Monika Lessl, Bayer AG

Monika Lessl is Executive Director of the Bayer Foundation and Head of Corporate R&D and Social Innovation at Bayer AG. She is a member of Bayer’s Global R&D Executive Committee and the Global Medical and Regulatory Governance committee. Her focus is on driving organizational and societal transformation by strengthening the role of science and promoting innovation and sustainability through strategic initiatives, governance processes and partnerships.

She is a Board member of the Futurium, Berlin’s museum of the future and acts as a jury member of the European Innovation Council and the German Ministry of Science and Education. She holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, a Diploma in General Management from Ashridge Business School, London and is a former fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation. Next to her research work she published a number of articles on collaborative innovation, entrepreneurship and business transformation in leading journals like Harvard Business Review. She and her team were awarded as finalists for the “Master of Reinvention Award” of the London Business School” in 2018 and “The best Innovation team award” by Fast Company in 2020.