Board of Directors
Gerd Zettlmeissl, Chairman
Gerd has more than 30 years of R&D and General Management leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Since 2012 he served on the Board of Directors of several non-profit organizations and biotech companies. Until 2015 he was chairman of GlycoVaxyn (Switzerland) sold to GSK, and until 2020 chairman of Themis (Austria) sold to MSD. He is the former CEO of the Austria-based Intercell (now Valneva). Prior to that, he was Managing Director of Chiron-Behring (Germany) and held senior management roles in biopharmaceutical R&D and Technical Operations at Chiron (USA) and Behringwerke (Germany). In 2010, he was named Vaccine Biotech CEO of the Year at the World Vaccine Congress. Gerd Zettlmeissl holds a doctoral degree in biochemistry of the University of Regensburg and did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institut Pasteur Paris in virology. Current key positions: Chairman of the Supervisory Board for Medigene (Germany) & Hilleman Laboratories (Singapore) and Member of the Strategic and Scientific Advisory Board for Biological E (India).
Emmanuelle Coutanceau
Emmanuelle is Investment Director of Novo Seeds, the early stage investment arm of Novo Holdings A/S. Prior joining Novo Seeds, Emmanuelle was Investment Director at Auriga Partners, where she was in charge of seed stage investments for Auriga IV Bioseeds, a seed fund dedicated to projects related to infectiology and microbiology. Emmanuelle has more than 8 years of experience in venture capital investment and was part of Omnes capital (formerly Crédit Agricole Private Equity) from 2007 until 2014. She was in charge of the Seed Stage Investment Program and actively invested in Belgium and The Netherlands. Emmanuelle also serves on the Board of Directors of Draupnir, IO Biotech and Corwave.
Sten Verland
Sten is founding partner at Sunstone Capital A/S. He has more than 20 years experience as an international executive, entrepreneur and venture investor in biotech companies as well as pre-clinical and clinical CROs. Dr. Verland holds a M.Sc. in Biology and a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Copenhagen. After completing his doctorate, he held a number of academic positions in the field of biomedical research including the position of Assistant Professor in Immunology at the University of Copenhagen. In 1994, Dr. Verland headed a Management Buy-Out of a contract research organization (CRO) specializing in laboratory animal science and non-clinical development. After 4 years as a major shareholder, Dr. Verland merged the company with another CRO thus forming M&B A/S, which was subsequently acquired by Taconic, Inc., New York, in 2000. In 1998, Dr. Verland participated in the foundation of Synarc, Inc., San Francisco, and served for 4½ years as VP, General Manager Europe. During his tenure, Synarc developed from a small start-up clinical service provider into the world’s largest central radiology service company dedicated exclusively to global clinical trials. From 2003 to 2007, Dr. Verland operated his own investment company where he co-founded or invested in 7 life science companies and served as non-executive director on 16 Boards.
Jonas Brambeck
Jonas is senior investment director at Industrifonden and has more than two decades of experience within venture capital with focus on life science companies. He has participated in a great number of investments, divestments and listings over the years. Jonas has board experience from close to fifty companies, including listed ones. Prior to joining Industrifonden, Jonas held international sales, marketing and managerial positions with Bruker Instruments and prior to that research and development positions at Astra and Nobel. He has a Ph D in organic chemistry from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. In addition to Minervax, Jonas currently serves on the board of Gesynta Pharma, Oxthera, Avidicare (deputy) and Airsonett (deputy).
Karl Nägler
Karl joined Wellington Partners in January 2020 as Managing Partner. He has a strong track record of investments in early and later stage life science companies as well as deep sector knowledge and an extensive global network from 20 years of industry experience. Previously, he was a Partner at Gimv, a publicly listed private equity and venture capital investment firm, where he had been responsible for life science investments within Gimv’s Health & Care team, since 2011. He began his professional career in 2002 at Atlas Venture in London and Munich, and later joined Ventech, a Paris-based venture capital firm focused on Europe and China. Karl earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Neurobiology from Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin.
Kabeer Aziz
Kabeer co-founded Adjuvant Capital in 2018 to build an investment fund designed to accelerate the development of new technologies for the world’s most pressing public health challenges. Prior to Adjuvant, Kabeer was with the Global Health Investment Fund (GHIF), where he co-led the fund’s investments in Themis (acquired by Merck), Univercells, Atomo Diagnostics (ASX: AT1), and Access Bio (KOSDAQ: 950130), among others. Prior to GHIF, Kabeer spent time at Metalmark Capital investing across the healthcare sector, as well as Greenhill & Co., where he advised on biopharmaceutical M&A transactions. Kabeer serves on the Board of Directors of MinervaX, AN2 Therapeutics, and Univercells Vaccines, while also supporting Adjuvant’s engagement on the Boards of Yisheng Biopharma and previously, Themis. He graduated with honors from the Stern School of Business at New York University.
Christopher Gagliardi
Dr. Christopher Gagliardi is a Director of Investments at Sanofi Ventures. Prior to joining Sanofi Ventures, Dr. Gagliardi was a management consultant at L.E.K. Consulting where his work focused on corporate strategy, due diligence, commercial launch planning and asset valuation across the pharmaceutical, biotech, R&D and API manufacturing sectors. Prior to a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, Chris earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as well as graduated with honors from Roger Williams University.
Veronica Gambillara Fonck
Veronica is a Partner at Pureos Bioeventures since 2022. Prior to joining Pureos, Veronica co-founded LimmaTech Biologics and GlycoEra AG. She was the CEO of LimmaTech since inception (2015) until 2020 when she became CEO of GlycoEra. After GlycoEra closure of the Serie A in 2021 and the integration and transfer to a new US-based CEO in 2022, Veronica left GlycoEra to partner with Pureos. With an engineering degree and a PhD in life sciences in the field of cardiovascular disease, Veronica started her career in the MedTech field, serving roles that focused on clinical R&D and international regulatory at Endoart AG, subsequently acquired by Allergan. In 2009, after acquiring some experience in Allergan, she moved to the vaccine biotechnology field at GlycoVaxyn. Veronica held different positions from leading the clinical, regulatory department to taking care of the business development of the company. She was one of the core members responsible for building GlycoVaxyn’s success and acquisition of GSK in 2015 when she became CEO and co-founder of LimmaTech AG.
Bita Sehat
Bita is an Senior Director focusing on Ventures. She has more than 10 years of professional experience from both life science R&D and venture capital. Prior to joining Trill Impact, Bita was an Investment Director at Industrifonden. Her previous experience includes positions such as Head of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships for Battat Inc., a consumer goods company, a consultant position in the health care team at Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the Canadian investment fund. Before that she was a consultant at Foster Rosenblatt Consulting, a forecasting and valuation firm in the pharmaceutical area. Bita Sehat holds a Master of Science in Biomedicine and a Ph.D. in molecular oncology, both from Karolinska Institute. Her scientific experience also includes two post-doctoral fellowships at Karolinska Institute and McGill University, within the area of signal transduction in cancer. Bita also holds an MBA degree in Strategy and Business Valuation from Concordia University John Molson School of Business.
Vincent Brichard
Vincent is a Venture Partner within the EQT Life Sciences team. Vincent worked for LSP from 2016 until 2022, when LSP joined forces with EQT and was renamed EQT Life Sciences. Previously, Vincent was Senior Vice-President and member of the Executive Committee at GSK Biologicals. Vincent holds an M.D., is specialized in oncology, has a Ph.D. from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, has been a researcher with the FNRS/NFWO and holds an exec MBA from the Harvard Business School. Based on his experience, translated by more than 90 primary research publications and reviews, he supports companies, organizations, institutions, and individuals in the fields of immuno-oncology, auto-immunity and vaccines.
Tal Zaks
Tal is a Partner with OrbiMed. Tal was recently the Chief Medical Officer at Moderna, where he led the development of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine and other key programs. Previously, Tal held senior leadership positions in drug development at major pharmaceutical companies, including Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline. Tal received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the Ben Gurion University and conducted post-doctoral research at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
