Our Confirmed 2024 Speakers:
We've spent months creating a speaking faculty of the biggest disruptors, innovators and decision makers in the animal health industry - take a look at our full list of confirmed speakers here
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Ester Banque
Executive Vice President & President, U.S. OperationsZoetis -
Cindy Cole
PartnerDigitalis VenturesDr. Cindy Cole is a Technical Partner at Digitalis Ventures and an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Florida. Prior to joining Digitalis she was in the animal health industry for many years holding senior leadership and R&D roles at Mars Petcare, Novartis Animal Health, IDEXX, and Piedmont Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Cole completed her DVM and PhD at the University of Florida and was on the faculty of the University of California, Davis and UF.
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Candise Goodwin
FounderOutlier Advisors -
Bruce Truman
President and FounderBLT Technology & Innovation Group -
Jennifer Radosevich
Senior Vice President, Research and InnovationHill’s Pet NutritionDr. Jennifer Radosevich is Worldwide Director of Research at Hill’s Pet Nutrition where she is responsible for leading the early research team to develop and accelerate new technologies for Hill’s products. She oversees the Nutrition Innovation, Bioinformatics and Research Laboratories teams to further research platforms including nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics, metabolomics, and microbiomics. She completed her PhD in Biochemistry/ Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology at Iowa State University and has over 25 years industry experience leveraging innovation to further business goals in the agribusiness, human and pet food markets.
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Celine Halioua
Founder & CEOLoyal -
Linda Rhodes
VMD, PhD, Independent and ex-CSOIndependent Animal HealthDr. Rhodes has over 30 years of accomplishments in human and animal drug discovery, development, biomedical research, and clinical veterinary medicine.
Dr. Rhodes was educated at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (VMD) and Cornell University (PhD). She has an extensive background in physiology, veterinary medicine, and drug development, and many publications in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Rhodes practiced clinical veterinary medicine for five years, with experience in both companion and farm animal practice. As a senior research fellow at Merck Research Laboratories for 8 years, she led pre-clinical biology evaluation of several marketed human drugs. She worked for Merial Ltd. as director of large animal development projects, leading project teams developing novel compounds for a variety of indications. In April 2001, she formed AlcheraBio, a consulting, marketing, and contract research firm specializing in developing new drugs for animals, working with biotechnology and animal health companies world-wide. AlcheraBio was acquired in 2008 by Argenta, and Dr. Rhodes served as executive vice president to transition the company when in 2011, she accepted a position as CEO of Aratana Therapeutics, a startup company developing innovative new medicines for dogs and cats. Subsequently, when the company became public she served as its Chief Scientific Officer. During her 5-year tenure, the company achieved FDA approval of three new pet therapeutics: Galliprant, Nocita and Entyce. She is currently retired and an independent consultant. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Zoetis, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Alliance for Contraception in Dogs and Cats and the Michelson Found Animals Foundation. She founded Feather in Her Cap, a non-profit that recognizes the achievement of women in the animal health industry. She is the recipient of the Iron Paw Award.
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Jason Clay
Senior Vice, Market TransformationWorld Wildlife Fund -
Julia Loew
Senior Vice President, Commercial OperationsMWI Animal Health -
Betsy Watkins
Senior Director, Business DevelopmentPegasus Laboratories, Inc. (PRN Pharmacal) -
David Smith
CEO & Executive ChairCeres Tag -
Greg Geckles
VP, Market InsightsIndependence Pet Holdings -
Chuck Latham
CEOH&C Animal Health -
Tom Overbay
PartnerExpedite Animal Health -
Mark Cushing
Founder and CEOAnimal Policy Group -
Steve Merchant
Managing DirectorVirtual Vet Nurse -
David Haworth
Chair, Research Working GroupHuman Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) -
Eric Buda
Sr Corporate Partnership ManagerPlug and Play Tech Center -
Lashonda Geffrard
FounderBlack Pet Business NetworkLashonda Geffrard's name is synonymous with passion, dedication, and innovation. As the driving force behind Black Pet Business Network, The Paw Shop, and Paws of Hope Florida. Lashonda is a force to be reckoned with, a true trailblazer in the world of entrepreneurship, and animal welfare. Her boundless love for animals and her drive to create a more inclusive and thriving pet industry has catapulted her into the realm of expert pet industry speaking and influence.
With an unwavering commitment to positively impacting the pet industry as a whole, Beyond her speaking engagements, Lashonda's impact on the pet industry extends to her role as a popular columnist for various industry publications. Her thought-provoking articles delve into the depths of the industry and shed light on emerging trends.
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Julia Stephanus
PartnerBorealis VenturesJulia Stephanus is a 30 year veteran of the veterinary pharmaceutical industry. Currently Julia is President of Avviare, a consulting firm specializing in supporting veterinary focused start-ups.
Julia has been involved in the development and launch of 28 veterinary products. She has been a senior executive in two start-up pharmaceutical companies (Aratana Therapeutics and Summit VetPharm), and held key positions at multi-nationals including Pfizer (now Zoetis) and its legacy companies.
As Chief Commercial Officer of Aratana Julia provided the commercial leadership resulting in a successful IPO (NASDAQ:PETX), high-impact corporate branding, innovative go-to-market strategies for five therapeutics and the staffing of the inaugural commercial organization.
As founder and CEO of Summit VetPharm, Julia developed and launched a new line of companion animal parasiticides, grew the company to a cash flow positive position with 85 employees in five years and divested the company to Ceva Animal Health in 2010. A graduate of Indiana University, she has continued her executive training at Harvard, Columbia, University of Chicago and the Wharton School of Business.
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Brian Cassell
CEOVane -
Stephen Lesser
CEOTairbhe Ventures -
Brett Wong
PrincipleAnterra Capital -
Ellis Fried
Vice PresidentVanterra Capital -
Aidan Connolly
PresidentAgriTech Capital -
Jeff Mard
Founder & CEOChannel M, LLC -
Natalie Marks
Executive CommitteeVANE -
Duncan Mackintosh
Senior Investment ManagerBrandon Capital -
Denise Bevers
President & CEOVETmAb Biosciences, Inc -
Professor Curtis Huttenhower
Associate Professor of Computational Biology and BioinformaticsHarvard School of Public HealthTalk to me about… your research
I am a Professor in Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an Associate Member at the Broad Institute. I participated extensively in the NIH Human Microbiome Project and co-leads the "HMP2" Center for Characterizing the gut microbial ecosystem in IBD and the Human Microbiome Bioactives Resource. My lab focuses on computational methods for functional analysis of microbial communities. This includes systems biology reconstructions integrating metagenomic, metatranscriptomic, and other microbial community 'omics, the human microbiome in autoimmune disease such as IBD, and its potential as a biomarker and route for therapeutic intervention.
Talk to me about…something people may not know about you
I'm a happy kitty parent, most recently of two new kittens who (like human babies) have as yet to learn to sleep through the night. I wish I had as much energy as they do!
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Andrew McKenzie
CEOPrecision Livestock Technologies -
Susan Groeneveld
Foundersylvester.ai -
Neal Fishman
Distinguished Engineer and CTO of Data-Based PathologyIBM -
Ira Gordon
Executive Committee Member & FounderVANE -
Dain Clare
Senior AssociateNovaquest Capital Management -
Alexander Petersen
Managing Director & Animal Health LeadCorporate Finance Associates -
Neal Fishman
Distinguished Engineer and CTO of Data-Based PathologyIBM -
Jason Scott
Founder & Managing PartnerFive Two Five -
Dr. Kimberly Simmons
Director Global Regulatory AffairsClinglobal -
Mike Seely
CEONative Microbials -
Tim Bettington
Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy & Market DevelopmentElanco -
Joe Spector
Founder & CEODutch -
Graysen Gilbraith Biensch
Executive DirectorVeterinary Virtual Care Association -
Juergen Horn
Senior Advisor & Venture PartnerAnterra Capital, Founder & CEO at Invetx -
Aaron Schacht
CEOBiomEdit -
Mitch Frazier
CEOAgriNovus Capital -
Ginny Siller
Director of Legislative AffairsAnimal Health Institute -
Jonathan Hare
Director of Pharmaceuticals & TherapeuticsClinglobal -
Cal Lai
Chairman & CEOAsk.vet -
Ashley Francisco
Head of Startup Ecosystem – North AmericaGoogle -
Tim Peart
PresidentMicro Technologies -
Robin Moyle
Executive Committee MemberVeterinary Angel Network for Entrepreneurs -
Mayur Patel
Vice President, Global Product Development and R&D Portfolio ManagementElanco
