Dr Konji Sebati is the current CEO of IPASA, the Innovative Pharmaceutical Association of South Africa. IPASA represents 25 leading pharmaceutical companies who are dedicated to exploring, developing and bringing innovative, quality medicines to the South African market. Konji has over 25 years’ experience in the Public and Private sector. Konji served as a Medical Officer in Paediatrics and Child Health for several years before managing 21 Primary Health Care clinics in Pretoria. She joined the private sector working first with Roche as Medical Advisor and then with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals as a senior Executive in Medical and Corporate Affairs, in South Africa and at the Pfizer Headquarters New York. In 2004 she was appointed South Africa’s Ambassador to Switzerland, The Vatican and Liechtenstein, and in 2008 was appointed Ambassador to France, UNESCO and the OECD. She worked as an International Civil Servant working for a United Nations Agency, WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, based in Geneva, as senior Director heading the Department of Traditional Knowledge and Global Challenges. Konji’s latest achievement was being appointed to the Board of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV). Konji has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of the North (now University of Limpopo), an MBChb degree from University of Nairobi/Kenyatta Hospital, Kenya, a Diploma in Child Health from the College of Medicine, South Africa, and a Diploma in Public Health Planning and Health Services Management from the University of Witwatersrand.

Mr. Kyung Hwan Kim brings over two decades of technology appraisal and technology valuation experience. He currently leads startup acceleration department at Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC), the Korean quasi-governmental technology financier with a total outstanding guarantee of about 20 billion USD and client portfolio of more than 70,000 technology business ventures. Most recently, he has been posted to San Francisco as a director to lead KOTEC’s venture business in the United States. He also serves as a mentor to Alchemist Accelerator, a new venture-backed initiative focused on accelerating the development of seed-stage ventures that monetize from enterprises. In the past, he worked with the Federation of Korean Industries where he facilitated acquisition of licenses for several medical technologies. He completed his management studies from Hanguk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul campus.

Mr. Nicolas Zhang is the director of the Tsinghua Technology & Innovation Technology Transfer Institution at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He was previously the director of international cooperation at China Technology Exchange (CTEX), the only national-level organization focusing on technology exchange, B2B/match-making or related innovation services, established by the Beijing Municipal People’s Government in partnership with the Ministry of Science and Technology and the State Intellectual Property Office under the approval of the State Council. Prior to that, he founded International Technology Transfer Network (ITTN) and China-Italy Technology Transfer Center (CITTC) at the Beijing Technology Exchange and Promotion Center (BTEC). At BTEC, he led a team of 20 professionals and 55 part-time technicians, generating 94 technology transfer deals within 3 years.

Mr. Zhang is the first Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP) in China. Throughout this career, he has evaluated more than 1200 technology projects and generated around 160 successful tech-transfer deals, including licensing, patent transfer, patent joint venture, M&A, distribution, joint manufacture, etc. He played a key role in the establishment of Sino-UK Strawberry R&D Center, a 30 million RMB joint venture R&D center for East Mallings Research (EMR) and Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences (BAAFS).

Mr. Zhang is a graduate of Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, has an MBA degree from Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management and a master’s degree in innovation and management from Purdue University. He provides pro-bono services to several national and international institutions such as the European IPR Helpdesk, Dragon Star Program China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Lenovo Institution.