Lord Alexander John Trees, Baron Trees

Lord Trees qualified as a veterinarian in 1969 and has worked in general practice, industry and, for most of his career, academia. In 1980 he was appointed Lecturer in Veterinary Parasitology at the University of Liverpool based in the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He was Professor of Veterinary Parasitology from 1994 and Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Science from 2001 – 2008. His research embraced livestock disease in both temperate and tropical environments, including a strong interest in One Health and parasitic infections as models of human tropical disease. He retired from the University in 2011.

He was President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2009-2010, and is currently Chair of the Moredun Research Institute Board, Veterinary Editor in Chief of the Vet Record and In Practice, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In 2012 he was appointed a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords Commission and is only the second veterinary surgeon to be appointed. There he has served on the EU Select Committee and its Sub-Committee on Energy and Environment (which included agriculture) and has participated in the production of 20 House of Lords Select Committee Reports published 2015-2017, many on the consequences of Brexit including on Brexit: Agriculture and Brexit: Farm Animal Welfare.

Daan Luining

Daan Luining is Meatable’s CTO and scientific mastermind. Daan lives and breathes clean meat and has been involved since the earliest stages, having worked on the first lab grown hamburger in 2013. After that, Daan expanded his knowledge on the field at New Harvest, an NGO that funds academic research in cell-based meat.

Clinton Lewis

Clint Lewis is executive vice president and president of International Operations at Zoetis. In this role, he oversees the management of the livestock and companion animal business markets outside the United States.
Mr. Lewis previously served as president, U.S. Operations at Zoetis and in the Pfizer Animal Health organization. He joined Pfizer Animal Health in 2007.

Mr. Lewis joined Pfizer in 1988 as a sales representative in Long Island, N.Y., and has held positions of increasing responsibility in several areas across various commercial operations dedicated to human health prior to joining animal health, including vice president and general manager of Pfizer’s U.S. Anti-Infectives/HIV business unit.

In 2011, Mr. Lewis was elected chairman of the Animal Health Institute (AHI) for the 2011-12 term. A member of AHI since 2007, Mr. Lewis previously served as AHI vice chair for the 2009-2010 term. AHI is the trade association for the animal health industry in the U.S. advocating on various issues important to the industry, including efficient and effective regulatory and approval processes by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Mr. Lewis holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Fairfield University and a Master of Business Administration in marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Simon Innes

Simon was appointed as Chief Executive in January 2004. Prior to this he was Chief Executive of Vision Express from 2000 to 2004, over which time he built the business up to £220m turnover and 205 practices, and reversed a loss-making position to create one of the most profitable corporate optical operators in the UK. The growth strategy that was successful at Vision Express is now being implemented in the veterinary industry by CVS.

Prior to Vision Express, Simon was on the board of Hamleys PLC as Operations Director and gained 10 years’ management experience at Marks & Spencer. He also served seven years in the British Army, achieving the rank of Captain in the Royal Engineers.

Greg Sunvold

With over 25 years of pet food industry experience and over 200 scientific publications, Dr. Greg Sunvold at Cool Springs International is responsible for implementing nutritional innovations in hundreds of pet food products.  Additionally, Dr. Sunvold founded Microbiome Health, LLC, a company focused on applying innovative microbiome technologies into pet supplements.  

Mathieu Castex

Davide Rossi

Davide Rossi is a Co-Founder and CEO of FitBark, a data-driven pet technology company focused on getting pets and their owners safe and healthy together. FitBark builds collar sensors and software infrastructure that helps humans in 140+ countries to develop real-time, comparative knowledge of their pet’s location, activity, quality of sleep, calorie balance, anxiety, skin conditions and overall health and behavior. FitBark is also a research-grade platform adopted by 100+ vet schools and research institutions to conduct research on new drugs, products and treatments related to mobility, anxious behaviors and skin conditions.

In a previous life, Davide designed Ferrari engines, co-founded BRM Model Cars, and managed Oil & Gas projects in Asia and the Middle East. More recently, he served as an investment banker with Deutsche Bank in New York, where he advised FinTech clients on capital raises and matters related to mergers and acquisitions.

Davide holds a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Università degli Studi di Padova (Italy) and a Master in Business Administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Aaron Schacht

Mr. Michael Boddington

Matt Dobbs

Laëtitia Gerbe

Peter McCarthy

Mr. McCarthy is now in his 7th year at Henry Schein, Inc. He is currently the Company's President, Global Animal Health Group, as well as a member of Henry Schein's Executive Management Committee.

Mr. McCarthy oversees Henry Schein's animal health business, which spans 24 countries including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, Malaysia, Brazil and 17 countries in Europe.

Before assuming his current position, Mr. McCarthy held key roles at Henry Schein with increasing responsibilities, including President, Henry Schein Animal Health, Europe, and President, Henry Schein Animal Health, International.

Prior to joining Henry Schein, Mr. McCarthy worked at Schering-Plough Animal Health (now Merck Animal Health), serving as Senior Director, Global Operations and General Manager, China. Mr. McCarthy also worked at Wyeth/American Cyanamid for 14 years, helping to grow the human pharmaceutical business.

Mr. McCarthy holds a degree in Applied Biology from the University of Hertfordshire in the U.K., and previously has served as a Member of the Board of the International Federation for Animal Health Europe, and the International Association Executive Animal Health Study Center, CEESA, based in Belgium. Mr. McCarthy is also a graduate and member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), which is located in the U.K.

Marcel Lacaze

Marcel joined Permira as a Principal in 2014 and focuses on the healthcare sector. Prior to joining Permira, Marcel worked for Novartis, leading the M&A activities for Novartis Consumer Health, Vaccines & Diagnostics. Before that, he spent eight years in investment banking working for Lazard and Merrill Lynch. Marcel holds degrees in Business Administration, Economics and languages from the University of Passau, Germany, as well as Bejing Yuyan Xueyan, China.

Roy Stein

James Millar

Jean-Louis Hunault

My professional activity began as a lecturer in public law at the University of Paris 2 and Paris V and in 1988 as legal counsel and then director of economic and legal affairs of the Union of Plant Protection Industries - UIPP. Graduated from HEC's Executive MBA in 1993 I created and managed 2 companies in the environment and direct marketing sector. In 1996, I joined the veterinary medicine and diagnostics industry union - SIMV as secretary general. I was elected Chairman of the SIMV Board 5 times. My last term will cover the period 2018-2021.

I exercise different mandates: administrator of the national agency of health safety of the food, environment and work - ANSES, substitute member of the National Council of the higher education and the research (CNESER), secretary of the French network for animal health - RFSA.

At the European level, I am member of the Board of the European Federation of Animal Health - Animal Health Europe.

At the global level, I held the position of Director Europe for a five-year term on the Board of Directors of our World Federation (Heath for Animals).

I am the Secretary General of the World Veterinary Diagnostics Industry Federation - DiagnosticsforAnimals - an organization I created in 2007.

Eric Garcia

Anthony Roberts

Anthony is responsible for the delivery of the strategic ambition to become a Royal College with leadership and innovation at its heart.

Leadership work includes the implementation of a programme to support the next generation of veterinary leaders and develop leadership opportunities across the veterinary professions, and the completion of the RCVS governance review to ensure that we are an effective and efficient organisation, better able to lead the profession and serve the needs of the public.

Innovation incorporates the development of initiatives to ensure the veterinary professions are at the centre of innovation in the animal health sector, to position the professions as open to innovation, and to ensure the RCVS serves to foster innovation whilst continuing to protect animal health and welfare.

Anthony also leads the development and delivery of a programme of work to prepare the College and the profession for the impact of Brexit and the implementation of evidence-based measures to drive the transition to a supportive ‘learning-culture’ in the veterinary professions.

Anthony has worked at the RCVS for seven years and has been responsible for delivering key projects such as the First Rate Regulator Initiative (2012/13) and the launch of the new Practice Standards Scheme (2015). Prior to joining the RCVS Anthony worked in public affairs and media relations at the British Plastics Federation, the trade association for the UK plastics industry.

Anthony holds an MBA from Warwick Business School (2016), an MA (Hons) in Philosophy and Politics from the University of Edinburgh (2004) and the CIPR Diploma in Public Relations (2009).

Duncan Lascelles

B. Duncan X. Lascelles

BSc, BVSC, PhD, MRCVS, CertVA, DSAS(ST), Diplomate ECVS, Diplomate ACVS

Professor of Surgery and Pain Management
Director, Comparative Pain Research and Education Centre
Translational Research in Pain Programme,
North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Raleigh, NC, 27606, USA

After graduating from the veterinary program at the University of Bristol, U.K., with honors, in 1991 Dr. Lascelles completed a PhD in aspects of pre-emptive/perioperative analgesia at the University of Bristol. After an internship there, he completed his surgical residency at the University of Cambridge, U.K. He moved to Colorado for the Fellowship in Oncological Surgery at Colorado State University, then a period of post-doctoral research in feline pain and analgesia at the University of Florida, and is currently Professor in Small Animal Surgery and Pain Management at North Carolina State University. He is board-certified in small animal surgery by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the European College of Veterinary Surgeons, and the American College of Veterinary Surgeons.

He is director of the Comparative Pain Research and Education Centre (CPREC). His research program (Translational Research in Pain [TRiP]) is dedicated to answering critical questions about pain control and pain mechanisms through high quality, innovative research.  His career has been focused on developing algometry methods (methods to measure pain) in spontaneous disease animal models (pets with naturally occurring disease), and probing tissues from well-phenotyped animals with spontaneous disease to understand the neurobiology, with a strong translational focus. The aim of his research is to improve pain control in companion animals, and facilitate analgesic development in human medicine.  He has authored over 180 peer reviewed research papers and reviews and 190 research abstracts, as well as over 30 book chapters.

He has worked closely with industry partners in both animal and human health, helping to re-define the relationship between industry and academia. Through reviews and invited presentations he advocates for the use of spontaneous disease in animals to inform human therapeutic development. Recently, he organized a meeting of industry, academia, regulatory authorities (FDA) and the NIH to discuss measurement of chronic pain in companion animals and the application to human pain research (www.PAW2017.com), and is planning PAW2019. He is completing a year-long integrated sabbatical within a pain therapeutic company (Centrexion Therapeutics) that develops novel therapeutics for both humans and animals. He provides consulting services related to pain therapeutic development across all stages of animal therapeutic development, and for pre-clinical and Phase I stages of human therapeutic development.

Through his work in academia and industry, he contributes to and facilitates the development of novel pain therapeutics for companion animals, and advocates for the use of spontaneous disease in pets to inform human pain therapeutic development.

Bénédicte Flambard

Bénédicte Flambard currently is heading the Business Unit of Live Therapeutics & Nutraceuticals at Boehringer Ingelheim. She leads the creation of a new business area at the interface of Therapeutic Nutrition and Health, combining novel microbial based bio-therapeutic and diagnostic approaches.

Previously, Bénédicte worked for Merial and for Chr. Hansen, the world Leader in Microbial Solutions. She hold several Vice President positions across commercial and innovation areas, dedicated to Health Supplements for Pharma, OTC, Infant Formula as well as Agricultural Industries (Animal Feed & Plant). While growing core businesses, she was seeding and developing Growth Opportunities into Start Up businesses- one focusing exclusively on Microbiome.

She holds several trustee positions as Board Member at the Quadram Institute, as well as diverse Advisory roles to organizations in the sectors of consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and technology.

Bénédicte holds a Master of Administration, with specialties in business models in emerging economies from the University of Bath in the U.K.; a PhD in Molecular Genetics and Microbial Physiology from INRA (National Institute of Agronomic) in France; and a Master in Corporate Entrepreneurial Leadership from the Centre for Technology Economics & Management in Denmark.

Jolyon Martin

Jolyon is a co-founder of PetMedix, whose Ky9 platform is based on his PhD work in the lab of prof Allan Bradley (co-founder and CSO of PetMedix). Jolyon heads up Business Development for PetMedix, and is looking to speak to fellow members of the animal health industry about areas of common interest, including partnership opportunities.

Justine Conway

Nick Hill

Starting out as a physicist, he studied at Oxford University before switching to Cambridge University for a PhD in quantum physics of semiconductor devices.

After completion of his PhD, Nick worked for Cambridge company NXT, he helped develop its revolutionary audio technology, which over the years proved an exceptional training ground in many areas including research management, product development, patents, and IP protection.

During this time, his passion for invention and entrepreneurship saw his career path take a different trajectory. Bitten by the start-up bug, he went on to develop an innovative cat flap for his cat (Flipper) – releasing the Microchip Cat Flap in 2008.

Following the global success of the Sure Petcare range of microchip reading pet door and feeders, Sure Petcare became part of the Antelliq family in 2015. Nick now heads the Antelliq consumer pet division. Where combining the of using a pet’s microchip and connected products is enabling the future of intelligent pet care.

Sébastien Lafon

Rachel Dean

Dr Rachel Dean BVMS PhD MSc(EBHC) DSAM(fel) SFHEA MRCVS is a graduate from University of Glasgow and has worked in mixed, dairy and small animal general practice.  She is holds the RCVS diploma in feline medicine, has a PhD in epidemiology and an MSc in Evidence-based Healthcare. She was the founding director of the Centre for Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine and a Clinical Associate Professor in Feline Medicine at the University of Nottingham from 2009-2018. Rachel is currently the Director of Clinical Research and Excellence in Practice and co-chairs the clinical board for VetPartners. Rachel is responsible for supporting the clinical teams to constantly improve standards of care across the business and encourage clinical leadership through research, innovation and professional development.