AI Buyers and Builders

Panelists

Brian Cantwell

Vice President, Head of AI, Bayer Pharmaceuticals

Brian Cantwell is Vice President, Head of AI, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, where he drives AI strategy and execution for the U.S. Pharma business. With more than 15 years of experience in marketing innovation and digital transformation, Brian is at the forefront of integrating AI into enterprise workflows to unlock new levels of efficiency, personalization, and performance.

Since joining Bayer, Brian has led an award-winning team spanning digital strategy, media activation, content and campaign services, and marketing operations. He pioneered Bayer’s in-housing initiatives, making it the first pharmaceutical company to fully in-house digital media, delivering major gains in ROI and engagement while reducing costs. Prior to Bayer, Brian held senior roles at Biogen, where he built the Multichannel Excellence team, and at Accenture, where he led digital transformation programs for pharmaceutical clients. He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan and a BA from Harvard and is passionate about innovation and shaping the future of AI in healthcare.

Tarun Mehra

Partner, Microsoft

Tarun Mehra is a Partner at Microsoft, where he leads Strategy & Partnerships for Healthcare industry segment and for Microsoft Dragon Copilot. In this role, he drives AI-first strategic growth initiatives, fosters innovation, and forges transformative partnerships across the healthcare ecosystem, including operators, innovators, and investors. He is deeply committed to helping healthcare orgs address critical industry challenges through cutting edge technologies including Microsoft's Cloud, AI, and Dragon Copilot platforms. He is also a senior industry advisor to M12 (Microsoft's venture arm) & Microsoft for Startups and represents the firm on LPAC of select fund investments, supporting healthcare-related investments and innovation ecosystem.

Previously, he was VP of Strategy, M&A, and Partnerships at Nuance Communications (before Microsoft acquisition), where he helped expand its clinical documentation portfolio, including the Dragon ambient platform. Tarun also brings nearly two decades of experience in senior management consulting roles, advising healthcare orgs, technology leaders and investors on growth, innovation, M&A, and transformation. He previously served as an Associate Partner at Monitor Group (now part of Deloitte). Prior to that Tarun led the healthcare strategy practice at Fuld & Co, where he was also the founder and CEO of one of the firm’s subsidiaries prior to its exit. He began his career in product development at i2 Technologies before transitioning into business and product strategy at Accenture following his MBA. He is an active industry collaborator and serves in various advisory and governance roles.

He sits on the advisory board of Digital Health Innovation Summit (DHIS), a premier digital health event with a goal to fuel healthcare innovation and collaboration. He holds a B.Tech. degree in mechanical engineering from IIT Delhi and MBA in strategy and innovation from IIM Indore.

Jonathan Kamerman

Enterprise Healthcare Solutions Leader, Philips

Bruce Hashemian

AI Lead, NVIDIA and Chair of Human-AI Interaction at MONAI, NVDIA

Dr. Barry Stein

Founder of Center for AI Innovation in Healthcare at Hartford HealthCare

Annie Weissbach

Principal, Echo Health Ventures