BIO Deutschland general assembly elects new board in Berlin

Press release

The members of BIO Deutschland elected a new board for the next two years during its 18th ordinary general assembly on 29 September. The ten members of BIO Deutschland’s board represent various segments of innovative small and medium-sized biotechnology enterprises and their investors.

The following members were re-elected:

• Dr Kathrin Sabine Adlkofer, Chief Operating Officer and founder of Cellbox Solutions GmbH, Lübeck
• Dr Hubert Birner, Managing Partner of TVM Capital GmbH and TVM Life Science Management GmbH, Munich
• Dr Jürgen Eck, Managing Director of bio.IMPACT and Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of SymbioPharm GmbH and SymbioPharm Group
• Dr Peter Heinrich, Managing Director of Sinfonie Life Science Management GmbH, Planegg
• Norbert Hentschel, Chief Financial Officer of Miltenyi Biotec GmbH, Bergisch-Gladbach
• Roland Sackers, Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director of QIAGEN N.V., Hilden
• Oliver Schacht, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of OpGen Inc., Rockville, MD, USA, and Chief Executive Officer of Curetis GmbH, Holzgerlingen
• Dr Sylvia Wojczewski, Managing Director of BioSpring GmbH, Frankfurt am Main
• Dr Holger Zimmermann, Chief Executive Officer of AiCuris Anti-infective Cures AG, Wuppertal

Dr Klaus Maleck, Chief Financial Officer of the ITM Group, Munich, stepped down from the board last year when he changed companies because he was temporarily not authorised to represent a BIO Deutschland member. He ran for a position on the board as a representative of ITM and was elected.

At the board meeting directly following the general assembly, the new board unanimously confirmed the appointment of Oliver Schacht as its chairman and re-appointed Norbert Hentschel as treasurer.

“Biotechnology has paved the way out of the pandemic. We are coming off an eventful year and a half in which we as the biotechnology industry have done our best to develop vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics to contain SARS-CoV-2. Through our work, we at BIO Deutschland have played a key role in making the importance and potential of biotechnology known to a broad public and have advocated with policy makers – just as we have done in previous years – for better framework conditions for our industry. We will pick up where we left off in the new legislative period,” says Oliver Schacht, who was appointed to a second term as chairman of the association, adding: “There is still a lot to be done for the innovative biotechnology industry. I am excited about continuing my work as chairman of BIO Deutschland’s board with a finely tuned team. I would like to thank our members and my colleagues on the board for the trust they have placed in me.”

During the general assembly, BIO Deutschland’s management presented a comprehensive report on the association’s activities and briefly highlighted the main topics and achievements of the past twelve months.