Khalid served as chairman and CEO of Gentium S.p.A. (a Nasdaq-listed company; 2009-2014) where he led the transition of the loss-making company to cash-flow positive and profitable. Under his leadership Defitelio (defibrotide) was granted marketing authorization in the EU and the company’s value increased from $25m to $1billion in a cash merger with Jazz Pharmaceuticals, plc. From 1999-2008, he was president and CEO of Arpida AG where he transitioned the early-stage start-up to a SWX-listed company and raised $300M in the IPO and follow-ons. From 1987-1999, he held various positions in HMR & MMD (now Sanofi-Aventis). From 1977-1987, he worked in academia at Imperial College (University of London) and at Milan University, where he was a contract professor. Khalid is a graduate of Chelsea College and received his PhD from Imperial College, University of London. He holds several patents and has published over 85 articles in leading journals. He is also on the editorial board of Current Drug Discovery and Technologies. Khalid is currently the chairman of Fennec (FRX.TO; North Carolina) and a member of the board of directors at Karolinska Development (KDEV.ST; Stockholm), Molmed (MLM.MI; Milan), and OxThera (Stockholm). He has previously been a member of the board of directors at Arpida AG (Basel and DC), Rheoscience AS (Copenhagen), PCovery AS (Copenhagen), Adenium AS (Copenhagen) and C10 Pharma AS (Oslo).

Claude is an established leader in clinical drug development and worldwide regulatory strategy with more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. After graduating in medicine from the Université Libre de Bruxelles he began working for Bristol-Myers Squibb becoming Director of Clinical Cancer Research; Executive Director of Infectious Diseases Clinical Research; Vice-President Worldwide Regulatory Science and Strategy Oncology, Infectious Disease and NeuroScience. During his tenure with BMS, Claude led the development and worldwide registration of compounds such as etoposide, ifosfamide, videx, reyatase, cefepime, tequin, abilify, Erbitux and dasatinib. Subsequently, he joined Alexion as Senior Vice President of Strategic development and Global Regulatory Affair in where he had a leadership role in completing the worldwide registration of Soliris and implementing its life-cycle management. Claude has authored over a hundred papers in peer-reviewed journals or abstracts at international meetings, and is a member of a number of professional societies. Currently, he is board member at Sarepta Therapeutics.

Karen Wagner is a senior executive and entrepreneur with 25 years’ experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Karen is Managing Partner at Ysios Capital and has a leading role in the investment team and the portfolio. Prior to joining Ysios in 2008, she was a Global Alliance Director for F. Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel, Switzerland. She joined Roche from GLYCART, a biotech company in the antibody engineering space, which was acquired by Roche in 2005. Previously she was a Consultant with McKinsey & Company’s Global Healthcare Practice. She serves on the Boards of Cytoki Pharma, Vivet Therapeutics, AELIX Therapeutics, Minoryx Therapeutics, Synendos and SparingVision and holds an observer seat at Xeltis. Formerly, she was Board Member at Xeltis, Cardoz, Kala Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KALA), and Galecto (NASDQ:GLTO). She holds a master’s degree in Molecular Biology and a PhD in Cell Biology.

Pablo is the Director of Life Science Investment Funds at Caixa Capital Risc. He focuses on investment in therapeutics and medical devices. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at Medlumics, Aelix Therapeutics, Minoryx Therapeutics, iProteos, Proteodesign and Laboratoris Sanifit. Pablo has more than 12 years of experience in business development, technology transfer and in early stage investment. Pablo graduated in Chemistry from the University of Buenos Aires, and holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Barcelona. From 2005 to 2009, he was a postdoctoral Fulbright Fellow at the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard University.

Damià has spent the last 20 years working in the biotech industry and has founded several biotech companies including Highlight Therapeutics, Artax Biopharma, Viralgen (adquired by Bayer), Vivet Therapeutics (option by Pfizer), PTS (Adquired by Arcline), Tyris Therapeutics, Recovid (adquired by Vitro) or Radioterapia de Protones. 

Damia is currently Director of Artax, Highlight, Tyris, Algenex, Aleta, Integra and Syngoi. He has also served on the Boards of Sanifit (adquired by Vifor), Recovid, Viralgen and PTS.

Moreover, Damia is the President of Fundación Columbus, a non-profit organization that develops advanced therapies for children with cancer and ultra-rare genetic diseases. 

He holds a PhD in in Immunology and Molecular Genetics from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and has been researcher at Uniklinik Bonn, University of Michigan or the Spanish National Cancer Center (CNIO)