Jack Barbut joined NovImmune as Chief Executive Officer since 2001. He is the former President
and Chief Executive Officer of Synarc Inc, San Francisco, (1998-2000)
with more than 20 years of professional experience in clinical trials
management and drug development. Prior to joining Synarc, Jack Barbut
was the founder, Vice-Chairman and President of Clinical Services of
Chrysalis International, Inc., (1981-1998) a publicly (NASDAQ) traded
global full service, Contract Research Organization (CRO). A Swiss citizen, Jack Barbut holds a MS in Electrical
Engineering and a ScD in Systems Engineering from the EPFL in Lausanne,
Switzerland.
Arnd Christ, CFO
Arnd Christ is NovImmune's Chief Financial Officer, joining in 2007. In his most recent position, Arnd was Chief Financial Officer of Probiodrug AG, Germany, where he was responsible for several fund raising rounds as well as for the successful closing of a major asset sale to OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc./Prosidion ltd. Arnd has more than 13 years of international experience in finance and operations and merger and acquisition. Before joining Probiodrug AG, he was CFO of Elegene AG. Prior to this position, he was Finance Director of Avery Dennison, where he was responsible for several European sites. From 1995 until 1999, Arnd worked as Finance Director in various subsidiaries of the Hoechst Group in Germany and UK. A German citizen, Arnd holds a MBA degree from Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg.
Marie Kosco-Vilbois, CSO
Marie Kosco-Vilbois is NovImmune's Chief Scientific Officer, joining in 2002.
She was previously Head of Immunology and preclinical pharmacology at
the Serono Pharmaceutical Research Institute (1997-2001). As Head of
the Department, she and her team were responsible for taking four
biologicals into pre-clinical phase, one small molecular weight
compound through IND and Phase I, and one therapeutic protein into
Phase II. Prior to that, Marie was Senior Scientist and then Head of
Immunology at Glaxo-Welcomes' Research Institute in Geneva. Before
joining Glaxo, Marie Kosco-Vilbois was a Scientific Member of the Basel
Institute for Immunology. A US citizen, Marie holds a Bachelor of Arts
in Biology from Rutger's and received a PhD in Anatomy and Immunology
from the Medical College of Virginia in 1985.
Penny Ward, CMO
Penelope (Penny) Ward is Novimmune's Chief
Medical Officer. She qualified in medicine from University College Hospital
London. Following graduation she spent over 10 years in clinical practice and
academic research in internal medicine and obstetrics and gynecology. She
entered the pharmaceutical industry in 1991 as a clinical research physician in
the Early Clinical Development Unit of Upjohn Laboratories and joined Novimmune
in 2008 from Hoffman La Roche where she was most recently the global Head of
Rheumatology and local Head of Clinical Development in the Global Development
Center, Welwyn Garden City, UK. During her extensive industry career Dr Ward
has been responsible for the clinical development programs of multiple novel
therapeutics (including both small molecules and biologicals) and her work has
resulted in the approval of 8 novel therapies for the treatment of infectious
diseases, osteoporosis and autoimmune disorders in the US, EU and Japan.
Nathalie Muller, Director Administration, Legal Affairs and IP
Nathalie Muller is NovImmune's Director Administration, including legal affairs and intellectual property. Prior to
joining NovImmune in 2000, Nathalie was Head of Administration and
Legal affairs for Medabiotech (1997-2000), a company which managed
NovImmune among other biotech companies. Nathalie has also worked
for the Legal and Intellectual Property Department of Debiopharm SA
(1994-1997), a private Swiss pharma group, for drafting agreements,
including those related to clinical trials, and the administration
of its IP portfolio (patents and trademarks). She has previously worked
in several international companies and organizations (UN,
ILO) handling legal, administrative and HR issues. Nathalie holds a law
degree from the University of Geneva.
Luca Bolliger, Director Business Development
Luca Bolliger is NovImmune's Director of Business Development, joining in November 2008. Luca studied biochemistry at the ETH in Zürich and completed his undergraduate studies with a Master in Immunology. He graduated at the Biocenter in Basel in biochemistry, and after a short PostDoc he became Member of the Basel institute for immunology. Subsequently he joined the pharmaceutical industry as a Global discovery portfolio manager in the Pharma Strategy Unit at Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. He then pursued his career in the financial industry (Fundamental analyst at BT&T asset management, Zürich), and as a freelance consultant. He established Biopolo Ticino where he also participated in the creation of the Swiss marketing platforms Swiss Biotech and Swiss Medtech. Luca joined NovImmune from Actelion where he was Director Business Development.
Olivia Maurel, Director Regulatory Affairs
Olivia Maurel joined NovImmune as Director of Regulatory Affairs in May2009. Olivia has over 14 years of Regulatory Affairs experience spent inCorporate or European headquarters of major pharmaceutical and biotechnologycompanies such as Sanofi, Servier, Genzyme and Centocor. Prior to joiningNovImmune, Olivia was heading the European Regulatory Affairs group of Centocor (biotechnology branch of Johnson & Johnson) based in Leiden, theNetherlands. Olivia holds a Pharmacist Doctorate.
Karim Abdelatif, Director HR
Karim joins us from Losinger Construction SA (adivision of Bouygues Construction) where he was Director of Human Resources andCommunication and member of the Executive Management Team. Losinger is a company based in Switzerland with an 850MCHFturnover and 900 collaborators of which 550 are engineers or managers. Karimbrings 15 years of human resources expertise with a particular focus onorganizational development, talent management, training and recruitment andhelping enhancement of career path development. Karim has spent all of hisprofessional career in the Bouygues Group starting as University relations and internal communication manager in1993 to his current position. Karim holds a Master degree in Human Resources Management from the University of Paris 2.
