Marianne De Backer has been a strategist, scientist, business leader, dealmaker, and corporate investor in the healthcare industry for more than two decades. Her network spans across pharmaceutical, biotech, tech, academia, VC, NGO, and government partners worldwide. She has been directly accountable for more than 200 strategic alliances in healthcare, some of which have led to newly approved medicines that are now available to patients. Since 2019, she is a member of the Executive Committee, Executive Vice President, and Head of Strategy, Business Development & Licensing, and Open Innovation of the Bayer AG (BAYRY) Pharmaceuticals division. Dr. De Backer is spearheading the external innovation growth agenda, resulting in more than 40 new alliances and the acquisitions of Vividion Therapeutics, Noria and PSMA Therapeutics in 2021, and Asklepios Biopharmaceutical and KaNDy Therapeutics in 2020. In 2021, she was recognized as one of the Fiercest Women in Life Sciences. As a passionate champion for inclusion and diversity, she recently launched I&DXcelerate at Bayer, a program to accelerate the development of diverse talent. Dr. De Backer serves as a non-executive Director on the boards of Gladstone Foundation, Kronos Bio (KRON), and Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (ARWR). She holds an MBA from Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Master in Molecular Biology from Vrije Universiteit, Brussels; Master in Engineering Biochemistry, and a Ph.D. in Biotechnology, both from Ghent University, Belgium.