LEADERSHIP

Florence joined Da Volterra as Chief Executive Officer in the summer of 2008. She has built the company strategy, management team and executed the development plan since then. Prior to Da Volterra, Florence spent 11 years co-founding and developing Genfit as CBO and COO (Euronext GNFT), a leading European biotech company in the field of metabolic and inflammatory diseases with a particular focus on liver and GI (NASH). Florence has thus the experience of successful entrepreneurial adventures and the capacity to set up and lead a highly professional organization from early research drug discovery to late-stage clinical development and market access.
Florence was trained in France (Mines Paritech, Biotechnology Major) and holds an MS in Pharmaceutics & Bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

As Da Volterra’s CEO, Florence has been active in contributing to various groups in Europe and in the USA these last years on creative business models and incentives to face the economic issues of innovation in the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and bacterial infections. She initiated the BEAM Alliance, which represents more 60 European biopharmaceutical companies involved in antimicrobial resistance from 16 countries. The BEAM Alliance objectives are to collaborate with the existing community of stakeholders dedicated to implementing tangible strategies and give its members a unique voice as small & medium companies, to propose and support policies and incentives in antimicrobial research and development in Europe.

Jean graduated from “Ecole Agronomique de Paris” before becoming a molecular and cell biologist who after a highly successful academic carrier decided to devote his experience and know-how to the development of Da Volterra.

After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1985 from the University of Paris 7 for work performed at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, Jean continued his training by a postdoctoral stay at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (Cambridge). He became in 1988 Research Director at the CNRS and headed the Laboratory for Signal Transduction and Oncogenesis of Inserm at the Institut Curie in Paris until mid-2005. He has published over 70 articles in international journals in fields ranging from Biochemistry and Molecular Biology to Cell biology. Jean, as a seasoned scientist, brings to Da Volterra his wide expertise for conducting R&D programs, understanding finely at the molecular level diseases as well as drugs mode of action, developing adequate in vitro assays to model in vivo situations, optimizing both chemical and molecular analytical tools and biomarkers, and establishing in vivo proof of concept studies. Jean heads the R&D efforts of Da Volterra in close synergy with Antoine Andremont and Annie Ducher.

Annie joined Da Volterra as Chief Medical Officer in the summer of 2010. Annie is a graduate MD from University of Paris V, and MS in “Methodology and Assessment of the Development of Drugs” with Pr Alexandre (Chairman of French & European Drug Committee). Her expertise field is the clinical development of antimicrobials and the strategy of registration. Annie started her career at the French Regulatory Agency (AFSSAPS), as Manager of anti-infective working group. She then had various responsibilities as consultant or senior director in anti-infective development for or in several companies (Centocor, Aventis, SB, GSK, Novexel) in France and in the UK. In total, she had the opportunity to oversee at least 10 clinical programs in all development phases of antimicrobials and sepsis products. From 1989 to 2005, Annie continued to be a part-time Hospital practitioner in the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit of Pr. Rozenbaum in Paris and has therefore remained deeply connected to patient care as well as drug development.

Karine graduated from ESPCI ParisTech (“Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles”) before obtaining her Ph.D in medicinal and organic chemistry from the University of Lille. She started her career at UCB before joining the leading European biopharmaceutical company, Genfit, from its inception. She has held several management positions as Director R&D Chemistry, CMC Development, Strategic Planning and Program Management, and EVP, Corporate Development. With her broad understanding of the healthcare industry environment, Karine brings to Da Volterra her high operational and technical expertise in research and development of therapeutic products, including her skills in discovering, developing and executing product decisions, and the definition and implementation of product roadmaps and go-to-market strategies.

Stéphane, business graduate from the EM Lyon University, has held several financial management positions in large international distribution companies such as Pinault-Printemps-Redoute and Carrefour. He has been responsible for financial reporting and management of several business units in France and in the UK and has gained solid experience in profit centre management. Since April 2002, he had supervised the administrative and financial teams at Genfit and managed the Financial and Business Control, General Administration, Human Resources and Corporate Reporting functions, in close collaboration with the CEO and COO. In charge of the IPO of Genfit in 2006, he gained a strong experience in biotech financing. Working part-time as CFO of Da Volterra, Stephane brings both his high technical expertise in finance and corporate administration and his strategic advice to the CEO.

Pierre-Alain joined Da Volterra’s team in late 2009 after graduating from the “Ecole Polytechnique” and “Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris” with majors in biology and biotechnology management. He previously worked in Dr. Elisseeff’s team in Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, USA) on innovative tissue engineering techniques to heal cartilage defects. He is today Chief Business Officer at Da Volterra, and takes an active part in identifying and setting up the company’s partnerships, grant consortia, and coordinates IP portfolio management, market intelligence and strategic analysis at Da Volterra.

Sakina graduated from Rouen Faculty of Sciences before obtaining her PhD in molecular and cell biology, with a specialisation in Neurosciences for a work realized at INSERM Laboratories. She started her career at Innothera as a project leader before joining Genfit, a leading biotech company developing products in the metabolic and inflammatory diseases, where she moved to as a scientific director position. Sakina joined Da Volterra’s team in 2011 and is today R&D Director in charge of the transversal and translational issues management of DAV132 research program until market launch. Her activities also include target product profiles compilation and update as well as product risk management coordination.

Frédérique joined Da Volterra’s team in 2009, after obtaining her pharmacy diploma from the school of pharmacy of the Catholic University of Louvain (Brussels) with a specialization in clinical biology. As director of scientific operations, Frédérique’s mission is to coordinate scientific activities relating to preclinical studies, through the operational implementation of actions in conjunction with the Chief Scientific Officer. Her activities also include the scientific teams supervision, scientific monitoring coordination and scientific intelligence management.”