Speaker bios

REGIONAL (ME) and Nationally focussed, learned and aware professional with nearly 15 years of rich cross functional experience in all communication aspects including Corporate Communications, Public Relations, media relationship management, Relationship Management with well known organisations, internal awareness programmes, publishing internal magazine, manage local websites as well as issue management, strategy planning and stakeholders management. Presently associated with Sanofi-Aventis as Communication Director KSA.

Strong business acumen with skills to remain on the cutting edge; drive new business through innovative Product strategies & implementation, etc. Proficient at analyzing market trends to provide critical inputs for business development initiatives and formulation of selling and marketing strategies. Proven track record of developing strategies for business escalation & brand value enhancement, thereby accomplishing growth in turnovers. Enterprising leader with abilities in motivating teams towards enhancing their performance standards. Possess excellent communication skills that have been honed through interacting with people at various levels; primarily of the Media, Industry and Corporate Executives.

Qualified with a hospital pharmacy background and currently working as a Formulary Advisor to Surrey & Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust and is an Advisor to 3 Drugs & Therapeutics Committees in the South of England.

Omar is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth PGDip/MSc Pharmacy Programme and this year became both Lecturer & Examiner/Invigilator on the Non Medical Prescribing V300 Course at the University of Surrey. He has over 25 publications to date (including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, gastrooesophageal reflux disease & health economics/prescribing pathways) and has authored 2 booklets on implementation of NICE Guidance & TAG documents.

He has spoken at various Medical Conferences within the UK, Europe and occasionally further a field and has been appointed to the NHS Advisory Board for Pharmaceutical Field Magazine. Having been an executive board member for the National Obesity Forum, Omar is now a council member for the charity PCOS. Earlier this year he accepted appointment as an Editorial Content Adviser to Guidelines, a national publication for NHS Medicines Management Teams. Most recently, Omar has just been appointed a position on the Cost Impact Panel for the External Reference Committee for NICE.

Ayman started his career in sizeable pharmaceutical companies in Egypt. In 2000 Ayman moved to the United Arab Emirates as Product Manager for sanofi-synthelabo where he pursued his career in pharmaceutical marketing with astounding success and great accomplishments. Ayman moved across different levels in marketing and he was exceptionally promoted to held many senior positions within sanofi-synthelabo, then at sanofi-aventis.

In 2006, Ayman upscale his career in sanofi-aventis as marketing director for Gulf countries where he was responsible for animation and management of the marketing team, providing continuous support to operations and regional marketing teams. Ayman closely works with the management team in support of their decision-making processes. Earlier this year, Ayman moved back to Cairo to hold bigger responsibility within the group as a Businesses unit director for Diabetes and Hypertension.

Ayman is well known of his innovative thinking to drive business development through creative sales and marketing initiatives that result in increased revenue growth and he has been globally recognized for those initiatives inside and outside his company.

Holding different positions in sales, marketing and management with more than 15 years of experience in Pharmaceutical Business gave him insights into operational as well as into strategic ways of working within the industry. Ayman is affiliated to many international Marketing associations and also is well known for his contribution as speaker and chairman to many regional and international Pharma and Marketing congresses with phenomenal speeches and valuable ideas.

A commercially driven pharmaceutical professional; With excess of 11 years experience as a Representative, Sales Manager, Trainer, Training Manager and currently utilizing this experience in a strategic Sales Force Excellence role.

My passion is best practice and adding real commercial value to sales teams through partnership working with key stakeholders to develop performance, deliver improved results and maximise return on investment. In my last role with Wyeth, I was responsible for the leadership and direction of the sales training team in addition to setting and implementing the SFE agenda within the added complexity of a multi-country region and a geographically dispersed team across Middle East North Africa. Moving into Pfizer, I shall move into a more specific and strategic SFE role to help imbed new SFE models across the whole Africa Middle East region.

Ehab has a general management background with in depth experience in sales and marketing management mainly in middle east countries complemented with STA in Europe .The most recent and rewarding learning experience is being a Harvard business school ALUMNI after accomplishing the “Executive general management program –HBS” from Jan 18th – May 8th 2009 working with a group of participants from 42 countries and more than 44 industries in a program built on case based learning and taught by a team of senior HBS faculty members.
This program helped to achieve the following objectives :

• Smooth and accelerate the transition from functional specialist to effective general manager with a broad-gauge understanding of the organization and all functional areas
• Gain the analytical skills and frameworks needed to address complex problems, and the judgment and confidence to make important business decisions
• Develop the leadership skills needed to build the organization, drive fundamental change, and achieve superior long-term performance in all economic climates
• Establish a global network of advisers, mentors, and friends who can help participants address challenges as their careers evolve

Professional History:

• January 1986
  Medical Representative
• September 1990
  Product Manager for Dermatology, Gynecology & Pharmacy Sales Only P.S.O.    products
• August 1998
  Regional Product Manager for Middle East & West Asia
  Women's Healthcare & Reproductive System Franchise.
• December 1999
  Business Unit Manager
  Gastro Enterology, Dermatology, Gynecology, Allergy and Pharmacy Sales Only (PSO)
• January 2003 – up to date
  Business Units Director
  Primary Care and CNS Units
  Country Value Team Leader Middle East West Asia & African countries
  Psychiatry Franchise

Educational Background:

• Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University
  May 1985 - Very Good with honor
• School (Primary – Preparatory & Secondary):
  St. Mary’s English School

Family Background:

• My husband is a Major General Physician, Consultant Dermatology and Andrology.
• One boy of 18 years old in Faculty of Dentistry Cairo University

Mothafar Ismaiel is currently a CRM Manager at Gulf Pharmaceutical Industry (JULPHAR) and he specialises in applied business intelligence. Especially in the pharmaceutical field where sales and marketing need to link huge amount of information needed in timely decision making.
 
He has good experience in bringing the concept of Agile Organization to work and also enjoys solving the tough problems in systemizing Territory Alignment, Market Structure, CRM and KAM. The way forward is to simplify scientific marketing and the example Mothafar supports is Six Sigma in Sales.

His specialities lay also in:

Market Engineering, CAD Call Planning, Sales Forecasting and Budgeting. KPI Automation and Dashboard Marketing. Performance Monitoring. Statistical Applications e.g. Monte Carlo Simulation in Risk Management.

Mohammad Refaat is the marketing founder of Neuropsychiatry Business in Delta Pharma since 2005. Delta Pharma now is a one of the biggest national pharmaceutical companies in Egypt and ranked in terms of sales value No 23 YTD 2009. Mohammad drew the map for Delta Pharma neuropsychiatry business to be within the top 10 companies in neuropsychiatry pharmaceutical business in EGYPT after 3 years from its launch which is already done.

Mohammad started his career in 1997 in Bristol-Myers Squibb and gained both, the professional sales and the expert marketing experience within 8 years residence in BMS, and because he is a very talented, innovative, creative person and owns an evergreen mind, Mohammad now is a group business director in Delta Pharma, directing the whole business domains of two separate business.

Mohammad is an academic guy and holds MVSC and Ph.D.St., and has a parallel profession as a lecturer in Cairo University, he has attended more than 40 international and federal conferences and summits all over the world.

Bassem is a Product Public Relations Manager with almost 13 years experience in sales, marketing, public relations, communication & event management with impressive records of achievements in product and event management.

Consistently successful in identifying and capitalizing upon market opportunities to drive revenue growth, expand market penetration and win dominant market share.

Bassem has a successful track record in many strategic marketing and communication projects, new product launches and line extensions, as well as the development of different customer and patient loyalty programs.

He is responsible for designing, developing and implementing local strategic & tactical PR plans and campaigns to support commercial objectives of key brands that are in development or marketed where new indications or line extensions are being launched.

He is a member of GSK Saudi crisis management team, where he proactively plans for issues and develop accurate and appropriate materials that maximize PR value and neutralize negative PR impact. He specializes in providing contingency plans around current/likely issues.

Bassem prepares spokespersons to address issues with internal and external audiences in close liaise with the PR agency and is responsible for company events management.

He has been engaged in many diversified projects on the level of local, MENA and International:

• Project leader of the successful launch of the National Program of Asthma in Saudi Arabia in collaboration with the Ministry of Health
• Project leader of launching GSK local website
• Chosen to be the MENA Respiratory PR Champion, Nov 2006
• Member of International working group for respiratory communication representing MENA, July 2008
• Member of GSK international team to develop Avamys international marketing plan, November 2006 – October 2007
  

Phil is an experienced pharmaceutical industry manager with 18 years marketing and commercial experience, 10 of which in global marketing functions and 4 years in general management operations roles.

He prefers challenging, unconventional roles requiring novel business approaches and P&L focus.

His specialties are Global Marketing/Brand Management (Biotech, Speciality & Mass Market launch experience), Life Cycle Management strategy, Channel management & Payer strategy.

Vasilis is a professor of French language & literature, graduated from Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki (1982) and holds a Master in Business Administration specializing in Strategic Management from Kingston University, London (2007).

Vasilis joined the pharmaceutical market in 1988 as medical representative in the commercial department of Sanofi Hellas Ltd. March 1991 he was recruited by Roche Hellas Sales team contributing in the promotion of Roche portfolio in hospitals (Rocephin) & out-hospital markets (Tilcitin, Vascace, Loceryl). Due to his exceptional performance he was promoted to Area Sales Manager in area North of Greece in 1998 contributing to the successful penetration of Xenical in the Greek obesity market. In 2002 he accepted the challenge to move from Sales to the HR department and took the responsibility to perform the role of Training & Development manager of Roche Hellas having as key duties and responsibilities:  

• to work in close partnership with  HR Head  & Business Directors to deliver and implement key corporate HR practices in local environment (Performance Management, Succession Planning, Leadership Development)
•  Understand and prioritize business requirements/needs translating them into a continuous pipeline of customized training learning solutions, all tailored to respond to the current and future people needs, creating capabilities & value to our employees

From February 2008 he has assumed the role of Key Account Manager for Roche products portfolio in Northern Greece.

Levent YILDIZ was born in Ankara, Turkey in 1968. He graduated Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the Faculty of Science in Middle East Technical University and obtained his Bachelor in Science degree at the same university in 1993 followed by his diploma on Management Techniques in Maine University/Marmara University Çağdaş Bilimler Vakfı in 1998. He became Area Market Access Manager, Middle East North Africa at GSK in 2008. He speaks Turkish, English, French and German.

He had different roles and responsibilities in pharmaceutical organizations. He joined Organon Teknika Turkey in 1995 as product specialist and then became product manager and group product manager in 1997 and 1998 respectively. In 1999, he joined GlaxoSmithKline’s marketing team and after a while later appointed as District Sales Manager in 2001.In 2004, he moved to Abbott Laboratories as National Sales Manager and developed his first sales force efficiency and performance tracking system in the light of his past marketing and sales experience. After two years later he was transferred to Roche Pharmaceuticals where he had a chance to improve his sales force efficiency and performance tracking system as National Sales Manager. He was also appointed as country representative for CRM at Roche .He has managed different size of sales force teams starting from 52 to 92 in different pharmaceutical organizations.

Levent YILDIZ’s interests are marketing, sales, market access, CRM, sales force effectiveness, sales force performance enhancing and e-marketing.

Marcus Deans is an International Marketer with both extensive practical and academic experience of strategic international marketing. Most recently Marcus occupied the position; Head of European CNS franchise at Eisai having previously worked at Novartis Global.

Marcus holds professional and postgraduate diploma in Marketing and is a senior lecturer on both courses.

Marcus’ experience covers both ethical pharmaceuticals& vaccines & Diagnostics. He is a Chartered Marketer and publishes widely in the field of marketing strategy, with a particular interest in market access.

Novartis Hellas. As a Sales Representative I have specialized in several therapeutic areas. More specifically, osteoporosis (Miacalcic), asthma & COPD (Foradil, Miflonide), Dermatology (Lamisil), hypertension (Cibadrex), anti-inflammatory (Voltaren), and calcium (Mega-Calcium). That was a valuable experience which gave me broad knowledge of the Greek pharmaceutical market. Also I have developed excellent selling & interpersonal skills. .

Novartis Hellas. Area Sales Manager. I was given the opportunity to expand my

knowledge on other important brands such as, Diovan (Hypertension), Lescol

(Cholesterol), Starlix (Diabetes), Famvir, Elidel (Dermatology), Estraderm, Estradot

(Gynaecology), Exelon (CNS), From this position I gained good project management

skills that made me capable of leading my teams through determination & enthusiasm

to achieve and exceed set targets.  

Novartis Hellas. CVM Hospital Account Manager . I was given the opportunity to develop & establish a new role in the Company that leads and directs the Key Account Specialists & KOL Manager. Also Contributes in the development of the national strategy in hypertension & diabetes through KOL management. Develop tools & KPIs  to follow Performance in Hospitals for all over Greece

Speaker overview coming soon...

I started in Novo Nordisk as a medical representative in Egypt and subsequently worked in Saudi Arabia, South Africa (short assignment) and presently in Nigeria.

From my first job experience I learned the importance of understanding the business environment and applying the knowledge for better results. For example, in Saudi Arabia’s competitive market environment, it was imperative to drive continuous improvement to secure our targets and in the process, self-develop.

It also became clear to me that in order to take your career a step further, you need to seek new opportunities and drive your development to higher limits through new challenges.

Nigeria is by far, my greatest challenge -- the country has numerous ethnic groups, languages and religions. This diversity as well as the poor education level in the country makes it difficult to change the existing conditions. However, the spin-off of working in a challenging environment is that your eagerness to impact, influence and drive change grows and transforms in achievements.

The best thing about having international exposure is that you learn something new every day and grow more understanding to cultural differences. I would recommend my colleagues to accept new challenges and seek opportunities which will allow them develop further.

Lastly, I would say that a good leader accepts new challenges, drives changes and communicates effectively to motivate and mobilize the organisation.

Speaker overview coming soon...

Thibaut de Lataillade is managing global Marketing operations at Cegedim Dendrite since November 2008.

Thibaut de Lataillade joined Cegedim in June 2002 and since then has been involved in several positions including Eastern and Southern Europe Regional Management as well as Managing Director for Cegedim Spain.

Prior to joining Cegedim, Thibaut de Lataillade founded an e-detailing internet company and worked as Senior Manager for Arthur D. Little (consulting). Since he started his career at NEGMA Laboratories, he has always been working closely with the life sciences industry.

Mr. de Lataillade holds a Financial Degree from the European Business School (EBS) in Paris.

Following a successful 18 year career in the Pharmaceutical industry, Andy now specialises in coaching and account management. He is able to combine his passion and flair with a credibility borne out of experiencing at first hand, many of the issues that face his clients.

In every assignment he takes on, Andy ensures that the coaching agreement is fuelled by the positive impact it will have on the business. The outcomes are transparent and a comprehensive evaluation process makes the direct business benefits clear to see. Andy demonstrates genuine interest in assisting people to perform beyond their expectations.

Gamal Al Qassas (graduated from faculty of Veterinary Medicine 1994, has a Masters degree  in Microbiology, Diploma in Marketing, Master in Business Administration and International marketing 2005)

Experienced Senior Marketing Manager, with 15 years proven track record in strategy definition, business transformation and implementing significant change in diverse cultural environment with several international awards.

He has a MBA, Master in microbiology qualified with strong Arabic and English language skills that has held leadership roles with some of the largest FMCG and pharmaceutical giants including sanofi aventis, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis across the Middle East region.