Andrzej Rys is director responsible for health systems, medical products and innovation, he is member of IMI Governing Board and Alternate Member of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Board. Medical doctor specialized in radiology and public health, graduate of Jagiellonian University, Krakow (Poland). His previous and other positions: 2011: Director for Health Systems and Products in the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, European Commission; 2006: Director for Public Health and Risk Assessment in the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers, European Commission; 2003: Founder and Director of the Center for Innovation and Technology Transfer at Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland); 1999–2002: Deputy Minister of Health in Poland. Member of the Polish accession negotiators team; 1997–1999: Director of Krakow’s city health department and 1991–1997: Founder and Director of the School of Public Health at the Jagiellonian University. 

After his studies of Administration Sciences at the University of Constance in Germany, Andreas M. Walter joined EFPIA, the European Federation of the researched-based pharmaceutical industry, in September 1993 as Executive for Administration and Finance. From 2011 onwards, he was responsible as Project Director to ensure that EFPIA members can comply with the safety features requirements of the Falsified Medicines Directive in the most effective way, i.e. by setting up of a stakeholder-governed pan-European verification model (EMVS). After the incorporation of the European Medicines Verification Organisation (EMVO) in February 2015, he also headed the organisation ad interim in order to manage the European hub that will connect to a series of national data repositories serving as the platform to allow the verification of authenticity of medicines anywhere in the supply chain within the EU/EEA. On 1st April 2016, he was appointed as General Manager of EMVO representing now definitely the organisation. 

Raul Mill is the CEO of the Estonian Medicines Verification Organisation. Raul Mill has education in medicine, economics and IT. He has working experience in private and public sector both as a manager and analyst. From 1997 to 2003 Raul worked in Estonian Insurance Supervisory Authority, later reorganized into the Estonian Financial Supervision (an institutional part of Eesti Pank). From 2003–2006 he was the director of the Financial College of the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences and also member of the board of the organization. 2006–2011 he was involved in the IT-development in private sector, with main focus on edutainment and usability areas. 2011–2015 he was a member of the management board of Estonian eHealth Foundation. During 2016–2017 he was involved in the hospital software development. During 2012–2015 Raul has been the member of supervisory board of Software Technology and Applications Competence Centre. In addition, Raul Mill have been also member of the Estonian eHealth Task Force of the Estonian Governement Office.

Illiana Paunova is Executive Director of the Bulgarian Medicines Verification Organisation (BgMVO).  BgMVO was founded in April 2016 by five stakeholder organisations for the implementation of Directive 2011/62/EC in Bulgaria. Previously, Illiana Paunova was Commercial Director for GSK, Adriatic region, and General Manager of GSK for Bulgaria. During this period, she was also Chairperson of the Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (ARPharM). For more than 20 years in the healthcare sector, she has been awarded for her engagement in innovative projects, and for her business and social responsibility achievements. She studied informatics in the University of National and World Economy, Sofia and specialized in finance, marketing, and management at INSEAD, Henley Business School, and MIT Sloan School of Management.

Maija Gohlke-Kokkonen is the General Manager for the Finnish Medicines Verification Organisation. She has been involved in setting up the Verification System from the start. Maija has almost 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has previously worked also for the National Medicines Agency in Finland.

Kristin Raudsepp has graduated the University in Tartu as a general practitioner. Has been working in the Estonian drug regulatory agency from 1994, from 2002 Director General of the Estonian State Agency of Medicines. Estonian representative in the EMA Management Board since 2004; Estonian representative in the Pharmaceutical Committee, European Commission; Expert for World Health Organization in the field of regulation of medicinal products (2011, 2013), Lead for Priority (Availability of appropriately authorised medicines) in the HMA MAWP, Co-chair of the HMA/EMA Task Force of the availability of authorised medicines (TF AAM. Kristin Raudsepp has been the leader in international working groups (Heads of Medicines Agencies, Task Force of Availability of Medicinal products, HMA/EMA strategy 2020 lead for priority theme Availability of appropriately authorised medicinal products), theme leader and member of the organizational committee of international conferences (DIA Euromeeting, ICDRA, PERF), team leader of international working groups (Heads of Medicines Agencies Management Group) and is having lots of experience as a speaker and session chair at interenational conferences. In 2013 she was chosen by the SCRIP Intelligence as one of the 100 persons affecting the area of medicines in the world.

Jūratė Švarcaitė MSc, MPharm, is Secretary General of PGEU in which role she provides strategic direction and leadership while managing the day to day operations of PGEU and its ongoing relationships with its member associations and other stakeholders, as well as representing the community pharmacy sector in various European and national forums. Most recently Ms Svarcaite was Head of the Pharmaceutical Care Department for a major pharmacy chain in Lithuania where she was responsible for development and implementation of new services and professional development of pharmacy staff. Ms. Svarcaite received her Master in Pharmacy degree from Kaunas University of Medicine, Kaunas, Lithuania. She earned her Master of Science degree in Pharmacy Practice from The School of Pharmacy, University of London.

Adrian van den Hoven joined Medicines for Europe as a Director General in September 2013. His priorities at Medicines for Europe are to stimulate competition in off-patent medicine markets, to foster market access for generic, biosimilar and value added medicines, to support policy measures for sustainable pricing, to promote high regulatory standards while ensuring that the associated costs can be integrated into market dynamics and to develop a coherent EU industrial strategy to support the long-term viability of the generic, biosimilar and value added medicines industries. Prior to joining Medicines for Europe, Adrian van den Hoven was Deputy-Director General of BUSINESSEUROPE where he was responsible for the International Relations department, covering trade negotiations and bilateral relations, and the Industry department, covering industrial, energy, environmental and research policy. He previously worked as an International Relations researcher and an adjunct professor in Italy (EUI), France (Nice) and Canada (Windsor). He obtained his doctorate in Political Science from the University of Nice, France in 2000.

Pascal Garel is Chief Executive of HOPE (European Hospital and Healthcare Federation). Educated in political science and European law, he became Hospital Manager with the diploma of the French National School of Public Health. Following a twelve-year experience in hospitals, he created the International Department of the French Hospital Federation, worked in French Ministry of Health, and still teaches (Paris Dauphine and National School of Public Health).

Ms Belen Escribano Romero is the Head of the Pharmaceutical Inspection and Enforcement Department at Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices medicines. She has been involved in the development of the Falsified Medicines legislation since the beginning and is a great expert in this field, both at national and European level. She chairs, on behalf of the European Region, the Steering Committee of WHO Member State Mechanism on substandard and falsified medical products since January 2017.

Agnès Mathieu-Mendes is deputy Head of the unit dealing with the quality, safety and innovation of medicinal products in the Directorate General on Health and food safety in the European Commission. Her responsibilities include the implementation of the falsified medicines Directive , the clinical trials Regulation, good manufacturing practices, good distribution practices and mutual recognition agreements on GMP with third countries. She has been working for many years in the pharmaceutical field such as the authorisation process of medicinal products or the orphan medicinal products. Agnès Mathieu- Mendes joined the European Commission in 2006 to work on the Better Regulation agenda of the Directorate General for enterprise and industry. She is a pharmacist by training and has a diploma in pharmaceutical engineering and industrial technology. Prior to the European Commission, Agnès Mathieu-Mendes held a position in the pharmaceutical industry and in the Council of Europe.

Stephanie Kohl is the Policy Officer of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP), the only association of national organisations representing more than 21.000 hospital pharmacists in 35 European countries. She joined EAHP in February 2017 and holds an LL.B. and an LL.M. in European Law from the University of Maastricht. Previously, Stephanie worked as legal consultant for a Brussels based company supporting the European Commission in examining the implementation of EU legislation.

Monika Derecque-Pois was born in Graz, Austria and holds a master's degree in Economics from the University of Economics in Vienna, where she specialised in International Trade and Marketing. Ms. Monika Derecque-Pois is the Director General of GIRP, the European Healthcare Distribution Association, which brings together over 750 pharmaceutical full-line wholesaling companies and their national associations from 32 countries. Monika was appointed to her current position in 2001, having previously served as European affairs consultant for GIRP. She has over 20 years of experience in European public affairs. Prior to her engagement with GIRP, she served as a director in a European affairs consultancy company and she also held a six-year post as Marketing and Client Support Manager at IMS Health Austria.

Leonie Clarke has been Project Manager with the Irish Medicines Verification Organisation (IMVO) since October 2015. She has run her own consultancy since 2006, advising clients in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector on medicines legislation, industry codes of practice and corporate governance. She has several years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry and was previously Scientific & Regulatory Affairs Manager with the international research-based industry trade association. A former President and board member of the Irish pharmacy regulator, she also worked for that regulator early in her career. Leonie occasionally lectures on medicines legislation and healthcare topics to pharmacy and medical students and is co-author/editor of ‘Pharmacy and Medicines Law in Ireland’. She is a pharmacy graduate of Trinity College Dublin and has a Master’s degree by research and diplomas in legal studies, EU law and accounting & finance.

Mike is responsible for leading Johnson & Johnson’s supply chain visibility program that is an enabler to delivering exceptional customer experience while improving supply chain effectiveness and integrity. Mike’s responsibilities cover product identification and traceability, which includes serialization and traceability, GS1 standards adoption, Unique Device Identification, and Global Data Synchronization Network. In Mike’s 42 years with Johnson & Johnson, he has held various positions of responsibility across discovery research, information management, and supply chain. Mike is the chairman of European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) Supply Chain Work Group and co-chair of the Joint EFPIA-Medicines for Europe EU Falsified Medicines Directive Implementation Working Group. He is a Board Member of the Pharmaceutical Distribution Security Alliance. Mike serves on the GS1 Global Healthcare Leadership Team and the GS1 Board Committee for Standards. Mike serves on La Salle University’s Council of President’s Associates and the Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America’s Washington Crossing Council. Mike graduated from La Salle University with a BA in Biology, and received an MSE in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Richard Freudenberg, a graduate in linguistic science and a qualified accountant, has worked for the last 25 years in the medicines parallel distribution sector. Active as a practitioner in a UK importer company until 2007, he was subsequently appointed Secretary-General of the British Association of European Pharmaceutical Distributors, a position, which he continues to hold until today. In 2011, he succeeded to the position of Chief Executive of EAEPC, operating from its Brussels HQ; he has been active in the EAEPC Board since 2007, and is currently engaged in his second period as President of the association. He has also been a director since 2015 of the European Medicines Verification Organisation, the pan-industry stakeholder body, tasked with overseeing the implementation of EU Directive 2011/62, the “Falsified Medicines Directive”. In UK, he is also a director of the national organisation charged with developing the FMD repository, SecurMed UK.

Anci Kvarnström has spent her carrier in the pharmaceutical industry, mainly AstraZeneca, and has a wide experience from several areas and countries, with a focus on European manufacturing and supply chain. Since 2008 she has been engaged in the EFPIA project Coding & Serialisation and closely involved in developing the European medicines verification system and the stakeholder collaboration. Over the past 5 years she has, on behalf of EFPIA, supported the FMD implementation planning, especially in the CEE countries. Anci is today the Programme manager for the Swedish implementation, working on behalf of the Swedish national medicines verification organisation, e-VIS. She is also engaged on the European level, supporting a number of working groups addressing specific implementation challenges.

Per Troein has been with IMS for 20 years and is responsible for supplier and associations relationships. The dispensing and distribution environment is very dynamic. Pricing of pharmaceutical is as complicated. The savings from generics and biosimilars are essential to afford innovation. One of IMS’ priorities is to have the best understanding of those dynamics to secure the most appropriate data, to be the best partner with the different data partners, and to be able to support the industry and also when appropriate governments. He is a well know speaker in the field of distribution trends and pricing and is very active in consulting projects in the area. Prior to joining IMS, Per worked 13 years for Pharmacia. His last 6 years were spent in strategic development as a VP including several major mergers and acquisitions. He holds an MSc in engineering from Lund’s Institute of Technology and an MBA from INSEAD.

Philippe serves currently as Head of the Division Authorisations. He trained as a pharmacist and started his professional career in the development of software for pharmacists. After a decade of software development he switched to the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products, where he was first active as an Inspector for the Pharmaceutical Crime Unit and later became Head of the Division Authorisations. He has been following the elaboration and implementation of the Falsified Medicines Directive since 2009 and participates in the European Commission’s expert group on the delegated act on safety features for medicinal products for human use. Besides this he oversees the issuing of activity authorisations for medicines manufacturers and distributors, land pharmacies, trade in controlled substances, blood and tissue establishments, etc. Besides this he is chairman of the Mixed Commission on Borderline Products.

Hugh Pullen is President of the Board of the European Medicines Verification Organisation and represents EFPIA in the organisation. Hugh also leads Merck’s representation to the EU institutions, based in Brussels. He is an active player on policy issues concerning the innovative pharmaceutical industry, working with policymakers, pan-European patient groups and trade associations. Through EFPIA, Hugh led the pharmaceutical industry’s engagement during the adoption of the EU Falsified Medicines Directive. A graduate in political science, Hugh was formerly at Eli Lilly and Company. Previously he worked in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for External Trade and, prior to that, in the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.