Board
Kyparissia Sirinakis
Managing Partner Epidarex Capital
- Managing Partner Epidarex Capital
- Sirinakis has more than 25 years of experience in creating and growing companies both as an early-stage venture investor and a senior executive in various technology and life science companies
- Prior to co-founding Epidarex Capital, she was part of the senior management team of MASA Life Science Ventures (MLSV) an early stage life science venture fund where she co-led the fund’s investment strategy and managed several MLSV portfolio investments through successful exits.
- Sirinakis was the Founder and Managing Director of WomenAngels.net LLC, a top performing fund investing in startup technology and healthcare companies in the Mid-Atlantic. Before that she was the Chief Financial Officer of Oncologix, a venture-backed, early-stage biotechnology company based in Gaithersburg which was subsequently sold to Antigenics, Inc.
- She serves on the Board of the Tech Council of Maryland, and on the Investment Committees for Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology BioLife Fund and the Ivy Foundation (University of Virginia). She has held numerous directorships of start-up companies throughout her career and is currently on the Board of Harpoon Medical Inc., Confluence Life Science Inc., Nodthera Ltd., and Sirakoss Ltd.
- She is a graduate of Boston College’s School of Management Honors Program and a Certified Public Accountant in Maryland
Dr. Klaus Schollmeier
CEO KCS-GmbH
- More than 25 years of successful international management experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry as well as in investment banking
- From 2013-2015 Chief Executive Officer of SuppreMol GmbH in Munich, Germany. In 2015 SuppreMol was acquired by Baxter in a € 220 Mio. deal
- Before that he led Santhera Pharmaceuticals AG as CEO since the company’s foundation in 2004, took the company public in 2006 and launched the first product in 2008
- Before that he spent 16 years in the pharmaceutical industry at BASF, Knoll and Abbott. His scientific responsibilities included head of oncology/immunology research at BASF’s central laboratories in Germany, and senior director of biotechnology at BASF Bioresearch Corporation in Cambridge, US. His business functions included General Manager of BASF Pharma Netherlands and Vice President and General Manager for Western Europe. Today, he is Chairman of the board of directors of several European Biotech companies and acts as an advisor to the Pharma/Biotech industry
- Klaus holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Düsseldorf, Germany
Dr. Cord Dohrmann
Chief Scientific Officer Evotec AG
- Chief Scientific Officer Evotec AG
- Dr Cord Dohrmann joined Evotec AG as Chief Scientific Officer and Member of the Management Board on 01 September 2010. Dr Dohrmann has spent over 20 years in biomedical research at leading academic institutions and in the biotech industry
- Prior to Evotec he started his career as a Shiseido as a research fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston before joining DeveloGen in 1999. He served the company in various management positions including CEO, leading DeveloGen from a start-up to an internationally recognised metabolic disease company with a pipeline of highly innovative preclinical and clinical products for the treatment of diabetes and related disorders
- Dohrmann has been advising the European Commission, the Max-Planck-Institute as well as various venture capital firms.
- He holds a degree from Tübingen University in Germany and conducted research as a DAAD scholar at Duke University, Durham, USA. Dr. Dohrmann completed his MA thesis at the Max-Planck Institute in Tübingen and subsequently enrolled at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, where he received his Ph.D. in 1996
Ute Mercker
Investment Director IBB Ventures
- Ute Mercker is Investment Director / Prokuristin at IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, the Venture Capital fund of Berlin
- Since 1997 she had been responsible for IBB´s Biotech and Medtech portfolio and managing investments into companies like Jerini or Scienion. Spin-offs from Universities or research institutions like Humedics and Scopis have always been an important part of her investment activities. Ute enjoys discussing and developing strategic and financial options with the founders / management / Board of their portfolio companies
- Since 2001 Ute Mercker had been serving as Deputy Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of Scienion AG and she represents the funds managed by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft on the Board of Humedics and Omeicos Therapeutics GmbH
- She holds an MBA from the Freie Universität Berlin
Observers
Peter Finan (Ph.D.)
Venture Partner Epidarex GmbH
- Venture Partner Epidarex Capital
- Finan joined Epidarex Capital as a Venture Partner in 2014. He has more than twenty years of experience in drug discovery within the pharmaceutical industry
- Prior to joining Epidarex, Dr. Finan was Global Head of the Respiratory Disease Area and Site Head for the Novartis Institute of BioMedical Research in the United Kingdom. In this role, Dr. Finan had strategic and operational oversight for the respiratory portfolio from target discovery through to proof-of-concept trials in the clinic
- He is a former Executive Director of the Novartis Developmental and Molecular Pathways Platform based in Cambridge, Massachusetts were he led he initiation of the PI 3-kinase drug discovery program within Novartis and was awarded the Novartis Leading Scientist Award in 2007
- Earlier in his career, Dr Finan worked at Cancer Research UK and the Yamanouchi Research Institute (now Astellas) and served as the Head of Biology at Karus Therapeutics
- Finan currently serves on the Board of Directors of Caldan Therapeutics Ltd., Clyde Biosciences Ltd., Enterprise Therapeutics Ltd., Mironid Ltd., and Topas Therapeutics GmbH. In addition to his role at Epidarex, Dr Finan is a Non-Executive Director at the Knowledge Transfer Network, a member of the Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board of the Keystone Symposia
- Finan holds a BSc and Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Leeds
Dr. Kurt Schwarz
Founder & Managing Director Leifina GmbH
- Managing Director of Investment Company Leifina GmbH, which he founded in 1990
- Prior he joined Merck & Co. (New Jersey) in 1986 and returned to Germany to work for the German subsidiary in Product Management and Medical Affairs
- In 1982 he was awarded a visiting fellowship by the German Research Foundation at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston
- Dr. Kurt Schwarz studied medicine and law at the University of Heidelberg and obtained his MD degree in 1979. After his doctoral thesis in Experimental Pharmacolog he joined the Department of Internal Medicine of the University Hospital in Heidelberg
- Dr. Schwarz holds several board seats and is actively involved as an investor and business angel in various biotech companies