Cindy Geoghegan is a patient advocate, advisor and activist with over 30 years of health policy and communications experience, having held senior staff and board positions with several leading cancer non-profit organizations including Susan G. Komen, Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization and others. She began her advocacy career shortly after her breast cancer diagnosis in 1995. Ms Geoghegan has provided the patient perspective on research teams and projects funded by Stand Up to Cancer, the National Cancer Institute, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and has served on the steering committee of the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI), the Duke University/FDA joint venture focused on more efficient clinical trials. Ms Geoghegan is currently a member of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center’s External Advisory Board, and on the Founding Members Council for the Digital Medicine Society, where she also serves on its research committee. Ms Geoghegan has co-authored more than a dozen publications with researchers focused on patient preferences and improving patient outcomes.

Asthika Goonewardene, MBA, is a Managing Director at Truist Securities covering biotechnology companies with a focus on cell therapy, immuno-oncology, and antibody technology. Prior to joining the STRH Biotech team in 2019, Mr Goonewardene was a senior analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, leading coverage of the global biotech sector. Before joining Bloomberg in 2011, Mr Goonewardene worked as a senior management consultant at Datamonitor.  He started his career as an analyst at OSI Pharmaceuticals in 2005, and first joined the sell-side in 2007, with the biotech team at Piper Jaffray in London. Mr Goonewardene holds a BS in Biotechnology and an MBA in Technology Management from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Amir Hefni is the Global Head for Cell & Gene Therapy at Novartis. He currently leads the development and implementation of the Global C&G strategy across indications and disease areas.

Dr Hefni joined Novartis from Ipsen, where he was Global Asset Head, Oncology and led the launch of multiple indications across the globe as well as drove a rich Life Cycle Management program.

Previously, he was with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) for 11 years, roles included Leading Thoracic indications for US Oncology (NSCLC, SCLC, and SCCHN). Furthermore, Dr Hefni brings a wealth of experience working across different countries including US, UK/Ireland and Sweden. He held various leadership positions at BMS: from Business Unit Head in the UK/Ireland to roles within the Worldwide Commercial group, General Manager in Sweden and International Markets Strategy & Operations.

Dr Hefni holds a BSc and PhD in Immuno-Pharmacology from King’s College London, University of London (UK) and a MBA from Warwick Business School, University of Warwick (UK). He also completed the General Management Program at INSEAD in 2017.

Colin Hayward, MD has over 20 years’ of global pharmaceutical, biotechnology and drug development experience and leads Telix’s medical affairs, regulatory, clinical operations and pharmaco-vigilance activities on a global basis.

Prior to joining Telix, Dr Hayward was the Chief Medical Officer of Premier Research (North Carolina, US), a leading global Contract Research Organisation (CRO) specializing in the biopharmaceutical and specialty pharmaceutical areas of clinical research.

Dr Hayward has held a series of senior medical, executive and board-level roles with F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Myriad Genetics, Prism Ideas Ltd and Symprove Ltd. Earlier in his career, Dr Hayward worked in the UK National Health Service with a clinical focus in intensive care and anaesthesia. Dr Hayward holds a Medical degree from the University of London and is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (UK).

Jonathan Jazayeri, PharmD, MSc, joined Kite Pharma, a Gilead company in February 2022 with over 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries developing multiple therapeutic products across modalities including small molecules, biologics, antibody-drug conjugates and cell therapies through all stages drug development. During his time at Kite he has led the global clinical regulatory strategy team as Executive Director of Global Regulatory Affairs. He joined Kite from GSK, where as Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs he led the regulatory strategy for the company’s initial TCR program. Previously, Dr Jazayeri lead the regulatory submission strategy for tyrosine kinase inhibitors and immuno-oncology programs at AstraZeneca. Dr Jazayeri received his PharmD from the University of Southern California and holds a BSc in Pharmacology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dr. Michael Kalos is an internationally recognized expert in T cell therapy and immunotherapy, and brings over 28 years of experience and expertise in cell therapy, immunooncology, and oncology vaccines.

Michael is Managing Director at Next Pillar Consulting, an LLC focused on consulting services in the biopharmaceutical space. In addition, Michael serves as Senior Venture Partner and Head of Cell Therapy for Orange Grove Bio and CEO of the Orange Grove Bio sub-co IpinovyxBio, as Executive Venture Partner and co-founder of the Alloy/82VS start-ups Ypsilon Therapeutics and 7x8 Biosciences, and on Corporate and Scientific Advisory Boards for a number of public and private biopharmaceutical companies as well as international immunotherapy consortia and societies.

Michael has served in a C-suite capacity at cTRL-Therapeutics and ArsenalBio, as Vice President of Immuno-oncology and Oncology Cell Therapies at Janssen, and as Chief Scientific Officer of Immuno-oncology at Eli Lilly.

Prior to joining the biopharmaceutical sector, Michael spent 10 years in academia, where he focused on integrated translational biomarker programs to support the development of cell therapy and immunotherapy programs; he is co-inventor of the IP that led to the development and approval of Kymriah, the first approved CART therapy.

Michael has co-authored over 85 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including multiple highly cited articles that have helped define the space of CAR- and TCR- based T cell therapy, as well as book chapters in the field of cancer immunotherapy, and has over 26 issued patents in the field of cell therapy, immunotherapy, and vaccines.

Michael Klichinsky, PharmD, PhD is a co-inventor of the CAR-Macrophage technology and a scientific co-founder of Carisma Therapeutics Inc. In his role as Chief Scientific Officer, he oversees the research & discovery efforts of the company.

Dr Klichinsky developed CAR-Macrophages during his doctoral thesis under the co-mentorship of Saar Gill and Carl June at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr Klichinsky’s scientific expertise is in the intersection of immunology, synthetic biology, cancer immunotherapy, and translational pharmacology.

Dr Klichinsky previously earned a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Sciences in Philadelphia, and a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ron Korn, MD, PhD completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Molecular Biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, which provided a solid foundation for his Medical training at Stanford School of Medicine followed by postgraduate training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr Korn specializes in Nuclear Medicine and Cancer Biology with extensive involvement in clinical research as both a study investigator and clinical publication author that has afforded him in-depth knowledge of the common pitfalls and complex challenges associated with clinical trials. Dr Korn has received public recognition and awards from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, American College of Radiology Imaging Network, Ibis Foundation of Arizona, and received the Top Doctor Award for Radiology and Nuclear Medicine. Though his professional accolades accurately reflect his clinical excellence, his current professional associations, education-based activities, and commitment to clinical research quality make up the core of this professional. As Imaging Endpoints’ Chief Medical Officer, Dr Korn provides the medical perspective, oversight, and leadership that is critical to the services we provide.