Cube Labs Announces Formation of Highly Distinguished Strategic Advisory Board
ROME, Italy, 22 November 2021
Cube Labs, the leading venture builder in the healthcare space in Italy, announced today the appointment of a leading group of experts in life science industry, business and innovation as members to its Strategic Advisory Board.
“We are delighted to announce this exceptional group of distinguished leaders joining our Strategic Advisory Board, bringing invaluable insight and experience in healthcare innovation to Cube Labs,” stated Dr. Filippo Surace, CEO of Cube Labs. “Cube Labs builds new companies from leading-edge R&D and enables innovation in order to transform pioneering science into healthcare solutions. Innovation and commercialization of healthcare technologies demands a broad set of competences and profound know-how. The Strategic Advisory Board members will be instrumental in supporting Cube Labs in its path to innovation and technology development, on business strategy and on the longer term strategy of Cube Labs in Europe and beyond.”
Backgrounds of the Strategic Advisory Board Members
Yossi Bornstein has played key roles in the Israeli & International biomed industry during the past 35 years. He was the General Manager of Bristol-Myers Squibb (Israel). Yossi is the CEO and the founder of Shizim Group, a leading life science holding company. He is the Founder of ShizimXL, medical devices innovation center and ShizimVS, digital health innovation center. He is the Chairman of GCP Clinical Studies Ltd., one of the top providers of clinical research services and educational programs in Israel. He served as the Biotechnology Committee Chairman of the United States-Israel Science & Technology Commission (the “USISTC”). Yossi is the founder of ILSI – Israel Life Science Industry Organization (which was integrated into IATI) and Founder of ITTN – Israel Tech Transfer Organization. He is a Co-Founder & director of Microbot Medical (NASDAQ: MBOT) and a Director of XACT Robotics. He serves as an External Director of Can-Fite BioPharma (NASDAQ: CANF).
Adam Broncel is Co-founder and former General Partner and Member of the Investment Committee in the Biomed Venture Capital fund. He founded Poland Ventures and built an ecosystem for the growth and financing of foreign startups in Poland. He has successfully transferred several Israeli startups to Poland, initiated research and development processes, and organized European grants multiplying the value of different companies. He has a strong entrepreneurial background and has founded several successful companies in various sectors across Western Europe. He specializes in bringing international projects to Poland, including large energy projects guaranteeing an investment of 100 million euros. Adam also successfully runs Cogniguard, a neurology start-up that has secured funding, increasing the company’s value through strong research and development programs.
Slawomir Chomik has extensive experience in the medical devices space and the pharmaceutical industry. He has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in regional and global positions, where he was responsible for the successful introduction of new products in regional markets, effective optimization and management in national organizations, effective integration of acquired pharmaceutical companies, achievement of competitive advantage at the level of individual markets and regions of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). He has experience in global companies such as Solvay and Abbott. In recent years, he has gained investment and entrepreneurial experience, setting up several startups and holding the role of business angel. He is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Management of the University of Warsaw, Member of the Polish Society of Cardiology, and author of original articles in the medical and economic press.
Jeremy Curnock Cook, a veteran in the life sciences/healthcare industry, has been actively supporting the commercialization of healthcare innovations and helping entrepreneurs build their international businesses over the past 40 years. As Founder and Managing Partner of BioScience Managers, he brings his decades of international experience, to support the identification of investment opportunities and in the strategic assessment of value creation options, in particular through M&A and expansion into new geographies. Over his career, he has successfully managed in excess of US $1 billion in equity investments. He launched the first dedicated biotechnology fund for the Australian market and is a former head of the life science private equity team at Rothschild Asset Management, an early pioneer and significant investor in the sector. In his early career, he founded the International Biochemicals Group, which he successfully sold to Royal Dutch Shell. He has served on more than 40 boards of directors in the life science sector, in the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, and Australia.
Yaron Itzhari was the CEO of Medtronic Israel and a member of the Company`s Board of Directors. Yaron joined Medtronic management early 2006 as Deputy Country Director – Sales, Market Access and Business Development. Under Yaron`s leadership, Medtronic Israel has redefined healthcare in Israel, leading Value Based Health Care programs and Digital Health with Payers and Governmental offices to maximize patient value by centering care around the patient measuring relevant health outcomes and its costs. Since joining Medtronic, Yaron has focused the company on leading Integrated Healthcare Solutions, partnership with MOH, Payers, Medical Centers and HMO’s, Partnerships that help healthcare providers balance access, cost, and high-quality. During the last 3.5 years, he engineered the acquisition of startup companies, with a value of $2B in Israel. In addition, he led the integration of Covidien Israel into Medtronic Israel (the largest medical technology acquisition in the history of the industry). Yaron is the founder of the Israeli MedTech Association and acts as its CEO and the Chairman of the Board. He is a member of the Advisory Board of EyeControl, developers of a wearable personal communication device that gives a voice to locked-in patients. Yaron is a leading member of the top 25 High Tech leaders in Israel.
Adina Krausz is the CEO of InnoSource, an independent division of the Swiss multi-family office Toledo Capital AG, a consulting firm offering tailor-made services in the area of innovation and venture capital. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Toledo Capital AG, with over a decade of experience in portfolio management providing third-party advice and wealth management in order to preserve the wealth of wealthy individuals and ensure a multigenerational family inheritance worldwide. Her previous experience includes Head Of Investor Relationship and Business Development at BlueRock Group and as Business Development Private Banking Switzerland for First International Bank of Israel.
Pierre A. Morgon is CEO of MRGN Advisors, Regional Partner for Switzerland at Mérieux Equity Partners and SeniorVice President International Business at CanSino Biologics. He is Chairman of the Boards of Theradiag, Eurocine Vaccines, MYCB1 and Health Technologies Holding, as well as Non-Executive Director to the Boards of Vaccitech, Univercells, Adiposs and Amoeba. Pierre has over 30 years of experience in the global life science industry, especially with specialty care, vaccines and immunotherapy, at the helm of international operations, in C-level positions at global level in multinational corporations and as CEO of start-up companies. He is a lecturer in several MBA programs and in life science conferences, and at the Mass Challenge incubator in Switzerland where he is also a mentor for start-up life sciences companies.
Mikael Oerum holds 40 years of executive and strategic experience in the pharmaceutical, biotech and finance sectors, including 25 years as CEO of therapeutic and diagnostic companies, and more than 20 years professional experience from boards as Chairman or Board Member. He has raised more than USD 300M in equity and soft funding into biotech companies in USA and Europe, has successfully negotiated multi-millions therapeutic, diagnostic and biochemical in- & out-licensing deals in USA, Europe and Asia as well as distributor and OEM product deals globally and regionally. Mikael has orchestrated several IPOs and headed several commercial product launches. Companies include Exiqon, RhoVac, Idogen and Coegin Pharma, and Cureon later renamed Santaris Pharma, which he spun out from Exiqon (sold to Hoffmann-La Roche). He is founder of Ventac Partners with offices in USA, Europe and Asia focusing on building and managing life science companies from start to exit. Mikael has been strategic advisor to the Hong Kong Government in their effort to build biotech industry and has served as international expert in life science projects for Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey. He has served in Advisory Board roles at Virginia Tech’s Bioinformatics Institute, the Danish Technical University and its Institute of Nanotechnology. Furthermore, he served as Vice-Chairman for more than a decade on the Board of the Danish/Swedish life science cluster organization Medicon Valley Alliance.
Banu Onaral is the H. H. Sun Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Her academic focus, both in research and teaching, is centered on information and systems engineering with special emphasis on complex systems, biomedical signal processing and functional optical brain imaging. She founded several laboratories and launched the CONQUER (Cognitive Neuroengineering and Quantitative Experimental Research) CollabOrative, an interdisciplinary brain health and cognitive function observatory in 2008. Banu led the translational research initiative for rapid commercialization of biomedical technologies developed at Drexel University, bringing together academic technology developers with entrepreneurs, regional economic development agencies, local legal, business and investment communities. The program has been awarded the Coulter-Drexel Translational Research Partnership Endowment in 2011. She currently serves as the Senior Presidential Advisor for ‘Global Innovation Partnerships’ at Drexel University and leads the development of the Global Innovation Partnership endowed program created under her name. She served as the founding dean of the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems from 1997 until 2015. Throughout her career, she actively forged international academic and translational research partnerships with universities as well as science and technoparks, primarily in China and Turkey.
Ferran Prat holds more than 30 years of experience in the Life Science industry, mainly in Diagnostics and Pharmaceuticals. He has served as Corporate Vice President of Marketing, Strategic Alliances and Business Development as well as Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Operations Officer in several companies such as LETI Pharma, DAKO (an Agilent Technologies company) where he has had global responsibility across the whole value chain mainly in headquarters, but also for EMEAI, Americas and Asia Pacific regions where he has been based. He is Vice President at Werfen, Board Member at AMADIX, Board Advisor at ZipPrime and member of Ventac Partners. Ferran is a regular advisor and independent consultant to various Venture Capital firms and startups where he has contributed to fundraising efforts, strategic planning, business case development and investor exit processes. In late 2014, Ferran was elected as president of the diagnostic sector at FENIN, the Spanish Federation of Health Technology Companies.
Wee Meng Thoo manages a Single-Family Office private investment group for PE and VC investments under the regulation of Monetary Authority Of Singapore (MAS) with presence in Singapore, New York and Switzerland focusing in disruptive businesses, STEM and Sustainability with portfolios like Alibaba, Tencent, Tesla, SpaceX, Olympus and others. He also co-invests with Family Offices and VC/PEs in startups from early to late stages and exits. Before he became a Fund Manager, he held over 15 years of Operational Management Leadership roles in Global Tech firms like Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems/Oracle, VMware, Qatar Telecom/Oredoo, and in his last corporate capacity as the Chief Commercial Officer in NEC where he was instrumental setting up the Data Center and Cloud Services business and steered the company to profitability from its highly intensive CAPEX investment within 2 years of its inception. He sits on the Board of a Swiss based Crypto Non-Profit Organization SACA forging investment activities between Switzerland and Asia. In addition, he is serving as a Board Advisor to a Swiss Geneva based Impact Infrastructure PE Fund- 4IP collaborating with UN and a related non-profit organization to accelerate private investments in Sustainable Infrastructure projects with Impact and ESG goals.
Fintan Walton is the CEO and Founder of PharmaVentures, a premier transaction advisory firm and a leading international management company in partnering, MA deals and alliances. He co-founded CONNECT Pharma in 1992, a predecessor company to PharmaVentures focused on assisting pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide in partnering, the licensing of intellectual property, and M&A. In 1997, this company became PharmaVentures. Over nearly three decades, he built PharmaVentures into a global player in supporting transactions for blue-chip corporations and emerging innovator corporations. In that time, the firm has delivered more than 1,000 transaction-related assignments for companies in 38 countries. Clients have included major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as diversified chemical corporations, medical device, generic, and OTC companies. Its clients have also included major banks, investment/merchant banks, as well as private equity and venture capital groups. In 1996, he also founded PharmaDeals, the leading database and publishing business related to dealmaking data and analytics. The PharmaDeals business was sold to IMS Health (now IQVIA) in Aug 2012. Before his entrepreneurial activities at PharmaVentures, he had built his R&D and commercial experience in biotechnology within management positions at Bass and Celltech plc (1982-1992).
About Cube Labs
Cube Labs is the first systematic venture builder in the healthcare technology space in Italy, designed to address the gap between the excellent local academic science and the commercially promising life sciences market. Cube Labs builds new companies from leading-edge R&D and enables innovation in order to transform pioneering science into healthcare solutions. Through its international network, Cube Labs works together with communities interested in innovation to transform outcomes for patients and accelerate the world’s transition to optimal health.
Contacts
Investors:
Neil Thomas
+34 60-053-8419
n.thomas@cube-labs.com
Media:
Isil Guney
+90 532-502-7243
i.guney@cube-labs.com