Leadership in Healthcare Amidst New Technologies

Prof. Valentina Prevolnik Rupel, born in 1971 in Ljubljana, holds a PhD from the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana; her thesis (2008) was entitled "The impact of quality of life on priority setting and the efficiency of resource allocation in healthcare".

In her career, she has worked as a researcher and scientific advisor at the Institute for Economic Research in Ljubljana (IER), where she focused on the fields of health and long-term care. She has been the Chair of the IER Scientific Council, a lecturer at the DOBA Faculty of Applied Business and Social Studies in Maribor, and a member of the Prime Minister's Strategic Council for Health. She has also worked as an advisor to the Minister of Health and counsellor to the Director-General of the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia.

Her fields of expertise are health outcome measurement and the development of healthcare quality indicators and value-based care, while her broader remit includes healthcare financing and health insurance and health technology assesment.

Before being appointed Minister of Health of the Republic of Slovenia on 13 October 2023, she held the position of the State Secretary at the Ministry of Health.

Dr Emilija Stojmenova Duh was born on 25 December 1985 in Macedonia. She moved to Maribor in 2002, when she received a scholarship from the Ad Futura agency to study in the International Baccalaureate programme run by II. Gimnazija Maribor. She completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Informatics of the University of Maribor.

After graduation, she worked as a young business researcher at Iskratel. After gaining her doctoral degree, she was employed by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Ljubljana, where she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Information and Communication Technologies and where she managed the 4PDIH Digital Innovation Hub. 4PDIH is a partnership between the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and the Association of Municipalities of Slovenia that raises awareness of the importance of digitalisation, provides support in the development of digital knowledge and skills, and helps decision makers design appropriate digitalisation policies.

From February 2018 to October 2019, she was the Executive Director of the Digital Innovation Hub Slovenia. Between 2014 and 2016, she was the Director of RAZ:UM, which implemented the Demola Slovenia project as part of the international Demola network, which has been recognised by the OECD and the World Bank as a best practice example for innovation policymakers.

She has coordinated several national and international research and development projects on the use of new digital technologies for innovation in and the development of cities, villages and communities. She has worked in several thematic groups of the European Commission on the topic of digital innovation hubs and rural development. She participates in an international team of researchers that has developed the SEROI+ methodology for measuring and monitoring the societal, economic and environmental return on investment of digital products and services.

She has authored and co-authored a number of scientific and professional publications concerning digital transformation. She was the first President of IEEE’s "Women in Engineering Slovenia".

She is strongly committed to increasing the number of young people studying engineering – especially women – who will later remain active in their sectors and dare to take up leadership positions in science and engineering. As such, she was one of 50 women in ICT leadership positions selected to participate in the #HiddenNoMore multi-regional programme funded by the US State Department for empowering women in STEM fields.

She was a finalist for the "2018 Woman Engineer of the Year" in Slovenia and a nominee for Slovenian Woman of the Year 2021.

She is also the first Slovenian woman representative at the Global Young Academy and a member of the European Research Area Working Group within ALLEA – All European Academies. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Slovenian Research Agency, a member of the Expert Council of the Employment Service of Slovenia and a board member of the international organisation Forum Synergie

Andrzej Rys is the EU Fellow at St Anthony’s for the year 2023-4.

His work will focus on global digital health/health data/AI, and in particular the innovation and system change strategies underpinning policy in the UK, across Europe and in leading health jurisdictions around the world.

A clinical radiologist and public health doctor by training and practice in Krakow and abroad, he was the founder and director of School of Public Health at the Jagiellonian University (1991-1997), director of Krakow’s city health department (1997-1999), Deputy Minister of Health in his native Poland (1999-2002). He also was founder and chief editor of the “Health and Management” journal.

He is the founder (2003-2006) of the Jagiellonian University’s Centre for Innovation, Technology Transfer and University Development (CITTRU), where he founded Poland’s first Life Science Park and Krakow Life Science Cluster.

He negotiated the health chapter of Polish accession to the EU and has served as a senior official at the European Commission Health Department in Brussels and Luxembourg from 2006 to the present day. His responsibility areas: pharma and medical devices regulation, SoHO regulation, patients’ rights in cross- border heath care directive, health systems, HTA regulation, digital health (including the European Health Data Space Regulation), tobacco control, health security, global health, scientific advice.

He was a member of EMA Management Board and ECDC MB and member of IMI (and IHI) GB.

Email address: andrzej.rys@sant.ox.ac.uk

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrzej-rys-33659b7

Publications: ‪AndrzejRys - ‪GoogleScholar‍

Anže Droljc is the Director of Business Development at Better. He has been working closely with different healthcare professionals around the world for the last 15 years. His focus is to gain insights into their needs and “jobs to be done” to truly understand what IT solutions would help them be better at their work. He has vast experience in product development and global GoTo Market Strategy for digital health platforms, clinical registries, clinical information systems, medicine optimisations, and regional eHealth projects.

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After completing her internship, Bojana Beović specialized in anesthesiology for three years, after which she was offered the opportunity to continue her studies and research work at the Infection Clinic of the University Clinical Center in Ljubljana, where she works on everything from the specialist exam. She was a doctor in the intensive care unit for a number of years, but later she gradually turned her attention to solving the problems of loss in other departments of UKC Ljubljana and to the efficient use of antibiotics, which is still the focus of her professional, research and teaching work.

On May 31, 1999, she was elected to the title of assistant professor for the subject Infectology and Epidemiology, and to the title of full professor in 2016. In 2011, she obtained the title of senior health advisor. Since 2006, he has been an assistant at the Department of Infectology and Epidemiology of the Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana, and since 2016 he has been a teacher at the department. She lectured at undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ljubljana, the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Faculty of Biotechnology of the University of Ljubljana. She is the author or co-author of more than 350 bibliographic items cited by COBISS. She gave dozens of invited lectures at international professional-scientific meetings in medical institutions abroad. He has participated in several research projects funded by ARRS and the pharmaceutical industry as principal investigator and researcher. Between 2015 and 2018, she led the Study Group for the appropriate use of antibiotics at the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Since 2011, she has been leading the Vaccination Advisory Group at the National Institute of Public Health, and since 2017 she has been a member of the Slovenian Medical Academy.

In December 2020, the members of the Medical Chamber of Slovenia elected her as president of the chamber, and she officially took over the mandate with confirmation at the Assembly of the Chamber in February 2021.

Professor Danica Purg is the President of IEDC-Bled School of Management, Slovenia, and President of CEEMAN, the International Association for Management Development in Dynamic Societies. Since January 2021, she is President of Alliance of Management Development Associations in Rising Economies, co-founded by CEEMAN, with the aim to accelerate the growth of relevant and excellent management education in the global markets that need it most.

Prof. Purg has received numerous national and international awards for her outstanding achievements in the field of international business education. The President of the Republic of Slovenia awarded her with the Honorary Order of Freedom for her contribution to management development in Slovenia and Central and Eastern Europe. In 2010, Prof. Purg received the 2010 International Educator of the Year Award by the Academy of International Business (AIB) for her outstanding achievements in international business education. In December 2018, she received the highest French order of merit “National Order of the Legion of Honour” for her dedication and support in strengthening bilateral relations among France and Slovenia, especially in the field of management education.

Prof. Danica Purg is professor of leadership and effective management at IEDC-Bled School of Management. She authored and co-authored several books and numerous articles on leadership issues. Her research focuses on looking for inspirations for managers from art and other professions. The article “Why art in management education? Questioning meaning” (2017), written together with colleague Ian Sutherland and  published by the Academy of Management Review is very often quoted in management literature worldwide. In 2021 Springer published an update of the Hidden Champions research titled “Hidden Champions in Dynamically Changing Societies: Critical Success Factors for Market Leadership”, with Prof. Purg being the co-editor and co-author.

She holds three Doctor Honoris Causa titles and two honorary professorship titles, and is a frequent guest speaker at universities around the world and at international conferences. From December 2019 till June 2020 Prof. Danica Purg served as the Acting Chair of the PRME (Principles of Responsible Management Education) Steering Committee, and successfully completed the task to transform PRME.

Prim. MSc Dorijan Marušič, MD, BSC, a specialist in internal medicine, was medical director of the General hospital Izola, State Secretary at the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia, adviser to the Director-General of the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia and Minister of Health of the Republic of Slovenia. He was a member of the Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health at DG SANCO and recently became a member of the National Observatory at the Ministry of Health in Luxemburg. He achieved a master's degree at the Faculty of Social Sciences with the theme "Measuring the outcomes of health services". He is Member of the Strategic Council for health at the Government of Slovenia, he is personal advisor of Minister of Heath Slovenia.

He has been involved as an international consultant in more than 20 countries and more than 100 national and international projects in the health care services, health insurance, payment methods, improving the quality and safety, standardization, health informatics and value-based health care.

He teaches at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Primorska. He is widely published and quoted in renowned scientific journals and publications.

Eva is a biotechnology executive and purpose-driven leader with a track record of empowering individuals and organizations to unlock breakthroughs in the challenges facing the health system. Her nearly 20 years in biotechnology include both global strategy and leadership roles, starting in the commercial organization at Roche Canada in 2009, executive leadership in Belgium, and global strategy roles in both early and late stages across Oncology, Hematology, and Rare Disease in Basel, Switzerland. She currently serves as the Managing Director of Roche in Slovenia, a position she has held since 2022. In this role, Eva is focused on building a strong externally facing organization, forging partnerships, and scaling new approaches that shape data-driven health systems, improve delivery care, and drive sustainable access to innovation.

In addition to her executive role, Eva actively contributes to the strategic direction of the industry, serving on the boards of the Bled Institute for Leadership in Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence (BILDAi) as Co-Chair, and the American Chamber of Commerce in Slovenia (as a Board Member). Her commitment to advancing women in healthcare is evident from her past role as a regional council board member of the Healthcare Business Women's Association in Europe.

In 2024, Eva was chosen as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum. Alongside a diverse community of public, private, and non-profit leaders, she commits herself to a learning journey with like-minded peers, addressing the intersectionality of human and environmental health, and pioneering new models of leadership.

She holds an Honors Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Biotechnology from the University of Toronto and is a graduate of INSEAD Business School's General Management program.

FrancescaColombo, M.Sc., is Head of the Health Division atthe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In thiscapacity, she leads OECD work on health, which aims at providinginternationally comparable data on health and health systems and applyingeconomic analysis to health policies, advising policy makers, stakeholders andcitizens on how to respond to demands for more and better health care and makehealth systems more resilient and people centred. Major activities of the OECDHealth Division cover the response to the COVID-19 crisis and solutions to makehealth systems more resilient; trends in health spending; measuring of healthcare outcomes, activities and inputs; health care quality policies; assessinghealth system efficiency and value for money; health workforce; long-term caresystems and ageing; the economics of public health; pharmaceutical policies,new technologies, big data and Artificial Intelligence in health(http://www.oecd.org/health). Ms Colombo is a member of the Lancet Commissionon COVID-19, the Advisory Committee of the European Health Forum Gastein, theFrench government’s Commission des comptes de la santé, and served as co-chair ofthe WEF Global Future Council on Health and Health Care, and otherinternational advisory panels. Mrs Colombo has over 25 years of experienceleading international activities on health and health systems. Over her career,she travelled extensively in Europe, South America and Asia, advisinggovernments on health system policies and reforms.

Igor Rudan is a Professor at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and Chair in International Health and Molecular Medicine. He is the Joint Director of the Centre for Global Health and the WHO Collaborating Centre at the University of Edinburgh. He is also the President of the International Society of Global Health and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Global Health. He published more than 600 research papers and 15 books/monographs, which have received more than 220,000 citations to date. In his international health efforts to reduce global child mortality, he served as a consultant of the World Health Organization, UNICEF, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The World Bank, Save the Children, and others. His investment priority-setting tools - CHNRI, EQUIST, PATHS and PLANET - have been widely used and they directed billions of dollars of investments in global health and development. Prof. Rudan was listed among “Croatian Persons of the Year” by the major Croatian newspapers in 2016, 2019 and 2020. He has been awarded >30 national and international research awards and professional recognitions, including Wellcome Trust’s International Research Development Award (2002), “Scientist of the Year” Award from The Croatian Parliament (2005), Visiting Professorship for Senior International Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2012), Chancellor’s Award for Research (2012) and Principal’s Medal for Outstanding service from The University of Edinburgh (2019). He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) in 2016, member of the Academia Europaea in 2022 and European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2023. He published four No. 1 national bestsellers in Croatia in popular science: “The Exact Colour of the Sky” (2017), “Evil Air” (2018), “In the Land of Clans”(2019), and “Awaiting Fires” (2020). He also created a documentary series "Survival: the Story of Global Health" that was broadcasted on television. He is both a Croatian and a British citizen.

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Dr. Izidor Mlakar is a Research Associate at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Maribor, where he also obtained his PhD in electrical engineering. He is a principal investigator of a multidisciplinary HUMADEX Research Group, leading the activities of UM on various Horizon and national projects (AI4HOPE, SOLARIS, SMILE, BIO-STREAMS, HoSmartAI). His research interests include artificial intelligence, embodied conversational agents, use experience etc.

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During his career, Janez Bensa has managed fast-growing businesses in diverse IT-related industries. Acquiring international business experience early in his career, he now runs a business focused 99% on international markets. His passion spans various entrepreneurship fields: business development with innovative models, building strategic alliances, and leading multicultural teams. Career highlights include three successful M&A processes involving Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Strategic partners, establishing them as health tech market leaders in Europe and the UK.

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Nora Ann Colton is the Founder and Director of the UCL Global Business School of Health and Professor of Leadership and Management for Healthcare.  She has a health and development economics background with extensive experience in change management and strategic leadership for healthcare.  Prior to this role, she was the UCL Pro-Vice-Provost (Postgraduate Education) and Joint Director of Education at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital.  

She has also been a visiting professor at the School of Public Administration at the University of Electronic Science and Technology, Chengdu, China, and the American University of Beirut. She has held academic appointments at Drew University in the USA and the University of East London. She has also held a post-doctoral position at the Department of Economics at Harvard University.  Her D.Phil. is from St. Anthony's College, University of Oxford.

Her research focuses on leadership and the new health economy, self-selection bias in healthcare leadership roles, and the relationship between senior managers' backgrounds and organisational performance in healthcare.  

Nora is an educationalist with a particular interest in curriculum development and education strategy. She has supervised several doctoral and master's students and taught at the postgraduate level. She is a sought-after executive education trainer and event speaker focusing on strategic leadership for healthcare.

Dr. Philipp Rösler, a former medical doctor and captain in the German Armed Forces, transitioned to a distinguished career in politics, serving as Deputy-Prime Minister and Minister of Economics, Labour, and Transport in Lower Saxony. He later held key positions in the Federal Government of Germany, including Minister of Health and Vice-Chancellor. In 2013, he joined the Managing Board of the World Economic Forum in Geneva for four years. Now based in Zurich, Switzerland, he continues to thrive in management consulting roles and as a trusted member of various corporate boards.

CEO of HealthAI – The Global Agency for Responsible AI in Health.

Founder & President of ‘UNITE Parliamentarians Network for Global Health’ (present in 110 countries). Chair of the ‘Harvard-Charité Global Health Policy Lab’, an academic collaborative between Harvard University and Charité – University Medicine Berlin, based in Berlin. Chair of the ‘Centre for Global Health’ at NOVA IMS – Data Science School. Former 4-term Member of Parliament (Portugal) and former Vice President of the Social Democrats Parliamentary Board. Current opposition City Councilor of Sintra (Mayoral candidate 2021) and Former Deputy Mayor of Cascais. Medical Doctor trained in Infectious Diseases, with nearly a decade of clinical practice and in health tech advisory services. Post-graduate studies Johns Hopkins University, Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Medical School. Founder of ‘CREATING HEALTH – Research and Innovation Funding’. Author of the book “A Road to the Cure – Proposals to Fix the Portuguese Health System”, among others.

Steve Harding is Vice President and Strategic Customer Advisor at ServiceNow, a Fortune 500 business operating in the Software Industry.

Steve has had a distinguished career spanning Financial Services, Telecommunications and Technology, starting his career as a UK Chartered Accountant.

Steve is also an active Board Member at a UK not-for-profit called Peace One Day who are dedicated to driving conversations on topics critical to humanities progress.

Professor Stjepan Orešković serves as the President of the Supervisory Board at IEDC-Bled School of Management, with a career that encompasses scientific research, academia, and business leadership.

As a advocate for the transformative power of education in societal and business contexts, Prof. Orešković also holds the position of full professor at the Zagreb School of Medicine. He is founder and director of the WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Strategic Information.

His pedagogical and advisory journey includes collaborationa with and contributions to educational and research instituions such as the London School of Economics and Political Science, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Università Bocconi, Università di Trieste, Sorbonne, and the University of Ljubljana and fellowships at Harvard Medical School, the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital HMS associate, and Indiana University – IUPUI.

Prof. Orešković's scholarly contributions comprise 156 peer-reviewed publications, published by Springer, Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell, Pergamon, and Cambridge University Press. He was conducting 14 international reasearch projects as the principal investigator including the Pfizer Global Grand Project a smoking cessation study involving 70+ teams from Harvard, Ljubljana and Zagreb Medical Schools.

Prof. Orešković is a majority shareholder of the M+ Group. The M+ Group's workforce of over 14,700 individuals  in CX, IT, E-commerce, and HR, servicing 300 companies in 32 languages worldwide.

His advised international bodies such as the World Bank, the European Commission DG Science, and the World Health Organization.

Tanja Španic is a professional patient advocate and current president of Europa Donna Slovenia and past president of Europa Donna - The European Breast Cancer Coalition. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 26. A year after her diagnosis, she joined EuropaDonna Slovenia. Since then, she is an active breast cancer advocate nationally and internationally - BCY, EBCC, OlympiA, POSITIVE trials, and ESMO groups. Tanja is Member of EBCTCG, Lancet Oncology, and various Slovenian health committees. She co-authored multiple breast cancer papers. She holds a  PhD in molecular and behavioural neuroscience.

Tjaša Sobočan serves as an advisor to the minister within the Ministry of Digital Transformation in Slovenia. Her focus areas are digital inclusion, digital skills, and digital health, demonstrating her commitment to building a future where everyone benefits from technology. She was appointed as a member of Strategic Council for Health under the Prime Minister's Office in early 2023. Tjaša is currently pursuing a PhD in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital skills at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, and holds a MA in Diplomacy and BA in International Relations. Her passion towards digitalization and lifelong learning led her to professionalize in the field of new digital technologies and digital skills. Tjaša's career path includes a consistent focus on bridging the digital divide in remote rural areas and education sector. She has also championed entrepreneurship for (tech) startups and SMEs. Previously, she co-founded a social enterprise that fostered intergenerational cooperation to equip seniors with digital skills. Additionally, she played a key role in establishing the national Digital Innovation Hub Slovenia, a platform that connects and empowers stakeholders in the digital transformation process. She actively participates in national and international programs as well as conferences, seeking to drive positive change through technology. To the day, she is an active mentor to young professionals in Slovenia and the region.

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Vladimir Gligorijević got his PhD in computer science in 2017 from Imperial College London and after the postdoctoral fellowship at the Flatiron Institute in New York, he started his industrial career at Prescient Design. After Prescient’s acquisition by Genentech in 2021, he joined gRED as a Senior Director to lead a group of extraordinarily talented computational biologists and machine learning scientists and engineers focusing on computational protein design.

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