Management

To meet the company’s ambitious objectives, Cellartis has assembled a powerful management team comprising people with broad scientific, operational and commercial experience from academia and industry. The management of Cellartis has extensive scientific and industrial experience at the top executive level.  The management team is well supported by a professional Board of Directors with expert knowledge in global pharmaceutical industry, marketing, product development and basic research.

David Sourdive – Chief Executive Officer

David Sourdive, Ph.D., co-founded Cellectis SA with Dr Choulika, and has served as Director since 2000. Prior to inception of the company, Dr Sourdive was the head of Biotechnology Laboratory at the Centre d'Etudes du Bouchet (French Ministry of Defense). At the same time, Dr Sourdive was heading a research group in Immunology at the Pasteur Institute. Dr. Sourdive attended Ecole Polytechnique and received a Ph.D. in Molecular Virology form University of Paris VII/ Institut Pasteur. Dr Sourdive then applied recombination tracking technologies to anti-viral immune memory, at the Emory University Vaccine Center in Atlanta.

Johan Hyllner – Chief Scientific Officer

Johan holds a Ph.D. in reproductive physiology and has expertise in advanced industrial developmental biology research (Hoffmann LaRoche). Johan has extensive industrial experience in Biotech company build-up and Senior Management. Before employment at Cellartis, Johan was the CSO at Vitrolife AB, a company listed on the Stockholm stock exchange. He has also been the founder and CEO of a profitable biotech startup (SQC AB) until the company was successfully divested. Johan has been at Cellartis since the start of the company.

Lars Pettersson – Chief Financial Officer

Lars has more than 20 years of experience from international finance, trade and risk management – most recently at Ekman & Co, one of the world’s leading sales and marketing organizations for the global forest industry, where he held the position as CFO and Executive Vice President for more than 10 years.

Raimund Strehl – Chief Technology Officer

Raimund holds a Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Bioengineering and has extensive international experience in industrial research and development. He has been at the head of corporate product development and commercialization of innovative research and leading edge technology for almost 10 years.

Kristina Runeberg – Chief Business Development Officer

Kristina received her M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering and a Licentiate of Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. She also holds an Executive MBA from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She has extensive experience from international biopharmaceutical industry and pharma/biotech deal-making. Before joining Cellartis, Kristina worked at Santaris Pharma in Denmark, where she participated in numerous international partnering processes. In addition, Kristina is the co-founder of two start-up companies.

Eva Kilmare – Chief Quality Assurance

Eva received her M.Med.Sc in Production of monoclonal antibodies from the Faculty of Medicine at Göteborg University. Since 1997 she has been approved as Quality Person for transplantation of human chondrocytes at Sahlgrenska Hospital in Göteborg. She joined Cellartis at the start and has experience of building a clean room facility and GMP Quality System.

Petter Björquist – Department Head & Senior Principal Scientist

Petter holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and has 10 years of experience from AstraZeneca R&D, where he was working with project management in the therapeutic area Cardiovascular Diseases. At Cellartis he is responsible for the area stem cell-derived hepatocytes and beta-cells, and is coordinating the major collaboration between Novo Nordisk and Cellartis on regenerative medicine and treatment of diabetes. Petter is the author of more than 40 scientific articles, and is today heading a team of 15 scientists at Cellartis.

Peter Sartipy – Department Head & Senior Principal Scientist

Peter holds a M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology and a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Medicine at Göteborg University. He joined Cellartis in 2002 and has extensive experience from industrial stem cell R&D. Prior to Cellartis, Peter worked at the Scripps Research Institute in the US.

Mikael Englund – Operations Manager Dundee

Mikael Englund has been part of the Cellartis stem cell team since 2001, and in 2007 he moved from Sweden to set up the UK operations in Dundee. He has held numerous responsibilities in Cellartis over the last 10 years and has a broad experience including hES cell R&D, industrialisation of hES cell production and the commercialisation of stem cells. Mikael has a M.Sc. in Biology and a Ph.D. in Cardiovascular Disease research from the Medical Faculty of Gothenburg University. Mikael is also appointed as Senior Honorary Lecturer at University of Dundee, School of Medicine.