Philippe Archinard – Independent Director
Philippe Archinard, Ph.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since 2013. Dr. Archinard is Deputy CEO, Innovation and Scientific Partnerships of the Institut Mérieux. He was General Manager, Chief Executive Officer and director of Transgene from 2004 to 2020, after spending 15 years in various senior positions with bioMérieux, including directing its U.S. subsidiary. Prior to joining Transgene, he served as chief executive officer of Innogenetics N.V., from 2000 to December 2004. Dr. Archinard is a chemical engineer, holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Lyon (France), and completed Harvard Business School’s Program of Management PMD.
Gil Beyen – Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors
Gil Beyen was Chief Executive Officer of ERYTECH Pharma from May 2013 to June 2023 and President of ERYTECH Pharma Inc. since 2016. He served as ERYTECH’s Chairman of the Board from August 2012 until June 2019. Between 2000 and 2013, Mr. Beyen was Chief Executive Officer and Director of TiGenix (Euronext: TIG), a company he co-founded. He previously served as the head of the Life Sciences division of Arthur D. Little, an international management consulting firm, in Brussels. Mr. Beyen holds a MSc in Bioengineering from the University of Leuven (Belgium) and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.
Martine George – Independent Director
Martine Ortin George, M.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since 2014. She currently serves as principal and senior executive consultant-life sciences for Global Development Inc. Dr. George held the position of Vice President in charge of Global Medical Affairs for Oncology at Pfizer from 2010 to 2015. Previously, Dr. George held the positions of Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at GPC Biotech and Senior Vice President, Head of the Oncology Department at Johnson & Johnson. She is a qualified gynecologist and oncologist, trained in France and in Montreal. Dr. George began her career as Chief of Service at the Institut Gustave Roussy (France), was a visiting professor at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and then held positions of increasing responsibility at Lederle Laboratories (a predecessor company to Pfizer Inc.), Sandoz (now a division of Novartis AG) and Rhoˆne-Poulenc Rorer (today part of Sanofi).
Didier Hoch – Chairman of the Board of Directors
Didier Hoch is a director of a listed company, OSE Immunotherapeutics, and was previously a director of DBV Technologies and Genticel. From 2011 to 2013, he was Chairman of Pevion Biotech, and from 2013 to 2018, of the Biovision Forum and of the startup gas pedal “Big Booster”. Didier Hoch was from 2000 to 2010, President of Sanofi-Pasteur- MSD, a joint venture company dedicated to vaccines between Sanofi & Merck. Didier Hoch also held various managerial positions at Rhône Poulenc Rorer, then Aventis (“VP Middle East – Africa”). He is a former President of the vaccine manufacturers association “Vaccine Europe” and Chairman of the Biotechnology Committee of LEEM.
Eric Leire – Independent Director
Eric Leire is Chairman and CEO of Genflow Biosciences and a director of publicly traded and privately held biotechnology companies (Immunethep, BSIM Therapeutics, Inhatarget Therapeutics and Ose Immunotherapeutic). Dr. Leire has served as CEO of several privately held and publicly traded U.S. biotechnology companies. He has listed several biotech companies on various exchanges (OMX.Nasdaq; OTC.QB and Nasdaq). He was a Research Associate at the Harvard AIDS Institute and a Partner at Biofund Venture Capital. He holds an MD from the University of Grenoble and an MBA from HEC and Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He is also the inventor of several patents in the pharmaceutical field.
Leïla Nicolas – Permanent representative of GO CAPITAL
Leïla Nicolas started her career in 2004 as a product manager at Bayer Schering Pharma in the field of multiple sclerosis and oncology. She then joined the start-up world as Strategic Marketing Manager for Polyplus-transfection, where she signed licensing agreements and acquired a strong sensitivity of intellectual property. Leïla Nicolas subsequently participated in the creation of an environmental health company before joining GO Capital in late 2013. Since then, Leïla has made over 15 investments in healthcare sector (biotech and medtech), serving on the boards of several companies in the field, and is now a partner at the management company.
Robert Sebbag – Independent Director
Robert Sebbag is attaché of the Paris hospitals at the Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital in the department of infectious and tropical diseases. He is also Director and founding member of Action Contre la Faim and Director of Fondation Mérieux. From 2006 to 2016 he was Vice President Access to Medicines at Sanofi. Previously he held various positions at Rhône Poulenc Santé, Fondation Elf, and Aventis-Pasteur. He is a former member of the Executive Committee of the CEO round table of the Gate Foundation and a director of Leem (Les entreprises du médicament).
Hilde Windels – Independent Director
Hilde Windels has served as a member of our board of directors since 2014 and has served as the representative of Hilde Windels BV, the legal entity that holds this seat, since 2017. She has over 20 years of experience in corporate finance, capital markets and strategic initiatives. She currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Antelope Dx BV and Director of MDx Health NV and Celyad SA. Prior to Antelope Dx BV, she was executive chairman of the board of directors and co-Chief Executive Officer of Mycartis NV, a private immune diagnostics company in Belgium and a spin-out of Biocartis Group NV. Ms. Windels initially joined Biocartis in August 2011 as its Chief Financial Officer, a position she held until September 2015 when she was appointed co-Chief Executive Officer, a position she held until early 2017, when she became interim Chief Executive Officer of Biocartis until September 2017. From early 2009 to mid-2011, she worked as an independent chief financial officer for several private biotechnology companies. Ms. Windels served as Chief Financial Officer of Devgen from 1999 to 2008 and as a member of its board of directors from 2001 to 2008. Ms. Windels holds a Masters in Economics from the University of Leuven (Belgium).
Guy Rigaud – CENSOR
Guy Rigaud has 30 years of experience in private equity in more than 300 young regional companies (more than half of them in the technology sector). Founder and President of the Management Board of Rhône Alpes Création from 1990 to 2012, Guy Rigaud has participated in five IPOs on Euronext Paris and two on Nasdaq (in the context of industrial disposals). Guy Rigaud was a member of the Board of Directors of April Group (insurance), a company listed on Euronext Paris, for 12 years. Since 2012, Guy Rigaud is the founder and associate director of a seed capital fund created with four “family offices.”