Erica Smith, PhD is an accomplished business development and marketing professional with a strong scientific background. Working in both the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, Dr Smith has played an integral role in transforming the sales and marketing organizations of several companies throughout her career, including positions at SHS, Cognivia, Lovelace Biomedical, Charles River Laboratories, and Pfizer. Dr Smith received her PhD in Biomedical from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Stephen Ruhmel, MPH is the Clinical Strategy Lead for Digital Endpoints at Sanofi. In his role, he is responsible for identifying, creating, validating, and operationalizing both fit-for-purpose and novel digital endpoints in Sanofi’s clinical studies. Prior to this role, Mr Ruhmel was an Associate Director at J&J Innovative Medicine, focused on delivering clinical trial efficiencies and innovation for patients, investigators and the industry at large. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 15 years in Global Public Health, Global Development, Digital Health, R&D, and IT. With a proven record of improving business performance as a technologist, researcher, and public health advocate, Mr Ruhmel’s career mission is to dramatically improve healthcare for underserved populations globally by leveraging the latest healthcare technology.

Previously, Mr Ruhmel developed and launched a SXSW-award-winning crowdfunding platform, CaringCrowd, which has raised over $4 million across 600+ nonprofit-led public health projects. Globally, he has contributed to projects throughout Africa, including a six-month secondment with Aga Khan University in Nairobi, Kenya, where he led a mixed methods cross-sectional study to evaluate a five-year nursing and midwifery program across Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.

Mr Ruhmel received a bachelor’s degree in Information Sciences and Technology from Penn State and a Master of Public Health from Rutgers.

Ludwig Erik Aguilar, PhD, is a researcher and expert in the field of Biomaterials and Nanotechnology with a profound passion for advancing medical technologies. Growing up in the Philippines, he pursued his BSc in Nursing at Bulacan State University, which laid the foundation for his deep understanding of the healthcare industry. Driven by an insatiable curiosity, Dr Aguilar pursued further education in South Korea, obtaining his MSc and PhD degrees in Bionanosystem Engineering from Jeonbuk National University. Throughout his academic journey, he focused on the design and synthesis of cutting-edge nanobiomaterials, including nanoparticles, nanofibers, and nanocoatings, primarily for drug delivery and medical device applications. His research has been recognized by the scientific community, with over 20 peer-reviewed academic papers and an internationally published scientific textbook titled “Biomaterial Science, Anatomy, and Physiology Aspects.” Leveraging his clinical and biomaterials background, Dr Aguilar possesses invaluable insights into the development of biomaterials that are both safe and highly effective when deployed within the human body. His expertise led him to serve as an Assistant Research Professor at Jeonbuk National University, where he also taught anatomy and physiology at the graduate school of engineering. Currently, Dr Aguilar holds the position of Senior R&D Engineer at Novo Nordisk A/S, where his research is dedicated to revolutionizing drug delivery devices.

Luis Alvarez is the founder of Theradaptive and developed the concept for a targeted regeneration platform during and following a combat tour in Iraq where several of his soldiers suffered severe extremity injuries. Previously, Dr Alvarez was the co-founding Deputy Director of the Department of Defense Regenerative Medicine Program and led the department’s largest recombinant biologics program through Phase II. Dr Alvarez was a DARPA Service Chief Fellow and Academy Professor at the United States Military Academy, West Point. Dr Alvarez received his PhD in Biological Engineering from MIT where he was a Hertz Foundation Fellow.

Scott Ariagno is Vice President of Engineering and Development Services at EdgeOne Medical and has over 25 years in medical device and combination product design, development and manufacturing. His expertise includes development and global launch of various single-use, disposable medical devices, infusion systems and combination products, strategic/technical development of device platforms and IP development. Throughout his career, he has held management roles in engineering including heading device development and external manufacturing at Shire (now Takeda). Mr Ariagno is a named inventor on over 20 patents and applications. Mr Ariagno has Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Bradley University and a Master in Engineering Management from Northwestern University.

Josh Bennett’s experience spans healthcare product categories, care settings, and end markets, including medical devices / technology, pharmaceuticals, biologics, acute care, and home care. He has been responsible for growth in both U.S. and international markets. He joins KORU Medical from Salter Labs, a global anesthesia and respiratory medical device manufacturer, where he served as Vice President Sales, Marketing, and Business Development beginning in 2012. Salter Labs merged with SunMed in 2019. Prior to this, he was with Baxter Healthcare, a Fortune 500 diversified global pharmaceutical and device manufacturer. At Baxter he focused on pharmaceuticals and biologics, with an emphasis on product and market development addressing nutrition, hydration, and hemophilia. Mr Bennett began his career at PwC Consulting (now IBM Global Business Services). Mr Bennett received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he was a Siebel Scholar and recipient of the Richard M. Clewett Award, and his BBA from Northwood University.

A biomedical engineer with over 15 years’ experience in the design, development, preclinical testing and evaluation of medical devices, Nicky Bertollo is the inventor of the Latch platform tissue anchorage technology and a medical device innovator, with several medical device patents he has led having been licensed. He is a Fellow of the New South Wales Health Medical Device Commercialisation Training Program (Sydney, Australia) and holds BE (Mechanical), Masters (Biomedical Engineering) and PhD Degrees from the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia).

Nicholas Boylan leads a team of scientists and engineers that specialize in the development and optimization of novel drug delivery systems including lipid (LNPs) and polymeric nanoparticles. Prior to joining Phosphorex, Dr Boylan directed the analytical and formulation development of a novel soft-mist pulmonary inhaler while at Molecular Infusions and contributed to the encapsulation of a wide variety of payload types within a proprietary nanomedicine platform, ACCURINS®, while at BIND Therapeutics. Dr Boylan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Cornell University and a Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Gaurav Byagathvalli is a co-inventor of Piezo’s novel microneedle electroporation platform and co-founded Piezo in 2022 to commercialize the technology originally developed at Georgia Tech. Prior to Piezo, he’s served in a variety of roles at Moelis and Company, Capital One, and Elevance Health. He’s a published scientist with a background in vaccine delivery and synthetic biology. He holds a BS in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.