Dr Donald Nicholson
Independent Chair
Don is a medical scientist and entrepreneur with deep experience in biotech and large pharma.
He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Kymera (KYMR) and Generation Bio (GBIO), and is Chair of the Board of Directors of Disc Medicine, Jnana and NodThera.
Prior to these roles, Don was CEO of Nimbus Therapeutics, and spent 25 years at Merck in various roles including as VP & Head of Worldwide Discovery for multiple therapeutic areas (immunology, respiratory, endocrine, bone, muscle, urology & anemia).
Morten Graugaard Døssing
Novo Holdings
Morten joined Novo Holdings in 2016 and serves as Partner at Novo Seeds where he leads new company formation.
In addition to Muna Therapeutics, Morten has been instrumental in the creation of Hoba Therapeutics, HyperBio and Syndesi Therapeutics and also serves on the Board of Acesion Pharma, Avilex Pharma, NMD Pharma, Precirix, and STipe Therapeutics.
Prior to joining Novo, Morten was Director of Corporate Development at H. Lundbeck A/S where he was involved in M&A, corporate strategy, BD&L, portfolio management and equity investments including the acquisition of orphan neurology company Chelsea Therapeutics for 658M USD and a 1.8Bn USD alliance with Otsuka Pharmaceuticals.
Morten holds an MSc in Human Biology from the University of Copenhagen.
Henrijette Richter
Sofinnova Partners
Henrijette Richter is Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners. She joined the firm in 2014.
Henrijette’s investments and board involvements include Mozart Therapeutics, Muna Therapeutics, Nitrase Therapeutics, Nodthera, Twentyeight-Seven Therapeutics, Asceneuron, Delinia (sold to Celgene), and iOmx Therapeutics.
Prior to Sofinnova, Henrijette was part of the team that founded Novo Seeds in 2007, and as an Investment Director, she was instrumental in the creation, financing and building of companies such as Orphazyme (ORPHA.CO; ORPH), Avilex Pharma, EpiTherapeutics (sold to Gilead), and Lysogene (LYS, Euronext Paris).
Henrijette holds a combined Ph.D. and Industrial Scientist degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Copenhagen and Novo Nordisk A/S. She did her postdoctoral fellowship at the MIT Center for Cancer Research in Massachusetts.
Cillian King
LSP
Cillian King is an Investment Manager at LSP, one of Europe’s leading Life Sciences investors, and is fully dedicated to the LSP Dementia Fund.
Prior to joining LSP, Cillian was an Investment Manager at Swanbridge Capital, a venture fund focused on early-stage life sciences companies. At Swanbridge, Cillian led seed investments into biotech companies and served on the Boards of Allero Therapeutics and Pan Cancer T. Cillian is a molecular biologist by training and holds a PhD in Molecular Neurosciences.
Luc Dochez
Droia Ventures
Luc Dochez is managing partner of the Droia Genetic Disease Fund, a recently closed 220M€ fund focused on innovative therapeutic solutions for genetic diseases.
Prior to teaming up with Droia, Luc was the CEO of Tusk Therapeutics from 2015 until it was sold to Roche in 2018. After the sale of Tusk, he joined Droia initially as Venture Partner and then as Partner in the Oncology II Fund. Luc is co-founder of two genetic disease companies, Pharvaris and Vico. He is also a co-founder of a new big data company active in the healthcare field: Cascador Health. Luc currently serves as executive chairman of Montis and Vico, and as director of Volastra, Alesta, Erytech and QurAlis.
Before Tusk, Luc was Chief Business Officer of Prosensa, until its acquisition by BioMarin Pharmaceutical. Earlier in his career, he served as Vice President of Business Development at TiGenix, Director Business Development at Methexis Genomics, and as a consultant at Arthur D. Little.
Luc holds a PharmD degree and a postgraduate degree in business economics from the University of Leuven (Belgium) and an MBA from Vlerick Management School (Belgium).
Ellie McGuire
Polaris Partners
Ellie is Managing Partner of Polaris Innovation Fund. She joined Polaris in 2017 where she focuses on biotech investments and company formation.
Ellie currently serves on the Boards of Satellite Biosciences, Montis Biosciences, and Candesant Biomedical. She is an expert in residence for the Harvard Office of Technology Development.
Prior to co-founding the Polaris Innovation Fund, Ellie was the Head of Business Development at Lyndra Therapeutics. She previously held leadership and consulting positions in business development, operations and strategy in several life science companies including Arsia Therapeutics and XTuit Pharmaceticals.
Laia Crespo
Sanofi Ventures
Laia is Partner at Sanofi Ventures and is based in the Paris office. She focuses on biotech investments and company creation.
Prior to Sanofi, she served as Investment Director for Ysios Capital, where she led investments and served on the board of multiple early-stage biotech companies. Earlier in her career, Laia was part of the European New Business Development team of Janssen-Cilag, a pharmaceutical company part of the Johnson & Johnson group, where she assessed commercial and scientific licensing opportunities. Previously she worked as a researcher in the UK in companies such as Spirogen (now AstraZeneca), Medivir and UCB-Celltech.
Laia’s active investments include OMass Therapeutics, Muna Therapeutics, Therini Bio and NodThera. Previous investments and board roles include Lava Therapeutics (LVTX).
Laia graduated in Chemistry from the University of Barcelona, where she also completed a Master in Science and a Ph.D. with honors. Laia holds an M.B.A. from Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, where she focused on biotechnology, healthcare and finance.
Rita Balice-Gordon
Chief Executive Officer
Rita brings 30 years of experience in neuroscience research, drug discovery and development from senior leadership roles in biopharma and a distinguished academic research career.
Prior to joining Muna, she led small molecule, biologics and gene therapy programs in neurologic, neurodegenerative and rare genetic diseases at Sanofi, and psychiatry and pain programs at Pfizer.
