Dr. Hubert Birner
Dr. Birner is responsible for TVM Capital Life Science’s overall investment strategy and global fund operations.
He currently serves as Chairman of the board of directors for leon nanodrugs GmbH and AL-S Pharma AG. He is also a Supervisory Board member of Centogene AG, Spepharm Holdings BV. and Smart Reporting GmbH. Among others, Dr. Birner previously served on the board of Acer Therapeutics, Argos Therapeutics, Horizon Pharma Inc., Bioxell SA, Evotec AG, Jerini AG, Probiodrug AG and Proteon Therapeutics Inc.
Prior to his current tenure at TVM since 2000, he was Head of Business Development Europe and Director of Marketing for Germany at Zeneca. 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, 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 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.
Stefan Fischer
Stefan joined TVM Life Science in 2000 and has been the CFO since 2012.
Stefan holds overall advisory responsibility for the finance operations of the firm’s offices in Europe and North America and for TVM’s life science venture capital funds.
Furthermore, he is responsible for fund administration, investor relations, structuring and negotiating international fund raisings, as well as all corporate finance related aspects of the portfolio. He is in charge of compliance, governance and IT at TVM.
Stefan Fischer is a board member of Myosotis GmbH, Berlin.
Stefan has more than 23 years of venture capital experience. He has been responsible for the corporate finance side of the investment activities for many years and was actively involved in numerous IPOs and trade sales of TVM portfolio companies.
Prior to joining TVM, Stefan was a senior consultant in the corporate finance department of KPMG (Munich), working predominantly on corporate transactions (including M&As and IPOs) and corporate restructuring in national and international projects.
Stefan earned a Master’s Degree in business administration at the University of Passau. His focus was Corporate Finance, Banking and IT. Furthermore, he specialized in Corporate Finance and Business Communication at the Helsinki School of Economics. He is a member of the Working Groups ‘Finance’ at BioDeutschland, and ‘Innovation and Financing’ at the Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft.
Dr. Luc Marengère
Luc joined TVM Partners in 2012. He is responsible for TVM Partners overall investment strategy and global fund operations.
Luc has more than 25 years of venture capital experience. He is a key driver of the investment strategy for TVM LSI I and TVM LSI II Funds. He is a Director on the Boards of late-stage company Panthera Dental, Egg Medical, Kent Imaging, Emovi and Access Vascular as well as early-stage companies Vespina, Occellaris and Auricula. In addition, Luc was a Director on the Board of NASDAQ listed Acer Therapeutics (sold to Zevra Tharapeutics) and Colucid Pharma Inc. (sold to Eli Lilly for US$960M) as well as privately held Aurka Pharma Inc. (sold to Eli Lilly for US$575M; total value includes upfront plus CVRs) and Acanthas Pharma (sold to Eli Lilly for US$430M; total value includes upfront plus CVRs).
Luc brought a significant track record to TVM given his experience as a venture capitalist. Notable deals during Luc‘s tenure as Managing Partner at Toronto-based VG Partners where he founded the life science investment practice include Cytochroma Inc. (sold to Opko for US$400M); VisualSonics (sold to Sonosite for US$75M), CITA Neuropharma (sold to Vernalis Plc for US$85M) and Trillium Therapeutics (sold to Pfizer for US$2.2B). Prior to joining VG Partners, Luc focused on venture investments in the life science sector while at Montreal-based Caisse De Depot (CDP) as well as MDS Capital and MedTech Partners.
Prior to his venture capital career, he conducted commercially oriented research in the fields of immunology and oncology at Amgen. Luc holds a Ph.D. from University of Toronto (Medical Biophysics and Molecular Genetics), a Master’s degree from Queen’s University (Biochemistry) and a degree from University of Ottawa (Bachelor’s degree, Biochemistry, Magna Cum Laude).
Dr. Valentina Agostoni
Dr. Valentina Agostoni joined TVM in 2020.
Valentina has hands-on experience in preclinical drug development, from hit identification to IND-enabling studies. She worked six years as Preclinical Development Scientist for different pharmaceutical startups (Versantis, spin-off of the ETH Zurich and Mperia Therapeutics, spin-off of the University of Montreal).
Valentina received her PhD in Biopharmacy at the University of Paris-Saclay.
Luisa Susanna Haertel
Luisa is a graduate-entry medical student who deeply cares about translating science from bench to bedside and helping to meaningfully improve outcomes for patients, particularly in diseases with a dire need for new therapeutic options. Before embarking on her journey in biomedicine, Luisa researched the impact of biomedical discoveries on hospital architecture and patient wellbeing. She holds a BA and MA from the University of Cambridge in History of Art & Architecture, with a focus on the history of science and medicine.
Prior to joining TVM in June 2023, Luisa supported the early-stage VC teams at YZR Capital in Munich and Mountain Partners in Zurich, working on a wide range of technologies including diagnostics, AI/ML-based medtech and digital health companies.
As an Analyst, she enjoys supporting the executive team with deal-flow screening, research and due diligence to make investments that improve patients’ lives.
In her spare time, Luisa loves to spend as much time as possible outdoors, running, exploring or skiing. She is also a freelance landscape and event photographer and writer.
Amy Kao, PhD
Dr. Amy Kao joined TVM Capital in April 2023.
Prior to TVM, Amy focused on building and funding healthtech opportunities at Oxford Science Enterprises, the largest university-affiliated investment company in the world. Amy was previously a management consultant at EY Global, advising transaction strategies for health care & life science corporations. She has hands-on experience in venture ideation from Merck KGaA’s Innovation Centre and company creation from her role as Chief of Staff at a Parkinson’s and Dementia digital health start-up.
Her academic work in the gut-brain axis has been published in Nature’s Translational Psychiatry and other high-impact journals. Amy holds a DPhil in Neuroscience from the University of Oxford.
Paul Kofler
Paul is a medical student and passionate about creating value for patients. His studies have brought him to Switzerland, the Netherlands, South Africa, Indonesia, the United States and Tanzania – where he learned about the transformative potential of medicine.
Particularly in less well-equipped hospitals, Paul had the chance to discover what is possible through dedicated teamwork, commitment, passion and how a strong vision can guide people to better results.
“Transforming healthcare together” is what drives Paul at TVM.
As an Analyst, he enjoys supporting the executive team with deal-flow screening, research and due diligence to make investments that improve patients’ lives.
Philipp Lechner
Philipp Lechner joined TVM in 2020.
Prior to joining TVM, Philipp worked for the Global Healthcare Team at Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking. In this role he worked on several cross border M&A transactions in different healthcare industries.
He holds a Master degree in International Finance and Economics from the Nuremberg Institute of Technology with a focus on Financial Markets and Corporate Finance and did additional business and finance studies in London, UK and Nuertingen, Germany. During his master thesis he has already worked closely with TVM analyzing financial decision making in life science VC investing.
Marc Rivière, MD
An experienced executive with a track record in successfully building and managing clinical programs, Marc’s expertise encompasses all aspects of drug development in different clinical indications from pre-clinical development to post marketing surveillance. At TVM Capital Life Science, he focuses on evaluation of deal opportunities and investment management for therapeutics. He also works closely with the firm’s strategic partner Eli Lilly & Co. and its drug development division Chorus.
Prior to joining TVM Capital Life Science, Marc was Vice-President, Axcan Pharma Inc., in charge of Clinical Development, Medical Affairs and Pharmacovigilance and a member of the Axcan Licensing Committee. He also served as Senior Vice President, Clinical Development at Caprion Pharmaceuticals, Chief Medical Officer for Bioniche Life Sciences Inc., Managing Director of Xenon Genetics Inc., Vice President of Clinical Affairs, Aeterna Labs and Executive Vice President and Regional Director, Quintiles Inc.
He was also member of the Guideline Review Committee of the Canadian Co-ordination Office of Health Technology Assessment. Marc received his Tropical Disease Medicine Certification from Université Bordeaux II, France and Medicine Doctorate from Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France, and has over fifty publications and scientific communications to his credit.
Ivan T. Shaw, PhD
A neurobiologist by training, Ivan is an experienced pharmaceutical industry professional with broad expertise in the full lifecycle of pharmaceutical development, medical affairs and regulatory affairs, encompassing discovery stage pre-clinical development of candidate assets through to post-marketing lifecycle management in adult, pediatric and orphan indications for small molecules, biologics and gene therapy.
Ivan has served as the CEO for multiple project-focused companies developing oncology, immunology and neuroscience therapeutic assets to Proof of Concept. He has also held the position of Vice-President, Clinical Development with enGene Inc., Medical Director with Actavis LLC, and Director Clinical Development with Aptalis Pharma Inc.
Ivan received his Doctorate in Neurological Sciences/Neurology and Neurosurgery from McGill University, Montréal, Canada.
