Board of Directors

Bill also serves on the boards of Genentech, Chugai, Masters Pharmaceuticals, Biotie Therapies and Shire. He is also the chairman of the Health Innovation Challenge Fund Joint Funding Committee at the Wellcome Trust.

Previously, Bill held various executive positions during his 23 years at Roche, ultimately as Chief Executive Officer of the pharmaceuticals division. He remains a board member at Roche.

Bill has extensive experience of international pharmaceuticals and of reshaping organisations including mergers and acquisitions. During his time with Roche, he had significant involvement in the privatisation of Genentech, the integration of Boehringer Mannheim and the negotiations that resulted in Roche becoming a majority owner of Chugai in Japan.
 

Previously, Riccardo established the Gene Expression Unit at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and was the founder and head of the Istituto di Ricerche di Biologia Molecolare (IRBM) in Rome, Italy, which later became a subsidiary of Merck Inc.

Riccardo has been instrumental in the development of several novel antiviral drugs and vaccines, which range from various stages of clinical development to fully marketed, including Isentress for HIV.

He has also published in leading scientific journals including Nature, Science and Cell, on immunology, molecular medicine and drug discovery.

Riccardo is a Professor of Molecular Biology at the medical school of the University of Naples, Italy, where he completed his medical degree before receiving his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley.

He is an elected member of several international associations, including the Académie Française, the Academia Europea and European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO). He is a member of the Board of Directors of MolMed S.p.A.

He is also on the board of directors of SuppreMol.

Previously, Markus was a venture partner at MPM Capital, where he was helped to lead European deal flow and served on the boards of several European portfolio companies.

Earlier, Markus was at Roche in Basel for nearly 20 years, where he held senior management positions in the Pharma R&D organisation.

He has also been director of Omrix Pharmaceuticals, Kourion, IDEA, Atugen, Avontec and Neuraxo Pharmaceuticals.

Markus has published more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals and holds several patents.

He obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from the ETH in Zurich and pursued his postgraduate training at Stanford University Medical School in neurobiology and subsequently at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Markus served on the board of directors and the board of trustees of the Swiss Foundation for Stipends in Medicine and Biology (SSMBS) as its treasurer during 1994-2002.  

He is also on the board of directors at Affectis, IDEA, Cellerix, Ascenion and as observer on the board of Biovertis.

Previously, Joachim was a board member of BioXell and U3 Pharma. He also held various positions at MPM Capital, where he served on the supervisory boards of Novirio Pharmaceuticals, OMRIX Biopharmaceuticals and t. Breeders, and was significantly involved in Biovitrum and Cellular Genomics transactions. Joachim also worked at McKinsey & Company where he was an engagement manager on assignments in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. At Roche, he worked in preclinical development as well as in central research.

He has authored numerous articles in leading scientific publications, including Nature.

Joachim has a Masters Degree in Biochemistry from the Free University in Berlin and a PhD from the University of Freiburg, Germany.

Brad also serves as Chairman on the boards of Inception, Amira, Euroventures - a wholly owned biotech incubator within Versant Ventures – and Vice-Chairman of Biotie Therapies. In addition, he is a board member of QC Pharma, Ananaphore, Metabolex, Flexion Therapeutics, Metabolex and Versense Pharmaceuticals. Brad previously served on the board of directors of Speedel, which was acquired by Novartis in July 2008.

Previously, Brad served as Executive Vice President and Global Head of Business Development, Licensing & Alliances at Roche. Under his leadership, Roche established alliances with over 75 biotech companies worldwide and significantly strengthened the company’s product pipeline. Brad has also held executive roles at Eli Lilly in drug discovery, business development, clinical research and regulatory affairs.

Brad received PhD and MSc degrees in Pharmacology from the University of Toronto, and conducted his post-doctoral research training at the Ottawa Heart Institute in Ottawa, Canada.

Michel has been with Boehringer Ingelheim since 1992, where he has held various executive positions, including head of pharmacology, head of pulmonary diseases research, head of the German research site, and head of worldwide research.

During this time, he has been involved in the discovery and profiling of various blockbuster compounds, This include meloxicam (Mobic®), tiotropium (Spiriva®), dabigatran (Pradaxa®); and of compounds currently in late-stage development in various therapeutic areas: CNS, metabolic diseases, oncology and pulmonary iseases (olodaterol). 

Michel has a doctorate in veterinary medicine and a PhD in physiology and pharmacology.
 

Florent leads the private equity investments into European-based healthcare start-ups for Novartis Venture Fund.

He also serves on the boards of Neovacs, Nanopowers, Opsona, Immune Targeting Systems,Cellerix and Merus.

Previously, Florent has held various positions in intellectual property (IP) and venture areas starting his career at Nestlé and then at Merieux Connaught in France (now Sanofi-Pasteur) as the European head of the IP Department.

More recently, Florent joined the Novartis Corporate IP Department in Switzerland and was a member of Novartis Pharma and Research Executive Licensing Committees and established the Novartis patent department in Cambridge, USA. 

Florent is a Kaufmann Fellow (class 12), holds a biotechnology engineering degree in France, and wrote his diploma thesis on vaccines at Glaxo-Vaccine in Belgium. He also holds European and French patent lawyer degrees, and a masters in private law.

Currently, Jean-Paul is also a board member for Immune Health and Pevion, as well as serving on the scientific advisory board for the Singapore Bioprocessing Technology Institute. 

Previously, he was also a board member at Henogen for eight years.
Jean-Paul was instrumental in developing commercially available vaccines, including against rotavirus, human papilloma virus (HPV) and pneumococcal conjugates.

He graduated from the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, and holds a PhD in biochemistry.