5th Annual Biotech Startup Symposium

Oliver Wüseke is an investment opportunity manager at EIT Health, a public-private EU body focused on creating a conductive European Health Care environment in which innovation can flourish. In this role, Oliver supports selected promising European life science start-ups and SMEs on their fundraising journey, strategic roadmaps and partnerships and works within the extensive Partner Network of EIT Health to create a lasting positive impact for patients and partners alike. Prior to EIT Health, Oliver led company operations and investor relations as chief of staff at Mantra Bio, a San Francisco-based drug development company. Oliver started his career as a scientist with a Ph.D. in molecular biology and as stem cell expert and joined San Francisco-based biotech Herophoilus/System Bioscience in order to lead the development of a novel stem cell based drug screening platform which was recently acquired by Genentech.

Each step of Stephen’s 15-year career converged at ARM in his role of vice president of communications: a journalist covering politics and state legislatures; a business development professional advising companies on how to navigate geopolitical risk; a pharma and biotech industry consultant; and a graduate of journalism and public policy programs.

At ARM, Stephen serves as global media spokesperson and social media strategist and contributes to ARM’s policy and advocacy objectives in Washington, in state capitals, and in Brussels. He breaks down complex science for the public and policymakers and explains why policies need to change to ensure that patients can benefit from the groundbreaking advancements of ARM’s members.

David is a founding partner for Bowmans Tower Venture Partners, a life science investment and company-building organization. David is an experienced leader in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry with extensive expertise in the commercialization of biopharmaceuticals and biologicals. David is presently the President & CEO of BiologicsMD (New Haven, CT) an early-stage drug development company, and a board member for ThirdLaw Molecular, a transformational chemistry company (Blue Bell, PA). David was previously the Co-CEO of OrthogenRx, Inc. (sold to Avanos in 2022) and chief business officer for Novira Therapeutics, Inc. (sold to J&J in 2015). David has been an active private investor and angel investor since 2009 and was previously a member of both the Mid-Atlantic Angel Group Fund II and the Delaware Crossing Investor Group. David held executive positions as senior vice president and business unit head of the surgical products division at King Pharmaceuticals (now part of Pfizer) and prior to that as vice president of global marketing & medical affairs at Aventis Pharma (now part of Sanofi). Earlier in his career, David held commercial operations roles at Genentech and Abbott Labs. David is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, School of Pharmacy.

Arda Ural is the Ernst & Young americas life sciences sector leader. Prior to joining EY, he was a managing director at a strategy consulting firm for six years, where he led the life sciences M&A practice. Earlier, he worked as a VP of strategic marketing and a BU lead at an american medical technology company. He also served as the SVP marketing & sales for a startup biotechnology company which went public. Arda started his career with a pharmaceutical company in Istanbul and subsequently relocated to New York, where he held leadership roles in product commercialization and new product development. He earned a Ph.D. in general management and finance, an MBA from Marmara University, and his MSc and BSc in mechanical engineering from Boğaziçi University. Arda serves on several advisory boards at BIO, BioNJ and NJIT Biomedical Engineering.