Board of Directors

Mr. BERTRAND REICH - President

Mr. Bertrand Reich holds a Master in Law degree from the University of Geneva. A lawyer admitted to the Bar of Geneva, he rapidly created his own practice, before becoming an associate of Grosjean Didisheim Manfrini Reich, a well established legal practice in Geneva; he also sits as judge-assessor at the Court of Appeals for Leases and Rents.
He is closely involved in Geneva's political life, and is enthusiastic about the creation of companies; from 1996 to 2006, he sat on the Council of "Genilem" (a competence centre offering coaching and support tools to entrepreneurs), and was a member of its Steering Committee. He has taken part, on a purely private basis, in the creation of several companies in Switzerland. He is a member of the committee of the "Chambre Genevoise Immobilière", and is also a Director and Vice-President of the Foundation HBM Jean Dutoit, a Member of the Administrative Commission of the "Fondations Immobilières" and member of the Committee of the Civil-Service Pension Fund of the Canton of Geneva (CIA).

Prof. PATRICK AEBISCHER

Prof. Patrick Aebischer, President of "Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne" (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology –EPFL. Patrick Aebischer was trained as an MD (1980) and a Neuroscientist (1983) at the University of Geneva and Fribourg in Switzerland.

From 1984 to 1992, he worked at Brown University in Providence (Rhode Island, USA), as an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Medical Sciences.

In 1991, he became the chairman of the Section of Artificial Organs, Biomaterials and Cellular Technology of the Division of Biology and Medicine of Brown University. In the fall of 1992, he returned to Switzerland as a Professor and Director of the Surgical Research Division and Gene Therapy Center at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) in Lausanne.

In 1999, Patrick Aebischer was nominated President of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) by the Swiss Federal Council. He took office as President on March 2000, and since January 2004, he has been a member of the ETH-Board.

His current research focuses on the development of cell and gene transfer approaches for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Patrick Aebischer is a member of numerous professional societies, both in Europe and America. He is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and a fellow of the Swiss Academy of Medicine. Patrick Aebischer is also a founder of two biotechnology companies including CytoTherapeutics (today Stem Cell Inc) and Modex Therapeutics (today IsoTis).

Dr. CHRISTIAN BRECHOT

Dr. Christian Bréchot graduated in medicine in Paris and presented his medical thesis in 1983. He holds M.D. Ph.D. degrees, and beginning in 1981 he studied molecular biology, virology, and cellular biology at the laboratory of Pierre Tiollais at the Pasteur Institute, and at the Necker Faculty of Medicine; he obtained his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Paris VII in 1985. In 1989 he became full professor of Cell Biology and Hepatology, and in 1997 he was appointed head of the clinical department of liver diseases at the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital. He has been in charge of a research unit at the Necker Faculty of Medicine, jointly supported by Inserm (the French national biomedical research agency), Paris Descartes University, and the Pasteur Institute; he was also head of the National Reference Centre on viral hepatitis from 1998 to 2001. From 2001 to 2007, he has acted as General Director of Inserm, the French National Agency for biomedical research (Thirteen thousand people are employed within its 300 research units and 25 research centres). Since January 2008, Dr Chriustian Bréchot is executive vice-president for medical and scientific affairs of the Institut Mérieux. Institut Mérieux is a holding of five companies (Biomérieux and Transgene in France, Advanced Bioscience Laboratories and Silliker in the United States and Shantha Biotechnics in India), focused on infectious diseases, cancer and food safety.

Mr BENOIT HABERT

Benoît Habert is President of Dassault Development, a venture capital affiliate of Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault that specializes in new technologies. Mr Habert also serves as Managing Director of Habert Dassault Finance and as director of Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault and Chapitre.com. He is also a Director to the board of bioMerieux and Trangène. He holds an L.L.B. degree in Business and Law and an MBA from INSEAD.

Mr ISAAC KOHLBERG

Mr Kohlberg, formerly Chief Executive Officer of the Tel Aviv University Economic Corporation and CEO of its technology transfer organization, oversees the development of new inventions and technologies arising from research at Harvard. The Office of Technology Development (OTD) elicits and evaluates new inventions and discoveries made by the faculty, and determines whether to pursue patent protection on behalf of the University. In keeping with Harvard's mission to serve the public good, OTD strives to make these new technologies widely available to society by transferring them to industry for development and real world application. Companies seek to acquire rights to promising new inventions made at Harvard in order to develop them into new products, such as biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and advanced research materials which, it is hoped, will one day be available on the market, thereby contributing to society through the advancement of science, medicine and industry. Licenses include a financial consideration for the University which, in turn, helps support the expense of patenting future inventions, as well as of ongoing research and academic endeavors at Harvard. Thus, OTD serves to protect new discoveries made by Harvards research enterprise while simultaneously helping to make additional research possible, often resulting in direct or indirect benefit to the public at large.

Mr HENRI VANNI

Mr Henri Vanni is a former Director of McKinsey & Company, and Head of the industry-leading Pharma Practice of this prestigious consulting company. Henri Vanni is a chemical engineer from EPFL, and graduated with a Doctorate in Science (PhD) from the Lausanne University in 1977 and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau in 1980. Henri Vanni started his career at IBM in California before joining McKinsey in 1980 and heading the Geneva office since 1988. Henri has been supporting CEOs of Pharma and biotechnologies companies to address the core strategic challenges that their companies and industry have faced for the last 15 years. His knowledge of the industry will be a key asset for the strategic decisions that Eclosion will have to make on its portfolio companies.

Prof. JEAN-DOMINIQUE VASSALI

Prof. Jean Dominique Vassalli is the Rector of the University of Geneva. Born in Geneva, Jean-Dominique Vassalli obtained his Swiss Federal diploma of medicine at Geneva University in 1972, his Doctorate in Sciences (Ph.D.) at Rockefeller University in 1977 and his Doctorate in Medicine at Geneva University in 1984. In 1994, he was appointed Vice Dean of the Faculty of medicine until 1999. Then he was appointed Vice Rector of Geneva University, and held this position until 2003. He was notably head of cases in the collaboration between Vaud and Geneva, and the valorization of scientific discoveries. Since 2004, he has been heading the fundamental medicine Section of the Faculty of medicine and was nominated Rector of the University in July 2007. The University of Geneva is one of the three leading European universities, as ranked by Newsweek in 2006, with a strong focus on life science and in particular molecular biology where the impact of studies conducted positions the university just behind Princeton on a worldwide basis.