Board
| Prof. Dr. Erich Schlick | Chairman of the Board of Directors |
| Jean-Philippe Tripet, CFA | Vice Chairman |
| Neil Goldsmith | CEO and Managing Director |
| Claus Braestrup | Member |
| Dr. Ganesh Kishore | Member |
| Michel Pettigrew, MBA | Member |
| Nicole Dubois | Member |
| Dr. Stuart Strathdee | Member |
| Sir Tom McKillop | Member |
Prof. Dr. Erich Schlick, German national, born in 1952.
Dr. Schlick has over 25 years of experience in the healthcare sector. He spent five years at the US National Cancer Institute, and over 15 years with BASF Pharma, including ten years as the executive board member responsible for worldwide R&D. Dr. Schlick established BASF Pharma's immunology business, and its U.S. biotech centre specializing in immunology and monoclonal antibodies. From 2001 to September 2005, Dr. Schlick worked for 3i, where his last position was head of 3i's Healthcare Team in Germany and as Deputy Head of 3i Healthcare Worldwide. In September 2005, Dr. Schlick joined Wellington Partners as a General Partner of the Wellington Life Science Fund. Dr. Schlick is a qualified medical doctor and a professor of immune pharmacology at the University of Heidelberg. His other board memberships include Immatics (Germany), Sensimed (Switzerland), Symetis (Switzerland) and Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit, Mannheim, University of Heidelberg (University Center for Psychiatry). Dr. Schlick's past board memberships include the German companies Paion, Trigen, MBDsys and Elara.
Jean-Philippe Tripet, CFA, Swiss national, born in 1963.
Mr. Tripet has over 15 years in healthcare venture experience. He is the Chairman and Managing Partner of Aravis Venture, a Swiss leading venture capital firm, which he founded in 2001. Previously, Mr. Tripet served as Senior Executive Vice President of Lombard Odier & Cie, where he headed Equity Asset Management and Research worldwide and also co-founded and headed the Lombard Odier Immunology Fund. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Equity Research at Union Bank of Switzerland, Zurich and London. Mr. Tripet received his Master in business administration from the University of Geneva. Mr. Tripet's other board memberships include: Omeros (USA), Merlion (Singapore), S Bio (Singapore), Symetis (Lausanne, Switzerland), Telormedix (Lugano, Switzerland), Synosia (Basel, Switzerland), and Fondation Fournier-Majoie pour l'Innovation (Belgium). He was previously a director of Combinature (Germany), Borean (Denmark), ESBATech (Switzerland) and Athelas (Switzerland).
Neil Goldsmith, British national, domiciled in Switzerland, born in 1963.
Neil Goldsmith co-founded Evolva SA and has been a member of the Board of Directors of Evolva SA and its Chief Executive Officer since April 2004. Mr. Goldsmith has a 22 year track record in building successful biotech companies from the ground up. He was a co-founder of TopoTarget A/S and Personal Chemistry AB (now called Biotage AB), which are now listed on the Copenhagen and Stockholm exchanges, respectively. Prior to that, Mr. Goldsmith was CEO of Auda Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Phytera Inc.), GX Biosystems and PNA Diagnostics (acquired by Boehringer Mannheim). Previously he was VP Business Development for Pharmacia Biosensor (later BIAcore AB), and a Board Member of Quadrant Healthcare. Mr. Goldsmith started his career in biotech at Scientific Generics in Cambridge, UK after a short spell in consumer marketing. He received a First Class Honours BA Degree in Zoology from Balliol College, University of Oxford, and is a graduate of the New Enterprise Program at the Scottish Enterprise Foundation, University of Stirling.
Claus Braestrup, Danish national, born in 1945.
Claus Braestrup holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering and a MSc in Biochemistry. He is Doctor of Medical Science and former Adjunct Professor in Neuroscience at the University of Copenhagen. He started his career in research and consultancy positions. He then moved to Novo Nordisk A/S, where he served as Vice President of Pharmaceutical Research, President of the CNS Division and President of the Diabetes Care Division. He subsequently took the post of Head of Preclinical Drug Research at Schering AG, before joining H. Lundbeck A/S as Executive Vice President, Research and Development. From 2003 – 2008 he was President and CEO of H. Lundbeck A/S. Claus Braestrup is member of the board of the University of Copenhagen, Bavarian Nordic A/S and Santaris A/S.
Dr. Ganesh Kishore, US national, born in 1953.
Dr. Kishore received his PhD in biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science after which he pursued postdoctoral research in chemistry and biology at The University of Texas at Austin. In 1980, he joined Monsanto where he held senior positions in the areas of biotechnology and in the Nutrition and Consumer Products division. During his tenure at Monsanto he was involved in the development of major products such as Aspartame (the active ingredient of several major sweetener products) as well as a key agricultural crop protection technology. Dr. Kishore joined DuPont in 2002 as the Chief Technology Officer for its Agriculture and Nutrition Platform and took over the role of Chief Biotechnology Officer for the company in 2005. He left DuPont in 2007 to join Burrill & Company as a Managing Director for Burrill Life Sciences Venture Fund. Mr. Kishore is currently CEO of MLSCF, one of the core shareholders of Abunda, Inc. and serves on Abunda’s Board. His other mandates include Advanta Ltd., Kaiima, Gevo, Inc., Glori Oil and Akermin. Moreover he is in the board of several academic institutions. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of Vitis, Phyton and Embrex.
Michel Pettigrew, MBA, Canadian national, domiciled in Switzerland, born in 1953.
Michel Pettigrew has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2007. Mr. Pettigrew started his career in 1976 at Procter & Gamble Inc. in Canada, where he worked in various financial functions. In 1980, he joined the global pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he worked for units in Canada and the United States, as well as in Europe and Asia. Initially, his responsibilities were in Finance, but these rapidly grew to include full business accountability as General Manager of several subsidiaries in different parts of the world. In 2001, Mr. Pettigrew moved to Ferring Pharmaceuticals, a privately owned research-driven speciality biopharmaceutical company. He is currently President, Executive Board & Chief Operating Officer of Ferring Pharmaceuticals, overseeing all sales, marketing and manufacturing activities around the world. Mr. Pettigrew has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and a MBA from York University in Toronto, Canada. He was previously on the Board of Affitech A/S.
Nicole Dubois, US national.
Nicole Dubois is a strategy and management consultant to major European and US corporations, in particular in the healthcare sector. She has at different times worked for BCG, in partnership with the Monitor Group, and independently. She has worked with CEOs and executive committees of global Fortune 500 companies, as well as with entrepreneurial entities and non-profit institutions, spanning organisations as diverse as BellSouth, GE, BP, Novartis, Aventis, Save the Children, World Learning etc. For the past 10 years, her main focus has been on the pharmaceutical sector. Her areas of expertise include strategy implementation, global marketing, executive leadership and post merger integration and transformation. Ms Dubois holds a PhD from the Sorbonne, an MBA from Harvard, and is a graduate of Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm). At various times in her career, she has also taught at these institutions or at other universities. She has published a book, Les Multinationales.
Dr. Stuart Strathdee, British national, born in 1951.
Having completed his PhD in applied physics, Mr. Strathdee joined Tate & Lyle plc in 1977 as a management trainee. He retired from the company in July 2009 having served on the main board as an Executive Director in various roles for 14 years. During his time at Tate & Lyle, Mr. Strathdee held a variety of senior management positions including Group Treasurer, Managing Director of both United Molasses and Tate & Lyle's International Division and was Corporate Development Director reporting to the Chief Executive from July 2003. Leadership highlights include: the development of Tate & Lyle’s sucralose ingredient business; creation of Vietnam’s leading sugar business; the public takeover of Australia largest sugar farming company; creation of a joint venture to construct the Middle East’s largest sugar refinery; the acquisition of publicly-listed Zambia Sugar Company, now Africa’s leading sugar milling company. Dr. Strathdee has a PhD in Atomic and Molecular physics from Queens University Belfast. His current board memberships include the Rabobank UK Food & Agribusiness Advisory Board, Abunda Nutrition, Inc. and James Finlay Ltd. Mr. Strathdee’s previous board memberships include Hippo Valley Estates Ltd., Zambia Sugar plc, Tate & Lyle plc, Tate & Lyle Venture Fund and Tate & Lyle Research Advisory Group.
Sir Tom McKillop, British national, born in Scotland in 1943.
Sir Tom McKillop was educated at Irvine Royal Academy, Glasgow University (where he took a BSc Hons and PhD in Chemistry) and Centre de Mecanique Ondulatoire Appliquee (Paris). He had a long and successful career at ICI, where he held a number of increasingly senior Research and Development positions until his appointment in 1989 as Technical Director and Deputy Chairman of ICI Pharmaceuticals, a role in which he had global responsibility for Research, Development, Medical and Production. In 1994, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Zeneca Pharmaceuticals - Zeneca having demerged from ICI in 1993 - and, on completion of the merger of Astra and Zeneca in April 1999, he became Chief Executive of AstraZeneca PLC, a position he held until retiring on 31 December 2005. He is president of The Science Council in the UK and a non-executive director of Almirall Prodesfarma SA and of UCB Pharmaceuticals. He has previously served as Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, and as a non-executive director of BP plc, Amersham International plc (now GE Healthcare) and Lloyds TSB plc. During his career he has received many scholarly awards and fellowships and was knighted in 2002 for services to the pharmaceutical industry.
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