Board of Directors

Gerard Soula, Ph.D., MBA

President of Board

Gerard Soula has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry, graduated from IAE, Aix Marseille.

He founded Flamel Technologies (in 1990), a biotech company specialized in Drug Delivery and listed on Nasdaq. He was the CEO and Director of Research until June 2005. When he left, Flamel had 250 employees, $100M cash in bank and a market capitalization of $500M. Flamel Technologies’ success is based on the performances of its platforms, Micropump and Medusa.

Furthermore, Gérard Soula has a strong track record in negotiating license agreements in innovating technologies with big pharma groups (Novo Nordisk, Bristol Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline etc).

Olivier Soula, Ph.D., MBA

Director

Olivier Soula has a PhD in polymer science, graduated from ENSIC Mulhouse, and has an MBA from IAE, Lyon.

He worked for 8 years at Flamel Technologies as Director of the Nanotechnologies department. He led the development of Medusa, a prolonged release platform of therapeutic proteins and successfully conducted clinical trials for three of those projects.

Olivier is co-author of nearly 40 patents relating to protein delivery.

Olivier Martinez, Ph.D.

Director

Olivier Martinez holds a PhD in cell biology from the University of Paris XI and a diploma from the Collège des Ingénieurs.

From 1992 to 1997, Olivier Martinez pursued his doctoral studies in cell biology at the Pasteur and Curie Institutes in Paris. After undergoing management training, he joined the Life Science Group of Gemini Consulting and spent two years working on healthcare projects. In 2000 he joined Bioam Gestion as an Associate and became Investment Manager and member of the executive board in 2004.

Following the integration of Bioam Gestion into CDC Entreprises in July 2010, he is now in charge of managing investments of the InnoBio and Bioam funds.

Olivier is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm).

Laurent Arthaud

Director representing BPI France Investment

Laurent Arthaud is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale de Statistique et d’Administration Economique (ENSAE).

Laurent Arthaud started his carrier in 1986 at INSEE and then joined the French Ministry of Finances and Economy. In 1993, he was advisor of the French Ministry of Labour and  in 1995, technical advisor of the Prime Minister Alain Juppé, in charge of Employment issues. He created the “Chèque Emploi Service”. In 1997, he joined Rhône Poulenc as General secretary of Scientific Direction of the group, especially in charge of external collaborations. In 1999, he created Aventis Capital, a capital investment subsidiary of Aventis, and created the capital investment fund Genavent, in partnership with Société Générale. In 2004, he became CEO of Pharmavent Partners, a new capital investment fund. In November 2006, he joined CDC Entreprises, as Deputy General Director in charge of new developments. In 2009, he took on the management of all the Life Sciences activities at CDC Entreprises, InnoBio fund.

Ekaterina Smirnyagina, Ph.D.

Director

Katya Smirnyagina is as Senior Partner for Life Sciences at Oxford Sciences Entreprises.  She has two decades of experience in by the biotech industry. Katya started her VC career in 2002 with Alta Partners, a healthcare focused USA fund, followed by Capricorn Partners in Belgium. She has been a director of a number of public and private companies in Europe and is the past Vice-Chair of InvestEurope. Katya completed her scientific training with a PhD in Cellular & Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, followed by a postdoc in Microbiology at the Stanford School of Medicine.

Stéphane Boissel, MBA

Director

Stéphane Boissel is currently Chairman and CEO of SparingVision, a genomic medicine company in ophthalmology.

He was previously Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Sangamo Therapeutics, based in San Francisco (USA). He joined Sangamo Therapeutics on the back of the acquisition by the latter of TxCell SA, a CAR-Treg company he was the CEO of.

Stéphane is a seasoned biotech professional with over 25 years of leadership experience across corporate finance, strategy and business development.

Mr. Boissel completed his undergraduate work in management and finance at the University of Lyon and Paris-Dauphine in France and received his MBA from the University of Chicago (IL, USA).

Katherine Bowdish, Ph.D.

Director

Katherine Bowdish is the President & CEO of PIC Therapeutics, a venture-backed precision-medicine company focused in oncology.

From 2013 to 2020, Kathy worked for Sanofi to establish and lead Sanofi Sunrise, a venture investment/company co-creation and partnering vehicle focused on advancing pioneering science of strategic interest to Sanofi.  Following a 5-year span leading Sunrise, Kathy accepted the role of Vice President and Head of R&D Strategy.

Prior to Sanofi, Kathy co-founded or led several early-stage life science companies focused on biological therapies.  Past positions include Co-founder, President & CEO, Anaphore; President, Alexion Antibody Technologies and Senior Vice President, Alexion Pharmaceuticals; Founder, CEO & CSO, Prolifaron, prior to its acquisition by Alexion.

Kathy holds a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of New York, and a B.S. degree in biology from the College of William and Mary.

Claudia Mitchell, Ph.D., MBA

Director

Claudia Mitchell is the Senior VP, Head of Portfolio Strategy, at Astellas Pharma.

Claudia was the CEO and co-founder of Universal Cells, a Seattle-based biotech company, until the company was acquired by Astellas.

Claudia has previously co-founded Halo-Bio RNAi Therapeutics and served as its Chief Scientific Officer. She received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award in Life Sciences for the Pacific NW Region in 2018.

Besides being a biotech entrepreneur, Claudia has also held positions in the non-profit sector and in Academia. She worked as the Program Director at the LGMD2I Research Fund, a family non-profit foundation, and has held a tenured Academic research position at the French National Institute of Medical Research (INSERM).

Claudia has a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Paris and an MBA in International Management from the Ecole des Ponts Business School, Paris, France.