Dr. Michael Altorfer is the CEO of the Swiss Biotech Association since 2018. He has more than 20 years of experience in the life science industry comprising both big pharma and smaller biotech organizations. As a member of the Executive Committee, he supported the build-up of Polyphor Ltd in Allschwil in many different roles (Head BD&L, CFO, COO and CEO). Michael started his career as a scientist in pharmaceutical research at Sandoz, Ciba-Geigy (Summit, NJ, USA), and Roche. From 1996 to 2001 he held program management and line management roles at the investment bank UBS Warburg. Michael studied Natural Sciences at the ETH and he obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Dr. H.-J. Hansen (University of Zurich) and Prof. Dr. K. Müller (Roche) and holds an MBA degree from the University of Rochester, NY, USA.