Monika Lessl Monika Lessl, PhD Biochemistry, Dipl. General Management; Head of External Innovation Therapeutics at Global External Innovation & Alliances Bayer Healthcare
Monika Lessl is head of External Innovation Therapeutics at Global External Innovation & Alliances at Bayer HealthCare in Berlin, Germany. She is responsible for the initiation and management of strategic alliances with academic and biotech partners, the development of collaboration strategies as well as the establishment of novel and innovative partnership models and open innovation approaches.
Prior to her function in Alliance Management she was CEO of the Ernst Schering Foundation, where she established innovative programs to promote emerging research areas and excellent young scientists in the biomedical sciences. She spent 8 years as a scientist and lab head in the research laboratories of Schering AG performing drug development in the area of Women’s Health Care. She holds a PhD degree in Biochemistry from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin and a Diploma in General Management from Ashridge Business School London. She served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the British council and is a former fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation. In 2012 she received the BHC GDD Award for Collaborative Innovation. Her research interests focus on innovation sourcing strategies and success factors for value generating collaborations between industry, academia and biotech. She has published a number of articles regarding collaborative innovation and acts as a reviewer for leading journals such as Nature Biotechnology.