Team

Before becoming General Manager of Ascenion, Christian Stein headed the project management department at the Fraunhofer Patent Centre for German Research for four years.

From 2020 to 2022 he was Chairman of the Board of TransferAllianz, the German Knowledge and Technology Transfer Association, representing the TTOs of around 100 scientific institutions. Christian is also a chairman of the MGC Foundation and a member of the International Strategy Committee of the American Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). From 2014 to 2016 he was President of ASTP, the European Association of Knowledge and Technology Transfer Professionals and Board Member of the global Association of Technology Transfer Professionals (ATTP) from 2012 until 2015.

Christian Stein has founded several companies in and outside the biotechnology field. He is a consultant and advisor to various EU programs as well as regional and national expert groups, serves as a member of the Supervisory Board of ISAR Bioscience in Munich and is on the advisory board of a number of biotechnology companies. In 2022 he initiated the CARMA FUND and is now a member of its Investor Advisory Board. The fund invests in early-stage projects and start-ups in the life-science sector.

Christian holds a PhD in molecular biology from Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and obtained a Master of Science (MSc) in Management of Intellectual Property Law from QMW in London.

Ralf Cordes has more than 17 years of experience in technology transfer and has worked on numerous licensing, cooperation and spin-off projects for Ascenion since 2006.

He studied at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, specializing in developmental biology, and received his doctorate in molecular biology from the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.

During his 5-year postdoc at the Hannover Medical School, he worked on the influence of the Delta/Notch signaling pathway on mammalian spine development. In 2006, he earned a dual Master of Business Administration degree from the GISMA Business School and the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University in West Lafayette, USA.

Thieß Gert Matzke has years of professional experience in legal issues relevant to technology transfer, from structuring and negotiating complex licensing contracts, to research cooperation agreements and university spin-off financing deals. 

Prior to joining Ascenion in 2002, he was a lawyer at Beiten Burkhardt Mittl & Wegener, focussing on intellectual property. 

He has been licensed to practice as a lawyer in Germany since 1998, received a Master of Law in Intellectual Property from the Franklin Pierce Law Center, Concord NH (today part of the University of New Hampshire), in 2002 and was admitted to the bar in New York in 2003.

Stefanie Possekel has spent more than 20 years in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and technology transfer and has broad experience in in- and out licensing of clinical and preclinical projects. In particular, she successfully worked on a number of major research and development collaborations with academic institutions. 

She joined Ascenion in October 2012 from Novartis, where she served as Director Strategic Alliances with global responsibilities for the Musculoskeletal Disease Area and Oncology. Prior to that she worked as Director Business Development at Santhera Pharmaceuticals, a Swiss-based specialty pharmaceutical company for orphan neuromuscular diseases. 

Stefanie studied Biology at the Philipps University Marburg with a specific focus on Microbiology, Immunology, Genetics and Biochemistry and received her PhD in 1995. During her thesis she spent time at the Biocenter in Basel and worked closely with researchers at the Institut de Myologie in Paris, France. After her PhD, Stefanie spent 3 years in the Bay Area (California), working as a freelance science writer and scientific consultant to Affymetrix.

Elisabeth von Weizsäcker is an experienced entrepreneur who also brings expertise from 16 years in management consultancy to Ascenion. She has accompanied numerous biotech start-ups during their founding and financing, and has advised public sector organizations in strategic, organizational and commercial matters.

Before joining Ascenion, she and a colleague founded the Metropolitan Consulting Group which grew to employ 15 staff. After 10 years they successfully sold the company to a strategic partner.

Elisabeth von Weizsäcker studied at the University of Freiburg and at the California Institute of Technology, subsequently gaining her PhD in molecular biology at the University of  Cologne in the area of developmental biology. She then worked for the management consultancy Bossard Consultants, later moving to Gemini Consulting, from which the Metropolitan Consulting Group was spun out in 1998.