Boardroom Media (CFO News)
At CFO (Boardroom Media) we track over 1,000,000 startups and over 5,000,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top Germany based CFO’ operating in the Biotechnology space. If you think a CFO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected].
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Olaf Klinger
CFO of Symrise
Olaf Klinger is CFO at Symrise.
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About Symrise: Symrise is a global supplier of fragrances, flavorings, cosmetic active ingredients, raw materials and functional ingredients.
Pierre Kemula
CFO of CureVac
joined CureVac in October 2016. Before joining CureVac, he was Chief Financial Officer of Pixium Vision where he successfully contributed to the listing of the company on Euronext in Paris, and Vice President Corporate Finance, Treasury and Financial Markets at Ipsen. He had earlier worked with major strategy consulting firms (Roland Berger, Bossard Consultants and Gemini Consulting). He holds a Bachelor of Science in Management Sciences from the London School of Economics (LSE) in the United Kingdom.
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About CureVac: CureVac is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that provides prophylactic and therapeutic application of messenger RNA.
Michael Brosnan
Chief Financial Officer of Fresenius Medical Care
Michael Brosnan was appointed chief financial officer on January 1, 2010. Previously, he served as chief financial officer of Fresenius Medical Care North America for seven years. He joined the company in 1998 as vice president of Finance and Administration for Spectra Renal Management, the company’s laboratory services organization. Subsequently, he assumed several executive functions at Fresenius Medical Care North America.Prior to joining the company, he held senior financial positions at Polaroid Corporation and was an audit partner at
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About Fresenius Medical Care: Fresenius Medical Care is a healthcare company that provides dialysis treatment for those with chronic kidney diseases.
Matthias Zachert
CFO of Merck
Matthias Zachert, born in 1967 in Bonn, Germany, has been a member of the Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer of Merck since June 2011. Prior to this, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Lanxess AG from 2004 to 2011, where he played a key role in establishing the global finance organization, restructuring the portfolio, and realigning the Bayer spin-off. Before joining Lanxess, as of 2002 Matthias Zachert was Chief Financial Officer at Kamps AG, where he helped to restructure the company. From 1999 to 2002, Matthias Zachert worked in Paris as Chief Financial Officer of the International Region of Aventis Pharma AG, which was formed by the merger of Hoechst Marion Roussel (HMR) and Rhône-Poulenc Rorer. Before the merger that created Aventis, Matthias Zachert held various senior management positions in the pharmaceutical business of Hoechst AG. Matthias Zachert completed an industrial management apprenticeship at Mercedes-Benz AG from 1988 to 1990. Afterwards, he studied business administration with a concentration in finance and international management from 1990 to 1995. He graduated with a degree in business administration (Diplom-Kaufmann). He is married and has three children.
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About Merck: Merck is a pharmaceutical and chemical enterprise that develops prescription drugs and over-the-counter products.
Richard Stoffelen
Chief Financial Officer of Centogene
Richard serves as CFO, providing international expertise in global financial topics at CENTOGENE. His experience and know-how supports CENTOGENE in its continued global growth plans. With over 25 years of experience in international leadership roles covering the full width of governance and risk concepts, his expertise, combined with his extensive change management skills, ensures the finance organization will enable the company to continue its expansive growth path. Richard previously served as Head of Internal Audit at Holcim, a listed multinational company in Switzerland, where he was asked to lead the change of this function from a globally distributed model to a centralized, risk based, model. From 1985 to 2013 he was active in different Audit- and Management-positions at (a.o.) KPMG, in Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. During his international audit tenure, Richard was responsible for audits of a multitude of small and large (listed on various stock exchanges, including the US) clients in a wide variety of industries, including the Pharma industry. He developed a new entity on strategic alliances, where he also provided strategy consulting services, including business planning and related funding. As Partner in Charge of one of the offices, he created values-based turn-around. Subsequently, he was HR responsible in the management team for the audit practice of KPMG NL-south. This role led to a further roll out of his management development initiatives in Hong Kong, China and Germany. Furthermore, Richard was involved in IPO`s and Bond issuances on a variety of stock exchanges. He was an active public speaker during his leadership and business development regarding the role of the China Practice, both in Hong Kong-China, and in Europe – where he led the EMA China Practice. Richard graduated as a Dutch CPA with the NBA and Tilburg University – the Netherlands, with further executive education programs at Harvard Business School, Insead (Executive MBA), IMD and IESE.
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About Centogene: CENTOGENE provides methods and technology for human genetics analysis.
Thomas Dürre
Chief Financial Officer of Isotopen Technologien München
Thomas accepted the position as Chief Financial Officer at ITM Isotopen Technologien München AG in April 2016. Before that he worked for 3 years as Senior Vice President at Software AG and was responsible for all aspects of Global Integration Management. Prior to this he was CFO at alfabet AG for 15 years and headed the successful sale and merger of alfabet AG to Software AG. Thomas started his career in 1991 at Ernst & Young and worked from 1996 until 1998 as Controller Germany for the US based international waste management company BFI. Thomas has 25 years of work experience in finance, especially in the international expansion and growth of start-ups and preparation as well as execution of exit strategies in private equity companies. He holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration (Dipl.-Kfm.) from the University of Cologne (Germany).
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About Isotopen Technologien München: Isotopen Technologien München is a privately held biotechnology and radiopharmaceutical group of companies.
Federico Bursgens
Managing Director and CFO of GNA Biosolutions
Federico holds the post of Managing Director and CFO of GNA Biosolutions. His primary responsibilities are GNA’s finances as well technology-wise for the optoelectronic and software development. Federico has started his entrepreneurial career in high school and thus gained many years of business planning experience. Federico began his undergraduate studies of physics at the University of Munster/Germany and then enrolled at the Universities of Wurzburg/Germany and the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned his Master’s degree in physics in 2003. During his entire studies Federico was a fellow of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung). Afterwards, Federico moved to Munich/Germany where he worked in the Center for nanoscience and obtained his PhD in physics from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in 2008. He is author and co-author of 16 peer-reviewed scientific papers on detection technology.
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About GNA Biosolutions: GNA Biosolutions is a private molecular diagnostics company.
Anne Burger
CFO & Co-Founder of Breath Therapeutics
Anne Burger has over 15 years expertise in senior finance functions for biotech and Medtech companies throughout Europe and has served as lead advisor in numerous transactions, financings and structuring projects. Recently, Burger was CFO for Rigontec GmbH, an immune-oncology biotechnology company. She supported Rigontec’s fundraising activities and had an active role in the execution of the Trade sale to MSD (deal volume up to 464 M€). Throughout her career, Burger held several CFO and advisor positions in the life sciences and healthcare sector and was responsible for fundraising, executing trade sales and licensing agreements, and preparing for IPOs. Burger earned a graduate degree in Business Administration (Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität Munich, Honors) and successfully passed graduate studies in public health (Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität Munich).
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About Breath Therapeutics, Catalym: Breath Therapeutics is a private clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company.
Thomas Hoffmann
Chief Financial Officer of Phenex Pharmaceuticals
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About Phenex Pharmaceuticals: Phenex Pharmaceuticals is a drug discovery and development company focused on developing novel pharmaceuticals.
Martin Reichhuber
Chief Financial Officer of 4TEEN4 Pharmaceuticals
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About 4TEEN4 Pharmaceuticals: 4TEEN4 Pharmaceuticals develops innovative biomarkers for diagnosis, prediction and monitoring of acute medical conditions.
Oliver Schlüter
Managing Director and CFO of Novaliq
Oliver Schlüter is managing director, CFO of Novaliq. He has 20+ years of professional experience within the fields of Finance and Life Sciences. Oliver Schlüter was CFO of CureVac GmbH from 2010 to 2015. During his tenure at CureVac, he was instrumental in the transformation of a 70 employee R&D-driven company to a 170-employee customer-centric and value-focused corporation that entered into several strategic partnerships with in-house cGMP-manufacturing. From the time of his appointment in 2010, the company secured more than USD 250 million in funding and increased the company value more than tenfold to more than €1 billion. He holds a PhD in computational finance and also studied business administration.
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About Novaliq: Novaliq is a pharmaceutical company for the development and commercialization of first- and best-in-class ocular therapeutics.
Jens Holstein
Chief Financial Officer of MorphoSys
Jens Holstein joined MorphoSys from Fresenius Kabi AG, where he most recently served as Regional CFO for the region EME (Europe/Middle East) and as Managing Director of Fresenius Kabi Deutschland GmbH. Over the last almost 16 years at Fresenius he had held a variety of financial and general management positions. From 2006 to 2010, he was Regional Chief Financial Officer of Fresenius Kabi Asia Pacific Ltd., based in Hong Kong. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Holstein was Managing Director of Fresenius ProServe GmbH and Finance Director and Labor Director of the company’s subsidiary Wittgensteiner Kliniken AG. Earlier positions within Fresenius included General Manager of hospitalia care GmbH, Commercial Manager of the Projects & Service business unit of Fresenius AG and Commercial Manager of hospitalia international GmbH. Prior to joining Fresenius, Mr. Holstein spent several years in the consulting industry, with positions in Frankfurt and London. Mr. Holstein holds a Diploma in Business Administration from University of Münster. He currently does not hold any other board memberships.
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About MorphoSys: MorphoSys is a biotechnology company focused on the research and development of fully human antibodies.
Christian Nafe
Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of leon nanodrugs
Christian Nafe is the Managing Director & Chief Financial Officer of leon-nanodrugs.He brings in more than 25 years of successfully working in corporate finance, controlling and finance. Christian held leading management positions in different roles in worldwide operating companies, since 2000 with a focus on life sciences. During this time, he successfully managed numerous license contracts, asset and share deals as well as supply agreements. He recently served as CEO/CFO at BioNet Holding GmbH, BioNet Ventures GmbH and BioNet Pharma GmbH (former Scil Technology GmbH). Christian graduated with honors as Dipl. Kaufmann in Business Administration from University Regensburg.
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About leon nanodrugs: leon-nanodrugs is a nanotechnology-based drug development company.
Melanie Hammerschmidt-Broman
Chief Financial Officer of Leica Microsystems
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About Leica Microsystems: Leica Microsystems designs and produces precision optics systems for the analysis of microstructures.
Florian Fischer
CFO of Activaero
Dr. Fischer joined Affimed in 2005 as CFO on a part-time basis, transitioning into the full time CFO position at the Company’s IPO in 2014. Florian has a strong track record in various Biotech/MedTech executive positions, as lead advisor in a variety of transactions and financings in the life sciences and healthcare sector. Dr. Fischer is founder of MedVenture Partners – a corporate finance and strategy advisory company focusing on the life sciences and healthcare industry. Dr. Fischer was Chief Financial Officer of Activaero GmbH from 2002 until 2011 and responsible for corporate development until Activaero’s acquisition by Vectura in 2014. He also served as Chief Financial Officer of Vivendy Ltd. from 2008 until 2013 and as Managing Director of AbCheck in 2009. Prior to founding MedVenture Partners, Dr. Fischer worked with KPMG for more than six years until 2002, where he was responsible for biotech and healthcare assignments. Before joining KPMG, he worked for Deutsche Bank AG. Dr. Fischer is also a Director of Amphivena. He holds a graduate degree in business administration from Humboldt University, Berlin and a Ph.D. in public health from the University of Bielefeld.
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About Activaero, Affimed: Activaero develops breathing technologies for patients suffering from severe respiratory diseases.
Thomas Pfaadt
CFO and Managing Director of c-LEcta
Thomas joined c-LEcta in 2018 as CFO and managing director. Previously he worked for a private equity owned operator of rehabilitation clinics in Berlin as well as for a family owned integrated healthcare group and was responsible for M&A respectively for corporate finance and investor relations. Before that he gained experiences as banker and consultant with a strong focus on the healthcare sector. Thomas studied business administration at Goethe University in Frankfurt/M and at University of Southampton/UK.
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About c-LEcta: c-LEcta operates as a biotechnology company focusing on enzyme engineering and bioprocess development for regulated markets.
Thomas Pfaadt
CFO and Managing Director of c-LEcta
Thomas joined c-LEcta in 2018 as CFO and managing director. Previously he worked for a private equity owned operator of rehabilitation clinics in Berlin as well as for a family owned integrated healthcare group and was responsible for M&A respectively for corporate finance and investor relations. Before that he gained experiences as banker and consultant with a strong focus on the healthcare sector. Thomas studied business administration at Goethe University in Frankfurt/M and at University of Southampton/UK.
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About c-LEcta: c-LEcta operates as a biotechnology company focusing on enzyme engineering and bioprocess development for regulated markets.
Jaska Harm
CFO of LXP Group GmbH
Jaska H. Harm is the CFO of maxbiogas GmbH, a biotech energy startup based in the region Berlin-Brandenburg. With its pre-treatment-process maxbiogas offers an unique state-of-the-art solution to separate efficiently lignin and cellulose from plant residues. At maxbiogas Jaska is in charge of business development, financials and fundraising. Prior to this he has been an advisor in the international real estate and energy industry for almost 20 years. Among other he has founded and managed a district heat supplier and has been advising German and US based open and closed end funds as well as international family offices in all kind of phases in the life cycle of an investment. He holds a Masters Degree in Business from the University of Saarland in Southern Germany and speaks fluently German, Finnish, English, and some Swedish.
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About LXP Group GmbH, Maxbiogas: Revolutionary process for utilization of 2G biomass
Dusan Kosijer
CFO of apceth Biopharma
Dusan Kosijer has served as Chief Financial Officer of apceth since October 2016. Prior to joining apceth, Mr. Kosijer served as CFO for Accovion GmbH, a Contract Research Organization (CRO) headquartered close to Frankfurt. Throughout his career, he has gained more than 14 years’ experience in the healthcare sector. Mr. Kosijer is Certified Management Accountant by training.
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About apceth Biopharma: apceth Biopharma is a GMP contract development and manufacturing organization.
Dusan Kosijer
CFO of apceth Biopharma
Dusan Kosijer has served as Chief Financial Officer of apceth since October 2016. Prior to joining apceth, Mr. Kosijer served as CFO for Accovion GmbH, a Contract Research Organization (CRO) headquartered close to Frankfurt. Throughout his career, he has gained more than 14 years’ experience in the healthcare sector. Mr. Kosijer is Certified Management Accountant by training.
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About apceth Biopharma: apceth Biopharma is a GMP contract development and manufacturing organization.
Michael Pontzen
CFO of LANXESS
Michael Pontzen was born in Mönchengladbach, Germany, in 1969. After obtaining a degree in business administration (Diplom-Kaufmann) from the Philipps University in Marburg, he started his career as assistant to the Management Board of Ferrostaal AG in Essen, Germany. In 1999, he joined MAN AG as a manager in Investor Relations before moving to EADS (now Airbus) in Munich, Germany, in August 2001, where he was a team leader in Investor Relations. Pontzen joined LANXESS in November 2004 as head of the Investor Relations group function. In October 2008, he became head of Corporate Finance within the Treasury group function. He additionally assumed responsibility for Risk and Cash Management from spring 2009.
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About LANXESS: LANXESS is a specialty chemicals company.
Anne Burger
CFO of Rigontec
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About Rigontec: Rigontec is the leader in RIG-I targeting RNA therapeutics developing novel immuno-oncology treatment options.
Reinhard Rubow
Chief Financial Officer of Retina Implant
Reinhard Rubow worked in various leading financial functions at several well-known companies before becoming commercial director of the Institute of Natural Sciences and Medicine (NMI) at the University of Tübingen in Reutlingen. From there, he ventured into the start-up company Retina Implant AG.
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About Retina Implant: Retina Implant is a biotech company which develops subretinal implants for partially sighted and blind patients.
Manfred Bender
Chief Financial Officer of BRAIN
Before joining BRAIN AG, Manfred Bender spent almost 20 years in various senior management positions at Pfeiffer Vacuum Technology AG, a publicly listed company headquartered in Asslar, Germany. For a period of more than three years he acted as the company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) prior to assuming the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from July 2007 to November 2017. In this position, Manfred Bender successfully focused on continuously growing the technology company in regard to sales, EBIT, and market capitalization as well as on establishing PFV as a global player operating international production facilities and maintaining a worldwide sales organization. Manfred Bender holds a degree in Business Administration (Diplom-Betriebswirt) from the University of Applied Sciences in Giessen, Germany, and started his career at Schunk GmbH, likewise based in Giessen. Currently he serves as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Schunk GmbH and is a member of the Supervisory Board of the Volksbank Heuchelheim eG cooperative bank. Manfred Bender was appointed to the Management Board of BRAIN AG with effect from December 1, 2018 and will take over as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the company on January 1, 2019.
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About BRAIN: BRAIN provides biodiversity-based solutions for applications in the chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food industries.
Benjamin Steimle
CFO & Co-Founder of Cytena
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About Cytena: Cytena develops single-cell printing technology for cell research and professional diagnostics.
Peter Willinger
CFO of Apogenix
Peter Willinger is Chief Financial Officer of Apogenix. He also directs the human resources, legal/IP, quality assurance, and public relations departments at Apogenix. Before joining Apogenix, he was CFO of LION bioscience AG/SYGNIS Pharma AG in Heidelberg, Germany, where he oversaw the finance, investor relations, and corporate development departments. From 1998 to 2004, he was Director Controlling und Vice President Global Finance & Operations at LION bioscience AG. Following his studies in business administration at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Mannheim, Willinger worked as a controller with Rudolf Wild GmbH in Heidelberg, Germany, for eight years before joining the finance department of LION bioscience AG.
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About Apogenix: Apogenix is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel protein therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases.
Christian Fründ
Chief Financial Officer of Cilian AG
Christian Fründ worked for auditing and tax consulting companies. Priorities of his later activities were management control of major corporations and consulting topics in SMEs. His current areas of consulting (Curator Consult GmbH) include management support, finance / controlling, M & A activities including start-up project support. Christian Fründ is responsible for strategy, commercial administration and finance at Cilian AG.
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About Cilian AG: Cilian AG is a biotechnology company developing and marketing a novel protein expression system based on ciliates.
Gerrit Maass
CFO of Pantherna Therapeutics
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About Pantherna Therapeutics: Pantherna Therapeutics is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company.
Gerrit Maass
CFO of Pantherna Therapeutics
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About Pantherna Therapeutics: Pantherna Therapeutics is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company.
Philipp Bürling
CFO and Managing Director of Numaferm
Philipp graduated in Business & IT Management at the University of Cooperative Education in Mannheim. He held several management positions in the logistics industry and gained wide experience in general management and project management. Philipp is CFO and co-founder of NUMAFERM. He joined the spin-off project in late 2015.
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About Numaferm: Numaferm is a Dusseldorf University spin-off that specializes in the biotechnical production.
Abdelghani Omari
Chief Financial Officer of Paion
Abdelghani Omari joined PAION in 2008 as Vice President Finance. In 2014 he was appointed Chief Financial Officer of PAION AG. Abdel has more than 17 years of experience in Finance. At KPMG, he adviced international clients on accounting, post-merger integration and financial reporting. Previously, he worked several years in the audit department of KPMG with a focus on the chemical industry. Abdel has been instrumental in PAION’s recent financing and partnering deals. He holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Aachen.
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About Paion: PAION is a biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing drug candidates for diseases with substantial unmet medical needs.
Marcus Irsfeld
Chief Financial Officer of IOmx Therapeutics
Marcus is the Chief Financial Officer. He has a long-standing track record in this position either as employee or freelancer in the life science industry. Over the last years, he has been supporting several biotech and MedTech companies in different maturity stages. In 2001, he started his career in the life science industry as CFO of ProCorde GmbH which merged with Trigen in 2006. He finally took over the responsibility for the whole Trigen Group as the sole member of the executive board of Trigen Holdings AG. Before joining ProCorde, Marcus worked in different industries, including financial controller in a German Chinese joint venture in the province Shandong in China. Marcus holds a degree in Business Administration from the University in Münster, Germany. Marcus was co-founder and CFO of Averitas Pharma Inc. (NJ) which was successfully sold to Gruenenthal.
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About IOmx Therapeutics: iOmx Therapeutics focuses on the development of first-in-class cancer therapeutics.
Holger Schmoll
Chief Financial Officer of AiCuris
Holger studied economic sciences at the universities of Bochum and Hagen, focusing on finance, HR and business informatics. He started his career in the IT industry and worked as the general manager of an IT system vendor and project leader from 1990 – 2004. Later, as a senior consultant, he was responsible for re-organization and re-capitalization projects for mid-sized companies. In 2007 Holger joined AiCuris as Chief Financial Officer.
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About AiCuris: AiCuris is a pharmaceutical company that discovers, researches and develops antiviral and antibacterial agents to treat infectious diseases.
Matthias Klaften
COO & CFO of amcure
Matthias Klaften is one of the co-founders of amcure. As Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, he is responsible for the operative management of amcure. He has expertise in the development of high-tech projects and has advised many biotech start-up companies as business development manager and consultant for Spin-Off projects at the department of Innovation Management at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Prior to that, he was a project leader for several medtech projects funded by the Helmholtz Society, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi). Dr. Klaften received his PhD from the Institute for Experimental Genetics at the Helmholtz Zentrum München.
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About amcure: amcure is a clinical-stage company develops peptide-based compounds for the treatment of highly metastatic forms of squamous cancer.
