After completing his medical studies and a Master’s Degree in Pharmacology in South Africa, Danie spent 3 years working in a primary care setting including his own private practice. He joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1993, worked in Medical Affairs, Marketing, Pharmacovigilance and Clinical Operations. He held roles of increasing responsibility and leadership, including Senior Vice President and Head of Worldwide Medical Affairs at GlaxoSmithKline. Danie is the Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs for Kyowa Kirin International and joined the company in Aug 2019.

He is registered with the medical councils in the UK and South Africa and completed his MBA through Heriot Watt University and Edinburgh Business School in 2006. He is a Director and Chair of the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS) Board, and an affiliate member of the Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision (APECS).

Dr. Nadia Hergli is the Head of Medical Affairs - International at Chiesi Global Rare Disease, based in Brussels, Belgium. She joined Chiesi in early 2024 following the acquisition of Amryt Pharma, where she spent six years. In her current role, Dr. Hergli leads Medical Affairs across Distributor Markets, including the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Australia, and Japan, with a dedicated focus on rare diseases and orphan drugs.

With over 23 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Hergli began her career as a clinical research coordinator at the Ministry of Scientific Research & Technology in Tunisia, focusing on epidemiological studies of preventable diseases. A physician by training, she graduated from the University of Medicine of Monastir in Tunisia. She entered the pharmaceutical sector in 2002 at Sanofi and subsequently moved to GlaxoSmithKline in 2003, where she spent over 16 years in roles of increasing responsibility, specializing in medical affairs and scientific communication for vaccines and rare diseases at both regional and global levels.

Dr. Hergli’s career has been defined by a commitment to advancing healthcare access and improving patient outcomes, particularly through life-changing therapies and vaccines. She has co-authored numerous scientific publications on rare diseases, vaccines, and public health and continues to drive initiatives in medical education and evidence generation

Zhen has been working within medical affairs for over 10 years with the last 5 years in small/scale up biotechs. She is currently in a regional role covering UK, Ireland and Nordics region at Zogenix, a small rare epilepsy biotech.

After receiving his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Münster, Germany, Christian spent 3 years as Postdoc at the University of Madison Wisconsin, USA. After a second Postdoc position in Würzburg, Germany, he moved to a role as Senior Scientist at the immunology research and development department at Merck Serono in Geneva, Switzerland and later at EMD Serono in Boston, MA,  USA. Christian changed into Medical Affairs as an MSL for Vaccines in Pfizer, Switzerland and later worked as Medical Affairs Manager at Celgene and gained responsibility for the European MSL team at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Europe.

Today Christian is leading the Medical Affairs anti-infectives department at Tillotts Pharma AG, in Rheinfelden, Switzerland including the European MSL team.

Following Graduation in Medicine at the Free University Berlin, Michael pursued a career in General, Cardiovascular and Surgical Oncology in Germany and the UK, gaining an MD and an FRCS.  He joined pharmaceutical industry 25 years ago and has since been in clinical development, project leadership, and commercial and medical affairs roles at country, regional and global level. To date, Michael leads the Medical Affairs Team of Novartis Oncology, Region Europe.
Throughout his industry career, Michael mainly covered specialty care areas, e.g. Oncology and Immunology. He also qualified as a Pharmaceutical Physician and as an MBA. Research interests and publications are in Oncology and Immunology as well as in general aspects concerning Medical Affairs and Medicine Development in the Industry.

Alan qualified in medicine in 1984 from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.  He trained as a family doctor (GP) and worked in and around Glasgow for 14 years in the health service until leaving to join Novo Nordisk in 1998.

After leadership positions with both Novo Nordisk, BioMarin Europe and AstraZeneca, Alan joined Astellas as their UK Medical Director in 2009 before moving to a sub-regional European role in 2014.

In late 2016 he relocated to Singapore to become Head of Medical Affairs for Asia-Oceania and in 2020 his territories expanded to include Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Russia and Turkey.

In July 2021 Alan transferred back to the UK to lead medical affairs for Europe and Canada.

Alan is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians (UK). Alan led a global medical affairs capability uplift programme at Astellas, he has a passion for leadership and team development and the ethics of pharmaceutical medicine.

Natasha Hansjee, PhD, is a global principal scientific communication director at Roche. She is also  an executive coach and a storyteller. She has over 20 years of pharmaceutical marketing experience: sales, local & global strategic product management; global product commercial strategy training; scientific communications; mentoring, coaching and facilitating - and has worked across all stages of the life cycle (early launch, launch, LoE). 

Joris van Vugt, Senior Medical Director at Viatris, studied Health Sciences at Maastricht University in The Netherlands and holds a Master in Pharmaceutical Medicine from Hibernia College in Dublin, Ireland.  He has over 20 years of experience in Medical Affairs in local, regional and global positions at Pfizer and since 3 years at Viatris. He currently focusses on strategic scientific partnerships to address unmet global health needs, including health equity, integration of care, human resources for health and capability development of the healthcare workforce.