Board of DIrectors

Mr. Rosenberg is a Board member at MPM portfolio companies Radius, Cullinan and TriNetX. In addition, he is also an independent Board Member at argenx BV. Prior to joining MPM, Mr. Rosenberg served as Global Head, M&A and Licensing (Corporate) for Novartis, based in Basel, Switzerland. In this role, he oversaw the Novartis portfolio transformation, a comprehensive set of transactions announced in 2014 to focus Novartis on its global businesses in innovative pharmaceuticals, eye care and generics. Mr. Rosenberg joined Novartis’ predecessor company, Sandoz, in 1980. He is a Board member at MPM portfolio companies Radius and TriNetX and is a former board member at Clinical Ink and Idenix, both former MPM portfolio companies. Since January 2016, Mr. Rosenberg has also been an advisor to Serodus ASA, a drug development company focused on the area of diabetes. He has a BSc. (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the University of Leicester and an MSc. in Physiology from the University of London

Mr. Blöndal is a founding partner at Brunnur Ventures, the General Partner of Brunnur VC Fund, based in Iceland. He has 25 years of experience in the private sector as a start-up co-founder, VC fund manager, and as an investment banker. Mr. Blöndal has served as a board director in numerous start-ups in the fields of healthcare and IT. He holds a C.Sc. degree in Engineering from the University of Iceland and a M.Sc. degree in Information Technology from Denmark's Technical University.

Mr. Carnot has been Managing Director at Bay City Capital since joining the firm in 2005 after having been extensively involved in the firm’s activities as part of The Pritzker Organization since 2000. Mr. Carnot is based in Bay City Capital’s office in Basel, Switzerland, where he manages the firm’s European activities. Prior to The Pritzker Organization, Mr. Carnot was a Principal at Oracle Partners, a healthcare hedge fund. He also held several positions in the pharmaceutical industry, including Product Manager for Prozac at Eli Lilly and several sales and marketing positions at Sanofi-Aventis. He was also a strategy and management consultant to the biopharmaceutical industry at Booz Allen & Hamilton, and Accenture Strategic Services. Mr. Carnot holds an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD and a M.Sc. in Molecular Biology from the University of Geneva.

Bart Dzikowski is the Head of Transactions and Legal for the Novartis Venture Fund based in Basel, Switzerland. In this capacity, he leads the NVF transactional function and advises the NVF team on a broad scope of transactional and shareholder, director and corporate governance matters. During his time at Novartis, Bart has also served as the Head of Corporate Legal M&A (a.i.) and Senior BD&L and M&A Counsel with Novartis International AG and, in this capacity, advised Novartis teams on a variety of strategic corporate and divisional transactions. Before joining Novartis in 2009, Bart was a Vice-President with the Investment Banking Division of Bank of America | Merrill Lynch in New York and, before that, he was an attorney with the Corporate/M&A Group at the law firm of Allen & Overy LLP in New York. Bart holds degrees in common law (LL.B.) and civil law (B.C.L.) from McGill Law School in Canada and is a member of the New York State Bar.

Dr. Hopfner is a Managing Partner at Pivotal bioVentures where he focuses on drug discovery and development investments. He has a long track record of working successfully with entrepreneurs to progress novel, important medicines through development and onto the market. Dr. Hopfner was formerly either a board member or board observer on Aciex Therapeutics (sold to Nicox S.A.), Civitas Therapeutics (sold to Acorda Therapeutics), Cydan, Dermira (NASDAQ: DERM), Hyperion Therapeutics (sold to Horizon Pharma), Imara Pharmaceuticals, NextWave Pharmaceuticals (sold to Pfizer), Pharmakea Therapeutics, and Vtesse (sold to Sucampo Pharmaceuticals). Other past investments where Dr. Hopfner played a key role included Iterum Therapeutics, Kezar Life Sciences, Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MDGL), Menlo Therapeutics, Merus BV (NASDAQ: MRUS) and Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: TTPH).

Dr. Loftsson is a leading scientist in the field of nanoparticle drug delivery, in particular cyclodextrin-based formulations. He has served as an advisor to many of the global pharmaceutical companies on drug formulations and IP rights. Dr. Loftsson co-founded and served as CEO of the biotechnology company Cyclops ehf. from 1994 until it was acquired by DeCode Genetics, in 2000. At that time, he also took on the role of scientific advisor at Decode Genetics until 2004. Dr. Loftsson received an MS degree in Pharmacy from the University of Copenhagen, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and MS and Ph.D. degrees in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Kansas, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. He has served as assistant, associated and full Professor on the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Iceland for over 35 years. Dr. Loftsson has authored and co-authored more than 220 peer-reviewed papers in addition to a couple of books and a number of book chapters. He is a fellow of the AAPS and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, International Journal of Pharmaceuticals, Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology, Die Pharmazie, and the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology. In 2014, Dr. Loftsson was recognized as one of the World's Most Influential Scientific Minds by Thomson Reuters.

Dr. Sherif joined Oculis from Novartis where he served as Entrepreneur in Residence at Novartis Venture Fund during 2017. Prior to this, he held senior positions in global business development both at Alcon, where he was Region President of Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Novartis Pharmaceuticals, where he served as President of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Canada. Dr. Sherif joined Novartis Pharmaceuticals in 2002 and has also held roles as Head of Transplant and Infectious Disease for Latin America, and Head of the Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Division for Latin America.

Prior to Novartis, Dr. Sherif worked for several pharmaceutical companies, holding positions of increasing seniority, mainly in marketing and general management with international scope. Dr. Sherif is a medical doctor by training, and also has an MBA from IMD and a Specialized Master’s degree in Medical Management.

Dr. Skinner is Senior Vice President, Venture at Tekla Capital Management.  Dr. Skinner is Chairman and independent Board Member of Macrolide Pharmaceuticals and a Board Member of GenomeDx and Curasen Therapeutics.  Prior to joining Tekla, Dr. Skinner Served as Deputy Head and Managing Director of Novartis Venture Fund.  In addition, Dr. Skinner has been CEO of SelectX Pharmaceuticals and NeoGenesis Pharmaceuticals and has held positions in Business Development for Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Pharmacia, Pharmacia & Upjohn and Lexicon Genetics.  Dr. Skinner was a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor College of Medicine in the department of Human and Molecular Genetics, earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology and M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois and M.S. and B.S. in Biology/Biotechnology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Dr. Weber has worked in the healthcare industry for more than 25 years, including ten years in ophthalmic drug development. He is currently President, CEO and Director of Otonomy, Inc. (NASDAQ: OTIC), a company developing innovative therapeutics to treat hearing and balance disorders. Prior to Otonomy, he was CEO at MacuSight, Inc., a developer of a sustained delivery formulation of sirolimus for the treatment of severe ophthalmic diseases, and acting CEO at Oculex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of intraocular pharmaceuticals and drug delivery systems, which was acquired by Allergan. Dr. Weber also held various management positions at Oral-B Laboratories and Procter & Gamble.