Since 2011, Iordanis Arzimanoglou has been Strategic Advisor to Management at the molecular diagnosis company Genomedica SA (www.genomedica.gr), involved mainly in monitoring trends in global biopharmaceuticals (www.nature.com/biopharmadealmakers/pdf/feature_antibody_web.pdf), personalized medicine, complex science and economics, as well as the forging of strategic alliances for the company. Before this, he was CEO at Alexander Innovation Zone, SA, Thessaloniki, a post to which he was appointed by open public competition in 2007. As CEO he was responsible for drafting a strategic plan, was the main rapporteur at more than 40 Board Meetings of the company, constantly liaised with shareholders and ministries, designed and coordinated all necessary measures to set up the necessary operating framework for the Zone (inclusion criteria and business installation incentives) and, finally networked the Zone and the (www.sciencebusiness.net/pdfs/press/181208_Aristotle_joins_tech_network.pdf) Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with contacts abroad. He also brought executives from Boeing to Thessaloniki to meet with researchers and learn about the technologies they were developing, in order to increase commercial exploitation of home-grown research. To the same end, he participated in an initiative to transfer expertise to Greece from US biotech companies (www.fondationsante.org/PDFs/Colloquium2007_Alexandroupolis.pdf). He resigned from this position in 2011 (www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/06/athens-diary-greece-election-0).
From 2003 to 2006, he was CEO at Biomedico Forum/ Aarhus Biotechnology Cluster (http://www.incuba.dk/files/BioMedico_Forum_-_historie.pdf), jointly owned by the Regional Authority, Municipality and University of Aarhus, Denmark. He was the main rapporteur at thirty Board Meetings of the organization, designed and implemented the biotech strategy for the whole region of Aarhus, which led to the creation of an RDI of cooperation between local start-ups and a multinational pharmaceutical company, thereby increasing the influence of the Aarhus biocluster in international terms. Before this, he was a biotechnology strategic management consultant to biotech companies and private clinics in Belgium and Greece (2001-2002). Since 2001, he has served repeatedly as an evaluator for competitive research proposals seeking funding from the Research and Innovation (RTD) and Enterprise and Industry (ENTR) DGs of the European Commission. In 2008, he served as an expert evaluator for innovative companies on the European level (www.sciencebusiness.net/news/69934/The-ACES-Selection-Committee).
His academic career began in the National Research Foundation, where he did his dissertation in molecular genetics and biochemistry. After completing his military service, he moved to the USA where he worked as a postdoc researcher at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York (1991-92). He then worked as a researcher in the Genetic Medicine Department of the same college, while completing a three-year specialization at the Molecular Genetics Clinic (1993-96). In 1997, he moved to the Lennox Hill Hospital in New York, where for two years he headed research into cancer genetics in the Department of Gynecology (1998-99). He then returned to Weill Cornell Medical College, in the same city, to become Assistant Professor of Molecular Genetics in the Gynaecology Dept. (1999-2000). In December 2006, he was appointed Adjunct Associate Professor at the Institute of Human Genetics, University of Aarhus, Denmark.
