Durhane is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders (CORD). She began working with CORD as a volunteer in 2006, during which she developed an Orphan Drug Policy and led an advocacy campaign to improve access to new therapies for rare diseases. Durhane has served on numerous health policy advisory committees and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Genetics, belonging to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She is also a member of the Patient Liaison Forum for the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health. Moreover, Durhane believes strongly in the value of international collaboration and serves on the Board of the International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations, acting as Chair in 2011-2013.

John is the founder of NostaLab, a digital health think tank recognised globally for its inspired vision of transformation. He is one of the leading global influencers in medical innovation and technology, helping to define, dissect and deliberate global trends in digital health. In 2019, he was added to the World Health Organization’s Digital Health Roster of Experts and in 2020, he was listed as a top 50 global COVID-19 influencer. John also serves as a member of the Google Health Advisory Board.

Professor Tikki Pangestu joined the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore after 13 years with the World Health Organization (WHO) as Director of its Research Policy and Cooperation program. In this capacity, he worked with countries to strengthen their national health research systems, developed mechanisms and initiatives to improve the efficiency and transparency of global health research, and helped formulate an organization-wide research policy.

Janet is a Medical Oncologist and Content Manager at CancerCare.bg,; the first ever Bulgarian Foundation supporting cancer patients and their loved ones. Janet is behind the organisation of Think Pink Europe’s ‘Race for the Cure’, an annual worldwide sports event dedicated to breast cancer. Previously, she was a Youth Ambassador of the Association of European Cancer Leagues, where she raised awareness of the European Code Against Cancer and its twelve recommendations for cancer prevention.

Anubha Taneja-Mukherjee has close to fifteen years of experience in the area of advocacy. A thalassemic herself, Mukherjee has been working for the cause of thalassemia since her early years in Thalassemics India. Mukherjee was invited by Thalassemics India (a not for profit organization in existence for 35 years) to set up and lead Thalassemia Patients Advocacy Group in 2017. As the Member Secretary of TPAG, she collaborates with multiple stakeholders including policy makers and leads discussions on prevention, management & treatment of disabilities like thalassemia. Mukherjee’s experience of trial and policy advocacy across sectors enables her to apply the knowledge of law, which she describes as a ‘way to think as opposed to a subject’, to complicated situations at hand.