University of São Paulo, specialization in Gynecology and Obstetrics , Master’s degree in Medical Sciences and Executive MBA in Health Management.

Currently he occupies the position of Medical Manager of the Diagnostic and Outpatient Medicine of the Israeli Hospital Albert Einstein, as Head of the Telemedicine Department. Also he is the current President of the National Commission of Ultrasonography in Gynecology and Obstetrics.

As medical professional has experience in Obstetrics, with emphasis on management and quality, high complexity and fetal medicine. As medical manager works in the area of ​​Telemedicine and Digital Health Transformation, helping its institution to lead the process of digital transformation in health in Brazil, installing the first direct to patient telemedicine service in Brazil, creating 28 digital health products with active clients.

Olaf Lodbrok

SVP Precision Medicine at Elsevier, Germany

Olaf Lodbrok is the Senior Vice President for Precision Medicine at Elsevier. He holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Aachen University (Germany) and an MBA from Duke University (USA).

He has 25 years of experience in the healthcare sector. In 2000 he launched a start-up which was acquired by Global Healthcare Exchange in 2005.

At Elsevier, Olaf launched Precision Medicine to develop machine learning algorithms on five million German and five million US patient datasets. The group also applies natural language processing to the medical literature and combines it with the insights from health data for clinical decision support.

Olaf Lodbrok joined Elsevier in 2007 as the Managing Director of Elsevier Germany.

Timothy G. Evans

Senior Director of Health, Nutrition and Population, the World Bank Group, US

From 2010 to 2013, Tim was Dean of the James P. Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Senior Advisor to the BRAC Health Program. From 2003 to 2010, he was Assistant Director General at the World Health Organization (WHO). Prior to this, he served as Director of the Health Equity Theme at the Rockefeller Foundation. Earlier in his career he was an attending physician of internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and was Assistant Professor in International Health Economics at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a board member of a number of international health alliances.

Tim has been at the forefront of advancing global health equity and strengthening health systems delivery for more than 20 years. At WHO, he led the Commission on Social Determinants of Health and oversaw the production of the annual World Health Report. He has been a co-founder of many partnerships including the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) as well as efforts to increase access to HIV treatment for mothers and innovative approaches to training community-based midwives in Bangladesh.

Tim received his Medical Degree from McMaster University in Canada and was a Research and internal Medicine Resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He earned a D.Phil. in Agricultural Economics from University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Prof. Sergio Pillon

National Coordinator of the Commission for Telemedicine Development, Italian Ministry of Health, Italy

Sergio Pillon, MD, specialist in Vascular Medicine, eHealth Master degree, fellow speaker of MEDinISRAEL.

Cardiovascular telemedicine expert, past director of the Telemedicine Unit at San Camillo-Forlanini Hospital, Medical Director of CIRM (one of the oldest telemedicine service in the world), in Rome. Member of the scientific board of AiSDeT Scientific Association for Digital Health and Telemedicine.

Past Italian National Representative al Life Science Scientific Standing Group in the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research, SCAR, in charge of Telemedicine Activities.
Since 2015 National Coordinator of the Committee for Telemedicine Development, from Italian Ministry of Health.
Past chief of Telemedicine in the National Research Program in Antarctica (PNRA) working also with NASA and ESA about telemedicine.
Co-authored the Italian National Telemedicine Guidelines.

Merav Bassan, PhD

Vice President, Head of Translational Sciences , Specialty Clinical Development, R&D, Teva, Israel

Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Tel Aviv University and post-doctoral at Harvard University.

Professional career started in biotech as a scientist and project leader, followed by a 15 years in Teva Pharmaceutical R&D;  Starting as a Global Clinical Leader leading CNS programs at all Phases, proceeding to a role of Vice President responsible for project leaders, overseeing strategy and conduct of programs at all development stages.

Now, heading the translational sciences department, responsible to bridge/translate the pre-clinical data to human studies. The group includes Clinical pharmacology, Pharmacometrics, Translational Medicine, Analytic and big data – responsible to evaluate the right dose, target engagement, patients selection and objective end points.

Henning Schneider

Chief Information Officer (CIO), Asklepios Healthcare Group, Germany

In 2016 Mr. Schneider has taken up the role of Group CIO at the healthcare group Asklepios Kliniken GmbH, which is one of the leading private operators of hospitals and healthcare facilities in Germany.

Before he has been the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the University medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf for 8 Years.

From 2003 to 2008, he succeeded as a program manager at Siemens AG Healthcare Sector running complex customer projects to improve healthcare processes by integrating clinical workflows with IT and medical devices. Before this – from 1998 to 2003 – Mr. Schneider worked at Siemens Business Services as a senior consultant for e-banking solutions.

Born in Hamburg, Germany in October 1973, he studied Computer Science and Business Administration at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg and the University of Hamburg.

During his work at Siemens, he was the winner of the Siemens Top Plus award in Dubai as one of the leading Project Manager worldwide in 2003. In 2005 he invented and established the Imaging Science Institute (www.isi-erlangen.de) which was a joint research centre between Siemens and the University Hospital of Erlangen to improve and develop medical devices, IT-Systems and processes directly in a clinical environment.

In 2011, the HIMSS Association as the first digital hospital in Europe honored the UKE with the EMRAM Stage 7 Award. In 2015 the CIO Magazin and Computerwoche honored Mr. Schneider with the „CIO of the year award” (category innovation).

Véronique FRECHIN, Pharm. D

Chief Innovation Officer, WeHealth by Servier, France

As Chief Innovation Officer within Wehealth by Servier, Véronique is responsible for strategic analysis of e-health solutions & for identifying emerging trends and opportunities in digital health to improve patients and health care professionals daily live.

With more than 20 years’ experience, Veronique has a clear understanding of drug & e-health solutions developments from idea generation up to market access & innovation management. She has a broad background in strategic planning, portfolio management and project leadership.

Véronique is Doctor of Pharmacy, with a master in Industrial Engineering Systems. She received an executive Education in the University of California Berkeley (USA) in innovative organizations & she is a certified professional coach (Paris 8 university).

Haim Cohen

VP business dev, NATALI Healthcare, Israel

In the last 12 years acting as VP business dev in NATALI Healthcare. Bringing more than 25 years of experience working in Israel’s and china health care systems, building and delivering services such as: Long-term patient-centered, preventive remote care, chronic disease management, specializing in building, developing and establishing medical and non-medical services for seniors &  chronic patients.

Nimrod Altman

CEO & a Member of the Board of Directors, NATALI Healthcare, Israel

Vast experience in the Telehealth and Telemedicine services sectors, out of which, 12 years in Natali Healthcare Group and for the last 7 years is the CEO and a Member of the Board of Directors. Led the growth of the Natali Group in the Israeli & Chinese markets both via organic growth, launching innovative eHealth services as well as via expansion to tangent fields of operations by acquisition of leading healthcare and elder care companies.

Natali is the largest private healthcare services company in Israel, with almost 30 years of experience generating in-depth knowhow, providing a large variety of Tele-medicine and Telecare services, wide range of services to the elderly population focusing on long term care, as well as Emergency Medical Services and a division of health care services for schoolchildren.

Natali operates both in Israel and China providing B2C, B2B and B2G services combined with cutting edge technologies, introducing new concepts and business models.

Israel Makov

President of the Conference
Chairman of Sun Pharma
Chairman of Bio-Light life Sciences Ltd.
Chairman of Micromedic Technologies Ltd.

Mr. Israel Makov is Chairman of SUN Pharmaceutical Industries Limited – the world’s 5^th largest specialty generic pharma company, the Chairman of BioLight – an emerging global ophthalmic company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of products for ophthalmic conditions and Chairman of Micromedic Technologies Ltd. – a cluster of companies engaged in cancer diagnostics.

Mr. Makov is the former Chairman of Given Imaging – the developer and world’s leading provider of capsule endoscopy and Netafim – the pioneer and global leader in smart irrigation solutions.

Mr. Makov is the former President & CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. He led the company’s global expansion and under his leadership Teva became the undisputed global leader in the generic pharmaceutical industry and a global leader in the treatment of Multiple sclerosis.

Mr. Makov is a member of the Board of Directors of the Israel National Nanotechnology Initiative, an initiative he also helped found. He is a member of the Executive Board & Management Committee of the Weizmann Institute of Science, on the Board of Governors of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and President of the Friends of Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel.  Mr. Makov is also Chairman of the Friends of Gesher Theatre, one of Israel’s leading theaters, and is involved in many other charitable activities.

Adiv Baruch

Chairman of the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, Israel

January 2018 – Chairman of the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute.

Adiv Baruch, has been involved in the High-tech industry for the last 32 years.

Currently, Mr. Baruch also serves as Chairman of Jerusalem Technology Investments Ltd and Maayan Ventures, a platform for investments in innovative Israeli technology companies.

Additionally, Mr. Baruch serves as the Chairman of Covertix, whose patented technology delivers real-time, non-invasive control, protection, and tracking of confidential files.

Mr. Baruch is the Chairman of Institute of Technology and Innovation, which is a leader in educating technology professionals and innovative entrepreneurs.

Mr. Baruch served as Chairman of the public committee of the Hi-Tech and Telecom Division at the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute (IEICI), and he was a member of the audit committee of the board of IEICI.

Previously, Mr. Baruch was one of the founders of Ness Technologies, grown the company to become the first Israeli IT service company into a Global IT services company.

Mr. Baruch has served as President for Nyotron, a global cyber technology company, and served as a director of the Bank of Jerusalem, and he serves or has served on the boards of a variety of charitable organizations including Make-AWish Foundation and is currently active Chairman of Or-Lachayal. Also, he has been an active member of the Young President organization (YPO).

Mr. Baruch has global experience and is involved with variety of companies on the US, Tel Aviv and Hong Kong exchanges.

Mr. Baruch served in the Israeli Navy and holds an Engineering degree from The Technion, the leading engineering institute in Israel.

MK Eli Cohen

Minister of Economy and Industry, Israel

Eli (Eliyahu) Cohen is the Minister of Economy and Industry of the State of Israel as of January 2017, and a member of the Twentieth Knesset (Israeli Parliament) representing the ‘Kulanu’ party.

Prior to his appointment as Minister of Economy and Industry, Mr. Cohen chaired the Reform Committee of the parliament. As chairman of this committee, Cohen led the parliamentary work related to several major reforms inter alia the banking system in Israel, technical standards, capital market, pension, housing and real-estate. In addition to his capacity as chairman of the Reform Committee, Mr. Cohen has promoted various private bills mainly in the pension and housing fields.

Before joining politics, Mr. Cohen held various positions in major Israeli Financial Companies. Cohen headed the Economic sector of the accounting and consulting firm- BDO Ziv Haft, then he moved to the credit rating company “Maalot S&P” where he headed its Corporate division. Cohen’s last position in the private sector was Senior Vice President of the Israeli Insurance Company ILDC (The Israel Land Development Company). In the latter, Cohen was responsible for the ongoing management of the group’s companies and served as a member of the board in all the companies within the group.

Mr. Cohen, CPA, holds an MBA degree majoring in accounting and finance from the Tel Aviv University, and has a BA degree in Accounting from the Tel Aviv University and also a BA degree in Management and Economics from the Open University of Israel.

Mr. Cohen completed his military service in the Air Force and was discharged with the rank of Major.

Born in 1972, in the city of Holon, Mr. Cohen is married and has four children.

Moshe Bar Siman Tov

Director General, Ministry of Health of the State of Israel, Israel

Moshe Bar Siman Tov is the Director General of the Ministry of Health of the State of Israel since June 2015. Mr. Bar Siman Tov previously served as the Ministry for Economic Affairs to the United States, Based in Washington, DC.

Mr. Bar Siman Tov has served for 11 consecutive years in the Budget-Division at the Israeli Ministry of Finance. In his last role at the budget division, Mr. Bar Siman Tov was the senior Deputy Director of the Budget Division, Responsible for the social expenditure in the Israeli national budget, including healthcare, education, employment & the welfare system. The role consisted of building the national budget, as well as promoting reforms and structural changes in thes fields, negotiating with the national unional unions for salary agreements and representing the Ministry of Finance in public committees. In his last months at the ministry, Moshe was involved in the intensive negotiations over the fate of the Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem.

He started working in the budgets division in 2003 in the area of employment and social services, including responsibility for overseeing the budgets of the National Insurance Institute, Social Services Ministry and others. He later coordinated the budgets of the health system. He was appointed one of the ministry’s six deputy directors in 2009. Mr. Bar Siman Tov holds an M.A and B.A in Economics and Business Administration from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

John Nosta

President, NostaLab, US

First and foremost, John is a thinker. A thinker entrenched in the world of science, medicine and innovation. John is the founder of NOSTALAB—a digital health think tank.   He’s currently ranked as the #1 global influencer in digital health and generally regarded as one of the top global strategic and creative thinkers in this important and expanding area. He is also one the most popular speakers around the globe presenting his vibrant and insightful perspective on the future of health innovation. His focus is on guiding companies, NGOs, and governments through the dynamics of exponential change in the health / tech marketplaces.

Unwilling to accept the status quo, he’s a contrarian with a sharp focus on the future. A leading voice in the convergence of technology and health, Nosta helps define, dissect and deliberate global trends in digital health. He is consistently ranked among the top names in almost every digital health list and has sustained that position for several years. Beyond simply an influencer, John is also defined as “most admired” to “top disruptor” in technology, innovation, life sciences and the pharmaceutical industry. He is also a member of the Google Health Advisory Board.  Further, John is also a frequent and popular contributor to the world’s leading news outlets including Fortune, Forbes, Psychology Today and Bloomberg.  In 2018, he received a PhD, honoris causa from Udabol Internacional: Oficial Universidad de Aquino Bolivia and from the Latin America Foundation, University of Science and Informatics Peru and Centre for Neuroscience.  He was also awarded the diploma of honour from the Bolivian government for his work in health technology in promoting innovation and engagement around the world.

John has an established reputation as a vocal advocate for strategic thinking and creativity. He has built his career on the “science of innovation,” a process where strategy and creativity work together to create inflection points in the market. He has also been recognized for his ability to translate difficult medical and scientific concepts into material that can be more easily communicated to consumers, clinicians and scientists. Additionally, John has distinguished himself as a scientific thinker. Earlier in his career, John was a research associate at Harvard Medical School and has co-authored several papers with global thought-leaders in the field of cardiovascular physiology with a focus on acute myocardial infarction, ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.

John cut his teeth at the “big” agencies including Ogilvy CommonHealth, where he has held a series of positions including Chief Creative Officer, Chief Strategic Officer and unit President.

Israel Makov

President of the Conference
Chairman of Sun Pharma
Chairman of Bio-Light life Sciences Ltd.
Chairman of Micromedic Technologies Ltd.

Mr. Israel Makov is Chairman of SUN Pharmaceutical Industries Limited – the world’s 5^th largest specialty generic pharma company, the Chairman of BioLight – an emerging global ophthalmic company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of products for ophthalmic conditions and Chairman of Micromedic Technologies Ltd. – a cluster of companies engaged in cancer diagnostics.

Mr. Makov is the former Chairman of Given Imaging – the developer and world’s leading provider of capsule endoscopy and Netafim – the pioneer and global leader in smart irrigation solutions.

Mr. Makov is the former President & CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. He led the company’s global expansion and under his leadership Teva became the undisputed global leader in the generic pharmaceutical industry and a global leader in the treatment of Multiple sclerosis.

Mr. Makov is a member of the Board of Directors of the Israel National Nanotechnology Initiative, an initiative he also helped found. He is a member of the Executive Board & Management Committee of the Weizmann Institute of Science, on the Board of Governors of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and President of the Friends of Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel.  Mr. Makov is also Chairman of the Friends of Gesher Theatre, one of Israel’s leading theaters, and is involved in many other charitable activities.

Netalie Nadivi

Partner, Triventures, Israel

Netalie has over 20 years of professional experience in technology start-up and global corporate environments.

Netalie’s interdisciplinary and holistic background, working with start-ups from different vantage points throughout her career, contributes greatly to the evaluation and identification of investment opportunities and portfolio management at Triventures.

Netalie spent over a decade at Philips in various corporate capacities including Director of Business Development and M&A.

She brings with her tremendous transaction and project management experience in investments, strategic partnerships, acquisitions and post-merger integration.

Prior to her time at Philips, Netalie gained experience in an enterprise software start-up and venture formation company.

Netalie holds a Masters in Management from Boston University and a BA in Legal Studies from UC Berkeley.

Hagai Dror

Director, Government-to-Government Health cooperation Directorate Deputy Head of Planning, Pricing and Budgeting, Israeli Ministry of Health, Israel

About the Role
Israel has built a world leading healthcare system, yet it is not a world leader in exporting health care solutions. The aim of  Healthcare-israel is to turn Israel’s proven accomplishments in the healthcare arena into large scale export projects for the benefit and well-being of all nations as well as a source for economic growth for Israel’s economy and its healthcare system. As Managing Director of Healthcare-Israel Hagai is in charge of facilitating government to government agreements for the advancement of the healthcare system in Israel as well as developing Israeli organizations’ capabilities in international cooperation and finding partners around the world for cooperation projects in the field of healthcare.

Fields of Responsibility
– Establishment and ongoing management of the directorate including setting the annual work plan and its execution.
– Mapping capabilities of the health system in Israel, and identifying world-leading areas of knowledge and expertise in the Israeli health system.
– Identifying common needs of health systems in Israel and other countries which can be developed through international agreements and the establishment of joint projects.
– Networking with foreign countries to sign collaboration agreements and projects.
– Coordination with relevant entities in Israeli health system, government and the business sector.
– Management of collaboration projects with other governments and ensuring project delivery to the end customers.

Professional Highlights
Since 2006, Hagai has served in various positions in the Planning, Budgeting and Pricing Branch of the Ministry of Health. Initially, he worked as a budgeting economist, and later headed the team in charge of budgeting at the Ministry’s headquarters. Starting in 2013, he has served as the Deputy Director of the division, in charge of all budgeting activities of the Ministry of Health and government owned hospitals in Israel (approx. 13 billion NIS and over 20,000 employees). As part of his job, Hagai was in charge of preparation of the state annual health budget; approval and supervision of annual work plans of all ministry departments and hospitals; heading three teams of budgeting and planning coordinators; managing all budget-related contacts of the Ministry with the Ministry of Finance’s budgeting unit and the Knesset and involved in leading reforms and central structural changes in the healthcare system, along with entities from the healthcare system and the government.

Dr. Wisdom Dogbey Amegbletor

Chief Executive Officer and Founder of the New Crystal Group, Ghana

Born on 3rd June 1971, Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor is a farmer, a doctor and a serial entrepreneur.

He is an alumnus of the University of Ghana Medical School and the University of Ghana Business School.

He is the CEO and founder of New Crystal Health Services, OBM Pharmaceuticals, SoftEdge and Integrated Diagnostic Solutions (IDS).

He was awarded the entrepreneur of the year in healthcare in Ghana in 2014 and 2016.

He is a Catholic and married with 6 sons.

His current passion is the deployment of information technology in improving access to pre hospital care in resource constrained environments.

Prof. Victor Novack

Head, Clinical Research Center, Head, Research Authority, Soroka University Medical Center, Israel

Prof. Victor Novack MD, PhD is the founding director of Soroka-BGU Medical Research Institute and Head of the Research Authority at Soroka University Medical Center, the second largest hospital in Israel and a single provider of the tertiary care to a population of 1.2 mln.

Prior to his current position, Prof. Novack served as a Medical Director at Harvard Clinical Research Institute, Boston USA.

His epidemiology training allows for the bridging a gap between the clinical questions and statistical apparatus. He has designed and contributed to the design of more than 50 feasibility and pivotal trials for FDA approval.

Prof. Novack is Professor of Medicine at Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University, attending in the Division of Medicine at Soroka University Medical Center and Senior Scientist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School.

He is an Associate and Statistical Editor of the European Journal of Internal Medicine. He has more than 170 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals.

His scientific interests lays at the application of the evolving statistical and epidemiological methodology to the clinically driven research questions.

Dr. Zvi Marom

Chairman, Board of the Israeli Hi-Tech & Innovation Industries Association of the Manufacturers’

Dr. Marom is founder and CEO of BATM Advanced Communications Limited.

A former first lieutenant in the Israeli Navy, he graduated first (with excellence) in electronics from the Naval Academy and first (with excellence) from the Advanced Naval Command Course.

He has a post-graduate degree in Medicine from the Sackler School of Medicine, Israel and an MSc in Industrial Electronics.

Dr. Marom is on the boards of several national and international academic committees for computing and communications. He has close links with Governmental bodies funding research for Israeli high tech companies.

He is a member of the Audit Committee and the Remuneration Committee.

Since 2017 Dr. Marom is the Chairman of the Board of the Israeli Hi-Tech & Innovation Industries Association of the Manufacturers’.

Kirk Elder

Global Innovation Leader Population Health, Philips, US

Kirk Elder is an 18-year veteran of the internet driven economy. He has held senior technology and innovation leadership positions at various companies at the forefront of disruptive business models and is currently the Global Innovation Leader for Population Health at Philips.

Previously, Kirk has held senior management and architecture positions at healthcare abstraction and analytics firms providing industry leading SaaS medical record documentation solutions. Kirk has deep experience in the development of innovative clinical analytics, dictation, speech recognition, natural language processing, BPM, and B2B Solutions.

While recognizing the transformational power that technology has, Kirk believes real step change will only be realized when technology is made consumable and implementable by adapting to human behavior and business realities.

Kirk Elder holds a B.S. in Physics with a certificate in Mathematics from Georgia Institute of Technology. During his education he worked in experimental non-linear dynamics, chaos theory, and quantum mechanics. Integrity, courage, and simplification form his core values.

Twitter: @kaelder
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaelder/

Ohad Cohen

Head of the Foreign Trade Administration, Ministry of Economy and Industry, Israel

A diplomat specializing in international trade, Ohad Cohen was appointed Head of the Ministry of Economy and Industry’s Foreign Trade Administration in May 2012. As Director of the Foreign Trade Administration, he leads an organization with a staff of over 250, an annual budget of 220 million NIS and 50 trade offices worldwide.

The Foreign Trade Administration at the Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry directs Israel’s trade policy and promotes Israel’s high-tech and traditional industries worldwide by supporting and boosting Israeli exports, attracting foreign direct investment to Israel, facilitating strategic partnerships between Israeli and foreign  governments and companies, fostering robust relations between Israeli and foreign industries , and  initiating and managing Israel’s trade agreements. He served in the IDF from 1989 to 1993, after which he earned a BA in Economics and a Masters of Business Administration at the University of Haifa.

After graduating university, he joined Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry where he worked in the Foreign Trade Administration in its Middle East Department. In 1998, he was appointed Commercial Attaché in Amman, Jordan, where he also led the Israeli delegation to the joint Israeli-Jordanian Qualified Industrial Zone (QIZ) Committee.

From 2000 to 2004 he served as Commercial Attaché to Sweden, Finland and Norway. He then returned to Israel to Lead the Commercial Attaché Cadets Course, making him responsible for training the next generation of Israel’s diplomatic commercial specialists.

From 2007 to 2012 Mr. Cohen served as Commercial Attaché at the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC.

Mr. Cohen was born in Israel, is married to Monika and has three children.

Prof. Varda Shalev

Director, Morris Kahn and Maccabi Research and Innovation Institute, Israel

Prof. Varda Shalev, MD MPH, is the head of the Morris Kahn and Maccabi Research & Innovation Institute, and a faculty member at the Tel-Aviv University School of Public Health (TAU SPH). Side by side to here senior level roles, Prof. Shalev is an active primary care physician in Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS) sick fund.

With an MD degree from Ben-Gurion University Medical School, she completed her residency in family medicine and earned an MPA in Health Public Administration at Clark University. After a two-year fellowship in medical informatics at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital, Prof. Shalev established the Medical Informatics Department at Maccabi and was responsible for planning and developing its computerized systems encompassing data from two million members and 9000 care provides. She has pioneered the development of multiple disease registries to support chronic disease management. Prior to her current position, Prof. Shalev has served as the director of Primary Care Division at MHS and implemented several structural reforms in the provision of care.

Prof. Shalev’s research interests are epidemiology, medical informatics and predictive analytics. She is a member of the European Health Telematics Association and the American Medical Informatics Association. Prof. Shalev teaches regularly at the TAU SPH graduate school in the areas of big-data and medical informatics. She has authored or co-authored over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Tamar Ish-Shalom

Tamar Ish-Shalom is a Senior Journalist and the Anchor at Israel’s leading News Network Channel 13, Israel

Dr. Maki Sugimoto

The Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo and Co-founder, Director & COO, Holoeyes Inc., Japan

Dr. Maki Sugimoto MD, PhD. Graduated from Teikyo University School of Medicine Tokyo in 1996. Experience as a visiting fellow at Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System California US, associate professor at Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, and associate professor at International University of Health and Welfare Graduate School.

As a surgeon, Dr. Sugimoto has also been involved in leading edge research of medical software, device development, and health care business consulting. He is also passionate about scientific education for the younger generation.

Received many patents in the medical and engineering sector, as well as awards from academic conferences. Official ambassador of OsiriX; the most widely used medical image DICOM viewer in the world. Elected as “an innovator who is continuing to change the world” from Apple in 2014. Also gives 6 TEDx talks around Japan, and involved as a TED translator.

Dr. Lena Granovsky

Director, Head of Analytics and Big Data, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Israel

Dr. Lena Granovsky is Director, Analytics and Big Data at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.

Lena’s main scientific interests are in the fields of statistical modeling, data mining and machine learning.

Before joining Teva, Lena worked as Principal Data Scientist at AOL, where she developed algorithms for analysis of big marketing data.

Prior to AOL, Lena was an applied Post-Doctoral Researcher at IBM Watson research labs in NY.

Lena holds a PhD in statistical genetics from the Technion. Her earlier studies included a M.Sc degree in Bioinformatics and B.Sc degree in Information Systems Engineering.

Dr. Qinxian Jin, Ph.D

Dean of the Office of Technology Transfer and Deputy Secretary General of Tsinghua University, China

Dr. Qinxian JIN, Dean of the Office of Technology Transfer and Deputy Secretary General of Tsinghua University, leads the University’s effort in connecting the research-driven academia with market-driven industry to create technology innovations.

Previously, he served as Deputy Director of Beijing Tsinghua Industrial Research and Development Institute, Director of R&D Management Department of Tsinghua University, Director of International Technology Transfer Center of Tsinghua University, and Assistant to President of Tsinghua Holdings Co. Ltd.

He also possesses rich academic experience, serving as Associate Professor at Department of Environmental Engineering of Tsinghua University for several years.

Dr. Jin obtained his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree from the Department of Environmental Engineering at Tsinghua University.

Prof. Dr. Jochen A. Werner

Medical Director and CEO of the University Medicine of Essen, Germany

Jochen Werner studied medicine at the University of Kiel, Germany. In 1987 he did his doctorate and started working as doctor and scientist of the Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology of the University Hospital of Kiel.

1998 Dr. Werner became Professor and Chairman of the Department Oto-Rhino-Laryngology of the University of Marburg. Werner was also Dean of Medical Education from 2004 to 2006.

Since 2011 to 2015, Dr. Werner became Medical Director of the University Hospital of Gießen and Marburg, Germany (UKGM GmbH).

Since 2015 in his function as Medical Director and CEO, Werner has dedicated himself to the digitization of medicine and set the University Medicine Essen on its way to becoming a Smart Hospital.

Niamh McKenna

Managing Director, Accenture’s Health Business, UK

Niamh McKenna, managing director, is responsible for leading Accenture’s Health business in the UK. Niamh has worked across many different industry sectors in Accenture leveraging a wide range of skills from management consulting to technology delivery. Her particular passion is helping clients to make sense of the many and varied technology changes that are taking place in the market at the moment – transforming the way healthcare will work for clinicians and patients. She helps find the path between the buzzwords and focus on what really makes a difference in the day to day challenges in her clients. She is currently working on how we can place humans at the heart of future health services and deal with some of the thornier challenges that technology can bring.

Niamh studied Social & Political Science at Cambridge University and is a globetrotter and has lived and worked in several different countries – finding those different cultural experiences ever more useful in our increasingly connected, digital world.

Prof. Arnon Afek

Fabrizio Sala

Vice President, The Region Lombardy, Italy

Fabrizio Sala was born in Milan on June 13, 1971. Early in his career, he held administrative and sales positions in the furniture industry field. After working as an insurance agent in 1997 he started to operate as a financial advisor, managing and training a team of sales agents.

From 2008 till the end of 2012 he was the of Head of External Relations and then he held the position of Contract Strategy Manager in two major Italian companies.

In 1999 he was elected Mayor of the Municipality of Misinto (Monza and Brianza). He remained in office till 2009 when he was appointed Councillor for the Environment, and Vice President then, of the Monza and Brianza Provincial Government.

In 2013 he was elected Councillor for the Lombardy Region and he was appointed Undersecretary for Expo 2015 and enterprises Internationalization.

In December 2014 he has been nominated regional Minister for Housing, Social Housing, Expo 2015 and enterprises Internationalization.

In October 2015 he was appointed Vice President of the Lombardy Region, also in charge for the International relations.

In March 2018 he was re-elected Regional Councillor and he was appointed Vice President of the Lombardy Region and regional Minister for Research, Innovation, University, Export, and Internationalization.

He is in charge as Vice President of the Network of the European Regions Using Space Technologies (NEREUS) and President of the European Chemical Regions Network (ECRN).

Efi Cohen Arazi

CEO and Co-Founder of Rainbow Medical, Israel

Mr. Efi Cohen Arazi, CEO and Co-Founder of Rainbow Medical, Israel’s leading medical device innovation house focused on inventing and developing game changing solutions for sizeable unmet market needs in the area of hypertension, ophthalmology, cardiology and diabetes. Rainbow Medical’s shareholders include Medtronic, Abbott and Sony corporations.

Mr. Cohen Arazi has over 25 years of experience in the medtech and biotech industries where he held executive management responsibility in both operations and business management. Prior to establishing Rainbow Medical, Mr. Cohen Arazi served as Co-Founder & CEO of IntecPharma, Israel, a company specializing in drug development and delivery and as Chairman of CollPlant Ltd., a both public companies traded in Tel-Aviv stock exchange. Previously, Mr. Cohen Arazi was GM & V.P., Site Head at California based Amgen Corporation, where he established and led several global strategic initiatives and partnerships to develop and manufacture blockbuster biopharmaceuticals. Prior to Amgen, Mr. Cohen Arazi was Senior VP at Immunex Corporation in Washington and before that VP and General Manager at the Merck-Serono Group in Switzerland and Israel.

Mr. Cohen Arazi holds advanced degrees in Agriculture and Microbiology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Elena Sini

Chief Information Officer (CIO), Humanitas, HIMSS Italian Community, Italy

Elena Sini has been the CIO of both public and private research and teaching hospitals in Italy for almost 20 years and a board member of the HIMSS Europe Governing Council since 2016.

She is Adjunct Professor on Healthcare Information Systems at the Humanitas University and lecturer at the ALTEMS – School of Economics and Management – Cattolica University.

Author of several publications in peer reviewed journals, she has been invited to speak at the most relevant events on eHealth and has been awarded for implementing digital innovation projects in healthcare.

Elena began her career in the media broadcasting industry at the RAI Research Centre and at TELE+, Canal+ Group, where she focused her research activities on the digital terrestrial television transmission standard.

She holds a Master of Science in Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Pisa.

Dr. Carlo Barbieri

Director Care Value Advanced Analytics, Fresenius Medical Care, Germany

Born in Crema, Italy on 02.09.1973.

Holds a degree in Theoretical Physics from the University of Milan (Italy) and PhD in Electronic Engineer with specialization in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Valencia (Spain).

He’s working with FME since 15 years, currently is Director of the Advanced Analytics department within FME EMEA Operations & Digital Strategies and he is General Manager of Santa Barbara Smart Health.

Dr. Eduardo Cordioli

General Telemedicine Manager, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Brazil

Eduardo Cordioli holds a Medical degree from the Federal University of São Paulo, specialization in Gynecology and Obstetrics , Master’s degree in Medical Sciences and Executive MBA in Health Management.

Currently he occupies the position of Medical Manager of the Diagnostic and Outpatient Medicine of the Israeli Hospital Albert Einstein, as Head of the Telemedicine Department. Also he is the current President of the National Commission of Ultrasonography in Gynecology and Obstetrics.

As medical professional has experience in Obstetrics, with emphasis on management and quality, high complexity and fetal medicine. As medical manager works in the area of ​​Telemedicine and Digital Health Transformation, helping its institution to lead the process of digital transformation in health in Brazil, installing the first direct to patient telemedicine service in Brazil, creating 28 digital health products with active clients.

Dr. Eyal Zimlichman

Dr. Sam Shah

Director of Digital Development, NHS England, UK

Dr. Sam Shah is a clinician and Director for Digital Development for NHS England, UK.

He has a background in primary healthcare, public health, research and supporting the digital transformation of the NHS in England.

Sam leads on programmes designed to support citizens accessing health services, development of technology that enables integration and digitisation of urgent and emergency care.

He strongly believes the introduction of technology, that leverages the power of insight through data, can improve efficiency, system capacity and clinical effectiveness. Sam and his team work with a number of industry partners, research units and SMEs on digital developments in the NHS.

Sam has previously held roles as the clinical lead and commissioner for urgent care in London as well as overseeing the development of NHS 111 Online in England.

Elliott Gotkine

TV Presenter, Media Coach and Master of Ceremonies (MC), Israel

In his near two decades in broadcasting, Elliott has worked for the BBC, CNN and Bloomberg Television, covering South America, Europe and the Middle East.

Elliott has interviewed world leaders, including Hugo Chavez and Shimon Peres; billionaires, such as Sheldon Adelson and Patrick Drahi; and Nobel Laureates, like Mario Vargas Llosa.

He’s emceed conferences in front of thousands; carried out media training for leading tech companies like Dropbox and DataRobot; played county-level water-polo; and even found time to invent the Shabbelt.

Elliott holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geography, from the University of Nottingham.

He speaks fluent Spanish, decent French, reasonable Hebrew and passable Italian.

Ruggiero Corcella

Senior Editor, Health section, Corriere Della Sera, Italy

Ruggiero is Senior Editor of the Health section of Corriere Della Sera (Italian national daily newspaper).

He focuses his writing on topics related to digital health (eHealth), innovation in healthcare (i.e. cybersecurity, Big Data, artificial intelligence),  transplants and regenerative medicine, heart defects in athletes, cardiology and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, rare diseases, patients’ rights, osteopathy and physiotherapy, deafness and hearing loss in children, consequences of electromagnetic waves on human health, therapeutic use of psychotropic substances (e.g. cannabis, LSD, etc), and alternative and complementary medicines (i.e. acupuncture, yoga, Shiatsu, Ayurveda, ethnic medicine).

Ziva Eger

Chief Executive of Invest in Israel and the Industrial Cooperation Authority (ICA)

Ziva Eger has been serving as Chief Executive of Invest in Israel and the Industrial Cooperation Authority (ICA) at the Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry since October 2014.

As the Head of ICA, Ziva leads the process of attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) to Israel’s innovative economy; helping any foreign company, fund or private investor that wants to “Invest in Israel”; and authorizing, monitoring and exploring opportunities in offset.

Prior to this, Ziva, a retired IDF Colonel, served as Chief of Staff of the Communication and Home Front Defense offices.

Arundhati Parmar

VP and Editor-in-Chief, MedCity News, US

Arundhati Parmar oversees the publication’s news coverage, develops its content strategy as well as sets the programming agenda for all the conferences that MedCity News hosts nationwide.

Previously, she was Senior Editor at UBM’s Medical Device + Diagnostic Industry.

Arundhati has three degrees from three continents – a Bachelor of Arts in English from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India; a Masters in English Literature from the University of Sydney, Australia and a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. She has sworn never to enter a classroom again.

Angela W. Rabinovich

Director, Life Science Department, Israel Export Institute, Israel

Angela W. Rabinovich is leading Life Science industry department at the Israeli Export and International Cooperation Institute. IEICI is a not-for-profit organization supported by the government of Israel and the private sector to advance the integration of Israeli companies into the global market.

On the daily base Angela is responsible for constant interaction with more than 500 Israeli exporters in the field of Medical Devices, Health Care IT and BioPharma: analyzing their needs, identifying target markets and business opportunities generating export oriented activities (form formal delegations to tailor made business visits).

Israeli National Pavilion at Medica (Germany), Hospitalar (Brazil) exhibitions, North American Hospital CEO Delegation and MEDinISRAEL are among recent successful projects under Angela’s leadership.

Her professional career started in 2004 at Orgenics Ltd. Under her first responsibility were products’ registration projects in Eastern Europe countries; later as Customer and Sales Manager for CIS countries. Since Orgenics has been owned by Inverness Medical Innovation, today Aler (based in US) Angela has been promoted for Business Development Manager for Asia Pacific region.

During that period she acquired wide experience in such fields like SelfCare, Point of Care and Rapid Diagnostics for Infectious Disease, Cardiovascular, Oncology, Women Health as well as in Clinical Laboratories diagnostic & research tools.

Principal Competitors: Wyeth Pharmaceuticals; Abbott Laboratories; Roche Group. Angela holds BA in International Relations and EMBA from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Angela is fluent in English, Hebrew, Russian and Ukrainian.

Anat Naschitz

Managing Director, OrbiMed, Israel

OrbiMed is a preeminent global healthcare investment firm with ~$15 billion under management across public and private asset classes. The firm covers the entire healthcare spectrum, investing in biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and digital health. Anat has over 20 years of healthcare experience and currently serves on the boards of biotech and digital health companies.

Previously Anat created, invested in and advised companies across the entire healthcare spectrum in terms of stage and subject matter. She was an Associate Partner with McKinsey in London, where she managed strategy and M&A projects for senior management of the world’s preeminent pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Among other accomplishments, Anat led pharmaceutical spinout work resulting in the creation of European biotech companies valued at billions of dollars. Post McKinsey Anat joined Apax Partners, where she focused on life sciences investments.

She earned her M.B.A. at INSEAD and her LL.B. at Tel Aviv University.

Yinnon Dolev

Head, Sompo Digital Lab in Tel Aviv, Israel

His group is responsible for partnering and investing in innovative startups in areas such as Insurtech, Digital Health, Smart mobility, Cyber security and more.
Prior to that, he founded and managed the startups partnerships program by General Electric (GE) Digital in Israel, the first of its kind dedicated to the industrial internet. In this role, Yinnon was responsible for creating partnerships with 26 Israeli software companies, 3 capital investments and the acquisition of IQP, a Japanese-Israeli startup. Yinnon spent 13 years at GE, where he was a graduate of the Experienced Commercial Leadership Program and held various management positions in strategic marketing, product management & business development in the US and in Israel.
Prior to joining GE Yinnon was a software engineer and he is also a retired Major in the Israeli Defense Forces.
Yinnon holds a BA in Computer Science from the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel and an MBA from Cornell University.

Dr. Purna Prasad

Vice President & CTO, Northwell Health, US

Dr. Purna Prasad is a recognized leader, researcher, and an innovator with three decades of experience in the field of clinical information technology and biomedical engineering. He is the chief technology officer and vice president for information technology at Northwell Health, New York’s largest health care system.

Dr. Prasad has a career-long record of accomplishment spanning information technology, clinical technology, and biomedical program development, infrastructure / architecture planning, solution engineering, and enterprise-wide integration. He has consistently demonstrated repeated success delivering innovative, ground-breaking clinical information technology systems, solutions, and infrastructure models to enable dramatic expansion of clinical services, biomedical capabilities, and patient service capacity. He has directed best-practice projects and enterprise change management efforts to ensure continuity of mission-critical clinical systems serving the highest caliber of patient diagnostic, monitoring, and therapeutic support. He consistently ccollaborates with executive and clinical leadership team to align all technology initiatives with short- and long-range business and needs, clinical demands, and regulatory compliance requirements. He serves as an end-to-end liaison to all business units, forging outstanding stakeholder relations, building cross-functional consensus, and facilitating technology adoption.

Dr. Prasad’s pioneering work in clinical information technology research resulted in the first networked physiological monitoring system for acute care, distant patient care using telemedicine, computerized brain monitoring system, sleeping brain monitoring and diagnosis, and application of robotics in medicine. He successfully established the first information technology innovation center at Northwell health in New York. This innovation center is a sandbox for the sixty-six thousand strong Northwell clinicians, scientists and staff to think different. The center produced the first 3D printed prototype of an artificial limb that enabled a wounded veteran to swim again. The center excels in using commoditized technology to empower patients to care for themselves. The center successfully tested the first unmanned air drone delivery of an emergency first aid pack.

Dr. Prasad holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, a master’s degree in biomedical engineering and a PhD in information technology.

Jonah Comstock

Editor-in-Chief, MobiHealthNews, HIMSS Media, US

Jonah Comstock is the Editor-in-Chief at MobiHealthNews at HIMSS Media.

Comstock is a health and science journalist focused on covering the emerging digital health market.

Interested in how technology is shaping our future.

Assaf Barnea

CEO of Sanara Ventures Chairman, Life Science Advisory Board at The Israel Export Institute, Israel

Mr. Assaf Barnea, CEO of Sanara Ventures is a seasoned entrepreneur and venture professional with significant multidisciplinary experience in building innovation platforms and commercialization processes in healthcare and Cleantech. Sanara Ventures is a healthcare investment platform, jointly held by Teva Pharmaceuticals and Philips Healthcare.

Assaf is also a business consultant at the World bank/IFC venture capital team, supporting the IFC’s investments in technologies that are relevant for developing countries. Formerly, Assaf was the CEO of Kinrot Ventures, the leading seed investor in water technologies worldwide.

Kinrot is privately held by Hutchison water that acquired Kinrot Ventures in 2012. Previously, Assaf was managing the Business Development activity at Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, where he oversaw the establishment of WaTech – the Entrepreneurship & Parmball at Israel’s top division and was a member of the Israeli national basketball team. In April 2013, Mr. Barnea was awarded with the Innovation Hero Award by the global Cleantech group.

Prof. Ran Balicer

Founding Director Clalit Research Institute, Israel Board Member, Life Science Directorate at IEI, Israel

Prof. Ran Balicer, MD, PhD, MPH serves as Founding Director of the Clalit Research Institute, the WHO Collaborating Center on Non-Communicable Diseases Research, Prevention and Control. In Parallel, he serves as Director of Innovation and Director of the Health Policy Planning Dpt. for Clalit – Israel’s largest healthcare organization.

In these roles, he is responsible for strategic planning of novel organization-wide interventions for improving healthcare quality, reducing disparities and increasing effectiveness.

These include the introduction of innovative data-driven tools into practice – predictive modeling, real-life effectiveness studies, decision support tools and proactive care models.

Prof. Balicer serves as a Public Health Professor and MPH Track Director at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University, as Chair of the Israeli Society for Quality in Healthcare, and as an Advisor to the World Health Organization, in projects focusing on non-communicable diseases monitoring, prevention and control, Healthy Aging and Integrated Healthcare Systems.

Dr. Lawrence P. Petalidis

Formerly Head of Innovation and Impact, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust Health Charity, UK

Lawrence led the development of an innovation hub at Chelsea and Westminster NHS over the last 3 years securing some 20 digital health projects and collaborations including a multimillion clinical AI analytics agreement.

Lawrence has served as a NHS Navigator for the Digital Health.London Accelerator and advises NHS organisations and digital health start-ups on commercial and evidence strategy.

He is passionate about clinical frontlines, innovation operations, change and bridging the gaps between health, tech, academia and business.

Lawrence has a PhD in molecular neuro-oncology from Addenbrookes Hospital, University of Cambridge and some 14 years of experience across business, commercial, knowledge transfer, digital change and health innovation roles.

Olaf Lodbrok

SVP Precision Medicine at Elsevier, Germany

Olaf Lodbrok is the Senior Vice President for Precision Medicine at Elsevier. He holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Aachen University (Germany) and an MBA from Duke University (USA).

He has 25 years of experience in the healthcare sector. In 2000 he launched a start-up which was acquired by Global Healthcare Exchange in 2005.

At Elsevier, Olaf launched Precision Medicine to develop machine learning algorithms on five million German and five million US patient datasets. The group also applies natural language processing to the medical literature and combines it with the insights from health data for clinical decision support.

Olaf Lodbrok joined Elsevier in 2007 as the Managing Director of Elsevier Germany.

Paul Mullen

General Manager, Acute Care, GE Healthcare Partner, Frontera Business Services, US

Paul is an Engineer by training, a Marketer by practice, and a General Manager by title.  Still active in both his technical and business roots, he was named the Top Marketer in GE in 2012 and he also is the inventor or co-inventor on more than a dozen US Patents.  His professional assignments span X-ray, Ultrasound, Life Sciences, and Services, but he claims Ultrasound as home turf.  He works across many cultures, currently working extensively in the USA, Finland, and Israel.   He currently leads a collaboration between GE Healthcare and Roche Diagnostics as the two companies work to reduce the burden of Sepsis.

Paul’s résumé is nearly entirely filled with experience at GE Healthcare, completing 35 years of service with the company in December 2018.  But his organizational experience extends far beyond the strictly corporate world:  Paul is a founding Partner of Frontera Business Services, a company that provides transaction processing and donor relationship management support to small- and medium-sized NGOs that raise money in the USA.  He serves as board member or board advisor to several NGOs and community organizations, focusing his work on leadership development, governance, and process improvement.

Paul is an accomplished photographer, a hobby he developed under his father’s guidance as a boy, and whose skill and passion he has passed on to his three adult daughters. He and his wife, Nancy, are home automation enthusiasts, and have learned to thermoform acrylic and 3D print plastics to make 3-dimensional artwork for their home.  Paul speaks Spanish and English.  As it relates to studying Hebrew, he says,
“.לימוד עברית הוא כמו ללמוד את השפה של מאדים” Paul is active in poverty relief in Latin America, especially in Guatemala. Paul served as an Elder at Elmbrook Church from 2008 through 2013, serving as the Vice Chair and Chair in the last two years.

Shachar Hefetz

Business Development, Sompo Digital Lab Tel Aviv, Israel

Shachar is leading the business development initiatives in InsurTech and Digital health areas at Sompo Digital Lab Tel Aviv.

Prior to his current position, Shachar spent 15 years at IBM, where he founded and led the IBM Alpha Zone Accelerator, promoting collaboration of Israeli Startups with IBM Corporate.

Most recently, from 2015 to 2018 Shachar led Samsung RUNWAY collaboration with Startups program, scouting for technologies to be integrated into Samsung Electronics Products.

He holds a Bachelor degree in Computer Sciences from Tel Aviv-Yafo Academy and an MBA from Technion University.

Romain Champetier

Business Development Manager, AXA Next Labs Europe, France

AXA Next is AXA’s innovation holding company and an independent entity dedicated to new business models in healthcare, mobility, the platform economy and SMEs.

Prior to this, Romain has been working for two years for the AXA Group CEO, Thomas Buberl. He started at the AXA Group strategy team.

Romain is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris in France, as well as the London School of Economics. He also attended Georgetown University as an exchange student.

Dr. Mary Sano

Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, US

Dr. Mary Sano is Professor of Psychiatry and the Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She is also the Director of Research and Development at the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital. Currently she is the director of a national multi-center study known as CLASP (Cholesterol Lowering in Alzheimer’s Disease to Slow Progression). Dr. Sano is a neuropsychologist by training and has been involved in designing and conducting clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and mild cognitive impairment of aging.

Terence O’Dwyer

Co-CEO, LSX, UK

Terry O’Dwyer is founder and CEO of LSX – The Life Science Executive Network, a global influential community dedicated to helping life science leaders access the capital, partners, innovation and ideas they need to grow their businesses. Formerly known as Biotech and Money, LSX has grown in the past 5 years to reach and connect thousands of the worlds leading life science executives through impactful large scale C-level events in UK, USA and Europe.

He has over 15 years experience as a senior executive in the B2B media, publishing and events industry, with an enviable track record of success in conceptualising, launching and developing several successful large scale events and media offerings. I  have a particular expertise in working with C-suite executives at the top of their game, and in bringing people together so that the sum of their parts is greater than the whole.

Aviad Tamir

Head of Life Sciences & Healthcare at Invest in Israel, Israel

Aviad Tamir is the Head of Life Sciences & Healthcare at Invest in Israel, helping multinationals establish their operations in Israel.

His professional experience spans across Israel and abroad working with Pharmaceutical & Healthcare industries, specializing in International Business Development & Strategic Partnerships within the private and public sectors.

Previously, Aviad worked at the Ministry of Defense, Mission to the U.S. managing procurement projects for the IDF, and the Office of the Prime Minister as an Advisor to the Director General of the Ministry for Senior Citizens.

Travis Johnson

Global Product Lead, Garmin Health, US

Travis Johnson is the Global Product Lead for Garmin Health, responsible for the digital health product and services roadmap at Garmin and strategic partnerships across corporate wellness, population health, and patient monitoring markets.

Travis joined Garmin in 2007, leading product management for mobile navigation and carrier partnerships.

Travis is a graduate of Kansas State University and has a B.S. in Computer Science.

Mr. Frédéric Attia

Senior VP, Partnership & International Strategy, Orange Healthcare, France

From medical and university background, then to CNAM (Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers) as an engineer and Insead Cedep as an executive MBA alumnus, I began my career as a special adviser at the Prevention College of Technological Risks attached to Hotel Matignon in the Prime Minister’s Office. I then continued at Accenture in the health practice and then at Orange, capitalizing on my skills in this sector.

Currently e-health specialist, I participated in the creation of this relay of growth at Orange Business Service, being successively responsible for the Health Skill Center, Health Cloud Division, Business Development at Health line of Business (LOB) then CCO and Senior VP Partnership and Orange Healthcare’s international strategy as soon as the LOB became a business Unit.

Steve Smith

VP R&D, Medication Management Solutions, Becton Dickinson, US

Steve is the VP of R&D for the Medication Management Solutions division within Becton Dickinson in San Diego, CA.
BD Medication Management Solutions is the provider of the Alaris infusion system platforms, Pyxis automated dispensing cabinets, and the Rowa medication supply robotics platforms in addition to various software products.

Prior to BD, Steve was in senior leadership roles with Medtronic Diabetes including VP of Product Development and VP/GM of Critical Care – Diabetes Ventures.

Steve has also been a hospital CIO and began his professional career as a software developer.

Dov Sugarman

Co-CEO of Mediterranean Towers Ventures, Israel

Dov Sugarman understands aging and is a recognized thought leader in the field of senior care technology.

Dov is co-CEO of Mediterranean Towers Ventures, the first fund in Israel that invests exclusively in early-stage technology companies developing disruptive solutions for aging – the
fastest growing population segment around the world.

Dov is also the Israel representative for Aging2.0, the global innovation platform on a mission to accelerate innovation to improve the lives of older adults around the world.

His 20-year career includes managing senior housing and care services in the United States, co-founding an internet startup, a senior management role at digital pioneer 888, and leading
Technology for Aging at JDC-Eshel, Israel’s leading senior services development agency.

Dov has an MPH in Health Policy and Management, and a BS and MS in Nutrition.

Dr. George Demiris

PIK (Penn Integrates Knowledge) University Professor, University of Pennsylvania, US

George Demiris, PhD, FACMI, is a Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, Department of Biobehavioral Health Sciences, School of Nursing & Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics and the Gerontological Society of America.

His research is exploring innovative ways to utilize technology and support patients and their families in various settings including home and hospice care. He has conducted numerous federally funded studies and his work has been funded consistently over the years both by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

He has designed “smart home” solutions for aging, and studied digitally augmented residential settings to facilitate passive monitoring and support independence and quality of life for community dwelling older adults.

Artur Pruszko

Head of Center for Integrated Care and e-Health, Gdańsk Medical University & Director of e-Health Forum, Poland

Artur Pruszko holds a Ph.D. in mathematics and graduated from Executive and MBA. He is an expert in strategic management, investments project management, business development and restructuring.

Artur Pruszko is an expert in telecommunication industry and investment processes, he has long professional experience in Polish Telecom where he held managerial positions in Strategy Department and Business Development Department. He also worked for private equity firms and has been providing consulting services. He recently conducts projects related to improvement in healthcare, including projects in the field of telemedicine and e-health, where he has supported Ministry of Health, Nation Health Fund, CSIOZ.

Artur Pruszko is the organizer and Director of e-Health Forum, managing the strategic discussion of key stakeholders (incl. Ministry of Heath, regional authorities, healthcare providers andIT vendors) with contribution of global organization IHE and HIMSS.

Since 2017, Artur Pruszko is Deputy Chairmen of Interoperability Council in Center for Healthcare Information Systems (Poland).

Judith Kornfeld

Chief Business and Operations Officer, ORCATECH, US

Ms. Judith Kornfeld is the Chief Business and Operations Officer of ORCATECH. As a major part of her role, she leads all of ORCATECH’s partnerships and collaborations with industry and academia.

Prior to joining ORCATECH, Judith held the position of VP of Business Development of TransPharma Medical Ltd., conducting its worldwide business development operations.

Prior to joining TransPharma, Ms. Kornfeld held the position VP of Business Development of a number of emerging medical technological companies where she was responsible for creating collaborations with leading global medical device companies. Ms. Kornfeld specializes in bringing innovative medical technologies to prosper in the medical industry. Previously, she has gained scientific and managerial experience in various positions at Duke University and the Carmel Medical Center.   Ms. Kornfeld holds a Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences and an MBA as well as an academic background in electrical engineering. She is the member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Society.

Dr. Neomi Siegal

 Head, Medical Division, Maccabi Health Care, Israel

A certified Pediatrician, Dr. Siegal serves as the Head of the Medical Division at Maccabi Health Care.

Her former positions include leading Maccabi’s strategy, and serving as VP of quality and Strategy at Hadassah Medical Center.

Dr. Siegal leads the MBA Health Management specialty at Ono Academic College and serves as the Health Management Society’s Secretary.

Dr. Siegal holds an MD degree from Tel Aviv University as well as MPA from Harvard.

Allison B Sekuler, PhD

Sandra A Rotman Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Vice-President Research, Baycrest Health Sciences, Managing Director, Rotman Research Institute and the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation, Professor, University of Toronto and McMaster University, Canada

Dr. Allison Sekuler is the Sandra Rotman Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and VP Research, Baycrest Health Sciences, and Managing Director, for the Rotman Research Institute and the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation. A graduate of Pomona College (BA, Mathematics and Psychology) and the University of California, Berkeley (PhD, Psychology), she holds faculty appointments at the University of Toronto and McMaster University.

Her research focuses on understanding how the brain processes visual information, and how that processing changes across our lifetimes, with an aim of developing methods to prevent, detect, and treat age-related sensory and cognitive decline.

Assaf Barnea

CEO of Sanara Ventures Chairman, Life Science Advisory Board at The Israel Export Institute

Mr. Assaf Barnea, CEO of Sanara Ventures is a seasoned entrepreneur and venture professional with significant multidisciplinary experience in building innovation platforms and commercialization processes in healthcare and Cleantech. Sanara Ventures is a healthcare investment platform, jointly held by Teva Pharmaceuticals and Philips Healthcare.

Assaf is also a business consultant at the World bank/IFC venture capital team, supporting the IFC’s investments in technologies that are relevant for developing countries. Formerly, Assaf was the CEO of Kinrot Ventures, the leading seed investor in water technologies worldwide.

Kinrot is privately held by Hutchison water that acquired Kinrot Ventures in 2012. Previously, Assaf was managing the Business Development activity at Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, where he oversaw the establishment of WaTech – the Entrepreneurship & Parmball at Israel’s top division and was a member of the Israeli national basketball team. In April 2013, Mr. Barnea was awarded with the Innovation Hero Award by the global Cleantech group.

Prof. Nachman Ash MD, MHA

Director, Division of Medicine, Maccabi HealthCare Services

Born in Israel 1961. Married to Shifra (pediatric oncologist) and father to twin boys and a daughter. Received his MD degree from Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University in 1986. Completed his residency in Internal Medicine in 1997.

In 2001 Prof. Ash received MS degree in Medical Informatics from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health, Sciences and Technology, Boston, USA. Prof. Ash has also a Master degree in political sciences from the University of Haifa.

Prof. Ash has been a military physician for 25 years. He retired in the rank of Brigadier General on 2011, after completing intensive 4 years as the Surgeon General of the IDF.

During this position Prof. Ash was in charge of deploying a field hospital to Haiti (Jan. 2010) and Japan (Apr. 2011) during the natural disasters that came upon these countries.

Between Jan 2012 and July 2013 Prof. Ash served in the Ministry of Health as a senior Deputy Director General for Health Informatics. In this position he was responsible for Health Information Technology and Information Management in the Israeli health system. On August 2013 Prof. Ash joined Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS), the second largest HMO in Israel, as the chief Director of "Sharon" district.

A year later he was promoted to be the Director of the Health Division of MHS Also serving as Deputy CEO for Health Affairs, a position that he holds currently. Nachman Ash is a Professor at Ariel University, the school of Health Sciences, the department of health systems management.

Prof. Arnon Afek

Michal Geva

Michal Geva is the Founder and Managing Partner of Triventures, a venture capital fund focused on transformational health which includes medical device and data driven digital health technologies in Israel and the United States.

Michal Geva has over 20 years of experience in medtech startups both in Israel and the US in a variety of executive positions.

Ten years ago, Michal identified that it is not sufficient for a startup to have a strong, innovative core technology, but in order to realize success abroad, it is critical to have a deep understanding of commercial integration into the healthcare systems. With this principle in mind, she started Triventures and was the first woman to found and manage a venture capital fund in Israel.

Together with her Co Founder, Dr. Peter Fitzgerald, she has built a strong syndicate of strategic investor to the fund, which include top tier medtech, Healthcare organizations, and consumer electronic companies such as Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific, Abbott Laboratories, Philips, St. Jude Medical, Cardinal Health, Intermountain Healthcare, Samsung and Nikon.

Prior to Triventures, Michal held executive roles in a number of startups in Israel and Silicon Valley including ByPass (collaborated with J&J), AST (acquired by Boston Scientific) and GI View.

In 2017 Michal was duly recognized as one of the 50 most influential women in Israel by Globes, Israel’s leading financial journal. Michal is involved in all the fund’s major decisions and investments and has served as an active board member in the majority of the portfolio companies.

Angela W. Rabinovich

Angela W. Rabinovich is leading Life Science industry department at the Israeli Export and International Cooperation Institute. IEICI is a not-for-profit organization supported by the government of Israel and the private sector to advance the integration of Israeli companies into the global market.

On the daily base Angela is responsible for constant interaction with more than 500 Israeli exporters in the field of Medical Devices, Health Care IT and BioPharma: analyzing their needs, identifying target markets and business opportunities generating export oriented activities (form formal delegations to tailor made business visits).

Israeli National Pavilion at Medica (Germany), Hospitalar (Brazil) exhibitions, North American Hospital CEO Delegation and MEDinISRAEL are among recent successful projects under Angela’s leadership.

Her professional career started in 2004 at Orgenics Ltd. Under her first responsibility were products’ registration projects in Eastern Europe countries; later as Customer and Sales Manager for CIS countries. Since Orgenics has been owned by Inverness Medical Innovation, today Aler (based in US) Angela has been promoted for Business Development Manager for Asia Pacific region.

During that period she acquired wide experience in such fields like SelfCare, Point of Care and Rapid Diagnostics for Infectious Disease, Cardiovascular, Oncology, Women Health as well as in Clinical Laboratories diagnostic & research tools.

Principal Competitors: Wyeth Pharmaceuticals; Abbott Laboratories; Roche Group. Angela holds BA in International Relations and EMBA from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Angela is fluent in English, Hebrew, Russian and Ukrainian.

Prof. Ran Balicer

Prof. Ran Balicer, MD, PhD, MPH serves as Founding Director of the Clalit Research Institute, the WHO Collaborating Center on Non-Communicable Diseases Research, Prevention and Control. In Parallel, he serves as Director of Innovation and Director of the Health Policy Planning Dpt. for Clalit – Israel’s largest healthcare organization.

In these roles, he is responsible for strategic planning of novel organization-wide interventions for improving healthcare quality, reducing disparities and increasing effectiveness.

These include the introduction of innovative data-driven tools into practice – predictive modeling, real-life effectiveness studies, decision support tools and proactive care models.

Prof. Balicer serves as a Public Health Professor and MPH Track Director at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University, as Chair of the Israeli Society for Quality in Healthcare, and as an Advisor to the World Health Organization, in projects focusing on non-communicable diseases monitoring, prevention and control, Healthy Aging and Integrated Healthcare Systems.

Elisheva Shochat

Elisheva  is a senior marketer  and an active member of the country leadership board responsible for all corporate brand communication, public and government affairs.

Prior to that she was responsible for the business of Philips Consumer Electronics alongside the Philips brand reponsibilities in the Israeli market.

Before joining Philips Elisheva held a few global sales and marketing positions at ZAG Industries later acquired by Stanley Tools, a fortune 500 company in the area of DIY cosumer goods.

She has a BA in Humanities from  Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Prof. Rafael (Rafi) Beyar

Rafael Beyar, MD, DSc, MPH, and Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, is the director of Rambam Health Care Campus, since 2006, a leading academic referral hospital in Northern Israel. Beyar received his MD from Tel Aviv University (1977), a DSc from the Technion (1983), and his MPH from the Bloomberg School of Public Health (2008). He trained at Johns Hopkins Cardiology and has held a visiting Professor appointment there. Beyar served as Dean of the Technion’s Ruth & Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine (1999–2005); under his leadership, Professors Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004. An interventional cardiologist with research focusing on cardiovascular engineering, development of stents, and the first robotic coronary catheterization system, Beyar has authored numerous publications, several patents, 15 books, and is a recipient of several awards.

Beyar successfully led the hospital staff through the 2006 Second Lebanon War, during which the hospital was under fire. Following the war, Beyar led the hospital through a massive development plan with a vision that emphasizes the intertwining of superb medical care with education, research, and innovation. He led the administration in building a new campus with a 2,000-bed fortified underground emergency hospital, a modern children’s hospital, an advanced oncology center and an interdisciplinary heart hospital. The Health Discovery Tower, at the center of the campus, is a joint project with the University of Haifa and the Technion—integrating clinical, academic, and industry activities. Beyar also spearheaded the founding of Rambam MedTech, the hospital’s technology transfer company and has led the hospital towards an innovative, first of a kind, joint effort with Medtronic, IBM, and Pitango-Impact First, to establish the MindUp Incubator on Digital Health in early 2016 in Haifa.

Meital Kuperman

Director, Projects and Initiatives Department, The Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, Israel

Education
2006-2008:  Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono Israel, MBA, Majoring in marketing and advertising.
2000-2003:  Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Bachelor’s Degree, Political Science and East Asian Studies

Experience
2010 – Current: The Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, Director, Projects and Initiatives Department

• Initiation, leading and matrix management of large and complex international marketing and technological projects, including: professional conferences and exhibitions.
• Leading and managing the events team.
• Enabling business connections between Israeli companies and international entities.
• Scouting technology companies for international corporations.
• Spearheaded the preparation of marketing materials.
• Responsible for the construction and preparation of tenders.
• Working with various channel partners – advertising and production companies, spokesperson, procurement, legal advice, finance, etc.
• Working and cooperation with various Israeli government and foreign entities.
• Managing an annual budget of millions of shekels.

Prof. Victor Novack

Prof. Victor Novack MD, PhD is the founding director of Soroka-BGU Medical Research Institute and Head of the Research Authority at Soroka University Medical Center, the second largest hospital in Israel and a single provider of the tertiary care to a population of 1.2 mln. Prior to his current position, Prof. Novack served as a Medical Director at Harvard Clinical Research Institute, Boston USA. His epidemiology training allows for the bridging a gap between the clinical questions and statistical apparatus. He has designed and contributed to the design of more than 50 feasibility and pivotal trials for FDA approval. Prof. Novack is Professor of Medicine at Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University, attending in the Division of Medicine at Soroka University Medical Center and Senior Scientist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. He is an Associate and Statistical Editor of the European Journal of Internal Medicine. He has more than 170 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals. His scientific interests lays at the application of the evolving statistical and epidemiological methodology to the clinically driven research questions.

Noa Heinemann

Director, Asia Pacific, Foreign Trade Administration, Director for MED IN ISRAEL 2019, The Israeli Ministry of Economy & Industry, Israel

December 2017 – Present – Director, Asia Pacific.
Foreign Trade Administration, The Israeli Ministry of Economy & Industry.
Director for MEDICA 2018. Director for MED IN ISRAEL 2019.
Foreign Trade Administration, The Israeli Ministry of Economy & Industry.

September 2013 – October 2017 – Consul, Head of Economic and Trade Mission to South China Consulate General of Israel, Guangzhou.
2010-2013 – Head of Latin America Department, Foreign Trade Administration. The Israeli Ministry of Economy.
2003-2010 – Account manager, advertisement agencies. Last position: Senior Account Supervisor, “Grey” Israel (2nd biggest agency in Israel).
2001-2003 – Account Manager, “Morell” – PR, Strategy & Crisis management firm.

Education
2010 – Commercial Attaché Course, Jerusalem
2007 – MBA, Tel Aviv University
2002 – BA, Psychology and East Asia Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Languages – English, Spanish, Hebrew

Military Service – 1996-1997 – IDF Spokesman Unit, The northern command of Israel.

Avner Halperin

CEO EarlySense Board Member, Life Science Directorate at IEI, Israel

Mr. Halperin is a veteran high tech executive. He has served in several senior management positions including CEO of Emmunet, VP Marketing at Radcom (NASDAQ: RDCM), and VP of Business Development at Lenslet.

He also worked as the R&D Manager at Eldat and was the Department Head of an R&D Unit in the IDF Intelligence Corps.

Mr. Halperin earned an M.Sc. in Applied Physics from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from the MIT Sloan Fellows Executive MBA Program.

He is the author of over 20 US Patents and lectures at the University of Jerusalem School of Business on entrepreneurship and leadership.

Prof. Pinchas (“Pinny”) Halpern

Chair of Department of Emergency Medicine, Tel Aviv Medical Center (145,000 adult visits/year, 220.000 total). He is Chair of the Tel Aviv University Division of Emergency Medicine and its founder. Involved in creating the specialty of Emergency Medicine in Israel in 1999 as President of the Israeli Association for Emergency Medicine. Heavily engaged in disaster preparedness and emergency medicine development in Israel. Pinchas (“Pinny”) Halpern, M.D., is Associate Clinical Professor in Anesthesia, Critical Care and Emergency Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel and Chair – Department of Emergency Medicine, Tel Aviv Medical Center. He is Visiting Professor at the Universities of Eastern Piedmont, Italy and the Free University of Brussels, Belgium and Staff Member of the European Master of Disaster Medicine. 1992- current: Chief diving medical officer for the Israeli Bureau of sports diving. Past President of the Israeli Association for Emergency Medicine, Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee of Magen David Adom National EMS and member of its Board of Directors.  Member of multiple national committees on emergency and disaster preparedness and leads the effort of critical care in disasters. Member of the Board of Directors or Medical Advisory Board of anumber of biotechnology companies and 20 years experience in medical device development and implementation. Prof. Halpern led training missions in Emergency and Disaster Medicine to Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Jordan, Poland, and USA among other places and participated in disaster relief efforts in the Turkey earthquake.

Efi Cohen Arazi

Mr. Efi Cohen Arazi, CEO and Co-Founder of Rainbow Medical, Israel’s leading medical device innovation house focused on inventing and developing game changing solutions for sizeable unmet market needs in the area of hypertension, ophthalmology, cardiology and diabetes. Rainbow Medical’s shareholders include Medtronic, Abbott and Sony corporations. Mr. Cohen-Arazi has over 25 years of experience in the medtech and biotech industries where he held executive management responsibility in both operations and business management. Prior to establishing Rainbow Medical, Mr. Cohen-Arazi served as Co-Founder & CEO of IntecPharma, Israel, a company specializing in drug development and delivery and as Chairman of CollPlant Ltd., a both public companies traded in Tel-Aviv stock exchange. Previously, Mr. Cohen-Arazi was GM & V.P., Site Head at California based Amgen Corporation, where he established and led several global strategic initiatives and partnerships to develop and manufacture blockbuster biopharmaceuticals. Prior to Amgen, Mr. Cohen-Arazi was Senior VP at Immunex Corporation in Washington and before that VP and General Manager at the Merck-Serono Group in Switzerland and Israel. Mr. Cohen-Arazi holds advanced degrees in Agriculture and Microbiology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Lior Shahory

Lior serves as the CEO of Incentive Incubator since 2005 and as General Partner at Peregrine Ventures. Incentive has managed to reach 7 exits (Valtech, Neovasc, Bballoon, NLT spine, Eurekify, Marketyze, Rocketick) and has received 7 excellence awards by the state of Israel for its performance. Lior has extensive experience in early stage investments due diligence, strategic planning, project management and business development. Working closely with entrepreneurs to establish successful companies. Prior to joining Incentive Lior served as the Deputy Program Director of the Incubators Program. Lior holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Economics and Business Management from the University of Haifa. Lior serves on the Boards of Memic, Eximo, Restore, Cordio, Magneto, Outsense, Sinusafe and Artack.

Tomer Epstein

Tomer Epstein is the Medical Device & Digital Health Sector Manager at the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute. He studied Medical Engineering at Afeka Tel Aviv Academic College where he focused on mechanics of physiological systems and being engaged in innovative medical device development for improving cognitive activity among disabled and brain damaged patients; then proceeded to the distinguished MoTIE Program at Tel Aviv University (MBA in Management of Technology, Innovation & Entrepreneurship).

For more than five years working at the Israel Export Institute he worked closely with more than 800 Israeli Life Science companies and startups, Tomer is particularly deep in Medical Device & Digital Health understanding their commercial needs abroad, identifying target markets and business opportunities, thus generating export oriented activities – all this through continuous communication with multinational and local companies and tight cooperation with the Foreign Diplomats and Israeli Commercial Attachés all over the world. Tomer runs the business activity of the Israeli National Pavilion pavilions on stage of MEDICA (Germany), HIMSS (US), CMEF (China), Africa Health (South Africa), MEDinISRAEL; he has a strong background in both trade and business development perspective and as a medical engineer he’s of course deeply into crazy range of tech developments and their advantages.

Tal Menipaz

Tal is the Founder and CEO of Foriland Investments, a private company, focused in venture capital & private equity investments. Tal serves as a member of the board of directors of several private companies, mainly technology and life science oriented. Tal also serves as the chairman of the board of Xenia Venture Capital, a hi-tech investment company publicly traded in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and a co-owner of the Van Leer Xenia incubator.

Prior to his current positions, Tal worked in several international professional service firms (in Israel and abroad). Tal holds a BA in Economics and Accountancy and MBA, both from Tel Aviv University.

Hagai Dror

About the Role

Israel has built a world leading healthcare system, yet it is not a world leader in exporting health care solutions. The aim of  Healthcare-israel is to turn Israel’s proven accomplishments in the healthcare arena into large scale export projects for the benefit and well-being of all nations as well as a source for economic growth for Israel’s economy and its healthcare system. As Managing Director of Healthcare-Israel  Hagai is in charge of facilitating government to government agreements for the advancement of the healthcare system in Israel as well as developing Israeli organizations’ capabilities in international cooperation and finding partners around the world for cooperation projects in the field of healthcare.

Fields of Responsibility

• Establishment and ongoing management of the directorate including setting the annual work plan and its execution.
• Mapping capabilities of the health system in Israel, and identifying world-leading areas of knowledge and expertise in the Israeli health system
• Identifying common needs of health systems in Israel and other countries which can be developed through international agreements and the establishment of joint projects.
• Networking with foreign countries to sign collaboration agreements and projects
• Coordination with relevant entities in Israeli health system, government and the business sector
• Management of collaboration projects with other governments and ensuring project delivery to the end customers

Professional Highlights

Since 2006, Hagai has served in various positions in the Planning, Budgeting and Pricing Branch of the Ministry of Health. Initially, he worked as a budgeting economist, and later headed the team in charge of budgeting at the Ministry’s headquarters. Starting in 2013, he has served as the Deputy Director of the division, in charge of all budgeting activities of the ministry of health and government owned hospitals in Israel (approx. 13 billion NIS and over 20,000 employees). As part of his job, Hagai was in charge of preparation of the state annual health budget; approval and supervision of annual work plans of all ministry departments and hospitals; heading three teams of budgeting and planning coordinators; managing all budget-related contacts of the ministry with the ministry of finance’s budgeting unit and the Knesset and involved in leading reforms and central structural changes in the healthcare system, along with entities from the healthcare system and the government.

Michal Ben David

Board Member, Life Science Directorate at IEI

Michal Ben David, BBSC Industrial Eng., MBA is heading Business Strategy and Operations for Israel and APAC Region (part of Teva Global Operations). Previously CFO of Teva’s sites at Jerusalem and holds years of experience in the field of Management Consulting.

Ariel Ikan

Ariel is the Managing Director of Fresenius Medical Care group in Israel.

include managing FMC Israel and all its local affiliates, execution of short and long-term business strategies in support of the mission to expand services and products to Fresnius patients as a leading renal service provider in Israel.

Before joining Fresenius Ariel gained significant local and international experience as General Manager and BD Manager Emerging Markets at Philips Healthcare Israel as well as other roles in the multinational pharma industry namely Business Unit Manager at Schering-Plough. Ariel started his career as a Key Account and then Diagnostics Business Unit manager at Teva Pharmaceuticals .

Ariel holds a Master Degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in Biochemistry as well as an MBA from the Heriot-Watt Universityץ Ariel graduated Insead General Managers program in France.

Ronen Gadot

Ronen Gadot serves as the CEO of ElMindA, a highly innovative neuro-technology big data and artificial intelligence company, as of 2008.  Recognizing the significant unmet need in the diagnostics and treatment of brain related disorders, Ronen was the first investor in ElMindA and joined its board in 2006.  Entrepreneurial leader of creative solutions that are making a difference, Ronen was selected by the World Economic Forum to serve on the counsel for the future of neuro-technology. Following an Air Force Career, Ronen held several positions at Silicon Valley based Applied Materials.  Later, Ronen joined Philips and co-founded Philips’ Global Corporate Venture arm, making Philips one of the most active corporate investors in Israel. Ronen led Philips in a visionary pathway into Personalized Telemedicine Healthcare through an investment, joint venture and IPO of SHL Telemedicine, and became the CEO of its European subsidiary.  Ronen is a former member of the IAF Aerobatic Team, holds a BSc in Industrial Engineering and an MBA from INSEAD.

Avi Buskila

President & CEO, SAREL Logistics Solutions & Products for Advanced Medicine LTD (2007- )

Deputy Director, SAREL Logistics Solutions & Products for Advanced Medicine LTD (2006-2007)

Director & Board Member, Medical Logistics, Sheba Medical Center (2005)

Lieutenant colonel, Head of Logistics Department, Medical Corps, IDF (2000-2005);

Commander, Logistic Center for Medical Equipment & Medicines, IDF (1997-2000)

Mr. Avi Buskila is currently the president and the chief executive officer of SAREL, Israel’s largest supplier for goods and services to the healthcare industry. Previously, he has served in Sheba Medical Center as a director of the medical logistics. Nine years ago, Mr. Buskila retired from a long military carrer with the rank of lieutenant colonel. His last military position was as the head of the logistics department of the Medical Corps. Mr. Buskila was born in 1961. He is a graduate of the MBA program at Ben Gurion University. He is the director of the Medical Corps Association, a member of the National Council for Logistics in Health and a member of the Forum leaders and senior members of the Israeli economy.