Governing Board

The Governing Board is the main decision-making body of IHI and is ultimately responsible for ensuring that IHI achieves its objectives, as set out in the legislation creating IHI. As such, the board’s tasks include:

taking measures to deliver on IHI’s objectives and monitoring progress on this;
setting IHI’s strategic orientation and operations and supervising the implementation of IHI’s activities;
ensuring IHI’s activities are aligned with those of other EU programmes;
supervising the implementation of IHI’s activities;
adopting key documents such as the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and financial rules as well as the annual budgets, work plans, and staffing plans;
appointing and monitoring the performance of the Executive Director;
assessing applications from potential associated members and contributing partners.

How the board works

The board is made up of four representatives of the EU and four representatives of the industry partners. The chairperson is appointed annually, with the role alternating between an EU representative and an industry representative. The current chair is Irene Norstedt of the European Commission, and the Vice-Chair is Nathalie Virag of Medtronic Global Technology and Innovation (MedTech Europe).

The board meets at least twice per year. Voting rights are split 50/50 between the EC and the industry partners and decisions are adopted by consensus (or at least by a majority of 75% of the votes).

Details of how the Governing Board works are set out in the Governing Board rules of procedure.

The board has eight members – four from the European Commission (EC), and one from each of the industry partners, i.e. COCIR, EFPIA (including Vaccines Europe), EuropaBio, and MedTech Europe. The current members are:

Representatives of the European Commission

Irene Norstedt - Director, Directorate “People” within the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation | CV | Declaration of interests
Kristin Schreiber - Director, Directorate Ecosystems I: Chemicals, Food, Retail, Health within the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs | CV | Declaration of interests
Lorena Boix-Alonso - Director, Directorate Digital Society, Trust and Cybersecurity within the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology | CV | Declaration of interests
Rainer Becker - Deputy Director General for Health responsible for Directorates B, C and D - Medical Products and Innovation within the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety | CV

Representatives of the industry partners

Salah-Dine Chibout - Global Head of External Partnerships & Head of Oncology Therapeutic Area in Preclinical Safety, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical research (NIBR) & Chair of the Research & Innovation Strategy Group (RIS), EFPIA | CV | Declaration of interests
Annabel Seebohm - Secretary General, COCIR | CV | Declaration of interests
Claire Skentelbery - Director General, EuropaBio | CV | Declaration of interests
Nathalie Virag - Head of External Funding at Medtronic Global Technology and Innovation, Chair of Medtech Europe Research & Innovation Committee | CV | Declaration of interests

Alternate members of the Governing Board

Patrick Boisseau - Director General, Strategic Initiatives, MedTech Europe | CV | Declaration of interests
Magda Chlebus - Executive Director, Science Policy & Regulatory Affairs, EFPIA | CV | Declaration of interests
Casper Garos - Head of Public-Private Partnerships, Philips & Chair of COCIR Research & Innovation Focus Group | CV | Declaration of interests
Flora Giorgio - Acting Head of Unit – Medical devices within the Directorate-General for Health and Food safety | CV | Declaration of interests
Carmen Laplaza-Santos - Head of Unit – Health Innovations within the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation | CV | Declaration of interests
Giacomo Mattinó - Head of Unit – Food, Retail, Health within the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs | CV | Declaration of interests
Vlad Olteanu - Healthcare Public Affairs Director, EuropaBio | CV | Declaration of interests
Saila Rinne - Acting Head of Unit - eHealth, Well-Being and Ageing within the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology | CV | Declaration of interest

Key documents

Details of how the Governing Board works are set out in the Governing Board rules of procedure (amended by GB decision of 14 August 2023, N° IHI-GB-DEC-2023-21).