New leaders for Swiss tech startups

Prognolite –Roman Lickel 
The Zurich-based startup offering a forecasting tool for the foodservice industry has made changes in its leadership. Former CTO Roman Lickel is now the company’s Managing Director. Roman takes over the role from Simon Michel, with whom he built Prognolite. “The last few years have been an incredibly intense and beautiful time. Although I believe in success more than ever, I see that Prognolite can be better led by my co-founder Roman together with Nico with the somewhat changed focus. As a shareholder, however, I will remain closely connected to Prognolite,” says Simon. 

Sharely – Lucie Rein 
For its platform that allows over 40,000 tenants to rent everyday objects, Sharely has welcomed Lucie Rein as its new CEO to further grow Sharely as a leading sharing platform. Lucie brings several years of experience having worked at companies such as the startups Farmy and Too Good To Go and leading global companies Barilla and Nestlé, Danone and Ikea. Sharely has seen remarkable growth since its foundation and in April this year, the company is looking forward to a new phase. With new management, new investments, a new strategy and a new ambition, Sharely now wants to scale up and grow rapidly. 

Bnovate – René Lenggenhager 
René Lenggenhager is taking over the role of CEO Sales & Marketing to work alongside Simon Künzi R&D and Operation at bNovate, the Swiss startup behind BactoSense, a device that automatically detects all bacteria in water directly from the process via a single sampling tube in less than 30 min. In his new role, Rene will drive the company through its next growth stage which includes expanding global sales and directly support the worldwide sales and distribution network for the BactoSense product portfolio. René is an experienced CEO and General Manager with a successful career in the world’s leading technology companies Comet-Group, Bruker BioSpin, Mettler-Toledo, Siemens Building Technologies, Cerberus and Landis+Gyr.  

Carvolution – Philipp Lesemeister
The car subscription provider Carvolution has welcomed Philipp Lesemeister, CEO of Sixt Mobility Consulting as its head of Fleet and a member of its management team to support the company in addressing the surging demand for car subscriptions and to expand faster with the aim to make Carvolution the largest car subscription car fleet in Switzerland. Lesemeister, who has many years of experience in leasing and managing large fleets, will take over the executive role as Head of Fleet at the beginning of May. With him, Carvolution's offering is set to become even more diverse, affordable and sustainable.

Kinarus – Hari Kumar, Thierry Fumeaux
Kinarus AG, a Swiss clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company and owner of KIN001, a differentiated therapeutic candidate for the treatment of multiple diseases with high unmet need, has appointed Hari Kumar as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Thierry Fumeaux as Chief Medical Officer. Kumar’s long career took him from Roche to Eisai Ltd where he served as European Marketing Director. He returned to Roche as Global Head of Transplant Immunosuppressives. He subsequently moved to Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 2007 as Chief Business Officer before becoming Chief Executive Officer of Adheron Therapeutics Inc. In his career, he oversaw the launch of the immunosuppressive, CellCept, the Alzheimer’s drug, Aricept and the gastric ulcer drug, Aciphex. At Amira, Kumar led the process that resulted in its acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2011. He also navigated the acquisition of Adheron Therapeutics by Roche, in his role as CEO/ Board member. These transactions have delivered over a billion dollars in returns to investors. 

The new CMO, Thierry Fumeaux will lead the Kinarus clinical development programs and the direction of the clinical strategy of the company. Fumeaux is a specialist in internal and intensive care medicine, with extensive clinical experience as Head of the Intensive Care Unit and the Internal Medicine Department of the hospital of Nyon. He was a member of the Swiss National Covid Scientific Task Force as president of its Clinical Care Expert group. He was also president of the Swiss Society of Intensive Care Medicine, from 2018 to 2020.

(Press release/RAN)