Multiday event recognises four INSEAD alumni with awards for advancing scientific breakthroughs, knowledge, and business practices in health and medicine
The fifth annual INSEAD Healthcare Alumni Summit attracted more than 110 participants to Zürich’s SWX Stock Exchange in October. The event, themed “Disruptive Collaboration,” drew senior INSEAD alumni and global healthcare experts from around the world to participate in an interactive forum designed to advance discourse about the industry’s future. Featuring keynote presentations, panel discussions and workshops, the summit afforded attendees an excellent opportunity to gain fresh perspectives and knowledge about how innovative partnerships are altering the healthcare field. A highlight of the summit was the inaugural INSEAD Healthcare Awards ceremony, which recognised significant contributions by more than 2,000 INSEAD alumni active in the healthcare field.
Four INSEAD alumni received distinction in three award categories—Healthcare Business Model Award, Healthcare Entrepreneur Award, and Healthcare Lifetime Achievement Award. The awards were created by the INSEAD Healthcare Alumni Network in collaboration with INSEAD. Winners were chosen by the 100-member INSEAD Healthcare Awards Academy, led by a selection committee that included representatives from INSEAD, the World Economic Forum and Elsevier Business Intelligence. The committee included Roche Holding Vice Chairman Andre Hoffmann (INSEAD MBA’90D) and Aleksandar Ruzicic (INSEAD MBA’97J), representing the INSEAD Healthcare Alumni Network. ValueEdge managed the candidate research and nominations and supported the voting process.
Winning the Healthcare Business Model Award was Dag Andersson (INSEAD MBA’88J) of Diaverum, based in Lund, Sweden. There, Andersson leads a team that manages a cutting-edge healthcare clinic network focused on providing therapy for kidney disease. Through growth, mergers and acquisitions and partnerships, the firm operates clinics in 19 countries in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere, providing some 3 million treatments each year. Diaverum has grown into one of the world’s largest renal care providers, with annualised revenue growth over the past five years of 13.5%. It also has achieved continuous improvement of patient satisfaction and outcomes.
The “Healthcare Business Model” award is bestowed for a business model demonstrating strong revenue growth, an attractive long-term profitability/risk profile, outperforming direct competitors, and a multiple-year track record. The runner-up for this award was Andre-Michel Ballester (INSEAD MBA’83) of Sorin Group, which is best known for commercialising the world’s smallest implantable cardioverter-defibrillator and smallest dual chamber pacemaker. Two out of three cardiac surgeons use the firm’s products, according to Stephen Chick, INSEAD Professor of Technology and Operations Management, Novartis Chair of Healthcare Management and Academic Director of the Healthcare Management Initiative, who presented the “Healthcare Business Model” award.
Two winners tied to earn the Healthcare Entrepreneur Award. Dr. Simba Gill (INSEAD, MBA’90D) of Sao Paolo-based Moksha8, and Eduardo Bravo (INSEAD MBA’91D) of Tigenix, based in Leuven, Belgium, each garnered this honour, which is given to those who create a globally unique business proposition that demonstrates strong revenue generation, rapid growth and exceptional value to patients and stakeholders, and sustainable investment and execution strategies. Dr. Gill gained experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry prior to becoming a serial entrepreneur in the late 1990s. In 2006, he founded moksha8, a private equity-backed company that is a leading pharmaceutical player in Latin America. The firm has established itself as a partner of choice with Roche, Pfizer, Forest and Watson Laboratories to commercialize and market products in Latin America, with a focus on Brazil and Mexico, which represent 75% of the region’s USD $40 billion market. Gill previously founded Maxygen in 1999 and then joined the venture capital arm of TPG, one of the world’s leading private equity companies, as a Venture Partner and entrepreneur in residence. Eduardo Bravo has been CEO of Tigenix since 2011, after its merger with Cellerix where he served as CEO since 2005. His company is continuously pushing the envelope within the biopharma sector to obtain regulatory approval, marketing authorization and reimbursement for leading-edge cell therapy treatments. Novel products include the first cell-based implantable cartilage product that can repair knee cartilage; the company is also developing cell therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases through high-level European R&D partnerships.
A long-time member of the INSEAD community was honoured with the Healthcare Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Franz B. Humer (INSEAD MBA'71), Chairman of the Board of Roche Holding (Basel, Switzerland), earned this distinction in recognition of his lasting personal contribution to the healthcare industry by his sustainable, high-growth- and value-oriented business activities. Upon accepting the award, Dr. Humer marvelled at the progress in medicine and particularly the treatment of cancer within his lifetime. Looking ahead, he said that he is optimistic about the long-term growth for innovation-driven companies. “More and more, modern biotechnology allows us to understand the root-cause of diseases and find tailored cures,” he told attendees at the ceremony. “In 10 years’ time, we expect that a new generation of medicines targeted at specific groups of patients will make up half of Roche’s product portfolio, a shift that will push the boundaries of modern medicine.”
Dr. Humer began his career at Schering Plough Corporation, and then dedicated 10 years at Glaxo Holding. For the last 20 years he has been at Roche, initially serving as COO and then CEO. He has been Chairman of the Board since 2001. His insight enables Roche to look ahead to sustainable growth by serving patient segments with high unmet needs in a personalised way. Through pursuing a strategy of innovation, international expansion, and personalised healthcare, Roche has become a market leader in biotechnology, oncology, and diagnostics. Earning recognition as a runner-up for this award was Samih Darwazah (INSEAD AMP ’73), founder and chairman of Hikma the leading MENA region specialty pharmaceutical company. The firm, based in Amman, Jordan, reached an annual revenue milestone of $1 billion in 2012. Darwazah’s career reflects a remarkable life-time achievement, growing Hikma from a startup to an international company that employs 6,600 people, with local manufacturing in Jordan and Tunisia, and activities in the U.S. and Europe. Hikma is growing at 20% a year (CAGR over the past five years) and has a current market cap of USD $3.5 billion.
The INSEAD Healthcare Awards, inaugurated this year, are intended to help recognise the many contributions of INSEAD alumni working in the global health industry. INSEAD Dean Ilian Mihov said: “Business is a force for positive social change. Nowhere is this more true than in the field of healthcare, where our alumni are spurring innovation that saves lives and improves the quality of living for millions around the globe.” Dean Mihov pointed out that the school’s graduates are playing leading roles in top international healthcare companies, including Roche, Novartis and UCB. “Whether as CEOs and entrepreneurs, our alumni through their knowledge and leadership drive breakthrough business models in healthcare that open up new areas of market growth. The INSEAD Healthcare Awards allow us the chance to highlight the best of the best in our network of global practitioners who are extending the boundaries of this important field.”
Sponsors of the INSEAD Alumni Healthcare Summit are HBM Healthcare Investments, Civitas, McDermott Will & Emery, as well as partners Elsevier Business Intelligence, European Center of Pharmaceutical Medicine (ECPM), and Value Edge.
About the INSEAD Healthcare Alumni Network
The INSEAD Healthcare Alumni Network was founded in 2006 as a non-profit organisation under Swiss law. It serves the interests of more than 2,000 INSEAD graduates working in the healthcare industry and related fields, and is managed by a committee of alumni volunteers. The Network has organised the annual Healthcare Summit since 2009, extending INSEAD thought leadership in the field and enhancing engagement among the school’s alumni practitioners in the healthcare industry.
