Judy Chou

President & CEO, AltruBio

Dr. Judy Chou is the CEO, President and Board member of AltruBio, Inc. which is a clinical stage biotech company in San Francisco, CA. Before taking on her current roles, she headed the global Biotech organization at Bayer Pharmaceuticals overseeing the development, manufacturing and distribution of Bayer’s biotechnology pipeline, product portfolio & 2000+ employees. In addition, she served as the site head for Bayer’s facility in Berkeley, CA. She is well recognized by the biomedical industry for her leadership and has received the Most Influential Women in Business Award in 2018 by San Francisco Business Times.

Before Bayer, Dr. Chou held the role of Vice President of Pharmaceutical Operations at Pfizer, Inc./Medivation where she led the Development and Manufacturing organizations for both biologics and small molecule products. She was also Vice President of R&D and Manufacturing at Tanvex Biopharma and has enabled the success of the company’s IPO. Throughout Dr. Chou’s career, she has achieved significant milestones in biologics development and multiple filings of BLAs, NDAs, and INDs of novel products and is broadly recognized for her work at Genentech, Pfizer (Wyeth) and Abbvie (Abbott) especially in the development of breakthrough technologies and accelerated product development.

Currently, Dr. Chou also serves as the Board of Directors of Akero Therapeutics, Inc. and California Institute of Regenerative Medicines (CIRM); and the Advisory Board members of UC Berkeley Engineering School and Silicon Valley Women in Engineering. Before joining the industry, Dr. Chou was a research faculty member at Harvard University Medical School. Dr. Chou obtained her Ph.D. from Yale University and completed her post-doctoral training at Max-Planck Institute in Germany.

David W.Shen

Founder & CEO, Propeller Bio

Dr. David W. Shen is a leading expert in antibody and therapeutic protein development, with a proven track record of advancing drug pipelines from discovery to clinical proof-of-concept. As Founder and CEO of Proteologix, he led the company’s breakthrough work in bispecific antibody therapeutics, culminating in its $850 million acquisition by Johnson & Johnson in 2024.

Previously, Dr. Shen held executive roles at NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Merck, and Amgen. Throughout his career, he played a key role in advancing several antibody drug candidates from research to clinical development and regulatory approval, including evolucumab (anti-PCSK9), romosozumab, (anti-sclerostin) and denosumab (anti-RANKL).

Innovatively blending his scientific and industrial vision, he has discovered new technologies, holding 20 patents or applications and more than 20 peer-reviewed publications. In February 2025, he embarked on his newest venture as Founder and CEO of Propeller Bio.

Adam Adler

Head of R&D, Gigagen (a Grifols company) and VP of R&D, Grifols

Dr. Adler has more than fifteen years of research and laboratory management experience, including deep expertise in antibody discovery. At GigaGen, he leads laboratory research operations and is responsible for the research and development of GigaGen’s product pipeline in oncology, infectious disease, and immune deficiency. He has used his expertise in cutting-edge technologies including microfluidics, protein engineering, and genomics to create GigaGen’s immune analysis and drug discovery technologies that have enabled rapid pipeline development. Prior to GigaGen, Dr. Adler held research management roles at LakePharma (now Curia), where he was responsible for all internal and external projects including developing new antibody sequence analysis tools, and at Genentech where he worked to identify novel oncogenes and validate cancer drug targets. Dr. Adler has authored over 35 research publications in leading journals, is an inventor on over 45 US and international patents, and holds a B.A. in Biological Sciences from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from Stanford University School of Medicine.

Elizabeth Dykes

Partner, McKinsey

Elizabeth Dykes is a Partner in McKinsey’s Operations practice where she leads the Biologics Operations and Quality service in North America. She has ~20 years of experience spanning Merck and McKinsey. Her experience and client service anchors on manufacturing strategies, network optimization, organizational design, and large transformations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of core processes through leading digital technologies. Elizabeth holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia where she serves on the advisory board.

moderator

Surani Fernando

Healthcare journalist, writer & podcaster

Surani Fernando is a seasoned healthcare journalist and editor with over 13 years experience covering the biopharma industry. A Sydney native, she started her investigative journalism career in London covering clinical trials, M&A and financing deals for BioPharm Insight, later moving to New York to continue her work as an enterprise journalist and editorial leader for GlobalData and Reorg. She is now based in Madrid working as a freelance journalist, consultant writer and podcast producer. In November 2023, she launched the Raising Biotech podcast.