Elena Sgaravatti

Graduated in Pharmacy from the University of Padua, she has gained 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical sector, starting her career in the field of neuroscience by developing and launching an innovative line of nutraceuticals based on botanicals at Fidia in 1992.

Since 1999, he worked at the multinational Glaxo Welcome as Business Development Senior Manager, actively collaborating with the Neuroscience Research Center of Excellence, serving as the Italian Representative of the Center of Excellence at the headquarters in the UK. Among the founders of the Italian Association for Pharmaceutical Business Development and Licensing (now Italy HLG), of which she was Vice President from 2001 to 2003, also at GSK, she held roles in the direction of the Neuroscience and Vaccines Business Units.

In 2009 he left GSK to take on the role of General Manager for the relaunch of a biotechnology company IRB - Institute of Biotechnological Research. Two years after his arrival, he filed 7 new patents and the company was mentioned by Il Sole 24 Ore among the 100 excellences of the New Made in Italy for innovation. It also won the "Business Environment Award for Best Process and Technology" as well as the First Prize for Best Product Quality and Safety at the Business Technology and Nutraceutical Award in 2011. It then obtained first place in the Regional Public Competition with the Vegecell research project in collaboration with the CNR of Padua. The company he led was the first and only in Europe to obtain European authorization for three different ingredients for nutritional supplements from plant cell cultures.

In 2012, he personally oversaw the acquisition by the multinational Croda International plc, becoming its Chief Executive Officer until June 2016.

In 2016, together with the entrepreneur Mauro Fanin, the financier of the project and president of Cereal Docks Group, Demethra Biotech S.r.l. was founded, an innovative green research start-up, 100% Italian, specializing in the research and development of active ingredients from plant crops, to be used in the Health care, Food, and Personal care sectors.

Thanks to the CROP ® platform, developed by you and your Research group, which allows for the total abolition of the use of solvents and pesticides in the production of plant-based actives and a saving of resources such as water and soil about 1000 times lower than required by traditional crops, in 2017 you obtained funding from the MISE and the Veneto Region for research, development, and innovation projects of strategic relevance for the revitalization of the competitiveness of the production system that significantly contributed to the establishment of Demethra Biotech Srl in the current production setup, capable of generating approximately 2.5 tons of ferment per day by the end of 2021. The project also involves close collaboration with CREA, the Ministry of Health, and several university institutes for the implementation of public/private collaboration projects in the pharmaceutical field.

Currently he is the president of Planta rei, a company specializing in plant biotechnology with a particular focus on enhancing the biodiversity of the Italian flora.

He is the inventor of 12 patents. He is, for the second term, a Member of the Presidency Committee of Assobiotec-Federchimica and also the Coordinator of the Communication Group for Assobiotec. He is part of the academic guidance committee of the University of Medical Biotechnologies in Modena and is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Bioinnova Cluster (Veneto Biological Cluster) which, within the INNOPOS project, is responsible for repopulating, after the VAIA storm, the municipalities of the Asiago Plateau with native plants at risk of extinction. Since 2019, he has been a member of the working group for the accreditation and evaluation of the Master's Degree Course in Food Biotechnology at the Agripolis University in Padua.