Seasoned executives for startups

The startups Interprefy, Mictic, Oculis and Monte rosa have strengthened their executive boards with new leaders that will take on the role of CEO, CTO, Business development. The Business Angel Network Go Beyond has also seen a change of leadership. Denise McQuaid takes over as the network’s CEO.

As of 9 November 2020, Annett Polaszewski-Plath will take over the position of CEO at Interprefy, the leading solution provider of cloud-based Interpreting solutions for online meetings and events. Polaszewski-Plath was most recently DACH Managing Director of Eventbrite, the global ticketing and event technology platform. She has also held several commercial leadership positions in global technology companies such as eBay and PayPal. In her new role, she will lead the team through the next wave of global growth. Polaszewski-Plath succeeds company founder acting CEO Kim Ludvigsen, who will now lead strategic developments as Vice-Chairman of the Board.

Mictic, CTO Andreas Gautschi
The music tech startup Mictic, developer of a wearable musical instrument that interprets body movement into sound, has named Andreas Gautschi as the new CTO to oversee all R&D efforts and the organisation’s tech vision. The machine learning and data sciences expert brings both software development and tech pre-sales experience to the role. He is the founder of DataSushi where he has worked alongside scientists from NASA, MIT, and the US Department of Defense. Gautschi joins Mictic ahead of the launch of its device. He will hence take on responsibility for the product launch roadmap and delivery.

Oculis Chief Development Officer
For its newly established US office, Oculis, the Swiss biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative topical ophthalmic treatments to improve the sight and lives of patients, has named David Jakobs as the Chief Development Officer. Jacobs brings more than 20 years of leadership experience covering all aspects of drug development. He joins Oculis from Osmotica Pharmaceuticals, at which he was Vice President Clinical Development and Medical Affairs since 2017. Before his role at Osmotica, Jacobs held drug development leadership positions at Daiichi-Sankyo, Johnson & Johnson, Aptalis Pharmaceuticals and King Pharmaceuticals. AT Oculis, he will be responsible for leading all development plans and achieving market authorisations by coordinating all regulatory activities required for future New Drug Application (NDA) submissions to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the equivalent for regulators in other territories. 

Monte rosa welcomes three executives
With offices and labs in Basel and Boston, Monte Rosa Therapeutics is developing precision medicines to degrade disease-causing proteins. The company has welcomed three new members to its team: Min Wang as Chief Operating Officer, Ajim Tamboli as Chief Financial Officer and Jullian G. Jones, as Senior Vice President, Head of Business Development. They will each play key roles in Monte Rosa’s future success. Min was previously the COO of BlueRock Therapeutics, where she played a crucial role in shaping its strategy and operations, including the sale of the company for an implied total value of up to $1 billion. Tamboli joins Monte Rosa from Rodin Therapeutics, where he served as CFO and was integral in the sale of the company to Alkermes for consideration I  aggregate value of up to $950 million. Jones served as Senior Director of Oncology Business Development at Eli Lilly and Company, where she led the identification and strategic assessment of in-licensing and M&A oncology opportunities across the clinical and preclinical portfolio, as well as out-licensing activities.

Denise McQuaid joins GoBeyond
GoBeyond Investing has been under new leadership since July following the appointment of Denise McQuaid. Denise brings on board her extensive startup and investment experience having previously worked for UP Accelerator, Enterprise Ireland and everywoman, among others.

(RAN)

Photo L-R: Annett Polaszewski-Plath, Andreas Gautschi, David Jakobs, Ajim Tamboli, ullian G. Jones, Min Wang and Denise McQuaid