Andrea Mills is the Chief Innovation Officer of SThealth Ventures, the technology scouting and venture investment vehicle of a European industrial conglomerate with global businesses in automotive, surgical and imaging technologies robotics, telecom.
As a board-level strategist reporting directly to the Group’s Chairman, he is responsible for orchestrating external innovation efforts, screening acquisition targets, licensing IP, sourcing novel technologies, building multidisciplinary capabilities for new products, and global talent acquisition of highly-specialized knowledge and expertise.
Before that, for 7 years he served as Chief Technology Intelligence Advisor of Zcube (the corporate venture arm of Zambon Pharmaceuticals) in North America, in charge of scouting emerging technologies and early-stage investments in drug delivery, medical devices, point-of-care diagnostics, bio-imaging systems, wearable biosensors, e-health. At Zcube, he co-designed a search & development model for Open Innovation that allows the de-risking of unincorporated early-stage technologies in a very capital-efficient way.
Prior to corporate venturing and technology scouting, for 10 years he engaged in knowledge management consulting and innovation strategy for multinational clients active in pharmaceuticals, energy, oil&gas, telecommunications, banking, software, academia – both in the U.S. and Europe.
He played advisory roles for institutions such as the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Italian Ministry of Industry. He advised high-tech startups in various sectors ranging from Internet software, clean technologies and digital health, and he contributed to a multi-year effort aimed at promoting transatlantic technology and knowledge transfer between the United States and Europe.