Team Description
Mikael Oerum
Chairman of the Board
Mikael Oerum holds 40 years of executive and strategic experience in the pharmaceutical, biotech and finance sectors, including 25 years as CEO of therapeutic and diagnostic companies, and more than 20 years professional experience from boards as Chairman or Board Member. He has raised more than USD 300M in equity and soft funding into biotech companies in USA and Europe, has successfully negotiated multi-millions therapeutic, diagnostic and biochemical in- & out-licensing deals in USA, Europe and Asia as well as distributor and OEM product deals globally and regionally.
Mikael Oerum has orchestrated several IPOs and headed several commercial product launches. Companies include Exiqon (listed on Danish stock exchange and later acquired by Qiagen and delisted), RhoVac, Idogen and Coegin Pharma (all listed on a Swedish stock exchange), and Cureon later renamed Santaris Pharma, which he spun out from Exiqon (sold to Hoffmann-La Roche). Mikael Oerum has served in Advisory Board roles at Virginia Tech’s Bioinformatics Institute, the Danish Technical University and its Institute of Nanotechnology. Furthermore, he served as Vice-Chairman for more than a decade on the Board of the Danish/Swedish life science cluster organization Medicon Valley Alliance.
He holds educations in banking, finance and law from Copenhagen Business School, Danish Bankers Academy, Copenhagen Business College and Copenhagen University. Furthermore, he has received military training and an officer’s education from the Royal Danish Guard/Danish National Guard. Vis-à-vis his civil career, he has served for a number of years as a staff officer and liaison officer in a Danish military command.
Dennis B. Henriksen
Chief Executive Officer
Dennis B. Henriksen M.Sc., PhD., has 25+ years managerial industry experience from small to medium size biotechnology companies, including several years in the United States as Vice President in BioNebraska Inc. where he also served as a member in the corporate management group and was responsible for R&D.
Key positions: Partner in Ventac Partners, Vice President in Nordic Bioscience A/S, COO in Verigen Europe A/S, Vice President in Osteometer Biotech, Managing Director in BION, Vice President in BioNebraska and Dennis Henriksen was the founder and CEO of Sanos Bioscience A/S.
Dennis Henriksen are providing a broad set of services to biotechnology companies, including preparation of business plans, clinical development and regulatory strategy, technology assessment, In/out-licensing negotiations, managing outsourcing operations, IP activities, fundraising and management presentations.
Farshad Moradi
Chief Scientific Officer
Farshad Moradi is a Full professor in Electronics leading the ibrAIn center, and also the director of ICELab at Aarhus University. He is currently coordinating as well as participating in several interdisciplinary projects funded nationally and internationally within brain implant technologies and emerging artificial intelligence. He has been with Aarhus University since 2011, and published more than 120 scientific papers within the field of integrated chip design.
Jens Christian H Sørensen
Chief Medical Officer
Jens Christian H. Sørensen (JCHS) is Professoral Chair at the Department of Neurosurgery and Chairman of Danish Neuroscience Centre at Aarhus University Hospital.
The Department of Neurosurgery at AUH is one of the leading neurosurgical departments in Scandinavia. At the department JCHS active in neurosurgical patient treatment, clinical and scientific leadership. In research JCHS work with techniques in neurobiology, neurosurgery and neuroimaging, and his experience spans from molecular and cellular neurobiology, over neuroanatomy to neuromodulation through deep brain stimulation, spinal cord stimulation, therapeutic and stem cell transplantation as well as trophic factor infusion systems. JCHS has more than 25 years of experience with neuromodulation and translational research using minipigs and he has founded the Center for Experimental Neurosciense (CENSE), a research group focusing on large animal research. JCHS has developed the necessary neuroimaging modalities and MRI compatible stereotaxic equipment for placement of electrodes and neuromodulatory devices in the central nervous system including the spinal cord. CENSE has the laboratory facilities and abilities to do histological characterization of tissue responses, to neuromodulation and brain computer interface devices incl. classic neurohistological techniques, such as histochemistry, immune histochemistry, in situ hybridisation and stereological quantification techniques. JCHS has experience with innovation and technology transfer, and has chaired startups in neurohistology, and neuromodulation.
Lasse Richter Petersen
Chief Business Officer
Lasse Richter Petersen has 30+ years of senior leadership experience from the international Pharma industry. Most recently, he served as VP Head of Global Commercial Excellence for Sanofi’s General Medicine Division. Lasse has also held positions as Sanofi’s General Manager for the Nordic & Baltic region and as Head of Central & Eastern Europe with Sanofi. Prior to joining Sanofi, Lasse was 19 years with Lilly, most recently as European Marketing Director Oncology. Lasse has extensive experience in global product launches from large therapeutic areas including Diabetes, CNS, Oncology and Cardiovascular.
Today Lasse is a Partner in Ventac Partners focusing on accelerating start-ups in Life science. He is a board member, advisor and mentor for several companies.
Lasse is a Danish Citizen. He has been based in Norway, Italy and France but now located in Copenhagen, Denmark. He holds a MsC in Economics and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School, CBS.
Poul Sørensen
Board Member
Poul Sørensen has more than 25 years of international Pharma and Biotech leadership experience from Pharmacia, Active Biotech, Maxygen, Micromet, LEO Pharma, ALK-Abello and Stallergenes and has been responsible for the discovery and development of multiple concepts and compounds in cancer, inflammation, and immune mediated disorders. Poul Sørensen is a Danish citizen based in the Paris area and currently CSO and co-founder at Allero Therapeutics and partner and entrepreneur-in-residence in the biotech start-up builder ArgoBio Studio.
Poul Sørensen holds a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from University of Copenhagen, Denmark and is Honorary Professor of Biomedicine at Aarhus University, Denmark.
Neil Thomas
Head of Intellectual Property
Neil has worked in the biotechnology sector since 1997, in both legal and business environments. He has extensive experience in company formation, patent drafting, IP portfolio management, business development, licensing and technology exploitation.
He is a Partner in Ventac Partners and works in business development and IP roles within and outside the Ventac Partners company portfolio.
Previously, Neil was Director of Business Development & IP at Genetrix, a biotechnology group in Madrid, Spain. He also sat on the boards of group companies Genetrix Life Sciences AB, Biobide SL and Sensia SL.
Other experience includes four years working at Roche spin-out bioXell SpA. in Milan, Italy, where he was Director of IP & Technology.
Neil holds a BSc (Hons) in Biol. Sci. from the University of Birmingham, UK and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Durham, UK. Neil is fluent in Spanish.