Annette Bakker, President of the Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF), has leadership experience in both the academic world and pharma/biotech research enterprises in Europe and the US. Intrigued by the observation that the path from great basic discoveries to equally great clinical benefit is bumpy and often inefficient, she joined the Children’s Tumor Foundation in order to try to smooth this path for neurofibromatosis (NF), a rare genetic disorder. Dr. Bakker feels very strongly about involving the patient voice in every initiative since patients are partners rather than victims. She hopes that the CTF will not only benefit patients with NF, but may be of value to the larger rare disease community. Before joining the CTF, Dr. Bakker served as head of the Oncology R&D department for a biotech company in Italy. Dr Bakker has also worked as Oncology Group Leader at Janssen Pharmaceutica, and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Yale University and La Salpetriere, Paris. She has a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Antwerp. Dr. Bakker's research has been internationally recognized by multiple peer-reviewed papers, patents, and awards, and she has extensive experience liaising and negotiating with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.