Sara has a decade of experience in commercialization of research-based innovations to spin-outs and licensing. After receiving her PhD from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Sara worked as a postdoc and academia-industry liaison at the Finnish Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland. Before joining Innovestor, she was Head of Innovation at Helsinki Innovation Services, and IPR Manager at Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT. Sara serves in the boards of Finnish Bioindustries as well as several of Innovestor’s portfolio companies.

Chris Bladen received his PhD in Molecular Neuroscience from the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary in 2014. His thesis was based on using Electrophysiology and Molecular Biology to develop drugs and small molecules for Pain and Epilepsy research as well as other clinical purposes. He has a B.Sc. in Freshwater Chemistry and a degree in Environmental management and has extensive experience in both academia and industry. His previous work experience includes several years as an independent environmental consultant for the oil and gas industry in Alberta and several years working in the biopharma industry.  He has developed a world-wide collaborative network in the fields of Electrophysiology, Molecular Biology and Drug design. In addition to being CEO of Zymedyne therapeutics, he is currently an (Online) Lecturer at Macquarie University’s Department of Biomedical Sciences, where he teaches Pharmacology and conducts research into the therapeutic potential of Synthetic and Phyto Cannabinoids.

Claire holds a degree in agriculture and a PhD in biochemistry and has worked in the leadership of scientific associations for 20 years. She started her career within the UK Cambridge biotech cluster and was a co-founder and Manager of the Council of European BioRegions, a network of biotechnology clusters across Europe in Brussels, she also took on the role of SG for the European Biotechnology Network (EBN) in 2012, working across sectors, organisations and countries as part of the EBN mission to facilitate collaboration. 

In 2017, Claire became Director General of the globally-focussed Nanotechnology Industries Association (NIA) which she successfully led until November 2020 when she joined EuropaBio as Director General. In addition to her current role at EuropaBio, she is also the Chair of the International Council of Biotechnology Associations (ICBA) and Governing Board Member for the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI). 

She has a driving interest in collaboration across the value chain to develop the business of science, and the role of internationally networked policies, programmes, skills, finance and infrastructures to create a strong landscape.