Startups win strong and well-connected board members

NBE Therapeutics, Erich Schlick, chairman of the board of Director
NBE-Therapeutics, a biotech company developing best-in-class cancer therapies based on its proprietary, highly differentiated Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) platform, announced the appointment of Erich Schlick as Independent Chairman of its Board of Directors. Schlick has over 35 years' experience across the pharmaceutical and investment industry and has been a non-executive director for many biotech companies. He is currently a General Partner and Managing Director at Wellington Partners, a Munich-based venture capital firm focused on life science investments. Prior to this, he served as Director and Head of 3i Healthcare Germany and as Deputy Sector Head of 3i Healthcare Worldwide. Prior to venture capital, he spent 15 years with BASF Pharma / Knoll AG where he was an Executive Board Member with worldwide responsibility for preclinical and clinical R&D. During this time, he obtained worldwide registrations for several products in cardiovascular, metabolic and pain indications. He is one of a very few European drug developers to see their innovation become a blockbuster. 

Numab appoints Daniel Vasella as chairman of the board
One year after joining Numab’s board, former Novartis CEO and Chairman Daniel Vasella, has become an independent Chairman of the Board of Numab succeeding Oliver Middendorp, founder and current Chief Business Officer, who remains on the Board of Directors as a regular member. “Numab has established itself at the forefront of multi-specific antibody development, a sector that holds promise to transform the treatment landscapes in cancer and several other disease areas with high economic burden on society. I’m glad to support the company in this highly promising period,” commented Vasella.

Seba welcomes Päivi Rekonen to chair its board 
The FINMA licensed Swiss Bank Seba which provides a bridge between digital and traditional assets, welcomes Päivi Rekonen as Chair to the Board of Directors. Rekonen is a seasoned banking, digital and technology professional who held positions at UBS, Credit Suisse, Cisco and Adecco. In addition, her board experience with both software startups and publicly listed companies is also a distinct positive in terms of guidance for the executive committee. 

The startup further strengthened its Board of Directors with the appointment of Hans Kuhn, a renowned law expert especially in digital, fintech, crypto and blockchain law, and Sanjeev Karkhanis, experienced senior leader in Financial Risk Management to complete the strategic leadership of SEBA Bank. Kuhn will provide his expert regulatory knowledge while Karkhanis shares his international experience. 

Cytosurge, Thomas Bachmann
Since the launch of its first commercial product, an add-on for atomic force microscopes, the ETH spin-off has experienced steady and rapid growth. The startup is expanding its Board of Directors with Thomas Bachmann to strengthen its international orientation and ambitions. Bachmann brings proven and long-standing strategic management experience and an extensive network in the biotechnology and laboratory equipment industry. From 2005 to 2012, Bachmann was the CEO of Tecan, a leading Swiss company in the laboratory equipment industry for many years. He late became the President of Bruker BioSpin, a leading global manufacturer of analytical and preclinical magnetic resonance equipment. Until the end of 2019, he served, for almost seven years, as CEO and a member of the Supervisory Board of Eppendorf, one of the world's best-known and most successful suppliers of laboratory equipment in the Life Science sector. In his new role, Bachmann will leverage his industry expertise to support the professionalisation of Cytosurge's strategic supervisory board. 

Advertima welcomes Alexander Ilic
The St. Gallen based Advertima developed a computer vision platform to empower grocers and retailers to create smart spaces that offer consumer-centric, frictionless and relevant in-store shopping experiences. Two months following the closing of a €15 million investment round to expand its global reach, Advertima has welcomed Alexander Ilic to its board. Ilic is the founder of Dacuda, which was acquired by Magic Leep in 2017 where he worked as the General Manager Switzerland and senior Director SW Engineering. He has been actively engaged in the startup scene with roles as Advisor at sportstech startup VAY and Director at Auto-ID Labs. In his new role, he will support Advertima with his expertise to open up Advertima as a living lab to researchers & experts for ethics, data-protection, and privacy-protection technologies in order to come up with further solutions as well as best-practices that can help to provide examples for tech innovation that follows European & Swiss values.

(RAN)