Professional Development Courses—Instructor Biographies
Advanced Business Development (June 19-June 21)
Joseph S. Dillon, PhD, MBA, Chairman & CEO, SynerPhysics, Inc.; President, Dillon Capital Strategies
Joseph S. Dillon, PhD, MBA, is Chairman & CEO of SynerPhysics, Inc. and President of Dillon Capital Strategies, the strategy and business analytics advisory arm of SynerPhysics. Dr. Dillon is a seasoned pharmaceutical executive with over 30 years of experience. He has extensive experience in global pharmaceutical business development, planning and analysis, corporate finance, M&A, licensing, and technology/deal valuations. Dr. Dillon has valued over 450 deals in negotiation and has been a lead on nearly 50 strategic transactions with a value exceeding $20B. He has consulted dozens of companies and held senior positions, including CEO, CBO, and CFO at select clients. Prior to this, Dr. Dillon held senior positions in pharmaceutical management consulting firms, most significantly as Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Development Services and Valuations for The Mattson Jack Group/KantarHealth. Other previous positions include CEO, President, and Director of The Pharmaceutical Development Center (sold to AAI), a pharmaceutical developer and manufacturer; Executive Vice President and CFO of Vail Banks Inc., a multi-bank holding company (lead IPO, then sold to US Bancorp); CFO and Treasurer of Oread Inc., a contract pharmaceutical developer and manufacturer; and corporate positions with predecessor companies of Sanofi. Dr. Dillon is Past-Chairperson of the Licensing Executive Society Life Sciences Sector. He is a veteran speaker at BIO, LES, WBR, EBD, and other prominent industry organization events. Dr. Dillon holds a PhD in metaphysical sciences/theoretical physics, an MBA in international finance, with emphasis in investment banking, and a bachelor’s degree in finance.
Lesley Stolz, BSc, PhD, Regional Vice President, Early Innovation Partnering, Johnson & Johnson Innovation
Lesley is Regional Vice President, Early Innovation Partnering at Johnson & Johnson Innovation, California. In this role, she leads identification, incubation, due diligence, negotiation, execution and on-boarding for high-impact partnerships and collaborations in external innovation. Lesley also oversees the regions partnership portfolio and is responsible for a wide range of dealmaking solutions including research collaborations, licensing options, venture investments, new company formations, and incubation to establish value-creating partnerships with promising early-stage innovators. Lesley’s career includes over 25 years of corporate development and organizational leadership in small and large companies in the biopharma industry.
Patrick Duxbury, JD, Of Counsel, Leader of Life Sciences (UK), Gowling WLG
Patrick leads Gowling WLG's UK Life Sciences team and brings academic distinction in the life sciences sector to his highly regarded transactional IP practice. He was originally a microbiologist and geneticist before re-qualifying as a lawyer in 1993 with first class honours. Thanks to his deep knowledge of the world in which he operates, Patrick delivers his clients a unique mix of regulatory, antitrust, IP, corporate and dispute resolution advice, helping many of the sector's key players.
Patrick is ranked as the only 'Star Individual' for Life Sciences: Transactional in Chambers UK 2024, is ranked in the Hall of Fame in Legal 500 2025 for his work in Life Sciences and is ranked as an IP Star in the 2024 edition of Managing Intellectual Property.
Patrick is also ranked in the Who's Who Thought Leader for Life Sciences publication and received 'Life Sciences - Transactional Lawyer of the Year 2022' at the prestigious, international, Who's Who Legal Awards 2022. He has since been named in Who's Who Legal: Thought Leaders Global Elite 2024 for 'Life Sciences – Transactional', recognising him among the top 2% of all Who's Who Legal-recognised legal practitioners from around the world.
Sharmela Kalmer, LLB, LLM, Partner, Gowling WLG
Sharmela is a trusted advisor to a number of emerging and established innovative technology and life sciences companies operating in a range of sectors, including biotech, medtech, foodtech and agritech. She has healthcare industry experience having worked in-house at Sanofi, Virgin Care Limited and Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Sharmela is also a member of the West London & GTAC (Gene Therapy Advisory Committee) NHS Research Ethics Committee and is involved in the ethical review of research involving cutting-edge technologies.
Clients in the technology and life sciences sectors have varied needs and face an ever-changing legal landscape. Sharmela's sector knowledge and insight has given her a solid understanding of the opportunities and issues faced by clients shaping the future and how to navigate these issues to access new market opportunities. She provides strategic and pragmatic advice across a company's lifecycle, from early development of technologies or medicines through to commercialisation of approved products or services. She has experience negotiating a variety of commercial and IP related contracts from licence, technology transfer and R&D agreements to manufacture and distribution agreements. Sharmela also provides advice on clinical trial-related agreements, interactions with regulatory authorities and compliance with ABPI Code of Conduct and industry best practices.
Charity Williams, JD, Partner, Cooley LLP
Charity brings a wealth of business acumen to her legal practice, representing both public and privately held life sciences companies in complex licensing and corporate partnering transactions. With a focus on strategic collaborations, license agreements, territory-specific licenses, and co-development, co-promotion and profit-sharing relationships, Charity offers a unique blend of legal and business insight and is recognized for her comprehensive advisory role. Her experience extends to handling options to purchase and earn-out structures in the context of mergers and acquisitions, and she also offers guidance on day-to-day matters encompassing licensing, supply, distribution, clinical trials and vendor services.
Business Development Fundamentals (June 19-June 21)
Patricia Sinatra, Managing Director, Vector Strategic Advisors
Patricia has more than 25 years of experience in licensing, business development and strategy. She has led in- and out-licensing transactions, product acquisitions, portfolio assessments, and alliance management across a broad range of companies — spanning both full-time executive and interim leadership/ advisory support in the U.S. and China.
Her therapeutic areas of expertise spans oncology, autoimmune/inflammation, infectious disease, metabolic disorders, and CNS, and she has worked across a variety of novel therapeutic modalities, including RNA and protein therapeutic approaches.
Patricia has held positions of increasing responsibility for GSK, Fujisawa-SKF, Abgenix, Matrix (Chiron/Novartis), SEQUUS (ALZA/JNJ), Dynavax (Sanofi), and Sutro, reflecting a track record built across large pharma, biotech, and specialty settings. Her work has centered on novel technologies and platforms, with particular depth in deal structuring and strategic portfolio development, including, most recently, the applications of AI in developing RNA Therapeutics.
An active contributor to the field’s professional community, Patricia has organized and served as a participating instructor for the BIO Business Development Fundamentals course since 2007. She has also served on educational committees focused on next-generation therapeutics and oncology. She also mentors through the UCSF entrepreneurship program.
Patricia holds an undergraduate degree in biology from SUNY and completed post-graduate doctoral studies in microbiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
For more information, please see www.linkedin/in/patriciasinatra and www.vstratadvisors.com.
Anjan Aralihalli, BSc, MBA, MSc, Founder, Raya Therapeutic, Inc.
Prior to starting his own company Raya Therapeutic in 2019, Anjan worked at a variety of biotechs and pharma companies and is a venture partner at CTI Life Sciences (Canada). He has 25+ years of international experience across several functions including investor relations, corporate development, venture and angel financing, in & out-licensing, sales, marketing, & clinical trial management. He continues to provide strategic advice to various biotech companies.
Based in the Princeton, New Jersey area, Anjan is also a steering committee member of a NYC-based angel investment group called Mid-Atlantic Bio Angels (MABA). He received his BSc from Concordia University, MBA from Queen's University, and MSc in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University.
Anjan is a corporate fundraiser for Wings Over Wall Street, a NYC based ALS charity, the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins University, and a member of the board of directors of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) in the United States.
Mark Cooper, JD, Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP
Mark Cooper is an accomplished and versatile corporate and transactional lawyer who has advised clients in the life sciences industry for 30 years.
Mark represents companies in structuring, drafting, and negotiating strategic transactions at all stages of the product lifecycle, from research and development through commercialization, frequently involving cutting-edge technologies, including RNAi, cell therapy, gene therapy, multi-specifics antibodies, and CRISPR, as well as devices, device-drug combinations, and diagnostics.
Mark knows that every deal is different, often posing challenges demanding bespoke solutions across disciplines. Mark’s business acumen, deep industry knowledge, and broad transactional experience enable him to translate complex scientific and IP concepts into practical business solutions for his clients. Mark began his career as an attorney at a top tier international law firm in New York working in M&A, securities law, and structured finance. He then spent over 17 years in-house at Pfizer, where he handled several high profile business transactions; advised C-suite executives and senior leadership teams for the company’s R&D organization; and for over a decade led a team of attorneys focused on sophisticated and complex life sciences transactions. Mark teaches the contracting section for the Business Development course at BIO’s annual international convention and is a frequent panelist at other industry meetings and seminars.
Patrik Frei, PhD, CEO and Founder, Venture Valuation Inc.
Patrik is the founder and CEO of Venture Valuation Inc., Switzerland, the company he started in 1999, and the Novartis Venture Fund was the first client. Since then, he has been involved in over 1,000 asset and company valuations around the globe for investors, as well as for Biotech, Pharma, and Medtech companies. Valuations are provided for financing rounds, M&A, licensing deals, fairness opinions, tax, and compliance reasons. Venture Valuation runs two additional services/businesses: (1) Biotechgate, a global business development database (www.biotechgate.com) with licensing deal terms, financing rounds, investors, clinical trials, and M&A transactions; and (2) HelloPartnering (www.hellopartnering.com), a leading one2one partnering software including the Biotechgate Digital Partnering event (www.digitalpartnering.com). Patrik graduated from the Business University of St. Gallen in Finance and completed his Ph.D thesis at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL in Lausanne. Patrik has experience as a board member of public and private companies, has published numerous articles, and provides valuation workshops around the world.
Patrik graduated from the Business University of St. Gallen with a degree in Finance and completed his PhD thesis at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL, in Lausanne. Patrik has experience as a board member of public and private companies, published numerous articles, and provides valuation workshops around the world.
Wyatt Gotbetter, MPA, Global Head Evidence, Value and Access, Cytel Inc.
Wyatt is a seasoned life sciences executive and strategy consulting leader experienced in asset and franchise growth strategy and mergers and acquisitions/transaction advisory support. He currently leads the Evidence, Value and Access business for Cytel, and was previously Sr. VP for the Market Access and Health Economics business for global CRO Parexel, and Partner for Parexel consulting subsidiary Health Advances. Prior to this, Wyatt was with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the head of New Product Commercialization for Biogen. He has led domestic and global teams in marketing strategy, portfolio management, new product commercialization, and market access. He offers expertise in strategy development, life cycle management, valuation, diligence, and digital health, and has advised or supported the integration of >$40B in life sciences transactions. Wyatt also serves as independent Board member of Diceros Therapeutics. Queries for Wyatt can be sent to: wyatt.gotbetter@cytel.com
Michelle Pesce Dupic, MBS, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Pfizer
Michelle Pesce Dupic is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Pfizer, where she steers strategic partnerships to advance innovative therapies. With over 15 years of biopharmaceutical experience—including more than five years dedicated to alliance management—she is a trusted advisor to teams and decision-makers. Michelle is dedicated to strengthening the connective tissue that lets alliances operate with humanity, flexibility, and accountability to deliver meaningful treatments.
Her career includes roles in Alliance Management at Pfizer, Seagen and Arcus Biosciences, as well as nearly a decade at Genentech. At Genentech, she served as a Principal Program Manager and completed an Operations Rotational Development Program spanning manufacturing, finance, and commercial. Michelle holds a Master of Bioscience (MBS) from the Keck Graduate Institute and a B.S. in Biology from Santa Clara University. She lives in San Francisco with her husband Chad, her two children, and can be spotted running along the waterfronts of the city.
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-pesce-dupic-mbs
Thaminda Ramanayake, MBA, Chief Business Officer of CureVac
Thaminda is the CEO of Anaveon and serves as a Board Director of Mana.bio. He is also a Venture Partner at Entrée Bio.
With more than two decades of global leadership in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, Thaminda specializes in building companies and advancing innovative therapeutics from breakthrough science to differentiated medicines and scalable platforms. Prior to Anaveon, he was Chief Business Officer at CureVac, where he played a central role in the company’s strategic transformation and its acquisition by BioNTech. He previously held senior leadership positions at Sanofi, Affini-T Therapeutics, BioMarin, and Amgen, driving high-impact strategic transactions and partnerships across multiple therapeutic areas.
Thaminda holds a BA in Cellular Biology from Berea College, an MS in Immunology, and an MBA in Finance from the University of Rochester.
Robert Silverman, PhD, JD, Founder & CEO, Revere Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Silverman has a legal, business and medicinal chemistry background that spans over 25 years in Boston biotech. He is a founder and CEO/President of Sunflor Pharmaceuticals and Revere Pharmaceuticals, two oncology-focused biotech companies based in Boston. Previously, he was the General Counsel of Concert Pharmaceuticals from 2007 to 2017, helping the company become public in 2014. Before Concert, Dr. Silverman was Associate General Counsel at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda) where he led the company’s chemical patent practice. Prior to Millennium, he served in various legal roles at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and FMC Corporation. Dr. Silverman started his career as a research chemist and is an inventor of over 20 US patents. Dr. Silverman serves as a Director of Social Capital Inc., a non-profit organization that serves communities in the greater Boston area. He received his BA degree from Lehigh University, his PhD from the U of New Mexico and did postdoctoral training in organic chemistry at Stanford University. He received his JD from Rutgers Law School.
Christiana X. Zhang, PhD, Partner, Intellectual Property and Information Technology Practice Group, McCarter & English LLP
Dr. Christiana Zhang is a partner in the Intellectual Property and Information Technology Practice group at McCarter & English, LLP. She has more than fifteen years of experience in patent prosecution and management. Her practice focuses in the area of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Prior to joining McCarter, Christiana was an in-house patent counsel at a medium-sized biotechnology company in the Boston area, where she was responsible for designing patent strategy and overseeing patent prosecution. She has extensive experience in U.S. and foreign patent preparation and prosecution, patent validity, and freedom-to-operate opinions, as well as due diligence and patent landscape analysis.
Christiana received her Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University. She then went on to post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied the mechanism of cisplatin and other platinum-based anti-cancer drugs. After post-doctoral research, Christiana conducted independent research as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She has published a number of scientific articles in journals such as the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Product & Company Valuation (June 21)
Patrik Frei, PhD, CEO and Founder, Venture Valuation Inc.
Patrik is the founder and CEO of Venture Valuation Inc., Switzerland, the company he started in 1999, and the Novartis Venture Fund was the first client. Since then, he has been involved in over 1,000 asset and company valuations around the globe for investors, as well as for Biotech, Pharma, and Medtech companies. Valuations are provided for financing rounds, M&A, licensing deals, fairness opinions, tax, and compliance reasons. Venture Valuation runs two additional services/businesses: (1) Biotechgate, a global business development database (www.biotechgate.com) with licensing deal terms, financing rounds, investors, clinical trials, and M&A transactions; and (2) HelloPartnering (www.hellopartnering.com), a leading one2one partnering software including the Biotechgate Digital Partnering event (www.digitalpartnering.com). Patrik graduated from the Business University of St. Gallen in Finance and completed his Ph.D thesis at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL in Lausanne. Patrik has experience as a board member of public and private companies, has published numerous articles, and provides valuation workshops around the world.
Patrik graduated from the Business University of St. Gallen with a degree in Finance and completed his PhD thesis at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL, in Lausanne. Patrik has experience as a board member of public and private companies, published numerous articles, and provides valuation workshops around the world.
Gergely Ivanyi, PharmD, Senior Consultant, Venture Valuation Inc.
Gergely is a Senior Consultant at Venture Valuation, specializing in biotech valuation for fundraising, licensing, and M&A. He has led over 100 valuation projects for Fortune 500 companies, established biotech firms, and startups, providing strategic insights into value creation. He holds a PharmD from Semmelweis University (Budapest) and an MSc in Bioentrepreneurship from Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm), combining scientific expertise with a business perspective to support investors and innovators.