Board
Board members
Jacky Vonderscher, PhD, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board
- Founder of Vonderscher&Co GmbH
- Senior executive with a broad R&D experience in the pharmaceutical industry
- Most recently Senior VP Head of Translation Research Sciences at Roche in USA and Switzerland (2010-2012)
- Senior VP head of Molecular Medicine Labs at Roche (2008-2010)
- Previously held other senior positions with Novartis in the USA and Switzerland (1979 to 2008)
- Known for his leading role in the discovery and development of Sandimmum Neoral® in the 90s
- Co-inventor on the first patents of Mycophenolic Acid Sodium salt (Myfortic® Product) and of Everolimus (Certican® and Afinitor® Products)
- Board member of Inatherys, Step Pharma and ObsEva and SAB member of Inotrem SA
- Board member of LyonBiopôle and IMI-JU (Innovative Medicines Initiative-Joint Undertaking)
Iain D. Dukes, PhD
Iain D. Dukes, PhD, is a Venture Partner with OrbiMed. Iain also serves on the Board of Lion Biotechnologies. Most recently Iain was a Senior Vice President, Business Development & Licensing Merck where he oversaw all licensing deals for Merck Research Laboratories, including external research, out-licensing, regional deals and academic alliances. Iain has more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical research, drug discovery, scientific and technology licensing, start-up company leadership, as well as consulting for numerous biotech and venture capital organizations. Before joining Merck, he served as vice president of External Research and Development at Amgen. He has also held positions as president and CEO of Essentialis Therapeutics and as Vice President, Scientific and Technology Licensing at GlaxoSmithKline. Iain received his PhD degree from the University of Oxford where he also received a B.A. in Jurisprudence.
Jason Dinges, PhD
Jason Dinges has been a member of the investment team at Morningside since 2011, and has extensive experience providing operational and management oversight to early-stage biotechnology companies. He serves on the boards of Morningside’s portfolio companies Matatu, Inc., Cancer Targeting Systems, Inc., 2020, Inc., and Vigeo, Inc. Jason received his B.S. from Illinois Wesleyan University, a Ph.D. in genetics from Iowa State University, and his J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law, with highest distinction. He spent 5 years as an intellectual property attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP, before joining Morningside Technology Advisory LLC.
Laurent Arthaud
Laurent Arthaud started his career in 1986 at the French Ministry of Finance. From 1993 to 1995, he became an Advisor to the Minister of Labor, and then, an Advisor in charge of the labor to the Prime Minister, Alain Juppé. In 1997, Laurent Arthaud joined Rhône-Poulenc as General Secretary of the Corporate Research. In 1999, he founded Aventis Capital, the venture arm of Aventis, with a corporate venture fund Genavent.
In November 2006, he joined CDC Entreprises as Deputy CEO, and in 2012, became General Manager for Life Sciences, Ecotechnology and French Tech Acceleration of Bpifrance Investissement.
He is member of the Boards of Director of Adocia, Aledia, Cellectis, Ribogenics, SparingVision and member of the Supervisory Board of Kurma LifeSciences Partners. Laurent Arthaud graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and from French National School of Statistics and Economic Administration (ENSAE).
Timothy M. Wright, PhD, Independent Administrator
Timothy M. Wright is the Executive Vice-President for Research and Development at Regulus, a Californian Biotech company and until recently, was the Executive Vice President of Translational Sciences at the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr). With degrees in Biology from the University of Delaware and Medicine from John Hopkins University (Rheumatology, Immunology and Molecular Biology), Timothy entered the pharmaceutical industry after a brilliant academic career at John Hopkins and the University of Pittsburgh. Over more than 14 years, initially with Pfizer and then Novartis, Timothy directed early-stage and clinical research programmes. He was Global Head of Development at Novartis in Basel, Switzerland. Timothy has been the Scientific Adviser to several organisations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Board observers
Aneta Sottil
Aneta Sottil joined Andera Partners in January 2018. She serves as Director in the Andera Life Sciences team, dedicated to investing in life sciences.
Aneta has 14 years of experience in Life Sciences, gained in healthcare investment banking (BAML between 2006 and 2008; Rothschild between 2008 and 2013) and Venture Capital (Norgine Ventures between 2013 and 2018).
She holds a Masters in Finance and Banking from Warsaw School of Economics, Singapore Management University and l’Université Pierre Mendès France.
By origin Polish, Aneta also speaks English, French and Spanish. Aneta currently serves on the boards of Atlantic Therapeutics and Gamamabs.
Carl L. Gordon, PhD
Carl L. Gordon, Ph.D., CFA, is a Managing Partner and Head of Global Private Equity at OrbiMed. Dr. Gordon was a Senior Biotechnology Analyst at OrbiMed’s predecessor firm Mehta and Isaly. Dr. Gordon was a Fellow at The Rockefeller University from 1993 to 1995. Dr. Gordon received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Harvard College. He was included on the Forbes Midas List of top venture capital investors in recent years.