Ester Lovsin Barle, DVM, MSc, PhD, MScTox is the global head of product sustainability and stewardship and at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. She lives in Zurich, Switzerland.

Ester is passionate about generating value with product safety and sustainability. She is leading the cross-organizational product sustainability workstream sustainability by design for the planet pillar of purpose-led sustainability in Takeda. Her responsibilities also include product stewardship topics, such as safety data sheet process, maintaining article and material regulatory compliance and scientific development and cross-organisational implementation of health-based exposure limits (HBEL) in support of research and manufacturing in Takeda globally. Previously she has held corporate positions at Lonza and Novartis. She has been working in the pharmaceutical industry for over 15 years. She received her PhD in veterinary sciences from University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and a second master’s degree in toxicology and risk assessment from Medical University in Vienna. Ester is a certified toxicologist.

Novartis has set ambitious environmental sustainability targets to achieve carbon neutral own operations by 2025, plastic neutrality and water sustainability by 2030, and net-zero by 2040.  Novartis was recently recognized by CDP as the only big pharma company globally with a Double-A leadership rating in the Climate Change and Water Security categories.

Jürgen’s role as Environmental Sustainability lead for Novartis’ global development organization covers the set-up and execution of low carbon clinical trials. On top, Jürgen is in charge of the company-wide target of “all new products meet sustainable design principles by 2030”, which spans from research up to commercial.  Jürgen represents Novartis within two workstreams of the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Health System Task Force and within the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition’s industry low carbon clinical trial workstream.

Jürgen has been very engaged and passionate about the topic of environmental sustainability for more than three decades. Prior to joining Novartis in 2011, he was the CFO of the NGO Solar Energy Foundation, supporting the roll-out of solar energy in rural East Africa. From 2015-20, he was the finance head of Novartis’ global clinical supply unit, during which he was awarded with the Novartis “Better World Award for Environmental Sustainability” for significant progress in the decarbonisation of clinical trials.

Dr. Michael Hell is a chemist (MSc) and cell biologist (PhD) by education with substantial experience in manufacturing and operations of biopharmaceuticals. Before being appointed to head of sustainability at Merck’s Healthcare operations, he was leading environment, health, and safety for Merck KGaA’s global biotech manufacturing and led a packaging, logistics, and visual inspection operation unit.

Michael brings a diverse background in manufacturing, spanning environment, health, and safety, strategy development, continuous improvement/LEAN, operations, and business consulting. He is an active member of ISPE and chaired conference tracks or contributed as speaker. Michael co-authored scientific papers or book chapters.

Courtney Soulsby works as a global director for the healthcare and life sciences sector team for British Standards Institution (BSI), focussing on pharmaceutical sustainability. Working to understand market challenges and future needs of the healthcare sector, Courtney works with key clients and industry partners to develop holistic solutions, strategies, and programs. Courtney has worked with the pharmaceutical industry and their supply chain for over 10 years – with a deep understanding of the issues with regulation, environment, security, compliance, quality, and other risk exposures when manufacturing and transporting medicines.

Richard Hall is a mechanical engineer with several decades experience in the hydraulics industry - selling hydraulic cylinders to global manufacturers of construction and agricultural equipment (Caterpillar, John Deere, Kubota, Bobcat, etc.). He provides active, hands-on managerial support of continuous process improvement methods (SMED, 5S, Kaizen, VSM, etc.) and introduction of new production processes.

Richard has works in business development for Rattiinox (aseptic valve manufacturer) and is a non-voting member of four ASME BPE task groups: CIP, Valve certification, Appendix K (valve testing), and vessel certification. He's also been a member of ISPE since 2011, as well as PDA, A3P, and ASTM E55 since 2021.

He's the technical lead of ASTM E55.11: Clean by Design task group (80 members), and he's writing new standards for the specification, design, manufacture, and FAT test (CIP-cleanability test - not just coverage test) of pharmaceutical manufacturing systems that are rapid to clean robustly with CIP, using 50-80% less water and energy. Richard is also the chair of ASTM E55 subcommittee E55.11 Process Design.

Clare Mayes, PhD, is a sustainability project leader within AstraZeneca, leading a diverse range of projects across AstraZeneca's environmental sustainability programme ensuring the delivery of key attributes of AstraZeneca's ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets.

Clare has a BSc and MSc in chemistry and a PhD in chemical engineering and prior to moving into sustainability Clare spent 15 years in process development and manufacturing in the pharmaceutical industry. She joined AstraZeneca from GSK in 2016 to lead crystallisation and materials science in the on-market group. She has a track record of successfully leading projects and teams to deliver complex understanding and process change programmes from API development through to final pack manufacture. The breadth of background puts Clare in an excellent position to understand the challenges to making the manufacture of medicines more sustainable.

Christopher Nial is a senior partner at FINN Partners and is based in Ireland. His career, spanning over three decades, is marked by a deep commitment to enhancing global public health. Christopher’s journey in this field is distinguished by his unique focus on the critical intersection of climate change and public health. This specialised approach reflects his belief in the profound impact of environmental factors on global health outcomes.

His collaborations with both profit and non-profit organisations further highlight Christopher's impact. He has played a pivotal role in advancing the missions of major pharmaceutical giants like MSD, Sanofi, GSK, and Roche, and influential non-profits such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gavi, and PATH. His contributions to these organisations underscore his dedication to shaping a healthier, more sustainable future, making him a respected figure in global public health and climate advocacy.

Baijia Huang is leading “Design Devices and Packaging for Circularity” in Novo Nordisk, and responsible for translating Novo Nordisk’s plastic strategy into tangible targets and initiatives and embedding circularity principles into product development. She has over 10 years of experience within environmental sustainability and circular economy across different sectors.

She brings a variety of environmental capabilities including decarbonisation in production, scope 3 emission reduction, and take-back and recycling schemes. Baijia worked as group sustainability manager for an insulation material manufacturer in Denmark, where she was responsible for strengthening their circular economy business model. She was participating in harmonisation of life cycle assessment methods for the construction industry, and actively engaging external stakeholders and thought leaders on sustainability and circularity. Moreover, she worked over six years as a consultant to the European Commission on ecodesign legislations, carrying out impact assessments and review studies that supported the policymaking.

Sam Maguire is a principal consultant who specialises in sustainability strategy and operating model design across multiple industries. He has particular expertise in sustainable business models, designing organisations to be more circular, and supply chain transformation. He works across the pharmaceuticals, financial services, and food and beverage industries.  

Ilaria Lo-Presti is a civil and structural engineer with a master’s degree in project management working for GSK as head of environmental engineering in their centre of excellence, leading a team of engineers and experts at a global level to deliver operational sustainability for GSK.

Over the last 12 years, she has acquired broad knowledge of the pharmaceutical engineering field, following important projects and constructions within Europe and globally, from feasibility study through to the qualification stage.

Ilaria has been employed by a range of companies (i.e. engineering consultants, equipment manufacturer, and big pharma), allowing her to gain further knowledge of the challenges when working across different environments, organisations, and cultures.

Bernd Mahlmann, executive MBA, is a senior business development leader who’s been enabling customer-centric transformation and driving growth in the international pharma and medical device industries for more than 15 years. At Ypsomed, Bernd also has a particular focus on sustainability topics and facilitating pharma companies to complete their sustainability strategies with zero CO2 emission injection devices such as autoinjectors.

Sandra Lopes Guerreiro is a pharmacist by education and has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in companies like GSK, Johnson & Johnson, and Novartis, leading teams in health safety and environment, quality, external suppliers, and operations.

At ESTEVE, a pharmaceutical company with seven state-of-the-art sites on three different continents and distribution to over 60 countries, net zero and the environmental pillar of the sustainability strategy are some of her responsibilities.

Sandra´s diverse background, enriched with several specialisation studies in product management, leadership, and pharmaceutical management, has led successful cultural and operational transformations, in the several companies she has worked for, being recognised through different awards.