Speaker Biographies

Confirmed Speakers

Vytenis Andriukaitis

EU Commissioner for Health

Vytenis Andriukaitis was appointed European commissioner for Health and Food Safety in November 2014.

Born in Siberia, Vytenis Andriukaitis holds degrees in medicine and history. One of the founders of the Lithuanian social-democrat party and a signatory of independence act of Lithuania, he was a Member of Parliament for six mandates. From 2012 to 2014 Vytenis Andriukaitis was minister for Health.

The commissioner is one of the co-authors of Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania adopted in 1992 and has led the Lithuanian delegation to the Convention on the Future of Europe.

Dr. Sarah Jarvis

General Practitioner, London, medical writer & broadcaster

Sarah Jarvis has been a General Practitioner at the same Central London practice for more than two decades, and a GP trainer for the last 17 years.

Though she still spends 75% of her time as a GP, Dr. Jarvis is also a familiar face and voice on British television and radio, discussing health matters on a number of shows on the BBC, ITV and Sky. She also writes regular columns in newspapers and magazines including Good Housekeeping and My Weekly – and has authored a number of books including Diabetes for Dummies, Pregnancy for Dummies and A Younger Woman’s Diagnose-It-Yourself Guide to Health.

Dr Jarvis is clinical consultant for patient.co.uk, a leading UK health information and advice site, a member of the advisory board for the British Journal of Cardiology and past Chair of the Health Care Committee of the HEART UK cholesterol charity.

Sarah trained as a doctor at Cambridge University, and has an MA from Oxford. She is a fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners and acts as its spokesperson for Women’s Health issues.

Pascale Richetta

Vice President, AbbVie Western Europe and Canada Operations

Pascale Richetta is Vice President of operations for AbbVie in Western Europe and Canada. AbbVie is a global, research-based biopharmaceutical company formed in 2013 following separation from Abbott Laboratories.
AbbVie’s mission is to use its expertise, dedicated people and unique approach to innovation to develop and market advanced therapies that address some of the world’s most complex and serious diseases.

Pascale Richetta was with Abbott Laboratories for nine years, first as General Manager in Belgium and subsequently as Divisional Vice President, Europe North before her appointment as Vice President in 2009.

Before joining Abbott, Pascale was Vice President of Operations, France for GlaxoSmithKline, where she was responsible for Central Nervous System, Urology, Vaccines and Customer Services. She had previously held various positions in both France and Europe for GSK – working in the Neuro-psychiatry, Gastrointestinal and Cardio-pulmonary therapy areas. Prior to GSK she worked at Ipsen Beaufour and Servier.

Pascale Richetta is a physician (Poitiers University, France).

Pascale is a member of the EFPIA Executive Committee, and belongs to the EFPIA Greece and Spain Task Forces and is the co-chair of the European Steering Committee on Sustainable Healthcare. She is also an active member of EBE (European Biopharmaceutical Enterprises) and EuropaBio (the European Associations for Bioindustries).

Prof. Walter Ricciardi

White Paper on Sustainable Healthcare Rapporteur and Professor of Public Health, Sacred Heart Catholic University, Rome

Walter Ricciardi is Professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Director of the Department of Public Health and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at A. Gemelli Hospital, Rome and Director of the School of Public Health at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome.

In 1999 he was appointed Member with distinction of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom and, in 2002, a Fellow of the same organisation. From 2004-2009, he was Chairman of the Italian Faculty of Public Health and Secretary General of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health between 2007-2008.

In 2009 he was appointed Member of the Board of the National Board of Medical Examiners of the United States of America and in 2010 was elected President of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA). In 2011 he was re-elected President for a second term until 2014. In 2010 he was appointed Member of the External Advisory Board to the WHO European Regional Director for the development of European Health Policy.

Professor Ricciardi is Editor of the European Journal of Public Health, the Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice and Founding Editor of the Italian Journal of Public Health. His current research work is mainly in the field of Health Services Research, Health Services Management and Public Health Genomics. He has published more than 400 papers and written 11 teaching books.

Mary Harney

Chair of the European Steering Group, Former Health Minister of Ireland

Mary Harney is the former Deputy Prime Minister and former Health Minister of Ireland. An economics graduate of Trinity College Dublin, she had a long and successful career in politics, serving both in the Senate and in the lower chamber of parliament. She was involved in the formation of the Progressive Democrats Party, of which she was the leader from 1993-2006 and again from 2007-2008.

The Progressive Democrats were in coalition government in Ireland from 1997, when Mary Harney was appointed Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. She served as Deputy Prime Minister for almost 10 years.

In 2004 she was appointed Minister for Health and Children, a position she held until her retirement from politics in 2011. In this post she initiated major reforms including cancer services, in-care for the elderly and regulation for health professionals. She also established Science Foundation Ireland in order to strengthen Ireland’s research capacity and to work with businesses at the cutting edge of the application of technology. She chairs AMBER, a Bioengineering Research Centre in Trinity College Dublin bridging research and industry, is an EFPIA Advisory Board member, and is a director of the Hospice Foundation of Ireland as well as several companies in Ireland and abroad.

Jacek Grabowski

Chancellor of the Medical University of Lodz

Jacek Grabowski is Chancellor of the Medical University of Lodz, Poland, since 2009, and was previously CEO of the Department of Health for the Municipal Government of Lodz and co-founding Medical Director of the Lodz Sickness Fund.

As CEO of the Lodz Branch of the National Health Fund and Vice-President of the National health Fund Headquarters, he developed the Resources Based Relative Value Scale, a pre-diagnosis Related Groups concept, at the national level. In 2006, he successfully launched the case mix reimbursement model, for which he was recognised and awarded due to the implementation of this system for all Polish hospitals.

Dr. Mary Baker

Former President, European Brain Council

Mary Baker (MBE, BA, Hon DSc) is the former President of the European Brain Council, and the former President of the European Federation of Neurological Associations. Dr. Baker has also been a Consultant to the World Health Organisation, a Member of the EFPIA Advisory Board, the Chair of the WHO’s Working Group on Parkinson’s Disease and a member of the European Commission’s CONNECT Advisory Forum.

Her academic appointments include Associate Membership of the Health Services Research Unit, University of Oxford and Visiting Fellow within the London School of Economics (LSE) Health Centre.

She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Surrey in 2003 for her work in the world of Parkinson’s Disease and an Honorary Doctor of Science from Aston University in 2013. In 2009 she received the prestigious British Neuroscience Association Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Neuroscience and for Public Service.

Walter J.P. van Kuijen

MSc, MBA, Senior Vice President, Global Government & Public Affairs, Philips

Walter van Kuijen is Executive Chairman, Global Government and Public Affairs at Philips, and also a member of the European Steering Group. He started his career at Philips in 1992 as a Marketing Specialist in Industrial Electronics before moving into the Medical Systems division. In 2006, after having held increasingly senior posts in Product Management, Sales and Service and Marketing Management, he was appointed Senior Vice President.

Mr van Kuijen has been a member of the Global Think Tank on Active Ageing and the ‘Zorg Binnen Bereik’ (Care Within Reach) foundation in the Netherlands, and served on the board of The Netherland-America Foundation, Inc.

He attended the Technical University of Eindhoven, where he graduated with a degree in Applied Nuclear Physics. Afterwards, he obtained a Master of Business Administration from the TSM Business School in Enschede, the Netherlands.

Sören Olofsson

Swedish Ministry of Health

Sören Olofsson is a political scientist by training and worked in the pharmaceutical industry during the 1970s and 80s. He was appointed Medical Director at Nacka Hospital in 1991, moving to St Göran’s Hospital in Stockholm in 1993 and Huddinge University Hospital in 1997. In 1999 he became a consultant in the private sector.

Mr Olofsson entered local government in 2002, initially working for the Stockholm County Council before moving to the Skåne Region, where he was Regional Director until 2011. During this period he was involved in the controversial restructuring of specialised care at the national level within university hospitals.

In 2013 he was appointed by the Swedish government to build a new government eHealth agency; he leads the eHealth Committee whose objective is to ensure accessible and secure information in health and social services. The eHealth Committee is due to report in March 2015.

Prof. Michael Dixon OBE

Chairman of the College of Medicine, Chair of the NHS Alliance, UK

Michael Dixon is Chair of the College of Medicine, which advocates for a new attitude to healthcare, forges partnerships across society, and emphasises prevention and a multi-faceted approach to empower a healthier, happier population.

Since the early 1990’s, Professor Dixon has been a leader of the GP/clinical commissioning movement, which aims to allow frontline clinicians a far greater role in improving local services and health. He was the first President of NHS Clinical Commissioners, an organisation that brought together all the commissioning bodies of the National Health Service. He is also a frequent speaker and National Advisor on GP commissioning.

Since 2007, Professor Dixon has been Visiting Professor to the University of Westminster (School of Life Sciences) and was appointed Visiting Professor at University College, London in 2012. He is an Honorary Senior Fellow in Public Policy at HSMC (University of Birmingham) and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Integrated Health at the Peninsula Medical School. He was named as the most influential GP in the Health Service Journal’s most recent list of top clinicians and was named one of the UK’s most prominent twenty “medical gurus” by the Sunday Times.

Dr. Rafael Bengoa

Director DEUSTO Business School Spain, former Health Minister, Basque Country, Spain

Rafael Bengoa has practised as a medical doctor for seven years in both hospital and primary care. He also worked for 15 years for the World Health Organisation in Copenhagen and Geneva, where he was Director of Management of Chronic Conditions and later Director for Health System Policies.

From 2009 to 2012 he was Minister for Health and Consumer Affairs in the Basque Regional Government, and is now both Vice Chairman of the Advisory Group of Horizon 20/20, which deals with health, demography and wellbeing, and Director of the Health Department at the DUESTO Business School in Spain.

A Senior Fellow of Harvard University School of Public Health and the co-author of numerous healthcare policy documents in Spain and internationally, he holds MsCs in Community Medicine and Health Systems Management from the University of London.

Jeremy Wilks

Producer, Presenter and Director, Euronews

Jeremy Wilks is a producer, presenter and director at Euronews, the pan-European news channel. As well as the space science and technology programme, Space, he has worked on the channel’s flagship science research programmes Futuris and Innovation.
 
Mr Wilks has produced reports on a variety of subjects, including features about antimicrobial resistance, AIDS vaccine research, medical robotics, medicinal plants and biotechnology. A former presenter for the Comment Visions series, he has an interest in sustainable development, healthcare, transport and energy. 
 
He has a background as a news journalist in local radio and the British news organisation ITN. He moved to Euronews in 2001 and has been a consultant to the European Commission on communication strategies for the bioeconomy.

Egita Pole

Understate Secretary, Republic of Latvia and EU Presidency

Egita Pole is Under Secretary of State on Health Study for the Latvian Government and is responsible for public health, healthcare and pharmacy issues. She was promoted to this position in 2014, having worked in the Department of Communication at the Ministry of Health since 2006.

A qualified medical doctor with Master Degrees in public administration from the University of Latvia and in Health Sciences from Riga Stradins University, Ms Pole began her work in the health area of public relations in the State Sickness Insurance institution, where she developed a public relations branch for the healthcare organisational system.

Solange Ménival

Vice President, Aquitaine Regional Council, France; the College of Health Sciences at the University of Bordeaux

Solange Ménival is Vice President of the Aquitaine Regional Council in France and Vice President of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Bordeaux. With a diploma in Nursing, Mme Ménival worked in hospitals until 1986, when she started a business with her husband. The threatened closure of an Emergency Department in a local hospital spurred her into political action in 1993 as she organised a group of citizens to protest the decision.

In 2004 she was asked to become a Regional Councillor by the President of the Aquitaine Region, with responsibility for local services. At this time she became involved in ENRICH - European Network of Regions Improving Citizen’s Health, of which she is now President.

Following re-election in 2010 she became Vice-President in charge of Health, and is working with the European Commission on the AIR Project, which aims to address regional inequalities in health access. She is also involved in a Sustainable Health Innovation think tank that aims to make local, regional and national health services more equitable, effective, efficient and sustainable.

Prof. Martin McKee

European Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Martin McKee (CBE) is Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Professor McKee trained as a medical doctor at Queen’s University Belfast, and specialised initially in internal medicine at Belfast City Hospital before moving into public health.

Professor McKee created the European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition, working primarily on health and health policy in central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He is also research director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, and is President of the European Public Health Association. The recipient of numerous awards and honorary doctorates, he has published over 820 scientific papers and 44 books, and was an editor of the European Journal of Public Health for 15 years.

Prof. Vincenzo Atella

Professor of Economics at the University of Rome

Vincenzo Atella is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, where he teaches Macroeconomics and Applied Health Economics. He is also an associate of the Center for Health Policy (CHP) at Stanford, senior economic consultant of the Ministry of Health and scientific director of the Farmafactoring Foundation.

He has been a member of the International Committee advising the German IQWiG Healthcare agency and a member of the Italian Treasury’s Drug Pricing Committee. He has also served as a member of the Italian Drug Agency’s Strategic Evaluation Committee, been the coordinator of the TECH Europe Research Network and acted as a consultant for the Italian Regional Agency for Health Care Services, the Italian National Institute of Health, the WHO and the World Bank.

His most recent research activity has focused on poverty, income distribution and health economics. Areas on which he has focused include new technologies in the health sector, the impact of co-payment systems on pharmaceutical decision-making by physicians and on drug consumption by patients, forecasting health expenditure and health related income inequalities.

Dr. Juan Jover

Head of Rheumatology, Hospital Clínico, San Carlos, Spain

Juan Ángel Jover is a specialist in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, Chair of Fit for Work Spain, and the founder of the first Early Intervention Clinic in Madrid. Following the success of its first pilots, he is replicating Early Intervention model in hospitals across Spain with support from Fit for Work – and it is being included in the National Strategy for Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Disorders.

Dr Jover studied Medicine at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid (1973-1979) and has worked as a resident in Internal Medicine for Hospital Clínico San Carlos in Madrid (1979-1983), in the Internal Medicine Staff at the same hospital (1983-1984) and as a Fellow in Rheumatic Diseases in Cornell University Medical College, New York. NY (1985-1988).

Since 1988, he has been Head of Rheumatology at Hospital Clínico San Carlos in Madrid, Spain. He is a regular author of international scientific publications on medicine, in particular in the field of Rheumatology.

Jakub Golab

Adviser to the Management Board, Healthy Ageing Foundation, Poland

Jakub Gołąb is former spokesperson for the Polish Ministry of Health, including the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU. An expert in Polish healthcare, public affairs, public relations, social policy and communication, he was previously adviser to the current Polish Prime Minister, Ewa Kopacz, when she was Minister of Health and Speaker of the Polish Parliament.

Before working in political communications, Mr Gołąb was a communications manager in the trade chamber, project manager in a multinational corporation, an adviser, trainer, lecturer and journalist.

Prof. Hilary Thomas

Chief Medical Advisor, KPMG

Hilary Thomas is a former Medical Director of the Royal Surrey County Hospital, and was Professor of Oncology at the University of Surrey. A trained clinician, she worked in the NHS for 23 years until 2007, when she became Group Medical Director of British Social care provider Care UK.

In 2009 she joined KPMG’s Health Advisory practice as a Partner, leading their global Care System Redesign programme. She is also Vice Chair of Breakthrough Breast Cancer and a Trustee of the Imperial College Healthcare Charity.

Professor Thomas has helped transform several UK regional health systems, including redesigning chronic care pathways in London. She has also advised Singapore’s Ministry of Health in their efforts to improve the patient experience by integrating acute, primary and community care systems.

She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists and holds an MA from Cambridge University and a PhD from the University of London.

Dr. Apostolos Letsios

General Manager, Agios Andreas Hospital, Greece

Apostolos Letsios is currently General Manager of Agios Andreas General Hospital of Patras.

He has worked as a Statistician and Research Manager for several years in large organisations and multinational companies. He was appointed as the General Manager of the Agios Andreas hospital in 2002, where he has remained apart from a period as CEO of the University General Hospital in Patras between 2010 and 2013.

He has presented at several national and international conferences and published papers on Biostatistics and Health Service Administration, and has participated in committees at the Greek Ministry of Health to assist in the improvement and modernisation of the country’s Health Services.

He has a bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the North London University and a Master of Science in Statistics from Brunel University, London.

Frank Goodwin

Adviser and Former President, Eurocarers

Frank Goodwin retired from paid employment in 2004, and has worked since then in a full-time, voluntary capacity in his native Ireland for the Irish Carers Association and Eurocarers, an EU-wide NGO of Carers, related national organisations and researchers.

He is a founder member of The Carers Association Ireland (1987), which is an NGO representing informal carers and providing in-home service delivery, training, advocacy, support groups and a helpline, as well as contributing to policy formulation at national and European levels.

Before his retirement Frank Goodwin worked as a senior social worker and with Dublin City Council, where he led a team focused mainly on developing services for homeless people. He is a past president of the Irish Association of Social Workers and was the Irish representative on the board of the International Federation of Social Workers.

In 2008 he was appointed the Board of the National Equality Authority Ireland by the Minister for Justice.
From 2009 to 2014 he was Secretary and then President of Eurocarers.

Alberto Colzi

Vice President, AbbVie Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa Operations

Alberto Colzi joined Abbott Laboratories in his native Italy in 1991, and was promoted to Commercial Director of Latin America based in the United States before becoming General Manager of Abbott in Chile in 1999. He returned to Europe in 2004 and was appointed Regional Director of Southern Europe and then becoming General Manager of Abbott in Italy.
After the separation from Abbott Laboratories in 2013, he became responsible for AbbVie operations in Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa. AbbVie is a global, research-based biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to use its expertise, dedicated people and unique approach to innovation to develop and market advanced therapies that address some of the world’s most complex and serious diseases.

Alberto Colzi earned his Engineering degree from Pisa University in Italy, and his post-graduate degree in Business Administration from Durham University, United Kingdom.

Chris Moon

MBE

Chris Moon MBE is a motivational speaker and Ultra Marathon runner, who challenges us to look at the self-limiting constraints we place upon ourselves.

Chris Moon’s life changed forever when he signed up for the Hazardous Areas Life Support Organisation (HALO) Trust to train in mine removal. Leading a team of former soldiers in hazardous and stressful conditions, he led them to rid large areas from lethal landmines before being captured by the Khmer Rouge. Though very few foreigners have even survived Khmer Rouge captivity, he successfully negotiated both his own release and that of the two men captured with him.

Working in Mozambique on 7th March 1995, as he was walking across a previously cleared and isolated area, Chris trod on a landmine hidden beneath metal detector range. It blew off his right lower leg and ripped a hole through his right hand. He was airlifted by helicopter to a hospital in South Africa, where his lower leg and hand had to be amputated.

One year later, and with only three weeks of training on a specially adapted running limb, Chris completed the London Marathon. In 1997 he completed the gruelling Marathon De Sables and became the world’s first amputee ultra-distance runner. Since then he’s run the world’s toughest ultra-marathons and most recently the Badwater Death Valley 135 mile ultra. He managed to take 12 hours off his previous best time to complete it in 41 hours 51 minutes. He’s run numerous ultra-distance events and several one thousand mile events. When it comes to challenging the concept of limitation, adapting to change and overcoming adversity he literally walks the talk and is a veteran adviser to the NHS on state-of-the-art prosthetics.