On June 2, 2026, on the occasion of Republic Day, Elisabetta Borello, Co-Founder and VP Strategy & External Relations of Bio4Dreams, was awarded the title of Cavaliere dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana for her contribution to scientific and healthcare innovation in Italy.

A journey rooted in long-standing values

Elisabetta was born in Alessandria and grew up in a family with a strong entrepreneurial vocation. Her paternal grandfather, Amabile Borello, founded Società Marengo in 1905 together with two partners; the company was acquired in 1934 by Montecatini. Her maternal grandfather, Vittorio Giribaldi, was one of the most important construction entrepreneurs in the province of Alessandria. Those values — constant commitment, vision, passion, and pragmatism — have deeply shaped both her professional and personal path.

After completing classical studies, she graduated in Business Administration, specializing in Public Administration Economics, at Bocconi University, with a thesis developed in the field at the National Cancer Institute of Milan. This marked the beginning of a journey entirely dedicated to healthcare, frontier research, and innovation.

She worked at the Centro Diagnostico Italiano and, in an executive role, at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. For more than fifteen years, she supported the Medical Directorate of Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza Hospital in San Giovanni Rotondo, specializing in the reengineering of complex clinical processes and in the design of information systems for areas with high technological and organizational intensity.

In 2000, together with Pietro Conti, whom she had met while working on major projects developed with San Raffaele, she founded IMS – Istituto di Management Sanitario, a company specialized in public and private healthcare consulting, as well as in design activities and Grant Office services.

In the following years, together with Pietro Conti and Daniele Cusi, she founded other innovative ventures in the Life Sciences, including Kos Genetic and Sanipedia, also entering the world of academic and university spin-offs.

This marked the beginning of a path increasingly focused on supporting new entrepreneurial initiatives created by young talents, technology transfer, and the valorization of scientific research results.

Bio4Dreams and the creation of an ecosystem

In 2017, thanks to her meeting with Laura Iris Ferro, a successful entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical sector, she founded Bio4Dreams, officially launched at MUDEC in February 2018. The goal was clear: to foster youth entrepreneurship in Italy, especially female entrepreneurship, and to industrialize the innovation process. Supporting young scientists and entrepreneurial ideas along the journey from research to market — particularly in the sectors covered by Bio4Dreams, namely pharma biotech, MedTech, digital health, and biodiversity — requires long development timelines and highly specialized expertise. These are the challenges on which Bio4Dreams has grown and developed at both national and international level.

Today, Bio4Dreams, with its headquarters at MIND, Milano Innovation District, 12 offices in Italy, and 3 presences in international hubs, is positioned as a leading player in technology transfer in the Life Sciences. At the heart of Elisabetta’s work are areas with high social and scientific impact, with particular attention to rare diseases, neuroscience, and oncological conditions, together with a constant focus on improving people’s quality of life.

The recognition conferred on Elisabetta is a sign of appreciation for those who work every day to transform scientific research into enterprise in Italy and to generate real impact on people’s wellbeing and health.

“I am honored to receive this important recognition, and I would like to share it with all the wonderful people I have met throughout my professional and entrepreneurial journey, which has always been driven by a strong and unwavering passion to make the extraordinary scientific discoveries born in the world of research concrete, so that they can produce tangible results for the improvement of our lives.”

Elisabetta Borello, Co-Founder, VP Strategy & External Relations, Bio4Dreams