Supervisory Board Members

Dr. Birner, Managing Partner, Montreal and Munich, is responsible for TVM Capital Life Science’s overall investment strategy and fund operations in North America and Europe. Dr. Birner joined TVM Capital in 2000 as an investment manager. He currently serves as Chairman of the board of directors of Noxxon Pharma N.V., SpePharm Holdings BV, leon nanodrugs GmbH, Argos Therapeutics and AL-S Pharma AG. He is also a member of the board of directors of Proteon Therapeutics Inc. and Acer Therapeutics Inc. Dr. Birner previously served on the board of directors of Horizon Pharma, Inc., Bioxell SA, Evotec AG, Probiodrug AG and Jerini AG. Prior to his current tenure, he was Head of Business Development Europe and Director of Marketing for Germany at Zeneca Agrochemicals. Dr. Birner joined Zeneca from McKinsey & Company’s European Health Care and Pharmaceutical practice. As a management consultant he gained extensive experience in R&D management, marketing and sales, and joint venture structuring and business development.

Before starting his professional career in business, he earned substantial academic merits, including a position as Assistant Professor for biochemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University (LMU), following his summa cum laude doctoral degree in biochemistry at LMU; his doctoral thesis was honored with the Hoffmann-La Roche prize for outstanding basic research in metabolic diseases. Dr. Birner also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Holger has more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry. His focus is on software engineering and IT architecture management. Holger holds several leadership positions in leading institutions, including partner of a global management consulting firm and as an executive board member in several technology firms. He served as chairman of SPM Technologies (acquired by SAP), was Partner at McKinsey and Board member at Software AG. Besides that, Holger was executive board member of CORE, a think tank for technologies in the financial services industry.

Berndt is an independent non-executive director and a biotech entrepreneur. He is the the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Pharvaris N.V. and brings more than  25 years of experience in working with biotech companies.

Previously, Berndt was Chief Financial Officer of Prosensa Holding N.V., a biopharmaceutical company focusing on novel RNA modulating treatments for rare diseases, from March 2010 through its IPO on the Nasdaq in 2013 until its acquisition by BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. in 2015. Prior to Prosensa, Berndt was Chief Financial Officer at Jerini AG through its IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2005 and sale to Shire Plc in 2008. He also served as a Member of the Audit Committee of Affimed N.V. from 2014 until August 2020.

Berndt also formerly served as Chief Financial Officer at Surplex AG from 2001 to 2003, and from 1999 to 2001 was the Finance Director Europe of U.S.-based Hayward Industrial Products Inc. In previous positions, he was a Partner in the Brussels-based private equity firm Agra Industria and a Senior Manager in the Financial Services Industry Group of Price Waterhouse LLP in New York.

Berndt received a bachelor´s degree in business administration, economics, and German from the University of Lund, Sweden, and an M.B.A from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.

Jonathan has an extensive track record in the life science and healthcare industry – having spearheaded growth and strategy development of multiple global companies. He serves as Senior Vice President of the Digital Insights Business Area and member of the Executive Committee at QIAGEN N.V., a leading provider of molecular sample and assay technologies. Prior to joining QIAGEN, Jonathan served as the Global Vice President of Oracle Health Services – further positioning the Company’s product portfolio, defining its healthcare strategy, and convergence with Life Sciences. Previously, he was the Head of Bioinformatics at Roche Pharmaceutical, where he established the Company’s first bioinformatics department in the UK as well as providing leadership to a variety of software and data companies serving both the life science and healthcare sectors.

Until recently, Jonathan was a Board Member of the Drug Information Association (DIA) and currently serves on the board of the American College of Medical Genetics Foundation.

He completed his B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Manchester, and went on to receive his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Cambridge.

Eric has an extensive track record in the Lifescience and Biotech industry for the past decades. He initiated his career in medical research at the National Institute of Health (USA), being a former Assistant Professor of Paris Medical University. He holds a PhD in Neurosciences by the Marseille University and a Medical Degree (MD) by the Medical University of Nice. He founded Benefit, a research and consulting company in 1990, that expanded rapidly to over six European countries and Canada before being acquired by Quintiles Inc. (USA) in 1995. As board member, Eric then took over worldwide responsibility in consulting for Quintiles Inc. and remained as a board member for several years.

In 2003, he co-founded Labco, and led the company to a European leadership as chairman and CEO until late 2010. Eric then remained as active board member, especially involved into the selling of Labco to Cinven in 2015.

Guido has over 15 years of experience in the private equity industry. After several years in the investment banking department of Merrill Lynch, Guido gathered international investing experience at TPG Capital and Allianz Capital Partners. In 2008 he built Deutsche Private Equity as the preeminent growth private equity platform for Mittelstand companies in the German speaking region. Ever since, he has supported numerous fast growing SMEs as an investor and board member.

Guido studied business administration at the European Business School, Oestrich-Winkel, De Paul University Chicago and Universidad Argentina de la Empresa, Buenos Aires.