Mehdi is a drug development expert and a R&D leader with broad experience from translational through clinical development, filing, registration and commercialisation. He was SVP and Chief Medical Officer at Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), leading clinical development, medical affairs, regulatory affairs, pharmacovigilance, biostatistics and quality across the complete portfolio and all phases. He oversaw the successful first in man transition of more than 30 NME's and the submission and regulatory approval of multiple compounds in different therapeutics areas. In his earlier years at BI, he led the clinical development of oncology programs from phase I to successful global filing, registration and launch. He later assumed oversight of BI's expanding oncology portfolio as Global Head of Medicine, Oncology. After studying Medicine, Mehdi completed his specialist training in Clinical Oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. He has many years of experience in patient care as a practicing oncologist and in academia as a senior clinical research fellow at the Institute of Cancer Research, London with numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals and presentations in major conferences. He also held positions as Medical Director of Oncology at PRA International and Medical Expert, Oncology at Novartis UK. Mehdi served as board member for the Innovation Committee at EFPIA and at TransCelerate, as well as having been a member of PhRMA R&D Leadership Forum.