Dr. Ralf Clemens, MD, PhD serves as Senior Vice President at GRID Rio (Global Research in Infectious Diseases) and advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Clemens served as a Senior Vice President and Head of Development for Global Vaccine Business Unit at Takeda Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. from January 2012 to December 1, 2014. Dr. Clemens has been working in vaccine industry since 1988 in various senior scientific and business positions such as Head of GSK Biologicals’ vaccine development and Latin American business and thereafter leading the global vaccine development at Novartis. In these years, he developed and brought to licensure more than 25 different vaccines globally. Dr. Clemens served as the Head of Development – Novartis Vaccines of Novartis AG. He served as Vice President Global Clinical R&D of GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines and of GSK’s Pharmaceuticals and Vaccines in Latin America. He serves as the Chairman of Scientific Advisory Board at CureVac GmbH. He has been a Member of Supervisory Board at Valneva SE since July 2016. He has been a Member of supervisory board at CureVac AG since March 2016. He was member of the advisory board of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, Korea. He served as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board – Prophylactic Vaccines at CureVac GmbH since July 2015. Dr. Clemens is the author of more than 150 publications and 250 presentations in the fields of vaccines, immunization and tropical medicine. He serves as external scientific advisor to the Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool and to Aeras. He graduated in medicine with MD at the University of Mainz, Germany and holds an executive business degree from the Wharton Business School, Philadelphia, US.