The new board of the Lombardy Life Sciences Cluster has been elected, with Gabriele Pelissero appointed as President, succeeding Silvio Garattini, and Riccardo Palmisano as Vice President.

Gabriele Pelissero has been a Full Professor of Hygiene and Healthcare Organisation at the University of Pavia since 2000. Within the university, Professor Pelissero holds several positions: Director of the Postgraduate School of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, President of the Class 1 of Nursing and Midwifery Health Professions, Director of the Interuniversity Centre for Human Ecology, and Director of the Hygiene Unit of the Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine.

Professor Pelissero is also President of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Vice President of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, and holds several national leadership roles: National President of the Italian Association of Private Hospitals (AIOP), President of the assembly of the European Union of Private Hospitals, National Vice President of the National Association of Hospital Medical Directors (ANMDO), Vice President of the Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lombardia, National Councillor of Confindustria, and President of the GM Sanità of Assolombarda.

Author of approximately 200 scientific publications in national and international journals, as well as scientific treatises and monographs on healthcare organisation, Professor Pelissero’s scientific work is primarily focused on epidemiology, healthcare organisation and management, and the evaluation of health systems and services.

Riccardo Palmisano is President of Assobiotec and Chief Executive Officer of MolMed S.p.A., a biotech research, development, and manufacturing company listed on the Milan Stock Exchange. He holds a degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Parma.

He has thirty years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, having begun his career in the Italian industry before extending his expertise to multinational corporations. He started in 1986 at Farmitalia Carlo Erba, before moving to the Menarini Group, where for over 10 years he contributed to the development and internationalisation of the leading Italian pharmaceutical group, becoming Director of the Italian Pharmaceutical Division in 1993 and General Manager of Lusofarmaco in 1995.

In 2000, he founded the Italian subsidiary of Shire Pharmaceutical, serving as its Managing Director and General Manager, and in 2003 he was appointed Vice President of the Commercial Retail Market at GlaxoSmithKline in Verona. Finally, in 2005, he was appointed Vice President & General Manager for Italy at Genzyme, an American biotech company specialising in the research and development of orphan drugs for rare diseases. Following Genzyme's acquisition by Sanofi, he also took on the role of Business Strategy & Development Director at Sanofi Italia (2012-2013). Between 2014 and 2015, before joining MolMed, he served as non-executive President of Genzyme and President of Siena Biotech, as well as a member of the Steering Committee of Rare Partners, a social enterprise, and as a consultant for several innovative life sciences start-ups. He has been with Assobiotec since 2008, becoming Vice President for the Health Area in 2010 and President for the 2016-2019 term in March 2016.