Week of Innovation 2023 Speakers

1 PM - 2 PM ET I Incubator, Accelerator and Equity

Incubator and accelerators are pivotal in developing innovative solutions to addressing humanity’s most pressing health care challenges. Why are academic institutes, major medical centers/hospitals, and the top 10 pharma companies launching incubators and accelerator ventures to offer guidance to biotech, digital health, health information, and medical device start-ups, often under their own umbrella? Beyond financial and intellectual resources, how are these groups working to advance ideas into the marketplace, and what is their actual clinical impact?

MODERATOR

Gil Bashe
Chair Global Health and Purpose, FINN Partners

BIO

Nothing has kept Gil Bashe from advancing people’s well-being and access to health innovation from battlefield to boardroom. He tended to the wounded under fire as a combat medic in an elite paratrooper unit. As a C-Suite counselor, he sees communications as the bridge to connect healers – health professionals and environmental advocates – from around the world with those seeking to be healed.

Throughout it all, he is dedicated to making a difference in people’s lives and instilling a culture where colleagues are empowered to do the same. At FINN Partners, which makes a difference through collaboration and shared values, he has a role to which he is ideally suited. As Chair Global Health at FINN, he champions the sector within one of the world’s leading integrated marketing and communications agencies.

Before FINN, he led Health Practices at other agencies—Sutton PR, Medicus PR, Hill & Knowlton, and Makovsky—all selected by The Holmes Report/PRovoke as “Most Admired Health Agencies.” Earlier in his career, he worked in government affairs for a global non-profit, spent time as a health-industry New Jersey-based lobbyist focusing on drug development and environmental health, served as Group Company CEO of CommonHealth, and was CEO of Health!Quest Global Communications (the portfolio company of top private-equity group GTCR).

As an advocate for health innovation that improves the human condition, Gil currently serves on the Decentralized Trials and Research Alliance, CNS Summit Leadership Council, Galien Foundation, Let’s Win for Pancreatic Cancer, mHealth Israel, American Diabetes Association and Marfan Foundation advisory boards and previously served on the American Heart Association, and American Academy of Pain Medicine Foundation boards and listed among “The Top Brains in the New World of Work” by Fast Company.

Gil serves as an ambassador for the health innovation sector. He is included among the Medika Life “Top 50 Health Influencers,” Medical Marketing & Media “Top 10 Innovation Catalysts,” and ranked as a “Top 10 Digital Health Influencer.” PRWeek includes him among the “Top 30 Most Influential People in Health PR,” and PM360 has awarded Gil their prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.” Gil is a keynote speaker and correspondent for the global news source Health Tech World, writing about digital health advances, and editor-in-chief of Medika.Life, a digital platform that hosts many of the world’s most essential voices in public health.

Gene Morse
SUNY Distinguished Professor, University at Buffalo, State University of New York

Product Presentation

Melinda Richter,
Global Head, Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JLABS

Product Presentation

Steven - Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research - GWI spokesperson

Steven J. Lester, MD
Chief Medical Officer, Mayo Clinic-ASU MedTech Accelerator

Product Presentation

Konrad - NHS Accelerator - GWI spokesperson

Konrad Dobschuetz
National Director, UCL Partners

Product Presentation

Novartis Biome, Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation

Product Presentation

Danina Kapetanovic
Chief Innovation Officer, CIUSS West Central Montreal

Product Presentation

2 PM - 3 PM ET I Incubator, Accelerator and Equity

An innovator’s connection to a leadership accelerator, incubator, or private equity organization is a strong indicator of success. Financial support is part of the commitment, as are experience and business connections. How do these investment and counseling groups help start-ups with their clinical trial design, navigate regulatory and payer system complexities, or build ago to marketing plan? Beyond access to cash, what makes the innovator’s connection to an incubator, accelerator, or private equity group so critical to eventual success in the market?

MODERATOR

Ron Cohen, MD
President, CEO and Founder, Acorda Therapeutics, Inc.

BIO

Ron Cohen, M.D. is President, CEO and founder of Acorda Therapeutics, Inc., a public biotechnology company developing therapies for disorders of the nervous system, including already approved and commercialized therapies for Parkinson’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Dr. Cohen previously was a principal in the startup and an officer of Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc., a biotechnology company engaged in the growth of human organ tissues for transplantation uses. He has served on the Boards of several biotechnology companies, including VBL Therapeutics and Dyax Corp. until its acquisition in 2016. He also previously served as Chair of the Board of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), as Chair of the Emerging Companies Section of the BIO Board, and as Director and Chair of the New York Biotechnology Association (NYBA).

Acorda Therapeutics has been recognized as one of the Best Companies to Work for in New York State seven years in a row (2011-2017), among the Fortune 100 Best Medium-Size Workplaces the U.S. (2017), and among the Fortune 100 Best Workplaces for Women (2016-2017), Millennials (2017) and Baby Boomers (2017), and in the top 10 Fortune Best Workplaces in Health Care & Biopharma (2020).

Dr. Cohen is a recipient of the NY CEO Lifetime Achievement Award and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the New York Metropolitan Region. He was named Neuroinvestment’s CEO of the Year and is an inductee of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association’s “Spinal Cord Injury Hall of Fame.” Dr. Cohen received the Burke Award from Burke Rehabilitation Hospital for his contributions to helping people with disabilities gain independence, and was awarded Columbia University’s Alumni Medal for Distinguished Service. He has been recognized by the New York Biotechnology Association as the NYBA “The Cures Start Here” Business Leader of the Year, by the Westchester County Association as its Leadership Award recipient, by Life Science Leader Magazine as True Life Science Leader of the Year, by PR Week/MM&M as one of the Health Influencer 50, by Scientific American as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Biotech, and by PharmaVOICE Magazine as one of the 100 Most Inspirational People in the Biopharmaceutical Industry.

Dr. Cohen received his B.A. degree in Psychology from Princeton University, and his M.D. from the Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia Medical Center, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine.