European Cancer Summit 2020

Isabel T. Rubio is the Co-Chair of the European Cancer Summit 2020, Board Member of the European Cancer Organisation, Prevention Network Co-Chair, Head of Breast Surgical Oncology at Clinica Universidad de Navarra in Madrid, Spain and Professor of Surgery at the Universidad de Navarra, Spain. She completed her Medical degree at the Faculty of Medicine in Salamanca, Spain, and become a Board-certified General Surgeon. She had additional training for two years as a Breast Surgical Oncology Fellow at The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the Arkansas Cancer Center at Little Rock, USA and for one year at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, USA. She completed her PhD in 2000. She is the director of the Breast Surgery Fellowship program at her Institution. Dr. Rubio is active in many societies, founding member and past President of the Spanish Association of Breast Surgeons (AECIMA), EUSOMA President-Elect (European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists), Chief, Public Affairs of the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO), member of the American Society of Breast Surgeons and member of the Outreach Committee of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO). She is the breast section editor of the Journal of Surgical Oncology, reviewer for The Breast, the European Journal of Surgical Oncology and Annals of Surgical Oncology. She obtained the European Board of Surgery Qualification in Breast Surgery and since 2015 is officer at the UEMS Breast Surgery Division and participates as an examiner in the EBSQ Examinations in Breast Surgery. Dr. Rubio is involved as part of the Steering and Executive Committees in several international, multicenter randomized trials. She has received grants to develop her research by the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Spanish Ministry of Health and other institutions. Dr. Rubio has published over 100 national and international peer review manuscripts and book chapters. She has presented her work in many of the main international meetings in breast cancer. Her interest is in sentinel lymph node biopsy, neoadjuvant treatments, surgical management of BRCA mutation carriers and the role of prognostic markers (genomic profiles, liquid biopsy). Also her interest is focused on the standardization of Breast cancer surgical training and Breast units.

Immediate Past-President, European Cancer Organisation (ECO) Matti Aapro is member of the Board of Directors of the Genolier Cancer Center, Genolier, Switzerland and Immediate Past-President of the European Cancer Organisation. He received his medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland and was a fellow at the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson, Arizona, USA. He was the founding chair of the Medical and Radiation Therapy Department at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan. Dr. Aapro is presently Executive Board member of the European School of Oncology (ESO). He leads the Sharing Progress in Cancer Care (SPCC) not-for-profit association. He serves the International Society for Geriatric Oncology (SIOG) as Executive Board Member. He is past-President of the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC). He is President of Honour of the French-speaking Society for Supportive Care (AFSOS), as well as Advisor to the Japanese Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (JASCC). He has been member of the Board of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and of the Board of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO). Dr. Aapro chaired the scientific and organizing committees of UICC’s (International Union against Cancer) World Cancer Congress of 2008 in Geneva, and 2010 in Shenzhen (China). He is a member of the ESMO Faculty and chaired the ESMO 2018 Supportive/Palliative Care track. Dr. Aapro is Honorary Editor of Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology, and editor of the Journal of Cancer Policy as well as Associate Editor for the geriatric section of the Oncologist. He is also founding editor of the Journal of Geriatric Oncology. He is past Associate Editor for Annals of Oncology, continuing on its editorial board, and member of several other editorial boards including CancerWorld. He has authored more than 350 publications and his major interests are new drug development, breast cancer, cancer in the elderly, and supportive care. Dr. Aapro is Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Tampere (2013) and Honorary Member of the Russian Society for Clinical Oncology (RUSSCO)(2016). He has received the 2010 Acta Oncologica Award, the 2012 ASCO B.J. Kennedy prize and the MASCC Distinguished Services Award (2016).

Stefan Gijssels is Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Digestive Cancers Europe, the umbrella organisation of all digestive cancer patient associations in Europe (oesophageal, gastric, pancreatic, colon, rectum, liver and rare digestive cancers). The organisation represents more than 30 national associations. In this capacity, he is also member of the European Commission’s Innovative Partnership for Action Against Cancer (iPAAC), and of the European Reference Network of Rare Cancers (EURACAN). He is one of the founders and Board Member of the Patient Expert Center in Belgium. He is Co-Chair of the Patient Advisory Committee of the European Cancer Organisation, and a member of its Executive Committee. Stefan is a metastatic colon cancer survivor. Since 2016, he also works as an independent health policy advisor, publicist, facilitator and moderator, working for public health authorities, patient organisations and industry. Until 2016, he was Vice President Communication & Public Affairs at Janssen Europe, Middle East & Africa. In the 90s he was director and general manager at Burson-Marsteller, Vice-President at Weber-Shandwick, Public Affairs Manager at McDonald’s, and Project Manager at the Institute of the Enterprise, a Belgian policy think tank. He started his career as an English teacher in Morocco. He has a a master’s degree in Literature and Philosophy from Leuven University, Belgium.

Bente Mikkelsen is the Director, Non-Communicable Diseases Division of UHC/Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases World Health Organisation. She was formerly Director, Division of Noncommunicable Diseases and Promoting Health through the Life-course at the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (Copenhagen, Denmark), Head of Secretariat for the Global Coordination Mechanism on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (WHO GCM/NCD) at the World Health Organization Headquarters (Geneva, Switzerland) from its inception in 2014 as well as a former CEO of the Southern and Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority. Dr Mikkelsen is trained as a Gynaecologist and Obstetrician and holds a Master’s degree in Health Administration and Management from the University of Oslo. Her current focus is on achieving the SDGs through the reduction of premature deaths from NCDs in the context of WHO General Programme of Work, and working across sectors with multistakeholders, within and beyond the health sector using innovation, implementation research, health literacy and new technologies.

Federal Health Minister, Germany

John F. Ryan is Director, Public Health, Country Knowledge and Crisis Management, DG SANTE & Director of the Commission Public Health, country knowledge, crisis management directorate since September 2016. Previously, in the same department, he was the Head of Unit responsible for health threats, health information, the cancer programme, the pollution related disease programme, the drugs prevention programme, the health monitoring programme, the health promotion programme, the rare diseases programme and the injury prevention programme. Most recently, he led the unit responsible for health determinants and inequalities.

Kathy Oliver is Chair and founding Co-Director of theInternational Brain Tumour Alliance(IBTA), a global network founded in 2005 as a dynamic worldwide community for brain tumour patient organisations and others involved in the field of neuro-oncology. Through the IBTA, Kathy is involved in advocating for equitable access to new brain tumour therapies; encouraging the establishment of brain tumour patient and carer support groups in countries where they don’t yet exist; and raising awareness of the challenges associated with this devastating disease. Kathy also participates in a range of high-level projects and committees addressing brain tumour and rare cancer issues in Europe. She is a frequent plenary and session speaker at international neuro-oncology and cancer conferences. She serves as one of two patient advocates representing Rare Diseases Europe (EURORDIS) on the recently-established European Commission Expert Group on Cancer Control. Kathy was the Patient Issues Editor on the Editorial Board for the online magazine of the European Association of Neuro-Oncology (EANO), and is on the organising committee of Rare Cancers Europe (RCE). She is Vice-Chair of the European CanCer Organisation Patient Advisory Committee (ECCO PAC) and is also a member of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Patient Advocacy Working Group (PAWG). Kathy participated in the British Neuro Oncology Society’s National Guidelines Group for Rare Brain and CNS Tumours and on the Rare Disease UK Working Group on Patient Care and Information. She is a founder member/former board member of Cancer52, the UK umbrella group for 80 rare cancer organisations and serves on the NCRI (UK) Brain Tumour Clinical Studies Group sub group on Palliative Care and Quality of Life. Kathy is also a consumer representative for the Cochrane Neuro-Oncology Group (UK) and is a member of the Council of the British Neuro-Oncology Society (BNOS). Additionally, she is the Co-Chair of the Project Advisory Board for the European Patients’ Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI). Kathy is an ex-freelance journalist and edits the IBTA’s annual magazine,Brain Tumour, of which approximately 14,000 copies are printed and distributed for free to recipients in 111 countries and at neuro-oncology and cancer conferences.

Professor Mark Lawler is Board Member, European Cancer Organisation and Special Network on the Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer Co-Chair, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Professor of Digital Health, and Chair in Translational Cancer Genomics, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, Queen's University Belfast (QUB). Mark is an internationally renowned scientist who has published over 200 papers including key publications in the highest impact journals (New Engl J Medicine, Lancet, Nature Medicine, Lancet Oncology, Cancer Discovery, Nature Comms, Gut). His work has been recognised by numerous national/international awards including the Vander Molen Prize for Leukaemia Research, Ely Lilly Prize, St Lukes Medal for Cancer Research, Graves Medal for Medical Research and the prestigious 2018 European Health Award. Mark is Associate Director of Health Data Research Wales-Northern Ireland, one of 6 Health Data Research UK (HDR-UK) Substantive Sites, which is driving innovative precision medicine and population health approaches through the use of Big Data. He is Scientific Director for DATA-CAN, the UK Health Data Research Hub for Cancer. In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal, Mark led a pan European group in developing a roadmap to restore public trust in health data, published in Lancet Oncology. In the context of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Mark is employing a data-driven approach to understand and mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on cancer patients and cancer systems Mark was co-chair of the Cancer Task Team of the Clinical Working Group of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, an international cooperative dedicated to effective and responsible sharing of genomic/clinical data. He authored a number of key papers, including a blueprint for cancer data sharing (Nature Medicine) and a call to action for a Global Cancer Data Knowledge Network (New Engl J Med). Mark is the Queen's Lead of the £5M Medical Research Council-Cancer Research UK funded Stratified Medicine in Colorectal Cancer Consortium (S:CORT), a UK-wide consortium investigating novel precision medicine approaches in colorectal cancer (CRC). His international reputation in CRC was instrumental in his leading a Critical Gaps in CRC Research Initiative, published in the high impact factor journal Gut; this landmark publication has attracted significant global attention (his podcast had the most “hits” of any article in the journal). Mark is a member of the Board of the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) and led the development of EAPM’s research strategy. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Cancer Patient Coalition and of the Strategic Advisory Board of Genomics England. Mark has a strong commitment to patient-centred research/care and to addressing cancer inequalities. He was architect of the European Cancer Patient's Bill of Rights (BoR), a catalyst for change and empowerment tool for cancer patients which he launched in the European Parliament on World Cancer Day 2014. The BoR has been translated into 17 European languages and adopted in 25 European countries. It was recently adopted by ECCO, the largest interdisciplinary cancer organisation in Europe. The BoR received The 2018 European Health Award, a prestigious award for partnerships that yield real health impact in Europe which Mark received with ECCO colleagues during the 2018 European Health Forum Gastein, the premier European health policy conference. Mark’s has a particular interested in addressing cancer challenges in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and has highlighted the need for data-enabled research, including economic evaluation to empower cancer control strategies in the region. He is also committed to optimal pathology and laboratory medicine provision for citizens in resource-limited settings and was senior author of a paper in The Lancet as part of The Lancet Series on Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in Low- and Middle- Income Countries. He is leading the Lancet Oncology Groundshot Commission to provide the evidence base and road map for cancer research in Europe, with a particular focus on CEE countries, whose results will feed into the EU cancer mission.

Dr Mirjam Crul is Board Member, European Cancer Organisation, Special Network on the Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer Co-Chair and Workforce Network Co-Chair. Shereceived her master in pharmacy in 1999. Subsequently, she worked as a research fellow at the Netherlands Cancer Institute studying clinical pharmacology of novel anticancer agents. This work resulted in a PhD in 2002. She trained to become a Hospital Pharmacist from 2002-2006. Currently she is employed in the Amsterdam University Medical Center, where she is the Head of the Aseptic Compounding Unit and has pharmaceutical responsibility for the Oncology Department. She served as a Board Member for the Dutch Hospital Pharmacists Association (NVZA) from 2016 to 2019. At present, she holds a chair in the European Cancer Organisation Board and is Vice-President of the European Society of Oncology Pharmacy (ESOP).

Nicoletta Luppi is Senior Vice President and Managing Director, MSD Italia. She graduates with a Honours Degree in Modern Languages & Literatures and then earns a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the "L.U.I.S.S." University School of Management in Rome. In 1993 she joins MSD, covering a number of positions with increasing responsibilities, ranging from the lead of the Cardiovascular-Metabolic Franchise and the Joint Venture with Schering Plough, to the management of two sister Companies (Neopharmed and Gentili), up to creating and leading the Market Access & Commercial Operations, expanding her expertise throughout the entire wide portfolio of MSD products. In 2012, she is appointed President and Managing Director of Sanofi Pasteur MSD, the European Joint Venture between Sanofi Pasteur – the Vaccine Division of Sanofi – and MSD Vaccine Division. In recognition of her leadership in this role, she is awarded "CEO of the Year"- (Pharmaceutical Area, "Le Fonti" Award). She is also elected as President of the Vaccines Group in Farmindustria. In 2015, she becomes President and Managing Director of MSD Italy, first woman ever to hold such role within the Italian affiliate of the Multinational Pharmaceutical Company Merck & Co. In 2016 she is nominated President of the Alumni LUISS Business School Association. In March 2017 (and for the following years), she is selected by AMREF to act as testimonial of the NGO’s social media campaign against female genital mutilations and, again in 2017, she is honoured with the prestigious award “Premio Minerva-Donna D’Eccellenza” in recognition of her leadership focused on creating an environment able to foster work-life balance, inclusion and diversity. In 2018 she is nominated Senior Vice President in MSD. At the end of 2019 she is appointed by Fortune Italy as “Businessperson of the Year 2019” (Pharmaceutical Category). As of January 2020 she is selected as a member of the Board of Vaccines Europe and as a member of the Advisory Board “Kotler Impact Italia”. She is also Lean Six Sigma Executive Belt.

Rapporteur, Special Committee on Beating Cancer, Shadow Rapporteur, EU4Health; Member, EU Special Committee on Beating Cancer; Member, ENVI Committee and Co-Chair of MEPs Against Cancer, Oncologist

Bartosz Arłukowicz MEP is Chairman of the Special Committee on Beating Cancer. Polish politician and paediatrician. He served as a Minister of Health from October 18, 2011 until June 10, 2015 under Donald Tusk and was a member of Polish Sejm in years 2007-2019. As a Minister of Health he introduced a comprehensive reform of the oncological system, known as the oncological package. From 2019, he serves as a Member of the European Parliament. He is a member of the ENVI committee and a Chairman of the Special Committee on Beating Cancer.

Bengt Jönsson is Professor Emeritus of Health Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden. Before joining the SSE in 1990 he was professor at Linköping University, Department of Health and Society, 1982-1990. He was founding director of the Swedish Institute for Health Economics (IHE) in Lund from 1979 to 1982 and is now chair of IHE board. He is a member of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences, and was vice chair of EXPH, the EU Expert Panel on effective ways of Investing in health 2013-2016. He has been a member of the Karolinska University Hospital Board, of the National Social Insurance Board in Sweden, and of SBU (The Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care), Scientific Advisory Board 1988-2004. Professor Jönsson is a member of the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Cancer Policy and International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care. He is past president of SHEA, the Swedish Health Economics Association and of iHEA, the international Health Economists Association. He was the recipient of the 2014 ISPOR Avedis Donabedian Outcomes Research Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr Benjamin Besse is Professor of Medical Oncology at Paris-Saclay University, Orsay, France and a full-time cancer specialist at Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus, Villejuif, France. Currently, Dr Besse is Head of the Cancer Medicine Department at Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus and Chair of the EORTC Lung Group. He coordinates the French network for thymic malignancies (www.ryhtmic.org). His main research interests are the application of molecular abnormalities to personalize treatment, circulating biomarkers, early drug development in thoracic tumors and thymic malignancies. He has authored/co-authored more than 250 peer-reviewed papers.

Jan Geissler is EU Cancer Mission Assembly Member and Member of the European Cancer Organisation's Patient Advisory Committee, he is the founder and CEO of Patvocates, a think tank, consultancy and social enterprise on patient advocacy, health policy and patient engagement in research. He was the Director of the European Patients Academy (EUPATI) from 2012-2017 and still leads the German EUPATI platform. Jan is a work package leader of the IMI2-funded EU project HARMONY on big data for better outcomes in hematology. A leukemia survivor since 2001, Jan co-founded the patient organisations LeukaNET/Leukaemie-Online.de in 2002, the European Cancer Patient Coalition in 2003, the CML Advocates Network in 2007, the Leukemia Patient Advocates Foundation in 2011, WECAN in 2015 and the Acute Leukemia Advocates Network in 2016. Jan represents patients on a number of advisory boards and committees, e.g. European Cancer Organisation, EHA, ISPOR, Berlin Institute of Health, EuroBloodNET, International CML Foundation, the EU Cancer Mission Assembly, the German National Decade Against Cancer and the Ethics Committee of the Bavarian Chamber of Physicians.

Lydie Meheus is Managing Director of the Anticancer Fund (ACF), a Belgian Research Foundation of Public Utility with an international scope, dedicated to the development of cancer treatments regardless of their commercial value. Lydie co-founded the Anticancer Fund in 2013 with entrepreneur and major funder Luc Verelst, after leading an alike Swiss organisation, Reliable Cancer Therapies, also initiated in 2009 by Luc Verelst. Lydie is still Executive Director of Reliable Cancer Therapies, today the collaborating partner of ACF for projects outside Europe. Lydie is a breast cancer patient, diagnosed in 2018 and successfully treated since then. In 2019, Lydie was appointed by the European Commission as alternate to represent patients for 3 years in the Committee for Advanced Therapies (CAT) one of the seven committees at the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Lydie is also member of the Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board of OvaCure, a Danish non-profit organisation that supports research for breakthrough treatments in ovarian cancer. She has published many international peer review manuscripts, lately on drug repurposing in cancer therapies. She obtained a PhD in Sciences at the University of Ghent (1986). She worked at Innogenetics (1987-2004) and as VP R&D at GENimmune (2005-2008), both Belgian biopharmaceutical companies.

Frances Fitzgerald is an Irish MEP from Dublin. Member, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats). A parliamentarian for over 20 years, she served as Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) from 2016-17, one of only four women to have ever held this position. She has also served as Minister for Business, Enterprise & Innovation (2017); Minister for Justice & Equality (2014-17) and was the State’s first Minister for Children & Youth Affairs (2011-14). Prior to her election to the Dáil (Irish Parliament), Frances served as Chair of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (1988-92) and Vice President of the European Women’s Lobby. Frances was elected to the European Parliament in 2019. She is a full member of the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM) and the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON and a substitute member of the Development Committee (DEVE). Frances was elected EPP Coordinator of the FEMM Committee in July 2019. Frances has previously served on the board of the Breast Research Foundation in St. Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin, and was also Vice-Chair of Europa Donna, the European breast cancer campaign.

Francesca Colombo, M.Sc., is Head of the Health Division at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. She is responsible for OECD work on health, which aims at providing internationally comparable data on health systems and applying economic analysis to health policies, advising policy makers, stakeholders and citizens on how to respond to demands for more and better health care and make health systems more people centred. Major activities under her responsibility cover the response to the COVID-19 crisis and solutions to make health systems more resilient; trends in health spending; measuring of health care outcomes, activities and inputs; health care quality policies; assessing health system efficiency and value for money; health workforce; long-term care systems and ageing; the economics of public health; pharmaceutical policies, new technologies, big data and Artificial Intelligence in health (http://www.oecd.org/health). Mrs Colombo has over 20 years of experience leading international activities on health and health systems. Over her career, she travelled extensively in Europe, South America and Asia, advising governments on health system policies and reforms.

Peter Lührs is Therapeutic Area Head Oncology at Bayer, he works on advancing Bayer’s Oncology Vision to improve the lives of people impacted by cancer through science and innovation. He is focused on launching Bayer’s new oncology therapeutics and working with R&D to expand their benefit to additional indications. During his 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry Peter held positions in strategic and operational roles in cardiovascular, diagnostic imaging and oncology businesses. Peter holds an MD from the University of Hamburg and provided care for cancer patients during his residency at Charité Hospital. He lives in Basel with his family.

A co-chair at Quality Cancer Care Network, European Cancer Organisation. Features in 2 videos on Wondr Medical. Philip Poortmans generally speaks on Oncology, Medical Oncology, Cancer Patients, Health Policy, and Oncology: Webinar.

Sema is Co-Chair, European Cancer Organisation's Patient Advisory Committee. She was elected to the European Board of Europa Donna in 2008 and was its Treasurer from 2009 to 2011 and Vice-President from 2011 to 2014. She is on the ED Board as her second term upon being re-elected in 2019. She has been a member of the Board of ED Turkey since 2004 and a member of ECCO PAC since 2012. Sema is a breast cancer survivor, an advocate and an engineer. She worked as the Senior Project Manager, PMP in Global Technology Services of IBM Turkey. She has 28 years’ experience in education, systems’ engineering, complex projects management and quality assurance in project management.

European Cancer Organisation Quality Cancer Care Network Co-Chair

EU Cancer Mission Assembly Member and President, Organisation of European Cancer Institutes

Kateřina Konečná. Member of the Special Committee for Beating Cancer, European Parliament. In the year 2009, she successfully graduated from Masaryk University and received an engineer’s degree in the Public Administration field. She also has a bachelor’s degree from Masaryk University, Faculty of Law. Her interest in the world surrounding us brought her to politics and resulted in her candidacy to the Chamber of Deputies in 2002. As the youngest member of the Chamber of Deputies, she became a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. A number of draft legislations and questions to the government that she submitted came from citizens’ initiatives. Furthermore, she cooperates very closely with the Trade Union Association of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia and in 2007 she has started to work very intensively with young people. She became a member of the Environment Committee after the elections to the Chamber of Deputies in 2006. She has seen the urgent need to come up with laws that improve the environment in the Moravian-Silesian region, which has long suffered especially from poor air quality. She became a shadow minister for the environment in the Communist Party. She led the list of Communist candidates for elections in May 2010. After her re-election, she continued the promotion of practical and effective protection of the environment that will help people and will not take their jobs. The Environmental Protection Policy brought her to solving problems with Šumava National Park and also with the Waste Act. She also led the list of Communist candidates in the elections to the European Parliament in May 2014 and May 2019. As a member of the European Parliament, she continues to engage in the Environmental Protection Policy as a member of the ENVI Committee. She is also focused on the topic of Access to Healthcare and she is dealing with public health issues and cooperates very closely with patients and their organizations. She also supports the development of the Patients academy project in the Czech Republic. During her mandate, she worked on the HTA regulation or Medical devices and In-vitro medical devices regulations. In the term 2014-2019, she was the European Parliament’s contact person responsible for the ECDC agency and vice-chair of the PEST special committee. From September 2020 she is also a member of the BECA special committee.

Chair, Health Equity Committee, American Society of Clinical Oncology

President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology

President, International Developed Markets, Pfizer

Richard Sullivan is Editor-in-chief, Journal of Cancer Policy Director, Institute of Cancer Policy, King's College London & Professor of Cancer and Global Health at King’s College London, and Director of the King’s Institute of Cancer Policy and co-Director of the Conflict and Health Research Group (kcl.ac.uk/research/conflict-health-research-group). His research interests extend from global cancer to conflict & health. Richard has worked on a number of Lancet and Lancet Oncology commissions, currently the Lancet Commission on Global Diagnostics (diagnosticscommission.org) and the Lancet Oncology European Cancer Research Commission. Richard’s research teams have major programs in capacity building in conflict and health, and humanitarian medicine, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa (r4hc-mena.org), as well as programmes in women’s health and cancer, digital innovation (virtual-reality enhanced surgery) and a wide range of global health security projects including on the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthening health systems in NW and NE Syria. His global cancer research programs cover cancer systems strengthening, affordability, value particularly and political economy, global radiotherapy, social welfare and cancer care in conflict. Professor Sullivan qualified in medicine and trained in surgery (urology) gaining his PhD in Biochemistry from University College London. Richard was Clinical Director of Cancer Research UK between 1999 and 2008. He has also worked for many years on biosecurity and counterproliferation issues, including Ebola outbreaks in West Africa and DR Congo. Richard is an NCD advisor to the WHO, a member of the National Cancer Grid of India and advisor (civil-military) to Save the Children.

Robert Greene is Member, European Cancer Organisation's Patient Advisory Committee, he is a consultant, speaker and patient advocate, supporting the development of patient relations. His interest revolves around patient empowerment, diversity, personalised healthcare, cancer-related malnutrition and health and healthcare disparities in prostate cancer. He is Board Member of the European Cancer Patient Coalition and Founder & President of the HungerNdThirst Foundation

Dolors Montserrat is a Member, EU Special Committee on Beating Cancer and Co-Chair, ENVI Committee Health Working Group and Former Spanish Health Minister Member of the European Parliament since July 2019 Head of the EPP Spanish Delegation Chair of the Committee on Petitions Member of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) Co-Chair of the Health Working Group at the ENVI Committee Minister of Health, Social Services and Equality from 2016 to 2018 Third Vice President of the Bureau of the Congress of Deputies in the X Legislature Deputy for Barcelona in the Congress of the IX, X, XI and XII legislatures Councillor and spokesperson of the PP Group in the City Hall of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia from 2003 to 2015 Practicing Lawyer from 1997 to 2011, specialized in civil, property and family law She attended the C.O.U in the United States (Memphis, Tennessee) Postgraduate in Urban and Real Estate Law taught by Pompeu Fabra University Postgraduate in Family Mediation and contractual negotiation taught by the University of Barcelona Real estate and urban law program taught by ESADE Real Estate Business Management Program taught by IESE Master of the Legal Practice School of the Barcelona Bar Association Community Agricultural Law Program taught by the University degli Studi di Ferrara (Italy) She completed the last year of Law Degree at the University of Studies of Ferrara (Italy) with the ERASMUS program Law degree from the Abad Oliba CEU (Barcelona) She studied basic knowledge of German at Freiburg University (Germany) She has been President of the Young Confraria del Cava of Sant Sadurní d 'Anoia

Henricus J. de Koning is Deputy Head, Public Health and Screening Evaluation, Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC. Work Experience and Appointments Since Graduation 1986 – 1987 Teaching Anatomy and Pathology to nurses 1987 – 1995 Researcher, Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Rotterdam. 1995 – 1999 Assistant professor, Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Rotterdam. 1999 – 2008 Associate professor, Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Rotterdam. 2008 – present Professor of Public Health & Screening Evaluation, Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC. Inaugural address: De mysterieuze massa; The mysterious mass(es). 26th June 2009. 2011 – 2012 Senior Associate Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 2011 – 2017 Member Medical Advisory Board of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

Isabel T. Rubio is the Co-Chair of the European Cancer Summit 2020, Board Member of the European Cancer Organisation, Prevention Network Co-Chair, Head of Breast Surgical Oncology at Clinica Universidad de Navarra in Madrid, Spain and Professor of Surgery at the Universidad de Navarra, Spain. She completed her Medical degree at the Faculty of Medicine in Salamanca, Spain, and become a Board-certified General Surgeon. She had additional training for two years as a Breast Surgical Oncology Fellow at The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the Arkansas Cancer Center at Little Rock, USA and for one year at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, USA. She completed her PhD in 2000. She is the director of the Breast Surgery Fellowship program at her Institution. Dr. Rubio is active in many societies, founding member and past President of the Spanish Association of Breast Surgeons (AECIMA), EUSOMA President-Elect (European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists), Chief, Public Affairs of the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO), member of the American Society of Breast Surgeons and member of the Outreach Committee of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO). She is the breast section editor of the Journal of Surgical Oncology, reviewer for The Breast, the European Journal of Surgical Oncology and Annals of Surgical Oncology. She obtained the European Board of Surgery Qualification in Breast Surgery and since 2015 is officer at the UEMS Breast Surgery Division and participates as an examiner in the EBSQ Examinations in Breast Surgery. Dr. Rubio is involved as part of the Steering and Executive Committees in several international, multicenter randomized trials. She has received grants to develop her research by the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Spanish Ministry of Health and other institutions. Dr. Rubio has published over 100 national and international peer review manuscripts and book chapters. She has presented her work in many of the main international meetings in breast cancer. Her interest is in sentinel lymph node biopsy, neoadjuvant treatments, surgical management of BRCA mutation carriers and the role of prognostic markers (genomic profiles, liquid biopsy). Also her interest is focused on the standardization of Breast cancer surgical training and Breast units.

Jan van Meerbeeck is Board Member, European Cancer Organisation and Prevention Network Co-Chair. After obtaining his medical degree magna cum laude from the University of Antwerp in 1980, Prof van Meerbeeck completed training to become a board certified specialist in internal medicine and pulmonology. He is a skilled interventional pulmonologist and obtained his PhD in 1997 with a dissertation on the presentation of lung cancer in Flanders, Belgium. He is currently professor of Thoracic Oncology at both Ghent and Antwerp University and practiced as pulmonologist at Antwerp University Hospital, Belgium and at Erasmus MC, the Netherlands. He was Chair of the Thoracic Oncology Program at Ghent University Hospital, where he became also Divisional Head and CMO. He is currently appointed full professor in Pulmonology @ Antwerp University and chair of the Pulmonology Department of its academic hospital (UZA). His translational scientific interests include the molecular diagnosis of lung cancer, the management of mesothelioma and the evaluation of volatile biomarkers of asbestos exposure. He is or was the study coordinator or Principal Investigator for numerous international phase 2 and 3 studies in thoracic oncology and respiratory medicine and promoter of several master thesis and PhD students, of which 7 successfully obtained their PhD. Together with Kevin Lamote, he is the founder of the breathomics lab within the Laboratory of experimental medicine and pediatrics (LEMP) @ University of Antwerp. He is furthermore fellow of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and serves its Thoracic Oncology Assembly as current chair and member of the mesothelioma guideline committee. He served the Lung Cancer Group of the EORTC as secretary, chairman and as board member, is a full member of the ASCO and the IASLC (current member of its staging committee), and expert at the Belgian HTA Knowledge Center KCE. He was involved in the development of the ICHOM standard set on Lung cancer and board member of All.Can and All.Can Belgium. He has an extensive presentation and publication track, with more than 300 peer-reviewed articles in various journals and chapters in textbooks. He serves on the review and editorial boards of several international journals, and organized several national and international meetings.

Padraic Ward is Head of Commercial Operations, Roche. He joined the company in 2004 and has worked in a number of key roles including leading the team bringing a new medicine for breast cancer through the final stages of development and regulatory approval, and leading the commercial organisation first in France and then in Europe. He was appointed to his current role as Head of Commercial Operations for Roche Pharma International in June 2018. Before joining Roche, Padraic worked for Coras Tráchtála (CTT)/Irish Export Board, as a strategic consultant in the industrial and distribution sector, and for Glaxo, first on the launch of new medicines for infectious diseases, particularly HIV and viral hepatitis, then as Commercial Strategy Director in Glaxo Wellcome’s Latin America Regional Office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Padraic holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University College Dublin and an MBA from INSEAD.

Dr Partha Basu is Head, Screening Group, Early Detection and Prevention Section, International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization. He was Head of Gynecological Oncology at Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, India before joining IARC in 2015. Dr Basu’s current research projects include: a) cohort study to evaluate single dose of HPV vaccine; b) RCT to evaluate a new Indian HPV vaccine; c) evaluation of thermal ablation; d) evaluation of artificial intelligence based device for cervical cancer early detection; e) study of vaginal microbiome in HIV+ women; f) RCT to evaluate CBE; g) evaluation of automated breast ultrasound; h) evaluation of cancer screening programmes in Europe and Latin America; i) evaluation of colorectal cancer screening in Mediterranean Region. These projects are funded by National Institute of Health (USA), Gates Foundation, American Cancer Society, Norwegian Research Council, Swiss Cancer Research, Lalla Salma Foundation (Morocco), Indo-American Cancer Association etc.

Stefan Gijssels is Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Digestive Cancers Europe, the umbrella organisation of all digestive cancer patient associations in Europe (oesophageal, gastric, pancreatic, colon, rectum, liver and rare digestive cancers). The organisation represents more than 30 national associations. In this capacity, he is also member of the European Commission’s Innovative Partnership for Action Against Cancer (iPAAC), and of the European Reference Network of Rare Cancers (EURACAN). He is one of the founders and Board Member of the Patient Expert Center in Belgium. He is Co-Chair of the Patient Advisory Committee of the European Cancer Organisation, and a member of its Executive Committee. Stefan is a metastatic colon cancer survivor. Since 2016, he also works as an independent health policy advisor, publicist, facilitator and moderator, working for public health authorities, patient organisations and industry. Until 2016, he was Vice President Communication & Public Affairs at Janssen Europe, Middle East & Africa. In the 90s he was director and general manager at Burson-Marsteller, Vice-President at Weber-Shandwick, Public Affairs Manager at McDonald’s, and Project Manager at the Institute of the Enterprise, a Belgian policy think tank. He started his career as an English teacher in Morocco. He has a a master’s degree in Literature and Philosophy from Leuven University, Belgium.

Professor Albreht is a Senior Health Services and Health Systems Researcher at the National Institute of Public Health of Slovenia. He specializes in social medicine and, having completed his doctorate at the University of Amsterdam, he dedicates his research to the exploration of health services – nationally and internationally. He is particularly interested in the performance of health systems, evidence-based health policy, health workforce planning and mobility, and development of more efficient health care, especially in the field of noncommunicable diseases. Professor Albreht is an associate professor of public health at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, and a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Public Health Association. He acts as a reviewer for several international and national medical and public health journals. Since 2006, he has been actively involved in the development of cancer policies at the European level – during the Slovenian Presidency of the European Council and later as coordinator of Joint Actions on cancer policy at the European Union level, including the European Partnership for Action Against Cancer (EPAAC), Cancer Control (CanCon) and most recently, the Innovative Partnership for Action Against Cancer (iPAAC). Professor Albreht has worked in a number of projects for policy support in various countries of south-eastern Europe (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia) and also in Kazakhstan. These consultancies have included: support for the development of public health legislation, cancer control and public health interventions. All of these projects were in support of the policies of the respective ministries of health.

Anja Karliczek, born in Ibbenbüren on 29 April 1971, married, three children, has studied business management at Germany's State Distance-Learning University Hagen. Since 2013, Anja Karliczek is Member of the German Bundestag, and she is Federal Minister of Education and Research since March 2018.

Manuel Heitor is Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education in the Government of Portugal since November 2015. From March 2005 to June 2011 he served as Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education. Manuel Heitor is full Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, IST, the engineering school of the University of Lisbon and was founder and director of the IST´s “Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research”, as well as director of the IST´s doctoral Programs in “Engineering and Public Policy, EPP” and in “Engineering Design”. In 2011-12 he was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard. He earned a PhD at Imperial College, London, in 1985 in combustion research and did post-doctoral training at the University of California San Diego. Then he pursued an academic career at IST, in Lisbon, where he served as Deputy-President for the period 1993-1998. Since 1995, he has been Research Fellow of the IC2 Institute of the University of Texas at Austin. He is a founding member of the S&T Council of the “International Risk Governance Council”, IRGC. He was a co-founder of the European network “science, technology, education and policy for Europe, step4EU”.

Dr. Simona Kustec, born on 19 June 1976, is the Minister of Education, Science and Sport, Slovenia, she was a full professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences in the Department of Political Science, Chair of Policy Analysis and Public Administration. In the 2019/20 academic year, she also lectured at the Venice International University. Prof. dr. Kustec Lipicer taught subjects on policy analysis, human rights policy and global governance. She is the author of over 400 scholarly works on a variety of issues, published by leading Slovenian and international academic publishers. Prof. dr. Kustec Lipicer was also a researcher with a rich and diverse body of work. She was involved in several research project groups in Slovenia and abroad. The common thread of her research was the study of elections and electoral behaviour, democracy and various public policies, including sports policy. She was an established name in numerous professional scientific networks and associations and a respected member of the academic and research community. In the 2014–2018 term, she was head of the Party of Modern Centre Deputy Group (SMC). In addition to leading the largest deputy group in the history of the Slovenian Parliament, she also coordinated the work between coalition members in the National Assembly. Throughout the 2014–2018 period, she was Vice-President of the SMC and a member of the party's executive committee. During preparations for the European Parliament elections, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) invited her to participate in the expert group drafting the programme document for the 2019 elections.

European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE)