Team spirit is our key to success
The Versameb team consists of a number of senior experts in drug development and business building, complemented by a strong advisory team with research, clinical, technical and commercialization expertise.
Management Team
KLAAS ZUIDEVELD
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER & MEMBER OF THE BOARD
Dr. Klaas Zuideveld brings over 20 years of drug development and life science industry experience to Versameb at a pivotal stage in the Company’s development as two of its lead assets transition from early discovery into clinical development. Klaas joined Versameb as Chief Development Officer in May 2020. Prior to this, Klaas has held leadership positions at Roche where amongst other things he has led the clinical development of Avastin™ (bevacizumab), and at Caris Life Sciences where he was responsible for the company’s first companion diagnostic partnership in oncology. He has further worked for and advised Mosaic Biomedicals (acquired by Northern Biologic), T3 Pharma, Envision Sciences, Therachon (acquired by Pfizer for $340 million upfront plus $470 million contingent payments) and Nucleai.
FRIEDRICH METZGER
CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER, CO-FOUNDER & MEMBER OF THE BOARD
Prof. Dr. Friedrich Metzger, a scientist and co-founder of Versameb, has an over 18 years’ experience in R&D both in pharma and biotech. Previously, Friedrich was Head of Discovery, Rare Diseases at Roche, Basel, where he was responsible for a portfolio of highly innovative development programs. He led preclinical activities for Evrysdi™ (risdiplam), a groundbreaking oral therapy for spinal muscular atrophy which was very recently approved. Friedrich is also Professor in Neurobiology at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and holds a PhD degree in pharmacology from the University of Tübingen, Germany.
ISABEL FERREIRA
CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER
Dr. Isabel Ferreira joined Versameb in August 2019 as Chief Business Officer. Previously, she served Roche Partnering since 2015 as Director Global Business Development. In this role, she had broad responsibility across Pharma Business Development including strategy, search, evaluation, senior stakeholder management, leading cross-functional due diligence and negotiation teams to deal closure. Before joining Roche, Isabel served as Senior Director Business Development at Prosensa. During this time, she was instrumental in establishing transformative licensing transactions, supporting non-dilutive and private financing events, project management of Prosensa’s IPO launch at NASDAQ and supporting Prosensa’s acquisition by BioMarin. Earlier in her career, Isabel has been exposed to different aspects of the biopharmaceutical industry at Janssen-Cilag (Portugal), OctoPlus (The Netherlands) and Theravance (USA) in commercial, drug development and scientific roles. Isabel holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) and an MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University (The Netherlands).
URS BREITENSTEIN
CHIEF FINANCE OFFICER
Dr. Urs Breitenstein, an economist and co-founder of Versameb, is senior finance specialist with comprehensive experience from various assignments in companies in the life sciences sector at different maturity stages. As a partner of Hoffmann & Co AG, a Swiss M&A, valuation and CFO services company, he is acting as interim or part time CFO, business advisor or as a board member for companies and investors. In his previous roles, he served as a partner and team leader at international professional service firms (PwC, Deloitte) providing valuation, corporate finance and M&A services. He supported many large and mid-sized transactions in Switzerland and internationally both in life sciences as well as manufacturing and services. He is a graduate of the postgraduate study center of the Swiss National Bank at Gerzensee and holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Basel.
Board of Directors
BETTINA ERNST
CHAIRWOMAN OF THE BOARD
Dr. Bettina Ernst has been investing in healthcare companies for the past 6 years. She also serves on the board of several early-stage biotech companies in Switzerland, on the board of the Swiss Biotech Association, and as a member of the advisory board of the Swiss Entrepreneur Fund and of the Innovation Council of Innosuisse. Bettina is a co-founder of two biotech companies. Prior to her investment and entrepreneurial activities, she worked for 10 years in fundamental immunology in the US (Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, CA) and in Europe. Bettina holds a PhD in immunology and an undergraduate degree in natural science from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Bettina resides in Switzerland.
LILY GEIDELBERG
MEMBER OF THE BOARD
Dr Lily Geidelberg is Senior Biotechnology Analyst at Brevan Howard. She recommends compelling biopharma opportunities in the public markets, combining both domain expertise with macroeconomic analysis. She also advises on private biotech opportunities. Prior to joining Brevan Howard, she completed her PhD at Imperial College London in mathematical modelling of infectious disease epidemics, having published several publications in leading journals. She is an independent board member of eureKING, a SPAC aiming to be the foremost European CDMO.
HERNAN LEVETT
MEMBER OF THE BOARD
Hernan Levett serves as CFO of Spexis Ltd. (formerly Polyphor). He joined Spexis/Polyphor from NASDAQ listed company Auris Medical where he also served as CFO. He started his international Pharma career at Novartis where he held roles of increasing responsibility in various countries and regional functions and as CFO for one of its affiliates. Following a 10-year tenure at Novartis, Mr Levett continued to build his experience in biotech joining InterMune where he served as VP of Finance. Mr. Levett brings over 25 years of finance and pharma / biotech experience at leading companies and holds a CPA degree from the University of Buenos Aires, Faculty of Economics.
EUGENE TIERNEY
MEMBER OF THE BOARD
Eugene Tierney is an experienced business strategist and has held senior positions across the whole pharma value chain. He spent several years as head of global pharma business strategy with Roche, before becoming Therapeutic Area Head for Anti-infectives & Transplantation. He was later appointed Head of Neuroscience, with accountability for all aspects of discovery and early development, as well as commercialisation. He currently works as a consultant to pharma and biotech companies and is a non-executive director on the boards of a number of privately owned biotech companies.
