Board of Directors

The management of Nitec are supported by a Board of Directors which includes Anders Härfstrand MD, PhD, Jochen Mattis and Achim Schäffler, PhD from the senior management team of Nitec and six non-executive board members including:

Hans Fünfschilling, PhD, was the sole Representative of the Canton of Basel-Landschaft in the Swiss Senate (Ständerat) until December 2007 and is a former member of the government of the Canton of Basel-Landschaft (Regierungsrat). Prior to his political career, Dr. Fünfschilling worked for almost 21 years in senior executive positions at F. Hoffmann-La Roche. Dr. Fünfschilling graduated from the University of Basel and holds a PhD in Astronomy. Dr. Fünfschilling also serves as Vice-Chairman of the board of directors of Arpida AG, on the board of the association of the Swiss cantonal re-insurance companies (Interkantonaler Rückversicherungsverband IRV) and on the board of the Endress + Hauser Group, Switzerland. Dr. Fünfschilling is a Swiss national and resident in Switzerland.

Hubertus Ludwig, Dr.iur, is a partner in the law firm Vischer LLC with offices in Basel and Zurich. He is the head of the firm’s tax group in Basel. He studied law at the University of Basel where he obtained his doctorate in law. Hubertus Ludwig has been a certified Swiss tax expert since 1988. He is admitted to the bar in Basel/Switzerland. Before joining Vischer LLC, Dr. Ludwig was a Senior Partner of Ernst & Young Ltd. in Basel, department manager of the legal and tax division in Basel and member of the legal and tax business unit of Ernst & Young Ltd., Switzerland. He had various educational functions at the Swiss Accountancy Academy (responsible for lecturing on various tax subject matters). Dr. Ludwig serves on the board of directors of Burda Service AG, Mirabo AG, ZVB Zeitschriften-Vertrieb AG, Graphic Machinery Binder & Co. AG, Vopak (Schweiz) AG, Prodinger Verpackung AG and Rieker Holding AG. Dr. Ludwig is a Swiss national and resident in Switzerland.

Peter Reinisch, PhD, is a Partner at Global Life Science Ventures (GLSV), a venture capital fund focusing exclusively on the life sciences, which he co-founded in 1995. From 1994 to 1996, he advised Boehringer Mannheim and Corange Ltd. Prior to 1994 he held positions of increasing responsibility with Brown Boveri, the Institute for Automation, the Denner Group and McKinsey and Co., where he concentrated on high technology industries. Dr. Reinisch first studied mechanical engineering, then graduated with a doctorate in Business Administration (Betriebswissenschaften) from the Technical University of Vienna/Austria. Dr. Reinisch is a Swiss national and resident in Switzerland.

Karl Nägler, PhD, joined Atlas Venture in 2002 and is a Principal in the Life Sciences sector since 2006. Previously, he worked as a Scientific Fellow at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, Centre for Neurochemistry, in Strasbourg, France. He obtained his PhD for his work in the area of molecular neurobiology at the Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin. Dr. Nägler holds an MSc in Biology with distinction from the Free University of Berlin and prepared his thesis at the Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University in Melbourne/Australia. During his academic career he contributed to several papers published in highly respected scientific journals, including Science and The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). Dr. Nägler has been responsible for the formation and financing of several Atlas Venture portfolio companies. Dr. Nägler is a German national and resident in Germany.

Peter Johann, PhD, is a Managing General Partner of NGN Capital. He joined NGN Capital from Boehringer Ingelheim where he was the Division Head of Corporate Development. His responsibilities at Boehringer Ingelheim included strategic planning, strategic projects, M&A, business development and licensing. Prior to this Dr. Johann served at F. Hoffmann-La Roche as Global Business Leader where he was responsible for global marketing of oncology products as well as evaluation of pipeline products from internal and external sources. Dr. Johann joined F. Hoffmann-La Roche from Boehringer Mannheim where he was Head of Business Development and Marketing Molecular Medicine. Prior to that position he had Marketing, Sales and Business Development responsibilities at Boehringer Mannheim Biochemicals, among others, for collaborations in the field of biopharmaceuticals. Dr. Johann has additional industry experience in Business Development and Marketing of pharmaceutical products with Kaneka in Japan and with Röhm Pharma GmbH in Germany in industrial enzymes. Dr. Johann obtained his PhD from the Technical University Munich. Dr. Johann is a German national and resident in Germany.

Dr. Hubert Birner, PhD MBA, joined TVM Capital in 2000, and is a General Partner for life sciences in the firm's Munich office. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Argos Therapeutics Inc. (Durham, North Carolina) and is a member of the Board of Directors of Evotec AG (Hamburg, Germany), BioXell SA (Milan, Italy), Spepharm Holding BV (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Proteon Therapeutics, Inc (Kansas City, Missouri), Transmolecular Inc.(Boston, Massachusetts) and Nitec Pharma SA (Basel, Switzerland). Over many years, he was the Chairman/Vice Chairman of Direvo Biotech AG (Cologne, Germany) and Jerini AG (Berlin, Germany) which were acquired in 2008 by Bayer HealthCare AG and Shire Ltd. Dr. Birner also represents the interests of TVM Capital with Ardana Bioscience plc (Edinburgh, Scotland). Before joining TVM Capital, he was Head of Business Development Europe and Director of Marketing for Germany at Zeneca. Hubert joined Zeneca from McKinsey & Company's European Health Care and Pharmaceutical practice. As a management consultant, he gained extensive experience in R&D management; marketing and sales; and joint venture structuring and business development. Dr. Birner was also an Assistant Professor for biochemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. In this capacity, he directed various research projects for large pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Birner holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a doctoral degree in biochemistry from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, where he graduated summa cum laude. His doctoral thesis was honored with the Hoffmann-La Roche prize for outstanding basic research in metabolic diseases.