Anna Sumeray

Chief Executive Officer
Anna Sumeray has over 25 years of experience in the life sciences sector with a combination of strategic consultancy, hands-on P&L leadership and deal transaction experience in big pharmaceutical and small biotechnology companies, globally, across Europe and within individual countries.
Anna’s diverse experiences include the building of a successful European biotech business for a US-based company from the ground up and the management of Novartis’s oncology businesses in Finland and Germany. She also has significant M&A and licensing experience and was the global head of business development and licensing at Novartis Ophthalmics. She has worked in 13 countries and in 4 languages.
Anna has a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham, UK and an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.

Knut Sturmhoefel

Chief Operating Officer – Head of BD
During his over 27 years in the BioPharma industry, Knut was leading multi-functional project teams in US Biotech and global Pharma companies.  As a business development executive he was responsible for all aspects of the BD process from scouting, deal identification, deal transaction, and then managing the deals over their lifetime. He was closing numerous transactions including in-/ out-licensing deals, R&D collaborations, equity investments, acquisitions, etc covering multiple therapeutic areas, therapeutic modalities and various businesses. Recently, Knut was leading the corporate alliance management function at Novartis and is a board member of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals. Before industry, Knut was a research scientist in Germany and the NIH, USA in genetics, immunology, and oncology.

Dr. Lilli Stergiou

Chief Scientific Officer
Lilli Stergiou has 20 years of research and development experience in multiple fields including all areas of interest to Virometix – vaccines, infectious diseases, and oncology. She has a PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Zurich. Lilli joins Virometix from Redbiotec AG, where she was CSO, headed the HSV-2 Therapeutic Vaccine Program and built a pipeline based on Live Biotherapeutics for applications in oncology.

Dr. Markus Heck

Head of Technical Operations
Markus Heck has more than 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and in regulated environments in various roles ranging from support specialist to project manager to team leader and consultant. He is an expert in the fields of CMC and technical operations with a strong focus on current trends in industry and evolving technologies. Markus has studied Chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe and holds a Doctorate in Biochemistry from the University of Zurich.

Sasan Navid

Chief Financial Officer
Sasan Navid has over 30 years of experience in the finance sector. He previously worked at Amgen Inc., where he held various positions within finance in the US and Europe. Prior to Amgen, Sasan spent eight years with Ernst & Young in the firm’s audit group. He holds a B.S. degree in Accounting and a M.S. degree in Taxation from California State University Northridge.

Harry Welten, MBA

Chairman

Over the last 17 years, Mr. Welten was Chief Financial Officer of both public as well as venture capital financed biotech companies. During that time, he has raised more than CHF320 million through IPO, venture capital, M&A as well as debt offerings. He now serves as Chairman or Member on the Board of Directors of several biotechnology companies in Switzerland, Belgium and the USA. He has degrees in Banking, Finance and Economics as well as an MBA (hons.) from Columbia University, NY, USA.

Axel Polack, PD Dr. med.

Dr. Axel Polack is a General Partner at JPIF, a life-science-oriented early-stage venture capital fund. He is also a supervisory board member of HealthUp Sp.zo.o and Survivor Life Ltd and acts as a senior advisor to the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (EKFS), a non-profit foundation dedicated to advancing medical research and medical-humanitarian projects Axel has had an impressive three-phase career path with notable achievements in venture capital, business management and biomedical research.
Axel holds a Medical Doctorate from the University of Freiberg and a second doctorate (Privatdozent) in Virology from the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität (LMU) Munich.

Anna Sumeray

Anna Sumeray has over 25 years of experience in the life sciences sector with a combination of strategic consultancy, hands-on P&L leadership and deal transaction experience in big pharmaceutical and small biotechnology companies, globally, across Europe and within individual countries.
Anna’s diverse experiences include the building of a successful European biotech business for a US-based company from the ground up and the management of Novartis’s oncology businesses in Finland and Germany. She also has significant M&A and licensing experience and was the global head of business development and licensing at Novartis Ophthalmics. She has worked in 13 countries and 4 languages.
Anna has a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham, UK and an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.

Jan ter Meulen, MD, Dr. Habil., DTM&H

Dr. Jan ter Meulen is a biotech executive with very broad experience in vaccines and recombinant antibody R&D, as well as immuno-oncology. As a veteran researcher in pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic settings, Jan brings more than 25 years of operational and strategic research experience to Virometix, including having been the Head of Vaccine Basic Research at Merck & Co., where he was responsible for the entire vaccine discovery pipeline. He also was an International Research Scholar at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a consultant for scientific agencies in the US, UK, Germany, France, South Africa and the European Commission. Jan holds a Medical Doctorate from Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, a PhD in Virology from Philipps University of Marburg, and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the London School.

Bob van Gemen, PhD

Bob has over 30 years’ experience in the healthcare space being CEO of biotech companies or running business units in large multinational companies. Most recently was CEO of Viroclinics where he grew the company from 40 to 400 people and revenues from €5M to €75M. Under his guidance, Viroclinics Inc. was established in the USA and the company acquired DDL Diagnostics to accelerate growth. Viroclinics partnered with 3 private equity funds of increasing size to enable organic and accelerated growth of the company, recently Viroclinics was acquired by Cerba Healthcare.
Bob’s scientific experience includes molecular biology, virology and (pre)clinical study programs for the development of antivirals and vaccines for numerous respiratory infections.
Bob van Gemen has a Master’s in Biology from the Free University of Amsterdam and a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Leiden.

Susanne Schultz-Hector, PD Dr. med.

Dr Susanne Schultz-Hector is an independent university lecturer with extensive knowledge in the field of experimental research. Her professional experience includes experimental research in radiation biology at Helmholtz-Zentrum München, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston and LMU Munich; research management at Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft and TU-München; and a member of the management board of Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung as well as member of the supervisory board of GLS Treuhand. She holds a Medical Doctorate from the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität (LMU) Munich.

Prof. Paul-Henri Lambert, MD

Prof. Paul-Henri Lambert, MD, is now associated with the Centre of Vaccinology in the Department of Pathology and Immunology at University of Geneva. He is directing the International Advanced Course of Vaccinology (ADVAC) organized under the auspices of the Fondation Mérieux and University of Geneva. He is a member of the Governing Board of the Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI), past-chairman of the Human Vaccine Committee of the International Association for Biologicals (IABS) and of the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety of the World Health Organization (WHO). In 1987, he was appointed as chief of Microbiology and Immunology at the World Health Organization and in 1994, chief of the Vaccine Research and Development, WHO Global Program for Vaccines and Immunization. During this time he was deeply involved in co-ordination of research aiming at the development of vaccines against diseases of major importance in developing countries.

Prof. John A. Robinson

Prof. Robinson is a co-founder of Virometix, professor of organic chemistry and former chairman of the Organic Chemistry Institute and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Zurich. Prof. Robinson is a leading expert in the development of epitope mimetics for drug and vaccine applications. He has published more than 150 papers in major scientific journals and is named as co-inventor on 12 patents. He obtained his Doctorate in Chemistry from Cambridge University, UK.

Jan ter Meulen, MD, Dr. Habil., DTM&H

Dr. Jan ter Meulen is a biotech executive with very broad experience in vaccines and recombinant antibody R&D, as well as immuno-oncology. As a veteran researcher in pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic settings, Jan brings more than 25 years of operational and strategic research experience to Virometix, including having been the Head of Vaccine Basic Research at Merck & Co., where he was responsible for the entire vaccine discovery pipeline. He also was an International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a consultant for scientific agencies in the US, UK, Germany, France, South Africa and for the European Commission. Jan holds a Medical Doctorate degree from Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, a PhD in Virology from Philipps University of Marburg, and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the London School.

Prof. Fernando Albericio

Prof. Fernando Albericio is Research Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), Full Professor at the University of Barcelona (Spain), and Visiting Professor at the King Saud University (Saud Arabia). His major research interests cover practically all methodological aspects of peptide synthesis, as well as synthesis of peptides and small molecules with therapeutic activities, mainly in the field of cancer and infectious diseases. His group also is being involved in the development of new strategies for drug delivery. He has published over 900 scientific paper and co-authored four books. He has filled more than 55 patents. He is Editor in Chief of several scientific journal and acting in the Editorial Board of several others. He has been honored with a Doctorate Honoris Causa by the Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina), the Leonidas Zervas award by the European Peptide Society, the Vincent du Vigneaud award by the American Peptide Society, among others. During the last years, part of his efforts has been focused to make the peptide synthesis greener and better.

Dr. Christian Brander

Christian Brander graduated from the University of Bern with a PhD in Immunology. He then moved to Harvard University where he focused his work on cellular immunity to viral infections and the impact of host genetics on this immune response. He joined ICREA in Barcelona in 2008 with an appointment at the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute to continue his work on host genetics and cellular immunity to viral infections, including HIV, HCV, KSHV and EBV. Christian holds an Associate Professor position at the University of Vic and Central Catalonia. He also serves as a curator of the Los Alamos HIV Immunology database and as the scientific director of the HIVACAT program, the Catalan project for the development of effective preventive and therapeutic HIV vaccines.

Dr. Dimitris Stellas

Dr. Dimitris Stellas is an expert in cancer immunology and mouse models of cancers. He will supervise the in vitro and in vivo vaccine experiments, design the vaccination strategy and coordinate the subsequent experimental procedure in order to validate the efficacy of the vaccination. Having hands-on experience on cancer neo-antigens as novel vaccine targets and DNA vaccines on HIV, he will be instrumental to the team of experts, assisting them to identify strategic targets for vaccine development.

Prof. Vana Spoulou

Vana Spoulou is a Professor of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases at the University of Athens in Greece, and the Clinical Lead of the Infectious Diseases Unit and the National Reference Centre for Paediatric HIV at Agia Sofia Children’s Hospital. She has obtained a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Athens and an MPhil in Immunobiology from UCL. Vana is the founder of the first Immunobiology and Vaccine Studies Laboratory in Greece in 1997. Her research has contributed to the discovery of novel pneumococcal protein antigens, with the aim to develop vaccines that provide broad protection against invasive pneumococcal infections. Vana is a member of several national and European scientific societies, and recently an elected Board Member of ESPID. She is also a member of the Rotavirus and Varicella Zoster Virus Experts groups. She has authored more than 100 research publications and co-authored the book Pediatric Vaccines and Vaccinations. For her contribution in the field of Infectious Diseases and Immunobiology she has received several Greek and international awards and distinctions.

Prof. Thorsten Buch

Prof. Thorsten Buch is professor and institute director at the University of Zurich, studying causes for loss of immune tolerance and options for treatment of autoimmune diseases. He started his studies of the immune system more than 25 years ago at the University of California, Davis, US. He obtained his Diploma at the University of Düsseldorf, DE and performed his PhD under Prof. Klaus Rajewsky at the University of Cologne, DE. Before joining the University of Zurich, he was Professor for Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the Technical University Munich. Prof. Buch has published more than 90 papers, is co-inventor on 6 patents, and founder of 2 companies. He is reviewer to multiple journals and research agencies.

Lawrence Segal PhD ERT

Lawrence (Larry) Segal has over 30 years professional experience in regulatory toxicology in the chemical and pharmaceutical Industries and in a Regulatory Agency (Health Canada). He is a Eurotox Registered Toxicologist (ERT). Larry was Director of Nonclinical Toxicology & Pharmacology at GSK Vaccines, where he was responsible for the preparation and review of the non-clinical toxicology sections of all regulatory submissions, interactions with regulatory agencies worldwide, planning and review of GLP toxicity studies, and participation in internal safety monitoring boards and project teams.
Larry is now working as a consultant on freelance basis.