Community is our Superpower
Powered by the team behind LifeScience ORG - the leading community of European life science CEOs - nextGEN currently upskills and educates 150 pre-seed and seed stage founders across 13 countries.

We elevate the leadership journey of life science entrepreneurs
Imagine a Virtual Boston
We connect emerging entrepreneurs with thought leaders, experienced CEOs, investors, industry experts, and integrate founders into a dynamic, pan-European community of peers. nextGEN fosters invaluable relationships and encourages founders and CEOs to share critical insights.
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A digital platform providing weekly live workshops offering direct access to expert insights and peer-led learning
Sharing member case studies and curated reads, surfacing practical strategies and hard-won lessons from across the community
On average, our founders visit our community hub 30+ times per year - making it a go-to resource for ongoing support
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Confidential peer-to-peer exchange, creating space for honest conversations about the challenges of building and leading a venture
Building relationships across Europe and the U.S., helping founders expand their networks and gain cross-border perspective
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A library of 100+ hours of recordings and resources from seasoned CEOs, investors, industry experts, and top thought leaders that can be accessed on demand
A collaborative hub for learning, connection, and shared problem-solving among peers
Practical tools and guidance to help founders grow into confident leaders and effective company builders
“The nextGEN @LifeScience ORG founder community platform perfectly complements our own pre-seed start-up support in the life science sector, providing our biotech founders with sector specific information from senior industry experts and peer exchange opportunities relevant for a successful start and advancement of their start-up.”
- Ulrich Mahr, Head of Start-Up and Portfolio Management, Max-Planck-Innovation GmbH
Upcoming Events
Tariq Ahmed has a wealth of experience gained across multiple business sectors. In his last role as Executive Vice President, People at Achilles Therapeutics he helped navigate their growth from a small private bio-tech to a NASDAQ listed company.
A well-orchestrated narrative can accelerate your venture. When it's misaligned either too cautious or too promotional, it limits optionality rather than creating any. Iraj Ali has worked at that edge. He raised significant capital, led a UK-based company through a U.S. IPO during a global crisis, and maintained credibility through market shifts and programmatic changes. His perspective will offer you a unique view into how narrative clarity, when actively managed, reinforces strategy not just externally, but inside the organisation as well.
In early-stage biotech, investors aren’t just betting on the science, they’re betting on you. Your groundbreaking science got you this far, but in investor meetings, how you show up matters as much as what you’ve discovered. Your executive presence is what transforms brilliant science into investor confidence. Joel Garfinkle is based in the US, on the West Coast. He is the bestselling author of Executive Presence: Step Into Your Power, Convey Confidence, & Lead With Conviction and has coached over 2,500 leaders worldwide, including helping pharma and biotech executives become confident, commanding leaders. He is a Master Certified Coach and recognized as one of the top 15 executive coaches in the world.
Past Events
Kevin brings a broad vantage point to the culture conversation: as a repeat CEO and a Venture Partner/EIR inside venture capital firms on both sides of the Atlantic, he has seen culture done well and done less well. He has brought his insights into authentic and people-focused leadership to Enara to help build the company’s culture from its earliest days as a seed-funded company through to where it stands today. Enara’s internal work was recently validated through the iEVP survey that we ran withing the LifeScience ORG community, developed by Harvard’s Amy Edmondson and INSEAD’s Mark Mortensen, revealing a rare alignment between leadership intention and employee perception. Kevin draws on frameworks from Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux, but applies them within the high-consequence environment of early-stage life sciences.
Pedro Gómez - CEO and co-founder of Orbem
Orbem is a Munich-based techbio company unlocking new applications for AI-powered imaging. Founded as a spin-out from the Technical University of Munich, Orbem has raised over >€50 million and built strategic partnerships across sectors including agriculture, health, and logistics. Pedro holds a PhD in Biomedical Imaging and Informatics and has led the company from academic research through product development, fundraising, and commercial deployment.
Emma Tinsley - CEO and co-founder of Weatherden
Prior to co-founding Weatherden, Emma was part of SV Health Investors, where she specialised in venture capital company creation, forming five biotech companies across immunology and oncology. Earlier in her career, she worked within the Life Sciences team at KPMG.
Tom Goodman and Ellen Dewhurst - Cooley LLP
Nadiya Ishnazarova and Christian Uhrich - M Ventures
We asked an investor and a law firm to join us for this conversation, as these two perspectives will illuminate the nuances founders must understand - across legal protections, economic rights, and governance control.
Florian Burgdorf - Global Head of Procurement Academy 4.0 and Negotiation Trainings at Boston Consulting Group
Florian holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and is a leading member of BCG's Operations and Industrial Goods practice areas, with a focus on procurement and R&D transformations, both digital and conventional.
Florian Burgdorf - Global Head of Procurement Academy 4.0 and Negotiation Trainings at Boston Consulting Group
Florian holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and is a leading member of BCG's Operations and Industrial Goods practice areas, with a focus on procurement and R&D transformations, both digital and conventional.
Jill McCullough - Personal Impact Coach
With over 30 years of experience coaching C-suite leaders from global organizations like KPMG, Mercedes, EY, and British Airways, Jill McCullough specializes in helping leaders refine their communication skills to project authority and inspire trust.
Josua Jordi - Co-Founder of EraCal Therapeutics
Josua co-founded EraCal Therapeutics in 2018 as a spin-off from the University of Zurich and Harvard University, with a mission to develop first-in-class treatments for obesity and metabolic disorders.
Vanessa King - Former CEO Tenpoint Therapeutics
Vanessa is a serial biotech CEO and Board member with global breadth. She brings a track record of significant financings, strategic partnerships, and of building exceptional organizations.
Cheryl Strauss Einhorn - Founder and CEO of Decisive
Cheryl is a long time educator, teaching at Columbia University and at Cornell University’s SC Johnson School of Business and Cornell Tech. She has also authored three books.
Cheryl Strauss Einhorn - Founder and CEO of Decisive
Cheryl is a long time educator, teaching at Columbia University and at Cornell University’s SC Johnson School of Business and Cornell Tech. She has also authored three books.
Cheryl Strauss Einhorn - Founder and CEO of Decisive
Cheryl is a long time educator, teaching at Columbia University and at Cornell University’s SC Johnson School of Business and Cornell Tech. She has also authored three books.
Koenraad Wiedhaup - Founder and CEO at Leyden Labs
Koenraad has a background in science, studying Life Sciences and Biotechnology at the Universities of Leiden and Delft and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York.
Barnaby Balmforth - CEO and Co-Founder of BioFidelity
Barnaby’s strategic approach to team building on both sides of the Atlantic - emphasizing the recruitment of top talent, fostering an agile and innovative culture, and aligning the team with BioFidelity’s global mission - has been critical to the company’s rapid growth and international success.
Tom Goodman - Partner at Cooley
Mark Jones - Associate at Cooley
Simon Burr - Senior Associate at Novo Ventures Holding
Campbell Stewart - VP at Novo Ventures Holding
Sean Kendall - Partner at ARCH
A chemical engineer and synthetic biologist by training, Mr. Kendall was an early employee with LS9, Inc. (acquired by Genomatica), where he developed an automated experimentation and analysis platform for their synthetic biology platform.
Jan Lichtenberg - Co-founder and CEO at InSphero
Jan is an engineer and laboratory automation expert with 20 years of experience in the life sciences. Jan earned his PhD in Microtechnology and Microfluidics at the University of Neuchâtel. He is a former Head of R&D and Product Management in the medical-device company Hocoma AG and Uwatec AG.
Marina Udier - CEO at Nouscom
In our new Female Founder Exchange Series, we will be asking seasoned life science CEOs to name the three biggest challenges (personal and/or professional) that they have encountered or are encountering by virtue of being a female leader and share what they did or are doing to overcome them.
François Candelon & Leonid Zhukov - BCG Henderson Institute
François Candelon is currently a Partner at Seven2, a French private equity firm. Previously, he served as the Global Director of the BCG Henderson Institute (2019-2024).
Leonid Zhukovis the Director of the BCG Global AI Institute, where he plays a pivotal role in exploring how artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI (GenAI), can transform industries.
Billy Boyle - CEO at Owlstone Medical Ltd
Billy is an engineering graduate from the University of Cambridge. He is one of the original co-founders of Owlstone Inc,.