Key executive hires for seven startups

Loft Dymanics, formerly VRMotion AG (VRM Switzerland), specialises in developing and constructing VR training devices for helicopter pilots. The startup has changed its leadership team by appointing Jean Auclair as the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to support its increased global expansion. Jean is a seasoned international accountant with a solid corporate finance background. A Canadian CPA by training, Jean started his career at PwC in Canada and Switzerland, where he led mergers and acquisitions mandates. He held finance leadership roles at two innovative E-Commerce and SAAS companies prior to joining Loft Dynamics as their CFO.

Last month, the startup welcomed Jens Westh as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Jens will lead after-sales services to further develop the EASA-supervised Flight Simulator Training Device Organization (FSTDO) and to help relieve CEO Fabi Riesen of numerous management tasks. Before joining Loft Dynamics, he held the CEO position at a medium-sized company with 250 employees, which he transformed from a country-specific entity to an international organisation. The Loft Dynamics team has grown to over 40 specialists in the past three years and continues to grow. Jens will support this further expansion.

Ymmunobio appoints new CEO
Effective this month, Peter Schiemann has assumed the CEO role at Ymmunobio, a pre-clinical stage oncology biotech company focused on developing innovative treatments for cancer patients through new classes of antibodies. The startup obtained an orphan drug designation for YB-200 for the treatment of liver cancer from the US FDA. Peter has made significant contributions to the company as acting COO and has over 30 years of experience in drug development.

Marc Jones joins Altoida as CEO
Altoida, Inc, a pioneer in developing digital biomarkers of neurological disease using augmented reality and machine learning, has appointed industry veteran Marc Jones as CEO and also serves on the company’s Board. Jones brings invaluable experience from both public and private diagnostic companies, and he has served in various leadership positions in the life science industry over the past 25 years. Most recently, Jones was the COO & CFO of binx Health, a first-of-kind, commercial, digital healthcare technology and molecular diagnostics company. While at binx, he raised approximately $120M in equity and debt capital. Before binx health, he was COO & CFO at Good Start Genetics, where he played a pivotal role in the company’s successful turnaround to record business growth culminating in its sale to publicly-traded Invitae (NYSE:NVTA). Jones served as the CFO of T2 Biosystems, overseeing the company’s successful public offering, raising nearly $100 million in capital, and helped drive the early commercialisation of the company’s first FDA-cleared IVD product.

Haelixa appoints new CEO
Since founding Haelixa, Michaela Paddu has led Haelixa from the company’s inception through the product development and market entry phases to establishing Haelixa as an international leader in traceability. Paddu has now handed over her CEO role to Gediminas Mikutis, Haelixa’s Co-Founder and CTO, to drive the company through its next growth stage. Funded in 2016, Haelixa pioneers developing and commercialising physical product traceability solutions to ensure complete end-to-end supply-chain transparency, focusing on sustainably manufactured products, such as organic or recycled textiles. Based on DNA markers, the Haelixa technology is physically applied to the material and stays linked, providing a traceable physical fingerprint from producer to retail. The solution is internationally recognised, is used by multiple companies and has been awarded more than 20 prizes.

Gamaya welcomes new Global Head of Sales
Agtech startup, Gamaya is a global specialist in intelligent solutions for the sugarcane market. The startup has appointed Leonardo Villela as Global Head of Sales. In recent years, he carried out the implementation and adoption of new technologies for Agribusiness, focusing on key crops such as soy, corn, cotton and sugarcane, seeking to bring innovative solutions to the hardware and software market for agriculture and always putting a strong focus on the customer and their daily challenges. With experience in Latin American countries and the United States, worked in several tasks and departments in multinational companies in the Crop Protection and Seed market and in the implementation of Hardware and SaaS Technologies.

Eventfrog welcomes Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)
Swiss event and ticketing platform Eventfrog has expanded to Germany to boost its international growth and welcomed Harm-Jörg Heikens as Chief Revenue Officer. With its entry into the German market, Eventfrog will further expand its offering and introduce new features to meet the needs of the German event industry. Harm-Jörg Heikens has held similar management positions since 2010 at eBay, DaWanda and most recently as Director of Sales & Business Development at BSH subsidiary Kitchen Stories. His extensive experience and in-depth sales knowledge will be crucial in implementing Eventfrog’s expansion strategy in Germany. As CRO, Heikens will drive the company’s growth and build close relationships with event organisers and key partners to achieve mutual success.

Instaheat grows team with Chief Marketing Officer
Founded in 2019, InstaHeat aims to replace liquid heating systems, which for over 1000 years have involved heating metal and bringing it in contact with the mass that needs to be heated. Using its Ohmic heating technology, the startup developed a compact, energy-efficient flow heater to heat any fluid and reach the desired temperature instantaneously. The co-founders Fabian Dietschi and Alexey Gromov have welcomed Aradhna Sethi as Chief Marketing Officer.

(RAN)