Meet the team

Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of BioVersys with over 10 years of experience in the biotech industry, having launched a university spin-off in the field of antimicrobial resistance and growing it into a multi-asset clinical stage company. Some of these assets will address significant unmet medical needs in infectious conditions such as tuberculosis and hospital acquired Acinetobacter infections. Marc has raised over $70 mio in equity financing and secured over $30 mio in non-dilutive funding. He has also established several important partnerships with a Big Pharma and other development organizations. Multi-award-winning Biotech CEO, having received amongst others the Swiss Technology Award 2011, Venture Kick 2009 and Venture Leaders 2008 and 2017 awards for his work in founding and advancing BioVersys. He is also President of the Board of the BEAM Alliance, a European association representing over 70 European and international SMEs active in antimicrobial research and development and Board member of AMR Industry Alliance. Marc is a young thought leader in the field of antimicrobial research and development. He is passionate about next generation antimicrobial therapies and leads a highly motivated team striving to bring life-saving antimicrobial therapies to patients in need. He is also co-author on several high ranked scientific publications and patents in the field.

Sergio is Chief Scientific Officer of BioVersys. His background spans from early drug discovery to early clinical development. He has conducted Phase I clinical studies, participated in later clinical studies and discussions with both the US FDA and EMA. He received his Laurea degree in Chemistry at the University of Rome, Italy in 1981 and, after a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Italian Research National Council, he moved to UNB, Canada, where he received his Ph.D in 1987. In the same year he started his career in the pharmaceutical industry as a medicinal chemist. In his almost 30 years’ experience in major pharmaceutical companies and SMEs, Sergio has held positions such as Director of Medicinal Chemistry and International Project Leader in GSK, Head of Peptide Epitope Mimetics in Polyphor Ltd and Head of Research and Scientific Communication in Arpida AG and has been part of the Board of Directors of Arpida A/S. As the founder of THOT consulting Sagl, a Swiss consulting firm, Sergio provided services in the Research and Development of anti-infectives and pharmaceutical drugs in general. He has held the position of CSO in C10 Pharma and Adenium Biotech, two Scandinavian biotech companies. Sergio has published extensively throughout his career and is co-author on high ranked scientific publications and patents in the field.

Hernan is the Chief Financial Officer of BioVersys AG. He is an experienced professional with a career in finance of over 28 years. Twenty-one of those years are specifically concentrated in the pharmaceutical industry. He excels in investor relations, financial planning, strategic oversight, and organizational development. Before his current role at BioVersys, Hernan held the position of CFO at Spexis AG, a pharmaceutical company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. At Spexis, he played a pivotal role in both formulating essential financing strategies and negotiating a landmark $182 million licensing agreement with Fosun Pharma. He also had a noteworthy tenure at Nasdaq-listed Auris Medical Holding AG in the role of CFO, where he effectively orchestrated multiple financing transactions and initiated strategic adjustments to preserve the company's Nasdaq standing. Before his roles at Spexis and Auris, Hernan gained experience in diverse finance positions at organizations such as Acino Pharma, InterMune, and Novartis. At Acino Pharma, he headed Group Controlling and was the finance lead for various Business Development & Licensing (BD&L) projects. He has an impressive history of achieving operational profitability, implementing robust financial processes, and leading ERP projects. Hernan is a Certified Public Accountant from the Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Sylvia is an executive assistant with many years of experience. She has worked for a large chemical company the last 16 years supporting the CEO and the Board.

Jonathan joined BioVersys in May 2018 and leads the business development activities with passion and dedication. Within a short time, Jonathan impacted the business of BioVersys with in-licensing and acquisition deals, while leading the non-dilutive fund-raising activities that resulted in European Union IMI and CARB-X awards. Jonathan also supports the company’s capital fund-rising activities. Prior to BioVersys he was Head of Business Development for Polyphor’s Drug Discovery Unit, where he secured drug discovery collaboration & licensing deals with leading global pharmaceutical and biotech companies. At Polyphor he also led the valuation of Polyphor’s pipeline assets, Murepavidin (POL7080) - Phase III Pseudomonas aeruginosa selective antibiotic, licensed to Roche in 2013, US$547 million and POL6014 - Phase Ib selective elastase inhibitor for respiratory diseases, licensed to Santhera in 2018, US$130 million. Prior to Polyphor, Jonathan led Hit-2-Lead and medicinal chemistry projects at Evotec, UK. Jonathan obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Reading, England and is the co-author on a number of scientific publications and patents.

Dr. Lisa Husband has a background of training in Paediatrics and Clinical Research. In addition to her Medical degree and Biomedical Science degree, she completed her postgraduate clinical training in 2015 when she gained membership to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. During her time in hospital medicine, she spent most of her time gaining her experience in a large tertiary level children’s hospital covering all specialties as part of her training.

For more than 7 years Lisa has been working in the clinical research industry. She has worked on all phases of clinical studies as an Investigator, Medical Monitor and Medical Director, covering a wide range of therapeutic areas and is now focusing her career on antimicrobial development.

Jürgen, our Head of CMC has more than 20 years’ experience in drug development, spanning from early lab work to large scale production of drug substances and drug products in different indications up to submission for market approval. He studied and received this Ph.D. in organic Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart, followed by a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University (US), before starting his professional career at Arpida in antibiotic Research. After some years as lab head in medicinal chemistry he focused then on CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing, Control) activities. Jürgen held similar positions at Auris Medical, became Head of CMC at Hemex and later Polyneuron Pharmaceuticals before joining Bioversys. He worked with small molecules, peptides and up to therapeutic polymers, involving different kind of formulations/administration routes. During his career he has gained a very broad overview of regulatory and quality requirements, managed many contract manufacturers, and was strongly involved in the discussions with local health authorities, as well as EMA and US FDA.

Michel holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from ETH Zurich, was a Postdoc at University of Lausanne and has 10 years of industry experience in R&D at BioVersys. As a Lab Head he guided the further development of the TRIC-technology platform and was later Project Leader of a discovery program that was awarded a CARB-X grant. Currently, he oversees the TB program and transitioned BVL-GSK098 from preclinical to clinical development by managing a multidisciplinary team of experts.

Peter Jager has over 30 years of management experience in the global pharmaceutical- and biotech business. He has held a number of leadership roles at Sandoz, Sanofi and Novartis in global drug development, global marketing strategy, country- and regional management and government relations. His international career includes leading executive roles in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Thailand, Japan and South Korea. Since 2016, Peter supports early phase lifescience companies as independent consultant on corporate development, partnering as well as on product launch excellence and market access strategies.

Bringing with her 15 years of extensive legal advisory experience, Fiona’s career spans work in China, the US, and Switzerland, both in leading law firms such as King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) and Vischer, and in-house at multinational corporations like Novartis. Fiona specializes in the life sciences industry, where she has advised companies ranging from university spin-offs, SME biopharma to large multinational pharmaceutical corporations.

With a solid background in cross-border transactions, corporate, commercial, and IP matters, Fiona has supported transactions totalling over $6 billion. Fiona holds legal education credentials from both China and the US, as well as an EMBA degree.

Fiona's unique blend of startup mentality and experience in large corporations, coupled with her comprehensive knowledge in legal, policy, and business, equips her to drive business expansion and support BioVersys during its growth period. Her Chinese heritage and professional background uniquely position her to help BioVersys navigate the critical Chinese market, enhancing the company’s global reach and strategic initiatives.

In 1998, Monica received her Ph.D. in biotechnology from the University of Dundee, UK, for her work in the development of recombinant yeasts expressing human drug-metabolizing enzymes. After a post-doctoral period at Duke University, USA, she spent the early part of her career in pharmaceutical discovery, first at Sigma-Tau S.p.A (now, Alfa-Sigma, Italy) working on diabetes and obesity projects and later at Arpida AG, Switzerland, focusing on screening cascades for antimicrobials. In 2007, Monica transitioned to the Specialty Chemicals industry by joining the Biotechnology Dept. of Firmenich SA, Switzerland, where she had roles of increasing responsibility, from Sr. Scientist to Director of Cell Biology. During her time with the Company, Monica also had the opportunity to spend two years in China as Director of Biotechnology until 2016, when she was nominated Vice-President R&D, Health Benefits and Bio-responses and made her way back to Switzerland. Since 2021, Monica has been acting as a consultant to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

Nawaz is Head of Research at BioVersys. He was formerly a founding member of Discuva Limited which was acquired by Summit Therapeutics. Nawaz has over 25 years industrial experience in both Pharma and Biotech spanning across multiple therapeutic areas including inflammatory disease, oncology, metabolic disease, pain and most recently infectious disease. Nawaz has extensive drug discovery knowledge and is renowned for building strong partnerships between industry and academia. He was a key member of the Discuva team that secured a worldwide collaboration and licence agreement with Roche for the discovery and development of new antibiotics to treat life-threatening infections caused by multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Nawaz is an accomplished research leader who has co-authored several scientific publications and patent applications.

Vincent holds a Marie Sklodowska-Curie PhD in Microbiolgy from a joint program of BioVersys and the University of Basel. He worked as Research Scientist for two years and he currently is laboratory Head at BioVersys.

Alessia is an Organic Chemistry master's graduate from the University of Turin, Italy and obtained her Ph.D from Paris-Saclay University in collaboration with CortecNet SAS through the Marie-Sklodowska Curie scholarship. She is based at BioVersys SAS at the Institut Pasteur de Lille, and is a research scientist developing new anti-infective agents.

Marija is a microbiologist with a PhD from University of Belgrade. She has academic and industrial research experience in the discovery and development of novel anti-infective agents and therapeutic approaches against multi-resistant pathogens. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the Diseases of the Developing World division at GlaxoSmithKline in Madrid she joined BioVersys in 2021 as a scientist working on development of a new broad-spectrum (ESKAPE) antibiotic.