Mark Crowell, RTTP, is President and Co-Founder of Arkane Innovation, an international advisory services firm (based in Ireland, the UK and the US) focused on entrepreneurship, innovation ecosystems and strategy, accelerator programs, research commercialization and spinouts, and economic development initiatives. He is also Executive Entrepreneur in Residence for the Eshelman Institute for Innovation (EII) at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Mark is a Senior Innovation Advisor to the World Bank and consults with the AAAS, the San Diego Biomedical Research Institute, the Arkansas Research Alliance, and others. Mark’s 30+ years of experience in academic innovation and translational partnerships include serving as Vice President for Innovation and Economic Development at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia; founding Executive Director of UVa Innovation at the University of Virginia; and chief technology transfer and business development officer at The Scripps Research Institute, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC State University, and Duke University.
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Mark was 2005 President of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), a former Chair of BIO's Technology Transfer Committee (2009-2014), and a former member of the National Advisory Council of the Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC).  In 2013, Mark received the Bayh-Dole Award from AUTM “in recognition of his lifetime contributions to advancing academic innovations.” In 2011, he was invited by the White House to attend President Barack Obama’s signing ceremony for the America Invents Act.

A seasoned healthcare journalist and editor, Surani has spent well over a decade covering the biopharma sector for an industry and an investor audience. A Sydney native, her investigative journalism career kicked-off in London in 2010 where she covered clinical trials & business deals for BioPharm Insight, a subscription-based investigative news service launched by the Financial Times Group. After rising to European Editor in 2015, she moved to New York in 2016 to lead the North America desk, under new owners GlobalData. In 2019, she joined financial newswire Reorg, where she focused her investigative coverage on multibillion dollar M&A deals in the biopharma space. She is now a freelance journalist, consultant writer & podcast producer based in Madrid. She launched The Vax Files podcast in 2021 & the Raising Biotech podcast in 2023. She has a Bachelor of Medical Science & Master of Health Communications from Sydney University.

Aagam Shah, Ph.D., is a scientist and engineer who has invented multiple technologies and authored several peer-reviewed articles during his 10 years of research in biomedical engineering. His expertise includes medical technology development, imaging and data analytics in neuroscience and cardiovascular applications.
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Aagam completed his PhD in biomedical engineering at ETH Zurich and received his Masters’ in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. He previously worked as a Research Fellow at MIT’s EECS department. Combining his strong scientific background with a passion for venture capital, Aagam now assists promising healthcare and machine learning start-ups to grow. He is currently based in Zurich, Switzerland and works as an investment analyst at a leading venture capital fund in Europe.

Emmanuel “Manu” Smadja is an experienced management consultant turned FinTech entrepreneur. He co-founded MPOWER Financing in 2014, a company that works with investors and universities to provide an innovative and forward-looking education financing product for students from around the world.
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Manu has led MPOWER’s growth from a concept to a 50+ person company with international offices, nearly 400 university partners across the U.S. and Canada, $500M+ in loan capital, and several industry awards including American Banker’s Top FinTech to work for. Prior to co-founding MPOWER Financing, Manu spent nearly four years at McKinsey & Company as a consultant and subsequently an engagement manager serving financial services companies, development banks, and central banks across Europe, the U.S., and Africa. Manu holds an M.B.A. from INSEAD and earned an M.S. in Systems and Information engineering as well as B.S. in Computer Science & Cognitive Sciences from the University of Virginia.
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He is a member of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Engineers without Borders, and StartingBloc. Manu lives in Washington, D.C. When not in the office he enjoys the outdoors, especially playing soccer and kayaking. After dark, look out for him dancing Bachata or Salsa.