There has been much complaining about Dr. Missling's effectiveness and are calling for his replacement. Anavex is controlled by an outstanding Board of Directors that has complete knowledge of the entire operation and has a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. In reviewing 10k filings for the past three years, there have been no resignations from the board so they must be satisfied with the direction of the company.
For those that might not be knowledgeable of the make up of the BOD for Anavex, I have copied this from Anavex's December 2017 10-k filing.
Our directors and executive officers, their age, positions held, and duration of such, are as follows:
Name Position Age Date first appointed Christopher Missling, PhD Director, President, Chief Executive Officer, Secretary 52 July 5, 2013 Athanasios Skarpelos Director 51 January 9, 2013 Bernd Metzner, PhD Director 47 May 7, 2014 Elliot Favus, MD Director 43 May 7, 2014 Steffen Thomas, PhD Director 51 June 15, 2015 Peter Donhauser, D.O. Director 52 February 8, 2017 Sandra Boenisch Principal Financial Officer, Treasurer 36 October 1, 2015
Business Experience
The following is a brief account of the education and business experience of directors and executive officers during at least the past five years, indicating their principal occupation during the period, and the name and principal business of the organization by which they were employed.
Christopher Missling, PhD . Christopher Missling has over twenty years of healthcare industry experience in big pharmaceutical, biotech industry and investment banking. Most recently, from March 2007 until his appointment by our company, Mr. Missling served as the head of healthcare investment banking at Brimberg & Co. in New York, New York. Also, Mr. Missling served as the Chief Financial Officer of Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS) and ImmunoGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMGN). Mr. Missling earned his MS and PhD from the University of Munich and an MBA from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management.
Athanasios Skarpelos . Athanasios (Tom) Skarpelos is a self-employed investor with 18 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 our company 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.
Bernd Metzner, PhD. Bernd Metzner is currently the Chief Financial Officer of the Stroeer Group, a media and online advertisement company, where he has been CFO for the last three and a half years. 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 from University of Siegen, he became a chartered accountant.
Elliot Favus, MD. Elliot Favus 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.
Steffen Thomas, PhD Steffen Thomas, 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.
Peter Donhauser, D.O. Peter Donhauser, had more than 20 years of expertise in clinical research prior to practicing osteopathic medicine with an integrated medical approach in private practice beginning in 2000. He worked at the University Hospital of Munich in the fields of geriatrics and neuromusculoskeletal diseases. During this time, he was a clinical trial investigator in multiple Phase 3 studies, including studies sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme, Merck, Boehringer Mannheim, Roche, Servier and Sanofi. He received his human medicine degree at the University of Munich and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) from the German-American Academy for Osteopathy, or DAAO, a member of the European Register for Osteopathic Physicians, or EROP, at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He has served as a director of the Company since February 8, 2017.
Sandra Boenisch, CPA, CGA Ms. Boenisch is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CGA) with 14 years of accounting, audit, and financial reporting experience in a variety of industries, both in the United States and Canada. Ms. Boenisch has been an independent consultant, providing financial reporting services to a range of public companies in the United States and Canada since January 2012. From 2008 until 2012, Ms. Boenisch was employed at BDO Canada LLP (Vancouver, BC) where she was hired as a Senior Accountant and was later promoted to Manager, Audit Assurance. Ms. Boenisch specialized in managing assurance engagements for public companies in the United States and Canada. Prior to that, Ms. Boenisch worked for another public accounting firm from 2001 to 2008. As an independent consultant, Ms. Boenisch has acquired considerable experience in finance, governance, and regulatory compliance. She holds a BComm from Laurentian University.
I think I'll rely on these people to properly run the company !
