Management Team and Board of Directors

Massimo Mineo, MBA, Chief Executive Officer

Massimo an Economist by training, brings 25+ years of experience in the pharma industry with expertise in launching innovative treatments, managing operations and fundraising. He served as a C-suite executive in multinational companies and start-ups, spanning drug product development, clinical, regulatory and commercial. He holds an MBA and has gained extensive experience in corporate finance prior to taking on key roles with increasing responsibilities in the pharma industry.

In 2008 he served as CEO of Lynapharm SA, a French joint venture focused in hospital CNS products and in 2010 he became Senior Executive Director of the global international division at Sigma-tau (Alfasigma) overseeing the overall business strategy and business operations. Since 2015 he moved to leading Recordati Rare Diseases (Paris) as Managing Director EMEA launching novel drugs for the treatment of metabolic disorders, dermato-oncology and endocrinology, across indications of high unmet medical need.  Prior to joining Novassay  in 2021, he was appointed as CEO at Napo Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotech company developing a novel therapy for GI rare diseases, leading the completion of a series A fundraising round. Massimo is a member of the Italian CEO association (AICEO).

 

George Skouteris, MD, D.Phil., FRCPath., Chief Scientific Officer

Qualified in Medicine, in GMC’s (UK) specialist’s register. Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (D.Phil., University of Oxford). He has served in various positions within the Academia such as Group Leader at the Department of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, NC, US as senior Investigator at the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ, Heidelberg) & senior Lecturer, University College London, UK) for a total of ~20 years.
Since 2002 he has continued in various R&D and medical director positions in Pharmaceutical companies to include Eli Lilly (Oncology), Roche Products Ltd. (Oncology & Hepatitis), Daiichi Sankyo Inc. (Neuropathic Pain) and GSK (Immunology & Oncology). He has co-authored about 40 peer-reviewed publications, edited 3 books, mostly in the signal transduction and receptor-ligand interactions arena and he is named inventor in 3 patents. He is the founder of Novassay.

Giuseppe Iuliano, Director

Giuseppe is qualified as an accountant in Lausanne and has served in senior accountancy roles companies to include KPMG, Finalsa SA, Fiduciaire Corola, Fidacor SA, Dimension Data SA, Noble Resources, Stryker Osteonics SA and Alcon Pharmaceuticals.
He is experienced in corporate governance, day to day financial management as well as in strategic partnerships, budget projections, P/L accounting and extensive working knowledge of the Swiss and international accountancy standards.

Lukas Kunz, Chief Business Officer (acting)

Akompani SA Switzerland (till 2018) provides strategic business advisory and M&A services including investments, divestments and financing for SMEs across multiple sectors.
Financial advisory, H.GLASS SA Switzerland
Renewable technology provider engaged in the development, production and commercialization of transparent, organic solar cells with a share capital of CHF 23.5m and 50 employees. Portfolio company of Swisscom (SCMN.VX).
PubliGroupe SA, in 2014 acquired by Swisscom (SCMN.VX) Switzerland (HQ), Europe Provider of Online Technologies and Marketing Services with CHF 1.1 billion in revenue.
Senior Manager, Director Investments & Corporate Development at Kudelski Group (KUD.SW) Switzerland: Leader in delivering secure, end-to-end multiscreen solutions to pay-tv service providers with revenues of CHF 1 billion.
Corporate Development Manager
Spirent Communication (SPT.L) / SwissQual Switzerland, EMEA, NA, APAC
SwissQual specializes in wireless network service quality benchmarking and network optimization (100 employees, $30M revenue) and in 2006 was acquired by Spirent Communications, a leading communications technology company (1600 employees, $474M revenue).

 

Board of Directors

Dimitrios Goundis B.Sc (Hons), D.Phil. (Oxon), Non-Executive Director

Dimitri was educated in the U.K. with a degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology (Immunology) from the University of Oxford. The Ph.D. work was done under the supervision of Rodney Porter, a Nobel laureate (1972).
He spent 2 years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland, and he then joined the Oncology Clinical Research group of Hoffmann La-Roche in Strasbourg, France. After 2 years in Clinical Research, he became Project Director, based in Basel, and was in charge of development projects in a number of therapeutic areas, incl. Metabolism, Cardiovascular and CNS.
 
He left Roche, in 1996, and spent 2 years in London, where he worked as a derivatives trader, and also attended the London Business School for a Certificate in Investment Management.
In 1998 he joined The Medicines Company (MDCO) in Basel, as Project Director. Following the listing (IPO) of MDCO on the NASDAQ (Aug 2000), he joined another start-up company in Basel, Speedel. He was the first full-time employee of Speedel, and played a key role in the development of the company for over 6 years, incl. its listing on the Zurich Stock Exchange (Sep 2005). He was promoted to Managing Director of Speedel Experimenta, a unit specializing in Chemistry/Lead Optimization and Pharmacology of new therapeutic agents. In September 2007 he became CEO at Acrongenomics, a start-up company active in the field of point-of-care diagnostics, based in Geneva.
 
Dimitri was asked to re-join The Medicines Company (MDCO) in Jan 2009. In Jan 2010 he became Global Head of Research and Development (R&D) of MDCO, and for that role he moved from Germany to the US (New Jersey). He re-engineered the R&D department, ca. 150 employees and annual budget of $120 mio, and met every single financial and development target set by the Board each year and each quarter. He was promoted to Senior Vice President of MDCO in 2011.
After 4 years in the US, he returned to Switzerland, and became Head of European Business Development for MDCO. He left MDCO in July 2015, after having spent 6 years with the company.
Dimitri has published over 20 scientific articles, including Nature and is co-inventor of a patent (both US & EU) on the potential therapeutic uses of the properdin and thrombospondin units.
Currently he is CEO of MaxiVax SA an Immuno-Oncology Biotechnology company with headquarters in Geneva.

Nick Rodgers BA FCA MSI, Non-Executive Director

Nick is an experienced chairman and non-executive director with a background as a succ essful corporate financier.
Significant exposure to c ompanies in the healthcare, medical, biotechnology, environmental and techno logy sectors. Nick has advised on or been involved with over 100 acquisition s or disposals, some 40 flotations and in excess of 20 takeovers. Nick start ed his strategic finance career with Ernst & Young (1981-1989), responsi ble for the vetting of proposed transactions by public companies. Then he mo ved to Evolution Securities (1989-2003) as head of Life sciences and progres sing as a joint head of Corporate Finance.
He has ser ved a number of companies as non-executive director or as director and among them as Chairman of Oxford Biomedica plc (2004-2016), Ipso Ventures plc (20 05-2013), Morvus technology  Ltd (2004-2012) and Spice Holdings plc (20 04-2006).