Digital Veterinary Summit 2021

After graduating from the University of Pharmacy of Lyon with a Doctorate and from EM Lyon Business School with an MBA, Jean-Luc Michel started his career by creating his own consultancy company. He joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1991 spending 10 years developing a solid expertise in consumer healthcare and nutrition. During this period, he held a variety of senior marketing and sales management positions in France at Monsanto (Searle) and at Johnson&Johnson / Merck & Co where he was an Executive Committee member of the French subsidiary.

In 2001, Jean-Luc joined Merial, a leader in the animal health industry, where he held some key senior roles, such as EMEA Marketing Director of the Companion Animal Global Enterprise; Head of Marketing EMEA; Executive Marketing Director (Pet Business) in the US; VP, Head of Pet Vet Business Unit; and in 2016 joined the Executive Committee of Merial as Head of Global Commercial Development.

After the acquisition of Merial by Boehringer Ingelheim, Jean-Luc was appointed Head of Global Companion Animal Strategic Business Unit and became a member of the Executive Committee of the Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Business Unit.

Dr. Rhodes has 28 years of accomplishments in human and animal drug discovery, development, biomedical research, and clinical veterinary medicine.

Dr. Rhodes was educated at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (VMD) and Cornell University (PhD). She has 28 years of accomplishments in human and animal drug discovery, development, biomedical research, and clinical veterinary medicine. She has an extensive background in physiology, veterinary medicine, and molecular biology. As a senior research fellow at Merck Research Laboratories for 10 years, she led pre-clinical biology evaluation of several marketed human drugs. Dr. Rhodes practiced clinical veterinary medicine for five years, with experience in both companion and farm animal practice. She worked for Merial Ltd. as director of development projects, leading project teams developing novel compounds for a variety of indications and headed new technology assessment, leading the evaluation of licensing opportunities. In April 2001, she formed AlcheraBio, a consulting, marketing, communications and contract research firm specializing in developing new drugs for animals, working with biotechnology and animal health companies, with clients in the US, European Union, Canada and Australia. AlcheraBio was acquired in 2008 by Argenta, and in 2011, Dr. Rhodes accepted a position as CEO of Aratana Therapeutics, a company developing innovative new medicines for dogs and cats, and subsequently, when the company became public (PETX) served as its Chief Scientific Officer. During her tenure, development was completed on three new pet therapeutics: two new molecules with novel mechanisms of actions were approved by the FDA, and a third drug had FDA registration completed and was approved in August, 2016. She is currently retired and an independent consultant. She is a member of the Board of Directors of ImmuCell (NASDAQ: ICCC) and the Alliance for Contraception in Dogs and Cats, serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Found Animals Foundation. She is an adjunct faculty member in the Graduate Animal Science program at Rutgers University.