Board
Dr med. Thierry Weber, President
Thierry Weber, Medical Doctor, is founding partner of Vivactis Switzerland, a medical/scientific communications agency located in Lausanne. For several years, he worked as a physician in various hospitals (Switzerland and South Africa). He then had the opportunity to join the pharmaceutical industry, before moving on to the medtech sector, where he held various positions in medical marketing.
He presently acts as marketing advisor for small life sciences companies and teaches medical marketing at the Lausanne University (HEC) executive MBA (healthcare management). Thierry is passionate about healthcare communications, new media and…the development of life sciences in the canton of Vaud! |
Jehan Cellier, Vice-President, MedTech Expert
Jehan Cellier is a young enthusiast engineer and entrepreneur. His main activity is as an independent expert in medical device development. But not only; he believes that to be able to think out of the box, you must undertake various activities to scout for innovative ways of developing medical devices and get to new technologies.
He has developed 20+ medical products, most of them being class III implants. He has a strong network in the industry and has access to key players. Jehan is a doer and will identify and find all required resources to achieve a project. Prior to his self-employment, he established and managed a Biomedical Engineering Department for a Swiss Medtech contract manufacturer. He was also their Corporate Business Development, Associate VP. |
Dr Alain Rinaldi, Member of the Board
Alain Rinaldi is founder and CEO of MEDExpansion, a counselling company for medical development in oncology and orphan diseases.
Alain is a paediatrician and has been practicing several years in Lyon (France). He has then joined pharma industry where he has taken positions with increasing responsibilities in Medical Affairs at Sanofi-Aventis, Servier and AstraZeneca. In his last position at Alexion (Lausanne) as Medical Director Europe, Alain has built and run for 10 years the medical departments in several European countries to support the successful launch of a monoclonal antibody, eculizumab (Soliris®), in orphan diseases. Alain has also contributed to the elaboration of phases 1 / 2 clinical research programs in orphan diseases and oncology to prepare potential new indications. Today, Alain shares his 30-year experience with biotechs and medtechs to build medical strategies, elaborate clinical development programs and organize exchanges with experts in molecular oncology and orphan diseases. Alain is expert and mentor at MassChallenge (Renens), member of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and of the Central & Eastern Europe Healthcare Policy Network (CEEHPN). |
Agnès Oertli, PhD, MBA, Member of the Board
Agnès Oertli is currently acting as an independent advisor, while studying corporate communications with Université du Québec, Canada. Previously, Agnès was a research scientist with Nestlé, then became venture capitalist for Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, where she was responsible for investments within the biotechnology area.
Agnès was subsequently director of the technology transfer office for both the University of Lausanne and the related university hospital. After a 3 years expatriation in Orléans, France, she returned in 2014 to Canton de Vaud, where she enjoys life with her family. Agnès holds a PhD in science form University of Lausanne, as well as a MBA in management of technology from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. |
Pierre A. Morgon, Treasurer
Pierre A. MORGON is CEO of MRGN Advisors and Regional Partner for Switzerland at Mérieux Développement.
He is Chairman of the Board of Virometix, as well as Non-Executive Director to the Boards of Theradiag, of Eurocine Vaccines, and of Vaccitech. Pierre has over 30 years of experience in the global life science industry, especially with speciality care, vaccines and immunotherapy, at the helm of international operations, in C-level positions at global level in multinational corporations and as CEO of start-up companies. He is a lecturer in several MBA programs in world-class business schools and in life science conferences, and at the Mass Challenge biotechnology incubator in Switzerland. He holds a Doctorate of Pharmacy, a Master in Business Law and a MBA. He is also an alumnus of INSEAD and IMD. |
Nicolas Ristic, Secretary
Nicolas Ristic joined Serono International S.A. in October 1997 where he held various increasingly important positions within Human Resources in Geneva - Switzerland and in Boston – USA until he became Corporate HR Director. Following the acquisition of Serono by the Merck KGaA group, Nico was promoted in February 2007 to Senior Director, Global HR Business Partner for the Development and Portfolio Management functions at Merck Serono.
In January 2013, Nico joined the vibrant and entrepreneurial biotech company ARIAD Pharmaceuticals Inc. as the Head of Human Resources for Europe. He is now supporting the build-up of the ARIAD EU Commercial infrastructure that launched ARIAD’s leading product in Oncology – Iclusig® across all EU markets. Nicolas has a master in business administration from the Business School of Lausanne and was certified US HR professional in 2002 by the Society of Human Resources Management. |