Nicholas Benedict, Chief Executive Officer

Nicholas joined Lumavita in August 2008, bringing over 17 years of industry experience. Previously, Nicholas worked at Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd where he was responsible for commercial strategy and commercial operations worldwide. In this role he set up affiliate companies across the world’s core markets, prepared three products for launch and co-led a successful Secondary Public Offering.

Before Basilea, Nicholas spent 8 years at Novartis in positions including Chief Operating Officer of Novartis UK and head of a Worldwide Business Franchise in Primary Care that included Novartis’ Global Women’s Health business, the number two competitor in women’s health worldwide.

The early part of Nicholas’ career was spent at F. Hoffmann-La Roche in diverse roles, beginning in finance before moving to sales and then to marketing. A British citizen, Nicholas gained his first degree at King’s College in London and has an MBA from Manchester University and Washington University, USA.

Manfred Schulz, Head of Project Management

Manfred joined Lumavita in October 2008, shortly after the reorganisation, with over 16 years of R&D experience within the pharma industry.

Previously, Manfred worked as Senior Project Leader at Novartis in Basel/Switzerland and New Jersey/USA. At Novartis he spent more than 11 years in Pharma Development during which time he acquired a deep expertise in leading cross-functional project teams from early to late stage drug development, including new drug approvals in the US and the EU. Before that, Manfred spent 5 years in Immunology/Transplantation Research at what was formerly Sandoz, where he was responsible for internal research programmes and external research collaboration with US start-up companies.

Manfred earned his doctoral degree as a molecular biologist at the Institute of Genetics, University of Cologne. Post-doctoral research in Virology and Immunology was pursued at the University Hospital in Zurich under Prof. Zinkernagel and at the WHO sponsored ILRAD institute in Nairobi/Kenya. He also received a master’s degree in Project Management from the George Washington University.

Markus Brand, Director Finance and Accounting

Markus became Director, Finance and Accounting for Shogoo Pharmaceuticals AG in April 2007, prior to the company’s reorganisation into Lumavita AG in 2008.

In 1999, he joined DHL Management AG (at that time Danzas Management AG) in Basel as Senior Accountant, responsible for accounting and financial reporting. He gained extensive knowledge and hands-on experience in year-end closing for different companies, financial controlling, transfer pricing, implementing new accounting and reporting software as well as International Financial and Reporting Standards (IFRS).

From 1985 to 1999 Markus worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers (formerly Schweizerische Treuhandgesellschaft) as Assistant Manager in auditing and qualified as "Treuhänder mit eidg. Fachausweis". Performing external audits, internal audits and special projects, Markus gained considerable experience in risk analysis, developing audit strategies, year-end audits, consolidation and accounting. He established concepts for a fixed assets register, rules for accounting and assisted in establishing a new accounting system.

Juerg Eckhardt, Chairman

Dr Juerg Eckhardt is an investment advisor for BB BIOTECH VENTURES. He has invested in a wide range of different life science companies.

Before starting his venture capital career, he was an Associate Partner of McKinsey & Co in Zurich and New Jersey/New York, and a member of the firm's European Healthcare Leadership team. Prior to that, Dr Eckhardt was a resident physician at the University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland.

Dr Eckhardt holds an MD from the University of Basel, Switzerland, and an MBA from INSEAD, France. His past or current board assignments include Anteis SA, Calypso Medical Technologies Inc, NeurogesX Inc, TargeGen Inc, and swiss smile Holding AG.

Gerhard Ries

Dr Gerhard Ries is co-founder of BioMedInvest/BioMedCredit and has a strong background in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and consulting industries.

Previously, Dr Ries was a Partner at InterPharmaLink, a management consulting company, specialising in product portfolio and supply chain optimisation for large Pharma organisations. He also has several years of experience working as a project manager at McKinsey & Co, focusing on Pharma and Life Science companies.

Dr Ries was business development manager at Novartis responsible for licensing opportunities in the Biotech sector. He holds a MS and PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Basel and a diploma in Biotechnology from the Fachhochschule Weihenstephan. Dr Ries has several years of research experience in the Pharma/Biotech sector gained at Ciba Geigy, Boehringer Mannheim, Harvard Medical School and the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry.

Magnus Persson

Dr Persson MD PhD is since 13 years a Partner of the leading Nordic Venture Capital firm HealthCap and is also an Associate Professor at the Karolinska Institute.

Dr Persson was a co-founder of Aerocrine AB, serves on the board of several European and US biotechnology Companies and is the Chairman of the Swedish charity Anhörigfonden and a board member of the Swedish Medical Nanoscience Center at the Karolinska Insitutet.

Prior to joining HealthCap, Dr Persson worked as Clinical Research Physician with Sanofi. Proceeding that employment, he was a Lecturer of Physiology at the Karolinska Institute and a physician at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Karolinska Hospital.

Regina Hodits

Dr Regina Hodits is a Partner in the Life Sciences group. She joined Atlas Venture in 2004 and focuses on investments across Europe.

She began her career in venture capital in 2000 with Apax Partners in Munich, where she was responsible for life science investments and was closely involved with Apax’ investments in Genmab, Silence Therapeutics, Astex and Wilex. Prior to Apax Partners, she was an industry specialist for pharmaceutical and biotech companies at McKinsey & Company focusing on building new businesses, spin-offs and mergers in the sector.

Dr Hodits currently serves on the Boards of Atlas portfolio companies Fibrex, f-star and Jenavalve where she was founding investor. In addition, she sits on the Boards of Atlas portfolio companies Egalet, Nitec, NovaMed and ProtAffin. She is an external director at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Respiratory CEDD.

Dr Hodits holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, a Master of Science from the Technical University in Vienna, Austria and she completed her post-doctoral research at the MRC in Cambridge, UK. She has been the recipient of a number of scientific awards and research grants, and has published in several journals, including Nature Biotech and JBC.

Paul R. Hofer

Since graduating with a Master of Economics from the University of Basel, Switzerland in 1972, Paul has focused on building his financial & business management career. During this time he spent extensive and successful years at the Credit Suisse Group. Paul was Country Head of the Group in Japan for eight years, the United Kingdom for five years and Germany for three years. Also during this time, he was Co-Head of Corporate Banking and Structured Finance of Credit Suisse First Boston from 1997 to 1999. In all these roles, Paul was responsible for building, restructuring and refocusing franchises in Corporate and Structured Banking, Asset Management, Private Banking, Treasury as well as all areas of Risk Management and Operations.

Since mid-2000, Paul has demonstrated an attractive track record in managing small to medium sized companies, including start-ups, in either board member or Chairman roles. Paul was co-founder and board member of Necura Pharmaceuticals AG, the predecessor of Shogoo KK and subsequently Lumavita AG.

Paul maintains close ties with the operating levels of his managed firms, focusing on developing adequate corporate structures, deciding and implementing defined strategies, in addition to his vigilance and implementation of appropriate Corporate Governance.

Since 2001, Paul has established and successfully run an assessment academy for future potential Managing Directors at Deutsche Bank AG. He also coaches Managing Director and Director level professional staff within Deutsche Bank as well as Senior Executives in other financial organizations.