Annette Bakker | CEO
Childrens Tumor Foundation

ANNETTE BAKKER, Ph.D., CEO — CHILDREN’S TUMOR FOUNDATION (CTF), Chair (ad interim) of CTF Europe Annette Bakker, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, was an academic researcher for ten years - University Antwerp, Yale Medical School, and the Myology Institute Paris. Following this, she accumulated 15 years of experience in multiple executive leadership positions in Oncology R&D in big pharma and biotech. She holds over 50 publications and 5 patents (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8420-7831). Motivated by the realization that numerous groundbreaking discoveries fail to translate into clinical benefit, she joined the Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF) in 2011 to deploy CTF's talent, time, and treasure (TTT) to help bridge the gaps between scientific discoveries and clinical benefits, particularly focusing on neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic disorder. In 2022, she was decorated Officer in the Order of Leopold by the king of Belgium for her bold approach and dedication to improving patients' lives. Annette strongly believes that patient-centric research foundations hold a unique position in the R&D ecosystem. Organizations, such as CTF, are trusted partners for all stakeholders, with the same sense of urgency as the patients. As FasterCures Changemaker and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative mentor, Annette is deeply committed to constructing an enterprise that not only benefits patients with NF but serves as a model for expediting drug discovery and development within the broader rare disease community.