Board of Directors

Johanna Holldack has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 20 years, where she has held key positions in both start-up and large pharma companies. Her experience includes management and executive positions at Behringwerke, Chiron, MediGene, Borean Pharma, Telormedix and Trethera.

Johanna has a medical degree from Georg-August-University in Gottingen, Germany and is a Board Certified paediatrician. In addition, she has held positions as an Assistant Professor at the University of Essen, research fellow for the Deutsche Krebshilfe and a research associate at Harvard Medical School.

Madiha Derouazi founded AMAL in 2012 as a spin-off from the University of Geneva, Switzerland

She has been working on vector engineering and therapeutic cancer vaccines for over 10 years. She has a strong background in applied molecular and cellular biotechnology, with research interests at the interface of fundamental and translational research, the so called bench-to-bedside.

In the Laboratory of Tumour Immunology of the University of Geneva, she designed and characterized the CPP-based multi-epitopic cancer vaccine that is currently being progressed by AMAL Therapeutics.

Madiha holds a PhD in Biotechnology from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland and a Master in Biotechnology Engineering from the University of Technology of Berlin, Germany.

Knut Elbers is Director of the Boehringer Ingelheim Corporate Venture Fund, where he has been involved in several investments. He served as board member of Okarios AG in Basel and is a board member of NBE Therapeutics and of AMAL Therapeutics since 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Knut joined Boehringer Ingelheim in 1995 in the international R&D department of the animal health business. From 1999 to 2008 he was heading the European vaccine research organisation for animal health. During his work at Boehringer Ingelheim Knut was involved in 12 patent applications and key development projects (Ingelvac PRRSV, Enterisol Ileitis, Ingelvac CircoFLEX) contributing significantly to the vaccine business success of the animal health business of Boehringer Ingelheim.

Knut studied Biology at the Eberhard-Karls-University of Tübingen, Germany with a specific focus on Virology and Immunology. He undertook his PhD at the Federal Institute for Viral Diseases in Tübingen focusing on protein processing during viral replication and pathogen/host interaction mechanism.

Diego Braguglia has over 20 years’ experience in life sciences, medical devices and pharmaceuticals in Europe and the US. Prior to joining VI Partners as General Partner, Diego held various managerial positions in the pharmaceuticals and medical devices sectors. Diego currently represents VI Partners in various biotech start-ups companies, including AMAL Therapeutics.

Diego holds a MSc in Microbiology from the Biocenter of the University of Basel, Switzerland and a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the Swiss Cancer Research Institute (ISREC) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Hanna Kleczkowska is the Principal Investment Advisor at Helsinn International Services (HIS), an advisory body to the Helsinn Investment Fund. Before joining HIS, she worked for Helsinn Healthcare in the Business Development function, leading a team focusing on new product evaluations for in-licensing or acquisition. Prior to Helsinn, Hanna held senior management positions at Bank Julius Baer and UBS, where she was involved in private and public equity transactions. Hanna started her career at the University of Zurich, Switzerland where she did independent research on the molecular mechanisms of cancer. Later on, at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, she coordinated a cancer biomarker database project.

Hanna holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from University of Warsaw, Poland.

Andreas Wallnöfer joined BioMedPartners as a new Partner in 2016. He is a senior executive leader with more than 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including 12 years as a member of the F. Hoffmann-La Roche Pharma R&D Leadership and Portfolio Committee. He led the Roche Pharma Cardiovascular & Metabolism Disease Area and left Roche in 2015 after the company strategically decided to exit these research areas.

At Roche he was involved in several successful product development programs. As Head of Clinical Research & Exploratory Development Andreas and his groups were involved in the Due Diligence evaluations for in-licensing projects and product acquisitions. He also played a key role in the integration of the Roche and Genentech Development organisations and subsequently led Early Development and Portfolio Management at Roche.

Andreas has a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Basel, Switzerland and trained as a fellow in Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. He holds a Master of Technology Enterprise and an Executive MBA from IMD Lausanne, Switzerland.