Donna Holder
Donna Holder is the Senior Director, Global MSL Excellence at Daiichi Sankyo Inc (DSI) where she is accountable for ensuring the strategic alignment of MSL activities across DSI regions, and for strengthening the MSL capability worldwide. Donna has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry with a wealth of experience in Medical Affairs. Most recently she was the Executive Director, Global Field Medical Center of Excellence (CoE) at Merck from January 2018 to May 2020 where she was responsible for the Field Medical capability worldwide along with the leadership of scientific and capability training function for Field Medical.
She started her career at Marion Merrell Dow (now Sanofi) in Clinical Development and then joined AstraMerck (now AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals) where she spent over ten years in senior leadership roles including leadership of MSL, Medical Information, and Contact Center teams. In her last role at AZ as Senior Director, MSL Excellence in Global Medical Affairs, Donna was accountable for the strategic direction of the MSL function. She led development, delivery, and measurement of initiatives to strengthen MSL capabilities worldwide. Donna left AZ at the end of 2014 and became a Medical Affairs consultant, partnering with pharmaceutical and biotech clients to deliver solutions including capability development, business process development, business strategy, operations management, and coaching. Donna earned her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Michigan.
João Dias
Dr. João Dias is an honors graduate of the University of Helsinki. He received his Licentiate/MSc in biochemistry from the Universities of Porto, Portugal and Wageningen, the Netherlands; and his PhD studies in Immuno-Oncology and Gene Therapy at Helsinki University Central Hospital and Helsinki University, faculty of Medicine.
He is currently responsible for international medical affairs and clinical development for the medical devices and diagnostics portfolio at Haemonetics which includes Hemostasis Management, Cell Salvage and Transfusion Management products. Prior to this role, João had a variety of roles of increasing responsibility in the areas of both market access and medical marketing.
He has authored several peer-reviewed publications and white papers in the fields of Hemostasis, Patient Blood Management, Immuno-Oncology, Gene Therapy, Hematology, and Molecular Biology.
Prior to his tenure at Haemonetics, João worked as a scientist in the development of new products in Cancer Gene Therapy and served as a Life Sciences Consultant working together with multiple global life-science companies.”
