Head of External Innovation Hub, Boehringer Ingelheim Greater China

Dr. Weiyi Zhang is currently the head of External Innovation Center China at Boehringer Ingelheim, and she is responsible for setting up collaborations in China for research functions at BI. Weiyi gained her bachelor degree in Biology at Xiamen University in 2001. She joined international Max-Planck research school in chemical biology in 2003 and studied function of olfactory G-protein coupled receptor in non-olfactory tissues. She obtained her Ph.D in cell biology from Ruhr-University Bochum in 2007. Since 2008, Weiyi started postdoc training in functional study of orphan GPCRs in central neural system at both National Institute of Biological Sciences and the University of Hong Kong.

Before joining Boehringer Ingelheim, Weiyi has led a cell biology group at BioDuro-PPD in Beijing since 2009, focusing on cell-based assays and integrated early drug discovery programs for various pharmaceutical companies. Then she has led the monoclonal antibody research group at Bio-Rad Laboratory in Shanghai from 2012 to 2013. From 2013 to 2016, Weiyi was the associate director at Innovation Center China of Global Drug Discovery at Bayer Healthcare.

Head of BD&L, USA at Boehringer Ingelheim

Scott is currently Head of US Business Development and Licensing at Boehringer Ingelheim. He is based out of both Ridgefield, CT and Cambridge, MA. Scott received his BS in Cellular Biology from the University of Connecticut and began his career with Pfizer in Groton, CT. He left Pfizer in 2000 to earn a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of North Carolina, and did his postdoc at the lab of Nobel Laureate Robert Lefkowitz, MD at Duke University, studying G protein coupled receptor signaling. In late 2007, Scott co-founded a Philadelphia-based start-up company called Trevena Inc. ($TRVN on Nasdaq). In the fall of 2012, Scott left Trevena to join BI initially working in the Biotherapeutics and Cancer Immunology Research groups. Scott then moved to lead Cancer Immunology BD&L in 2016, and assumed his current role in March of 2020.

Global Head BD&L, Boehringer Ingelheim

Dr. Ioannis Sapountzis has over 16 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry with specific expertise in drug discovery and business development in Oncology. Ioannis is currently serving as the Corporate Senior Vice President of Business Development & Licensing. Previously, he was the Global Head of BD&L USA and Specialty Care as well as Boehringer’s Global Head of Oncology Business Development & Licensing. Ioannis joined Boehringer Ingelheim in 2005 as a medicinal chemist and project leader in the Oncology therapeutic area, and later transitioned to strategic roles in the Corporate Department of Research Networking.

Ioannis holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, and did his postdoctoral fellowship with David Evans at Harvard University working on total synthesis of antibiotics.