Dr. Escher has significant experience as a successful biotechnology entrepreneur and a leader in therapeutic development in both the start-up and corporate pharmaceutical environments.

He was a founder and CEO of ESBATech, selling the ophthalmology side of the business to Alcon. Dr. Escher was VP of R&D Alcon and a member of the Group’s Global R&D Leadership Team and, on acquisition of Alcon by Novartis, a member of the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research (NIBR) Global Ophthalmology Leadership Team. He was a founder of Delenex Therapeutics and served on the board of the company until acquisition by Cell Medica. Dominik co-founded and is Chairman of CDR-Life, a biotechnology company focusing on next generation biologics. Dominik launched and is a Partner of Pureos Bioventures, a VC fund investing in next generation biologics companies. He is a board member of the Swiss Biotech Association, which he has led as President since 2013.

Mr Richard Nagle (Chief Executive Officer) is a life sciences entrepreneur with over 25 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry across the US, Europe and Australasia. He was part of the early Innovex HQ team, at the forefront of outsourcing services, where he built and managed the development of large pharmaceutical sales forces, CRA’s and marketing. Innovex was acquired by Quintiles. He was Commercial Director of Walsh/PMSI, which was acquired by IMS Health, the leading supplier of strategic research and data to the pharmaceutical industry.

Moving into drug development, he became Commercial Director of Adelphi Group, responsible for the Strategic Product Development Consultancy, advising global pharmaceutical companies. He was CEO of Cardiac Alert which was acquired by Quintiles. He developed a new drug delivery system for Alza Corporation. The product was subsequently sold to Bayer and is now sold as Duragesic™. He co-founded Melee Venture Management which founded and developed a pain management business, an agri-biotech venture which placed extracted silica into depleted soils in commercial farms, two leading scientifically based cosmetics companies and a wound healing group, Wound Solutions. He joined Metellus, a Swiss-based investment firm, as Partner in 2014, joining the Board of Immune Regulation (formerly Peptinnovate) in 2015.

David Beadle has over 25 years’ experience in the healthcare and finance industries and brings a wealth of knowledge in investment banking, finance and life sciences. David started his career working in the pharmaceutical industry for Schwarz Pharma and Schering AG in marketing and strategic development, where he was part of the global development group for oncology.

He then moved to investment banking where he built and led highly ranked healthcare equity research teams both globally and across Europe. He first joined Hoare-Govett and then moved to UBS AG investment bank where he was a Managing Director in the equities division. He was a leading and highly ranked equity research analyst in the healthcare sector for over 10 years. At UBS, David was the lead analyst on several corporate finance projects, including IPOs and M&A.

David has been a non-executive Director to two successful companies in the healthcare and biotechnology space and has consulted for many others regarding scientific, corporate finance and business development strategies. David was a founding partner of Napa Capital, a corporate finance advisory company, working with several clients regarding financing projects and corporate strategy.

Prof. Clive Page is Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the Sackler Institute of Pulmonary Pharmacology, King’s College London. Clive’s main research interests are in the pharmacology of inflammation and respiratory disease and he has published over 250 scientific papers. Clive is the co-founder and acted as Chairman of the Board of Verona Pharma plc, an AIM listed Company developing new drugs for the treatment of Respiratory Diseases. He was also a Non-Executive Director of Helperby Therapeutics plc, a spin out Company from St. George’s Hospital Medical School developing novel anti-infective drugs. He is Non-Executive Director of Babraham Biotechnology Ltd, as well as being a Trustee of the Babraham Institute in Cambridge.

Clive started his early career in the pharmaceutical industry at Sandoz Ltd, Basel, Switzerland and regularly consults to both the pharmaceutical and biotech Industry. Clive was also the previous Chairman of the Board of Peptinnovate a former Chairman of the Animal Science Group of the Society of Biology and a Council Member of Understanding Animal Research. He was awarded the Society of Biology President’s Medal in 2012.

Michael Albisser (Chief Financial Officer) was previously acting CFO of the controlling unit of a multi-billion dollar single Family Office in Europe, before joining Metellus as a Partner. Extensive experience in accounting, controlling and reporting of investments in all asset classes, including Private Equity, Hedge Funds, industrial and agricultural ventures.

Dr. Cons has more than 30 years experience in pharmaceutical R&D & commercialisation in the Biotech, Pharmaceutical and Financing sectors. Ben had 20 years experience with the NYSE listed pharmaceutical services company IQVIA & the associated NovaQuest investment fund. He is currently a Special Partner at the private equity fund, Vitruvian, a board advisor to Talking Medicines and an investment panel member at Future Care Capital, a charity focusing on future health and social care policy.

Dr. Cons gained his early industry experience working at Bayer and Glaxo in clinical research and business development roles across multiple therapeutic areas with a focus on respiratory medicine. He is an investment member of private capital group, 24Haymarket and an investment panel member at Future Care Capital, a charity focusing on future health and social care policy.

Christopher Smith has worked in the City for more than 40 years. He was a Partner of Cazenove & Co. for 19 years, and subsequently Managing Director – Corporate Finance at JPMorgan Cazenove, the joint venture company formed with JPMorgan Chase in 2005. He retired from JPMorgan Cazenove in 2008. At Cazenove he advised a wide range of UK listed companies on capital raising, initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and company reorganisations. He has previously  served on the boards of The Law Debenture Corporation Plc. and Allchurches Trust Ltd.  He is currently chairman of CG Asset Management.

Gunnar Walstam is a serial entrepreneur, senior advisor and global private equity investor. Gunnar Walstam has more than 30 years experience of successfully founding, growing and transforming companies all over the world. His expertise spans sectors as diverse as biotechnology, medical devices, digital and hardware technology.

A graduate of Stockholm School of Economics, Gunnar began his career with global management consultants Bain & Company and telecommunications giant Ericsson. Then he founded Swedish medical technology company Bactiguard in 1990, growing it into the world’s leading antibacterial coating company. He sold Bactiguard, which develops and provides infection prevention solutions that reduce the risk of health-related infections and reduce the use of antibiotics to private equity buyers in 2006. He was an advisor and investor in Wayfinder (a precursor to GoogleMaps, which was sold to Vodafone), SWE-DISH (satellite technologies, sold to Rockwell Collins) and Jolife (Lucas Chest Compression systems, sold to Medtronic).

He is also a philanthropist, a Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) Hermes Leadership Circle Gold Member and former Member of the Board of Trustees at the Ross School in Long Island, USA.