Iannis Drakos

Driving AI Excellence, Leadership & Change Management, Strategic Advisor

Iannis is accomplished leader with nearly two decades of experience driving digital transformation by leveraging Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Cloud solutions to revolutionize Research & Development in Life Sciences.

He has successfully led AI integration efforts across pharmaceutical, biotech, and public institutions, adeptly navigating complex change management processes during periods of high uncertainty. Iannis has built multiple high-performing teams and programmes, operationalized data and analytics at scale, and delivered first-in-class AI products. His work consistently translates into improved patient outcomes and measurable business growth.

Coming from academia, Iannis has developed deep expertise in the pharmaceutical industry, having served as Head of Data Engineering (Novo Nordisk), Head of Data Science (Lundbeck), member of EFPIA, EMA, and FDA working groups, and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) lead with Pfizer, J&J, Bayer, and AZ.

Iannis' work also includes collaborations with biotech companies (Illumina, Beckman Coulter, BD Biosciences) on software solutions, advancement of Data Science and AI in public institutions (the Danish National Vision for Personalized Medicine, European Society for Clinical Cell Analysis, Sorbonne University, University of Patras), and recognized contributions to open-source communities (EHDEN, OHDSI, i2b2–tranSMART, FHIR, OBO).

In his current role, Iannis continues to provide strategic advisory to pharmaceutical, biotech, and public organizations on data, AI, and digital transformation initiatives, gaining unique insights from Europe, the USA, and Asia.

Iannis holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and has more than 20 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.

“Provide solutions that set trends - don't wait for trends to provide solutions.”