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Advisory Board

Advice from experienced managers and investors

Ascenion is economically independent. An Advisory Board supports the company on technical and strategic matters.

Prof. Thomas Gottwald

Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Gottwald (MD, PhD) is CEO and shareholder of Hecosol GmbH, a startup specializing in antimicrobial coatings. He was a General Manager (now member of its Supervisory Board) of Ovesco Endoscopy AG, a medical device company operating in the fields of flexible endoscopy and endoluminal surgery. Before joining Ovesco, Thomas Gottwald was Global Medical Director of Fresenius Kabi AG and Managing Director of Fresenius Kabi Deutschland GmbH, as well as holding further high-level managerial position within the Fresenius Group.

Being a General and Visceral Surgeon by training he has a strong clinical and scientific track record and continued his work as lecturer and docent at the University of Tuebingen ever since 1997. In addition, Thomas Gottwald is serving as advisor and expert for the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), as advisor and/or member of the supervisory board of numerous medtech and biotech companies (e.g., Apeiron AG, Vienna; Xpomet, Berlin; Atmos GmbH, Lenzkirch; Novineon GmbH, Tuebingen).

Prior to his career in the pharmaceutical industry, he headed the surgical department of Wedau Hospitals, Duisburg, and held various academic, administrational and clinical positions at the surgical departments of the University Hospitals of Tuebingen and Munich.

Dr Christiane Hanke-Harloff

Since the end of 2020, Dr Christiane Hanke-Harloff has been working as an independent consultant for venture capital and private equity companies such as EQT Partners, BPEA (Baring Private Equity Asia), Seventure Partners, DIF Capital Partners and the 3i Group. She supported the start-up AATec Medical operationally and as a shareholder during its foundation, advises biotech companies on operational and strategic projects, and is an Associate Partner at Fidelio Healthcare Partners. She is a board member of Recipharm AB, a global CDMO.

Christiane Hanke-Harloff can look back on a successful executive career of over 25 years in the biotechnology and pharma industry at Gilead Sciences, Micromet (Amgen), Jerini (Shire), The Medicines Company, Santen Pharmaceuticals and Gedeon Richter, among others. She has broad, internationally established expertise covering the entire pharmaceutical value chain, with a focus on biologicals, and also on the development of international business units. Following a degree in biology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Christiane Hanke-Harloff completed her PhD in molecular biology at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, and held a postdoc position in immunology at the Hämatologikum of the GSF National Research Centre for Environment and Health in Munich.

Dr Timm Jessen

Since March 2016, Dr Timm Jessen is Chief Executive Officer at Topas Therapeutics GmbH, a spin-off of Evotec AG. Before he worked as Executive Vice President Business Development EVT Innovate at Evotec AG, Managing Director at Bionamics plc, an asset management company and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Evotec AG.  Previously he worked for six years in the pharmaceutical industry (Sanofi Aventis) in preclinical research and alliance management. Timm Jessen was trained in chemistry and biochemistry, graduated at the University of Kiel and received his PhD from the University of Munich (Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry).

Dr Joachim Rothe

Dr Joachim Rothe is responsible for EQT's German office in Munich and serves or has served on the supervisory boards of Bioxell (I/CH), Affectis (D),  U3 Pharma (D), IDEA (D) and Okairos (CH). Before joining LSP as a general partner in early 2002, he was a principal at MPM Capital in Cambridge, MA, USA, and Managing Director of MPM Capital GmbH based in Munich. In that capacity, Joachim Rothe served on the supervisory boards of Novirio Pharmaceuticals (now: Nasdaq: IDIX), OMRIX Biopharmaceuticals (now: Nasdaq: OMRI) and t. Breeders (now: Nasdaq: VIAC), and he was significantly involved in the Biovitrum (SSE: BVT) and Cellular Genomics transactions.
Previously, Joachim Rothe worked at McKinsey & Company where he was an engagement manager on assignments in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. He also spent time at Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel, Switzerland, where he worked in both the preclinical development department as well as in central research. Joachim Rothe, a German native, has a Masters degree in biochemistry from the Free University in Berlin and a PhD degree from the University of Freiburg. He has authored numerous articles in leading scientific publications, including "Nature".