Management
| Neil Goldsmith | CEO and Managing Director |
| Dr. Alexandra Santana Sorensen | President |
| Jakob Dynnes Hansen, MBA | Chief Financial Officer |
| Prof. Dr. Jutta Heim | Chief Scientific Officer |
| Dr. Norbert Bender | Chief Medical Officer |
| Dr. Panchapagesa Murali | Managing Director & CEO, Evolva India |
| Dr. Pascal Longchamp | Chief Business Officer |
| Dr. Simon Waddington | CEO, Evolva Nutrition Inc. |
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.
Dr. Alexandra Santana Sorensen, Portuguese national, domiciled in Switzerland, born in 1970.
Dr. Alexandra Santana Sorensen co-founded Evolva and has been a member of the mangement team of Evolva SA since March 2005. In 2010 she was appointed President. Dr. Sorensen has spent over 13 years in the biotech sector. Prior to founding Evolva SA, she worked for the US biotech, Phytera Inc., where she was involved in anti-bacterial discovery, early stages of compound development and in-licensing, and for the Danish biotech, Auda, where she researched into novel combinatorial chemistry approaches to natural products. In her academic life, she researched on synthesis & profiling of natural, semi-synthetic and synthetic anti-cancer compounds. Dr. Sorensen is a visiting Scientist at Ecole Nationale de Chimie de Mulhouse, France. She received a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry, University of Liverpool, UK, and a first degree in Chemistry from University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Jakob Dynnes Hansen, MBA, Danish national, domiciled in Switzerland, born in 1955.
Jakob Dynnes has been the Chief Financial Officer of Evolva SA since September 2007. Mr Hansen has more than 20 years experience from biotech/pharmaceuticals and finance. Prior to Evolva, he was CFO of Nuevolution A/S and Zealand Pharma A/S where he executed five financing rounds raising a total of CHF 68 milllion and three partnership agreements with a potential value of $1 billion. Before Zealand, he was Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance, at Unibank (now Nordea) where he was involved in total 50 IPOs, M&As and other corporate transactions. Before Unibank, he was Head of Market Research at Novo Nordisk and worked for the United Nations (UNIDO) in Jakarta, Indonesia. He is an MSc in Economics from University of Copenhagen, MBA from Insead.
Prof. Dr. Jutta Heim, German national, born in 1951.
Prof. Dr. Jutta Heim has been the Chief Scientific Officer of Evolva SA since August 2009. Until 2009, Dr. Heim was Chief Scientific Officer of Basilea Pharmaceutica AG, a Swiss biopharmaceutical company, where she was in charge of all anti-infective, dermatology and oncology discovery activities. Prior to joining Basilea Pharmaceutica, Dr. Heim worked for 22 years in Switzerland and the United States for Ciba-Geigy/Novartis, where she was involved in the successful development and launch of biopharmaceutical anti-thrombotic and fibrinolytic products, initiated a molecular genetics department in oncology and became Novartis' Senior Scientific Expert in Molecular Biology and a member of the Research Management Board. Most recently, she headed the Novartis Lead Discovery Center with worldwide responsibility. Dr. Heim has published numerous papers in the areas of natural products, recombinant proteins and applied molecular biology, in particular in the area of oncology. She received a PhD from the University of Tübingen in 1981 and holds a professorship in Biotechnology at the Biocenter of the University of Basel. Dr. Heim is a member of the advisory board of "Jubiläumsstifung Universität Zürich". Previously, Dr. Heim held SAB memberships until 2004 of PamGene, NL, of SpinX, CH until 2009, and an advisory board membership of Evolva SA, CH until 2009. She was a member of the executive management team of Basilea Pharmaceutica from 2004 to 2009.
Dr. Norbert Bender, Joined Evolva in 2011 as Chief Medical Officer.
He is an M.D. from the University of Frankfurt, Germany and has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Pharmacy from the same institution. He practiced for 10 years as a medical doctor in internal medicine at the Frankfurt University Hospital. He subsequently worked for more than 20 years in various senior functions in pharmaceutical (Hoechst, Knoll) and biotech companies (Cardion, Trigen, ViroLogik), in both Europe and North America. Dr. Bender has particular expertise in the cardiovascular space and has been involved in the successful development of Ramipril and its fixed combinations, Reviparine, Sibutramine and Adalimumab. He has worked as a medical consultant to Evolva since October 2010.
Dr. Panchapagesa Murali, Indian national, born in 1961.
Dr. Panchapagesa Murali is the Managing Director and CEO of Evolva India since September 2006. He also serves as acting CEO of Evolva’s US operations. Dr. Murali has over 20 years of experience in Pharmaceutical & Healthcare R&D, including management of more than 10 clinical trials, in particular in respiratory diseases. Previously he was Founder and Director (for 16 years) of Dalmia Centre for Research and Development, developing and launching natural product based therapeutics, and Founder and Chairman of MLC & Netpeople group of IT & Telecom companies (Networking solutions, Banking Security and communication services). Dr. Murali is a former Indo-US scientist at Battelle-Kettering, Ohio and fellow of Unilever India. He received a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Microbial technology from Madurai Kamaraj University. Dr. Murali is currently General Secretary of the Association of Biotechnology Led enterprises in India.
Dr. Pascal Longchamp, Swiss national, born in 1962.
Dr. Pascal Longchamp has been the Chief Business Officer of Evolva SA since March 2005. Dr. Longchamp has spent over 14 years in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical industry, covering R&D, Management and Business Development positions on the West Coast (US) and in Switzerland. Previously he was the Director of Business Development at Phyllom (2003), where he developed its Vaccines and Agricultural franchises, and a part of Maxygen's successful IPO in December 1999. At Maxygen, Dr. Longchamp was in charge of two corporate alliances and promotion of its gene shuffling platform technology to third parties. At Phistem, Maxygen and Phyllom, Dr. Longchamp was responsible for corporate development, strategic alliances, in and out-licensing, leading international research collaboration and US government contract with the Department of Defense. He received a Ph.D. in Genetics and Microbiology from the University of Lausanne, followed by post-doctoral researches at UC Berkeley in Molecular Biology and at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Biodefense. Dr. Longchamp has an MBA from HEC Business School, Lausanne. Dr. Longchamp is a founder and Chairman of the Board of Phistem (2009).
Dr. Simon Waddington, British national, domiciled in San Francisco, California, born in 1964.
Simon Waddington is CEO of Evolva Nutrition Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Evolva SA. He was previously President and CEO of Abunda Nutrition, Inc. which is developing next-generation nutritional ingredients, and was acquired by Evolva SA in July 2011, and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the US life science venture capital firm, Burrill & Company, where he supported the formation and management of startups across the life sciences. Prior to that, he spent more than a decade as a venture capitalist. He was a Managing Partner at PolyTechnos Venture Partners, based in Munich, Germany, where he led and supported investments in numerous life science and advanced materials-related companies in Europe, Israel, and the US. Prior to that, he started and ran Monsanto's European corporate venturing activities from Brussels, Belgium, where he sourced and supported innovations across the medical, agricultural, nutrition, healthcare services and advanced materials sectors. Before that he was Product Development Manager for Zeneca's biopolymers business, which pioneered the fermentation-based production of biodegradable polymers from renewable feedstocks. Prior to that he served as a Senior Research Scientist for ICI specializing in surface and interface science. Simon earned his Ph.D. in physics from Liverpool University and his MBA from the Harvard Business School.
What we offer
Nutrition & Consumer
Pharmaceuticals
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