Derek is an entrepreneur, executive, and network builder with nearly 20 years of experience at the intersection of groundbreaking science and commercial development; he is the Chief Operating Officer of NewYorkBIO, which represents nearly 200 members and includes the state’s leading bioscience companies, universities, research institutions and others dedicated to advancing life science research and commercialization. He is also the founder and leader behind ECHO NYC, an organization fostering connectivity between key stakeholders in the NYC biomedical ecosystem, including entrepreneurs, capital providers, clinicians, and healthcare operators. ECHO NYC has run monthly “Bio-entrepreneurship in NYC” events since 2009. Derek has a deep background in startup biomedical companies and has been a founder, executive, and board member across multiple ventures. His previous experience also includes a commercial role at GE, and business development at the NY Academy of Sciences. Derek lives in Manhattan with his wife and two sons, and it serves as the HQ and home base for their adventures.

A founder of the Company in 2000, he has held the position of Chair of the Board of Directors since then. He earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Barcelona, and has completed various programs on finance and negotiation. He also completed the Senior Management Program (PADE) at IESE in 2005. In recent years, he has been a member of the board of several biotechnology companies, such as: ONCNOSIS PHARMA AIE, NINFAS AIE, ORYCAMB-PROJECT AIE, GEADIG-PHARMA AIE, NEUROTEC PHARMA, S.L., PALOBIOFARMA, S.L. He has been a member of the Advisory Board of NEUROSCIENCES TECHNOLOGIES and is a member of MENDELION, S.L. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of INVEREADY SEED CAPITAL and of INVEREADY BIOTECH since September 7, 2008 and October 10, 2012, respectively.

Sean leads the overall strategic plan and vision for the New England region and serves on the Woodruff Sawyer Board of Directors. Sean currently handles a multitude of pre-IPO and public clients spanning multiple industries, including high tech, life science, health care, retail, and manufacturing. He is an expert in executive liability and risk management––specifically D&O liability and M&A insurance. He has authored several articles on D&O liability and M&A-related products and has structured financial risk solutions for hundreds of companies.

Sean's success representing clients as an insurance broker is the result of his ability to maximize his relationships and utilize his problem solving skills established during his many years practicing as an attorney, most recently at Testa Hurwitz in Boston. While at Testa, Sean practiced as both a litigation and corporate attorney working with private and public companies through various stages of their development.

Prior to joining Woodruff Sawyer, Sean was a founding partner of Capstone Insurance, which later became EBS Capstone. EBS Capstone established a highly successful brand as a leader in representing many of New England's high profile start-ups and middle market companies.

Sean graduated magna cum laude from Providence College and earned his juris doctorate with honors from the University of Connecticut where he served on the Law Review and Moot Court Board. He also served as a lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG) of the United States Navy.

Luigi is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Noema Pharma AG.
Since 2019 he is Entrepreneur in Residence at Sofinnova Partners where he brings over 25 years of operational and leadership experience in the global pharmaceutical and biotech industry.

As a former Chief Executive Officer of Nordic Nanovector, a biotech company focusing on novel targeted therapeutics in hematology and oncology Luigi led one of the largest European biotech IPOs of 2015 and the company’s growth into a $600 million valuation, before completing an over-subscribed private placement in 2016.

He served as Board Member and Member of the Audit Committee of Oncopeptides AS (Sweden), which went public in 2016.
Previously, Luigi was Regional Head International at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Amgen in 2014, where he led the company’s international organization and the launch of its multiple myeloma drug, Kyprolis®, outside the USA. Prior to joining Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Luigi held several senior leadership positions with Amgen, including Head of International Oncology Franchise, General Manager of Italy and President of France, Amgen’s largest market outside the USA. He also held various leadership positions of increasing responsibility with Eli Lilly both in Europe and in the US, where he was responsible of CNS global access and pricing strategy.
Luigi holds a BSc in Business Administration and an MBA from Bocconi Business School and Manchester Business School.

Carl-Johan Dalsgaard has been a Venture Partner at HealthCap since 2000, thereby he has served as CEO of several companies in which HealthCap has invested. Prior to that, he has ten years of experience from senior positions within the AstraZeneca Group, such as pre-clinical research director, therapeutic area manager of pain and anesthesia, CEO of Astra Pain Control AB and part of the Group’s executive research management team. He has a MD from the Karolinska Institute and fulfilled board certification in plastic and reconstructive surgery, with special emphasis on burns. Ph.D. in neurobiology and post-doc experience from Harvard Medical School.

Dr George Garibaldi is co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Noema Pharma AG. He had previously progressive leadership responsibilities in research and development across multiple major pharmaceutical companies. Most recently he served as VP global head of CNS at F. Hoffmann-La Roche.
Dr Garibaldi trained in child psychiatry, statistics, and neuropsychopharmacology. During his tenure at Roche, he led the development of multiple therapies including OCREVUS ® (ocrelizumab), approved in 2017 for Primary progressive and relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Prior to Roche, he was Head of Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry at Novartis and Neuroscience Therapeutic Area Lead at Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Throughout his career, Dr Garibaldi developed therapies for multiple conditions including Exelon® (rivastigmine) in Alzheimer’s disease, Fanapt® (iloperidone) in schizophrenia, Risperdal Consta®(risperidone long-acting injectable) in frequently relapsing patients with bipolar disorders, Invega® (paliperidone) in patients with schizoaffective disorder and lead the regulatory submission and approval of Risperdal®(risperidone) in autism spectrum disorders.
Dr Garibaldi serves as peer reviewer for multiple scientific and medical journals. He authored more than 100 articles in peer reviewed journals. He developed, validated and published a number of clinician- and patient-reported clinical outcomes including “The Readiness for hospital Discharge Questionnaire in schizophrenia”, “The Patient most Troubling Symptoms scale in Anxiety and Depression”, “The Readiness for Work Questionnaire in schizophrenia” and “The Clinical Global Impression for Schizoaffective Disorder”.
Dr Garibaldi is a board member of several biotechs and serves on the scientific advisory boards of many companies. He is member of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), founder and past president of the International Society for Central Nervous System Clinical Trials and Methodology (ISCTM) and former chairman of the International Society for CNS Drug Development (ISCDD). He is the recipient of multiple awards including the ISCDD award for innovation. Dr Garibaldi is widely recognized by his peers as an innovative and collaborative leader guided by his dedication to developing novel therapies for patients.
Dr Garibaldi earned a M.D. from the faculty of medicine of Cairo University. He completed his residency in psychiatry at the Rene Descartes Medical School, his studies in statistics and mathematical modeling at the University of Kremlin-Bicêtre, and his studies in Neuropsychopharmacology at the Pitié Salpétrière.

Jennifer Hawks Bland is the Chief Executive Officer of NewYorkBIO. Prior to joining NewYorkBIO, Ms. Bland was an Executive Director in the State Government Affairs & Policy group at Merck. She has also held government affairs positions at GlaxoSmithKline and the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), the 136-year old trade association representing manufacturers of over-the- counter medicines. Ms. Bland previously was an associate with the Jackson, MS law firm of Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens, & Cannada, PLLC where she principally practiced in the area of products liability litigation. Before entering the practice of law, she worked for six years for U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (RMiss.). Ms. Bland is a member of both the District of Columbia and Mississippi Bar Associations. She also has extensive volunteer experience and is currently the PTA co-president of her child’s school and sits on the Board of the Pelham Art Center. Ms. Bland currently resides in Pelham, New York with her husband, R. Trabue Bland and their two sons.

Alain Maiore is Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Mnemo. Alain is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist who brings 30 years of experience in executive leadership and board member experiences in Europe and the US to Mnemo. Alain started his career as CEO of Gene Shears, Pty Ltd., a company focused on ribozyme technology and one of the first historical gene therapy companies in the world. Alain then moved to Cerep as COO and Evotec as Executive Vice President of Business and Corporate Development, where he contributed to IPOs at both companies and executed large corporate and business development transactions. As a venture capitalist, Alain started out developing Ventech, a biotech franchise in Paris, then moved on to create and lead Kurma Partners for several years. Kurma Partners was built with the idea of assembling one of the first investment partnerships between venture capital and top-tier European academic institutions. Alain is a graduate from Ecole Superieure d’Agriculture d’Angers, and Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Toulouse.

Mike is a strategic innovation advisor and the Chief Executive Officer at Nanoform and IDEA Pharma. He is the author of "Positioning Pharmaceuticals" and has been voted to the Global Power List "20 in 2020" and "20 in 2021" (and top 100 in 2017, 2018, and 2019), listing the top 20 inspirational medicine makers in biopharmaceuticals by The Medicine Maker. He is also the creator of the annual Pharma Innovation Index.

He has also been recognized as one of the top 10 Innovators in Pharma (Pharma Phorum), and was selected by PharmaVOICE Red Jacket as one of the 100 Most Inspiring People in Healthcare (2011, '13, '15 and '16, and lifetime Red Jacket winner). He is found @ideapharma on twitter and is also the Owner and Chief Music Officer of the indie music label Medical Records (medicalrecordsltd.com)

After Completing His MBA at Harvard University, Andrea began his international career in management consulting. He joined Amazon as Sr. Product Manager. He is currently CEO And Co-Founder of Dante Labs.

Dr Michael Soldan is an experienced Pharmaceutical Executive with a solid background in General Management as well as a proven track record of achievement in the development and commercialization of biologics (biosimilars, innovative monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, vaccines and blood products) and small molecules. His experience extends to executive positions in companies of different size.

As CEO of AB2 Bio Michael will lead the company in the development and commercialization of Tadekinig alfa and will be responsible for successfully progressing AB2 Bio as a company.

Previously, as the CEO of the Biosimilars Business at Fresenius Kabi, Michael managed the development, manufacturing and strategic commercialization of all their Biosimilars worldwide. Prior to this, he was SVP at Merck KgaA in Aubonne where he was responsible for establishing and expanding the Biosimilar Business within Merck KgaA and then transitioning it to Fresenius Kabi in 2017.

Earlier in his career he led Medical and Regulatory functions at Boehringer Ingelheim, Biotest AG, Grünenthal, Novartis Vaccines and Aventis.

Michael holds a PhD in Pharmacology and has degrees in Pharmacy and Theoretical Medicine (Human Biology) from the Philipps-University in Marburg, Germany.

Dr. Sun joined Bain Capital Life Sciences in 2016. He is a Managing Director. Prior to joining Bain Capital, from 2013 to 2016, he was a Director of Corporate Development and Strategy at Biogen. Prior to Biogen, Dr. Sun served as a Vice President at BlackRock, as a member of the Fundamental Equity division of BlackRock's Alpha Strategies Group and senior analyst for BlackRock's Fundamental Large Cap Growth equity team, covering the health care sector. Prior to that, he was a senior healthcare analyst at Citadel and Alyeska Investment Group in Chicago and worked as a pharmaceuticals equity research analyst on Wall Street, spending time at Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley. Dr. Sun began his career as a senior scientist at Ironwood Pharmaceutical where he was involved in the discovery and development of the drug Linzess for irritable bowel syndrome.


Dr. Sun received a PhD degree in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University and was an NIH post-doctoral fellow in Biological Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. He also received an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business, where he was a Mildred Elperin Scholar. He graduated summa cum laude from Berea College with a BA in chemistry.

John Tuttle is Vice Chairman and Chief Commercial Officer for NYSE Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE).

As member of the senior leadership team, Tuttle leads the commercial outreach and business development of NYSE Group. In this role, he oversees NYSE’s Global Listings, Capital Markets, and Exchange Traded Products businesses and is responsible for managing the Exchange’s relationships with more than 2,200 NYSE-listed companies and overseeing the creation of new offerings in emerging and growing sectors of the economy.

Since joining NYSE in 2007, Tuttle has served in a succession of roles including Chief Operating Officer, Global Head of Listings, Chief of Staff, Head of Corporate Affairs, and as Managing Director of Global Affairs and Government Relations for NYSE Euronext, then-parent company of the New York Stock Exchange as well as five other financial exchanges in Europe. Prior to joining the organization, Tuttle held various roles in the United States Government, including at the United States Department of State and at the White House.

John holds a MBA from the University of Notre Dame and BBA from Eastern Michigan University.

Dr. Martin Welschof is currently the CEO for BioInvent, Sweden. Before joining BioInvent, Martin was the CEO of Opsona Therapeutics, Managing Director and co-founder of Affitech A/S in Oslo/Norway and Copenhagen/Denmark. Prior to joining Affitech A/S, Martin was the Director of Technology at Axaron Bioscience AG, Heidelberg, Germany. During his period at Axaron he worked also in the parent company of Axaron Bioscience, LYNX Therapeutics Inc. in Hayward California. Martin brings significant senior executive experience in the biotech sector having launched and built successful businesses focused on drug development and drug discovery platforms. He holds a PhD in the field of recombinant antibody technology from the University of Bielefeld, Germany. Martin also serves on the board of UTR AS, Nextera AS, APIM Therapeutics and BioMe.

Erik van den Berg serves as CEO from 2011 and has over 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Previously he was a Senior Executive at Organon where he was responsible for global biotechnology business development. Prior to joining Organon, Erik worked in business and corporate development at the biotechnology company IsoTis, and as a Management Consultant at Arthur D. Little. Erik has been involved in the execution of over 20 transactions and partnerships, including a $600M alliance with Pfizer and raised almost €400M in equity and debt financing for biotechnology companies from seed through IPO. Erik is co-founder and board member of Lava Therapeutics and Heatmatrix Group and board member of Lead Pharma, Step Pharma and the Dutch biotechnology organization.

Erik has a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Utrecht (NL) and an MBA from Manchester Business School (UK), both with distinction.