Steering Committee members

Steering Committee is the highest decision-making body for FinnGen. The committee has a representative from the University of Helsinki, each biobank and each pharma partner.
A group photo of the members of the FinnGen Steering Committee in Helsinki, 2023.

Members of the Steering Committee

Co-chair: FinBB: Mervi Ahlroth, CEO of Finnish Biobanks, FinBB

Arctic Biobank: Minna Ruddock, Research Director, University of Oulu and Director of the Arctic Biobank

Auria Biobank: Lila Kallio, Director, Auria Biobank

Borealis Biobank: Teija Kekonen, Director of Research, Development and Innovation, POHDE

Central Finland Biobank: Jari Laukkanen, Cardiologist, Head of the Department, Central Finland Health Care District, KSSHP

Professor, University of Eastern Finland 

Eastern Finland Biobank: Veli-Matti Kosma, Biobank Director, Eastern Finland Biobank, Professor, University of Eastern Finland

Finnish Red Cross Blood Service: Pia Siljander, Research Director, Finnish Red Cross Blood Service

HUS: Taneli Raivio, Research Director, Professor, HUS

Tampere Biobank: Kati Kristiansson, Director of Research and Development, The Wellbeing Services County of Pirkanmaa

THL Biobank: Markus Perola, Research Professor, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare

University of Helsinki: Tomi Mäkelä, Professor, Director, Finnish Cancer Center FICAN, Executive Officer, iCAN flagship, University of Helsinki

 

Co-chairs: Bayer: Santha Ramakrishnan, VP and Head of R&D Data Strategy and Governance & Alix Berton, Vice President, Head of Translational Sciences 

Abbvie: Bridget Riley-Gills, Principal Research Scientist

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals: Neelroop Parikshak, Director, Next Wave Research

Astra Zeneca: Coralie Viollet, Director - Respiratory & Immunology (R&I) Genomics Therapy Area Lead

Biogen: Ellen Tsai, Statistical Geneticist, Scientific Director

BMS: Emily Holzinger, Senior Director of Statistical Genetics

Boehringer Ingelheim: Zhihao Ding, Global Head of Human Genetics and Head of Animal Health Genomics

Genentech: Mark McCarthy, Principal Fellow and Executive Director Human Genetics

GSK: Jonathan Davitte, Senior Director, Translational Genetics and Phenomics

Johnson & Johnson: Dawn Waterworth, Senior Director

Maze Therapeutics: Karol Estrada, VP Translational Genomics

Merck: Chia Yen-Chen, Statistical Team Lead

Novartis: Chris O´Donnell, VP, Global Translational Medicine Head (Cardiovascular and Metabolism)

Pfizer: Melis Atalar Aksit, Senior Computational Geneticist

Sanofi: Katherine Klinger, Sr. Vice President Genetics and Genomics and Presidential Fellow