About Us

Biopharma Sustainability Roundtable Team

“I have found the BSRT team very helpful, concise and knowledgeable in providing insights to allow me to have a head-start in defining my sustainability strategy as the CSO.”

Our History and Team

The Biopharma Sustainability Roundtable (BSRT) launched together with the initial SASB (now ISSB) standards for Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals in 2013.  For the first time, biopharma had a sector-focused, materiality-based sustainability forum.

With encouragement from the original participants, Sandor Schoichet and Thomas Scheiwiller decided to repeat the program as an annual peer-to-peer discussion on sustainability-related trends, challenges, and best practices.  In 2015, the Biopharma Sustainability Roundtable expanded to include an ongoing Investor Dialog aimed at improving sustainability communications with the capital markets. Myrto Kontaxi joined the team in 2016.

Every year, we deliver a participant-driven program of online and in-person events, group initiatives, and bespoke advisory services.
Today, the Biopharma Sustainability Roundtable (BSRT) includes most large biotech and pharma companies globally as well as a range of mid-scale biopharmas.  BSRT is recognized as the leading independent biopharma sustainability forum within the sector, and for connecting with its key stakeholders: Investors, Standard setters, Rating organizations, and Trade associations.
 
All BSRT team members also work as independent sustainability/ESG and strategy advisors both within and outside the biopharma sector.

Team Members

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Sandor Schoichet

Co-Founder and Partner, Biopharma Sustainability Roundtable
Director, Meridian Management Consultants

Sandor launched the Biopharma Sustainability Roundtable (BSRT) in 2013, creating a platform to connect biopharma ESG leaders and help address the strategic environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns then coming into focus.

Before launching the BSRT, Sandor’s consulting focused on helping clients achieve strategic, operational, and process improvement objectives. Projects included operations strategy, capital planning, business process design, change management, and implementation program leadership for clients like Amgen, BioMarin, BMS, Genentech, Illumina, and Novartis.
Sandor is also a Director with the Alliance of CEOs, facilitating a quarterly Life Sciences CEO Roundtable and related events, and is an independent advisor to early-stage life science and agbio companies. Previously he was active organizing events with the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB) and mentoring graduate student pitch teams with the UCSF Bioentrepreneurship program.

Prior to starting Meridian Management Consultants in 2009, Sandor worked at the operations strategy firm PRTM (acquired by PwC), the boutique life science advisory firm Acumen Sciences, and as an independent consultant. And before consulting he was an operating manager for IT strategy and implementation at several biotech, web service, and systems integration firms, including Director of Information Sciences for Medical Affairs at Genentech, and CIO for bioinformatics start-up Gorilla Genomics.

Sandor earned EE and MS degrees in Computer Science at MIT, studying AI, process reengineering, and management of innovation. Undergraduate degrees in Information Science and Philosophy are from UC Santa Cruz.

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thomas

Thomas Scheiwiller

Thomas is the co-founder
of the Biopharma Sustainability
Roundtable.

After almost 20 years with one of the Big4 Firms, where he served as the global head of their Sustainability Practice for several years, Thomas now works as an independent Advisor and Board member. He has been ad interim Head of Sustainability and member of Sustainability Committees in large multinational businesses, both listed and family owned.

Thomas is internationally recognized for his expertise in Sustainability, Integrity, Governance, and Compliance. He advises members of the Board of Directors, Senior Executives, and functional leaders in various sectors. Thomas has also worked as a strategic Advisor for several global Consulting businesses.

Besides his role with BSRT, he is a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Advisory Board at the Center for Corporate Reporting CCR.

Thomas has earned a PhD in Physics from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. He is able to work in English, German, French, and Italian.

 

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Myrto Kontaxi

Myrto is a partner
of the Biopharma Sustainability
Roundtable.

Myrto is an independent advisor to companies and organizations on matters related to sustainability and environmental, social, and governance strategy, reporting, and communications. She also brings a multi-year involvement with member-led business organizations such as the CSR Network Hellas. 

From 2005 – 2015, Myrto held leadership positions in CSR and Communications at an international mining and minerals company, where she spearheaded its award-winning sustainability reporting, and CSR programs. In the early 2000s, Myrto created and PwC’s sustainability practice in Greece, establishing a leading position in the then nascent market.

Myrto earned an MBA from the Athens University of Economics and Business (Greece), an MSc in Environmental, Science, Policy, and Planning from the University of Bath (UK), and a BSc in Chemistry from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece).

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