BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ANTHONY ROSENBERG
CHAIRMAN

Managing Director, MPM Capital

PRESENTATION
Tony Rosenberg has served as Chairman of Oculis SA since April 2018. He is currently the CEO of TR Advisory Services GmbH, a consultancy firm advising on business development, licensing, and mergers and acquisitions and is also an Executive Advisor to PJT Ltd, London. Mr. Rosenberg has been also a Managing Director of MPM Capital, a venture capital firm, from 2015 to 2020 and previously served as Corporate Head of M&A and Licensing at Novartis A.G. and before that the Global Head of Business Development and Licensing at Novartis Pharma. Mr. Rosenberg is on the Board of Directors at Radius Health, TriNetX, Cullinan Oncology Inc., argenx BV and SiO2 Materials Sciences. He holds a B.Sc. (Hons) from the University of Leicester and a M.Sc. Physiology from the University of London.
ARNI BLÖNDAL
DIRECTOR

Founding partner, Brunnur Ventures

PRESENTATION
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.
LIONEL CARNOT
DIRECTOR

Managing Director, Bay City Capital

PRESENTATION
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

 

DIRECTOR

Managing Director, Head of Transactions & Legal, Novartis Venture Fund

PRESENTATION
Bart Dzikowski is a Managing Director at the Novartis Venture Fund and its Head of Transactions & Legal based in Basel, Switzerland. He currently serves on the boards of Enterprise Therapeutics Ltd, Inflazome Ltd. and Oculis S.A. Prior to joining NVF, Bart held various senior roles in Novartis’ Corporate Legal M&A and Business Development & Licensing groups. 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.
SYLVIA HE
MD
DIRECTOR

Managing Partner at Hyfinity Investments

PRESENTATION
Dr. Sylvia He is the Managing Partner at Hyfinity Investments which is devoted to advancing global innovations through partnerships addressing and bridging high unmet needs and rich clinical resources in China. Prior to her role at Hyfinity, Dr. He was the Senior Partner at CDH, one of the leading investment firms in China, where she led investments in leading pharmaceuticals, medical devices and care service companies. Before CDH, Dr. He was a partner at a boutique investment firm which had exclusive partnerships with HSBC Asia Direct Investments for healthcare in China. Earlier, Dr. He was a founder CEO of a specialty pharmaceutical company with operations in both U.S. and China. Dr. He obtained her PhD in Immunobiology from Yale University, MS in Chemistry from Princeton University and BS from University of Science and Technology of China.
ROB HOPFNER
RPh, PhD, MBA
DIRECTOR

Managing Partner, Pivotal Bioventure Partners

PRESENTATION
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).
VANESSA HUANG
DIRECTOR

General Partner at

BVCF Management

PRESENTATION
Vanessa Huang is currently a General Partner at BVCF Management. She has over 20 years of experience in healthcare and investment banking in the US and Hong Kong. Prior to joining BVCF, she was Head of Emerging Asia Healthcare Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan. She gained biotech industry experience at Amgen and holds an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
RIAD SHERIF
MD
DIRECTOR

Chief Executive Officer, Oculis

 

PRESENTATION

Dr. Sherif joined Oculis as Chief Executive Officer in 2017 from Novartis where he served as Entrepreneur in Residence at the Novartis Venture Fund. Since his arrival, the company raised over $100M USD, two successful Phase 2b trials were completed with OCS-01, a positive end-of-phase 2 meeting was conducted with the FDA propelling OCS-01 into Phase 3 for two distinct indications, the OPTIREACH® formulation technology was validated for both: the back- and the front-of-the-eye, and OCS-02, an antibody fragment anti-TNF alpha, was in-licensed from Novartis.

 

Prior to this, he held senior global positions in both Alcon, where he was President of Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Novartis, 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 President of the Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Division for Latin America. During his tenure in Canada and in Europe, he held several Chairman and Co-chair positions such as Vice Chairman for the Innovative Medicine Canada Association in Ottawa, Chairman of In-Vivo Montreal and Chairman of the Board Ophthalmic Surgery and Vision Care at Eucomed, Brussels.

 

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.

HENRY SKINNER
Ph.D.
DIRECTOR

Chief Executive Officer,
AMR Action Fund

PRESENTATION
Dr. Henry Skinner is CEO of the AMR Action Fund, a partnership that was set up by a coalition of pharmaceutical companies, philanthropies, and the European Investment Bank, with the support of the WHO, that aims to strengthen and accelerate antibiotic development.  Prior to joining the AMR Action Fund, Dr. Skinner was Senior Vice President, Venture at Tekla Capital Management, LLC, and 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, Pfizer, 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.