Team

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 spent more than 10 years in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry 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 Institute 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.

Before becoming CEO of Ascenion in 2001, Christian Stein headed the project management department at the Fraunhofer Patent Centre for German Research. He is a chairman of the MGC Foundation and was board member of the global Association of Technology Transfer Professionals (ATTP) from 2012 until May 2015. Since then he is a member of the International Strategy Committee of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM).

From November 2014 until May 2016 he was President of ASTP-Proton, the European Association of Knowledge and Technology Transfer Professionals. Since November 2016 he is Member of the Executive Board of TransferAllianz, a German association representing over 200 scientific institutes uniting patent marketing agencies and technology transfer agencies.

Christian Stein has founded several companies in and outside the biotechnology field. He is consultant and advisor to different EU programs and regional and national expert groups, and serves on the advisory board of various biotechnology companies.

He holds a PhD in molecular biology and obtained a Master of Science (MSc) in the Management of Intellectual Property Law in London.

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.