Board of Directors
Here is the listing of the Board of Directors for any new investors on this message board. I beg the indulgences of all that are familiar with it.
Christopher U. Missling, MS, PhD, MBA
Dr. Missling, President and CEO of Anavex™, has over 20 years of healthcare industry experience within large pharmaceutical companies, the biotech industry and investment banking. Prior to joining Anavex, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of Curis and ImmunoGen. In addition, at Aventis (now Sanofi), Dr. Missling worked as head of financial planning on all aspects of financial strategy and M&A. His career experience also includes working as an investment banker in the healthcare practice at Deutsche Bank, serving pharmaceutical, biotech, and diagnostic companies, as well as serving as the head of healthcare investment banking at Brimberg & Co. in New York. Dr. Missling has an MS and PhD from the University of Munich in Chemistry and an MBA from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.
Tasos Zografidis, MS, PhD
Dr. Zografidis, the Vice President Clinical Operations of Anavex, has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, including 12 years at Wyeth (now Pfizer) in clinical project management and prior to joining Anavex most recently served as clinical and pharmaceutical consultant. He has been involved in more than a dozen clinical trials and has co-authored numerous publications. At Wyeth, Dr. Zografidis spearheaded population pharmacokinetics analysis and its implementation in the clinical setting and positively differentiated compounds. His work resulted in increased sales and he received several clinical awards for his accomplishments. Dr. Zografidis first joined Wyeth in 1998 as a Product Manager. During his tenure until 2010, he had increased responsibility as Medical Liaison for the transplantation, haemophilia and oncology divisions where he was instrumental in driving sales in assigned European territories.
Ulrich Elben, PhD
As Vice President of Preclinical Operations for Anavex, Dr. Elben oversees pipeline development and optimization. Dr. Elben has extensive experience in global pharmaceutical development and research. His background includes roles as VP of Strategic Development Operations at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, with responsibilities including project and portfolio management as well as the development of an oncology project. In addition, Dr. Elben served as a member of the Vertex drug development advisory board and drug product review committee. He was also Chief Development Officer at Avaant Pharmaceuticals, where he led the development of oncology projects across the USA, Europe and India. Earlier in his career, Dr. Elben was CEO of Axxima Pharmaceuticals in Munich, Germany. Dr. Elben started his career with Sanofi-Aventis (former Hoechst Marion Roussel) in Europe and the USA, where his last position was deputy head of project management overseeing also Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia products. He and his teams were successful at bringing several drugs through the international development cycle and ultimately to market. Dr. Elben was also secretary of the Sanofi-Aventis drug development review committee. Additionally, Dr. Elben has extensive, recent consulting experience with VCs, biotech companies and API manufacturing companies in the USA, Canada and Europe. He is currently a member of several organizations, including the CEO advisory board of the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research, BioFlorida and the Drug Information Association. Dr. Elben received his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Bonn, Germany.
Kristina M. Capiak, CCRP
Ms. Capiak, the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Anavex, has more than 10 years of academic clinical research and healthcare industry experience within the biotech industry. Prior to joining Anavex, Ms. Capiak was the Global Regulatory Lead at Retrophin, Inc. where she implemented U.S. and EU strategy for the ongoing development programs, which received orphan drug designations as well as fast track designation. At Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Ms. Capiak was on the pharmacovigilance and risk management team where she analyzed the ongoing safety events for the pipeline of development products and for EYLEA®. Ms. Capiak’s background also includes clinical trial staffing and oversight for more than 60 clinical trials at both Columbia University Medical Center, where she co-authored several papers, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where she became a Certified Clinical Research Professional (CCRP) through the Society of Clinical Research Associates. While an undergraduate, Ms. Capiak participated in translational medical research at the University of Michigan Medical School through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. She is a graduate of both the University of Michigan and New York City’s Columbia University.
Bernd Metzner, PhD
Bernd Metzner, PhD, a director of Anavex, is currently Chief Financial Officer of the Doehler Group, a global producer and provider of technology-based natural ingredients for the food and beverage industry with sales activities in more than 130 countries. Previously, he was Chief Administration Officer and member of the Board of Management of Bayer Schering Pharma AG, the pharmaceutical division of $100+ billion market cap company Bayer AG. In this position, Dr. Metzner had worldwide financial responsibility for the Bayer Pharma Group. During his almost 10-years with Bayer AG, Dr. Metzner also held several senior international management positions in the corporate finance organization of Bayer AG, including Chief Financial Officer of Bayer S.p.A. Italy and heading the coordination of the successful spin-off of Lanxess, a specialty chemicals group. Dr. Metzner started his career at the law firm Flick Gocke Schaumburg and has a degree in business administration from the University of Siegen. After obtaining his doctorate, he became a chartered accountant.
Elliot Favus, MD
Elliot Favus, MD, a director of Anavex, is Chief Executive Officer of Favus Institutional Research, a healthcare research firm serving institutional investors. He has been a healthcare equity research analyst on Wall Street since 2006, starting at Lazard Capital Markets and subsequently at Och-Ziff Capital Management Group. Prior to working on Wall Street, Dr. Favus was an Instructor in medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He attended the University of Michigan (BA, 1996), the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine (MD, 2001) and the NYU-Bellevue Hospital Internal Medicine Residency Program (2004). He is board-certified in Internal Medicine (2004) and has 10 years of basic science laboratory experience working on human genetics projects at Harvard Medical School, the University of Chicago and the University of Pittsburgh.
Tom Skarpelos
Mr. Skarpelos, a director of Anavex, is a self-employed investor with 17 years of experience working with private and public companies. For the past 10 years, he has been focused on biotechnology companies involved in drug discovery and drug development projects.Mr. Skarpelos was engaged as a consultant to Anavex Life Sciences for one year effective August 2, 2010. His experience has led to relationships with researchers at academic institutes in Europe and North America. Mr. Skarpelos is a founder of Anavex Life Sciences, and is its largest shareholder.
Steffen Thomas, PhD
Steffen Thomas, PhD, a director of Anavex, has over 15 years of experience as a European patent attorney and is currently practicing at Epping Hermann Fischer, a major intellectual property law firm in Europe. Previously, he worked for Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, the largest pharmaceutical company in Asia and a top firm worldwide, as an in-house patent attorney. Prior to that, he worked for Nycomed Pharma, acquired by Takeda in 2011 for approximately USD $10 billion. Dr. Thomas’ legal practice covers drafting of patent applications, prosecuting patent applications before national and international patent offices, defending and challenging patents in opposition, appeal, and nullity proceedings, enforcing patents before the infringement courts, and preparing opinions on patentability and infringement in the technical field of chemistry. Dr. Thomas has particular expertise in small molecule pharmaceuticals. He holds MS and PhD degrees in Chemistry from the University of Munich.
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