Board Of Directors
- Claude H. Nash, Chairman
- Gary Hooper
- Steve A. Orndorff
- Wolfgang Reichenberger
- Gunnar Weikert
- Thomas Werner
Claude H. Nash, Ph.D. | Chairman
Dr. Nash brings to Accera more than 20 years of executive management experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Claude Nash is currently the President and CEO of Bloodstone Ventures plc. Previously he was the founder, CEO, and chairman of ViroPharma Inc. where he oversaw the development of several antiviral drugs, successfully raised $430M in capital and achieved a $1.2B market capitalization for the company following its Initial Public Offering. Prior to founding ViroPharma, Dr. Nash was Vice President of infectious disease and cancer research at the Schering-Plough Research Institute where he initiated new strategic technologies for drug discovery and advanced three new drugs into development. Throughout his career he has managed the research and development of more than twenty drugs in the areas of infectious diseases, cancer, hypertension and pain. In the past he worked for several large pharmaceutical companies including Sterling-Winthrop, Smith Kline & French, and Eli Lilly. He is currently a director of Adolor, Inc. Dr. Nash earned his Ph.D. degree in microbial genetics and biochemistry from Colorado State University.
Gary Hooper | Director
Mr. Hooper has nearly twenty years of executive management level experience in the biotechnology industry and broad experience in corporate and business development. Gary was recently Vice President of Business Development for Bioproducts at Genencor International. He previously served as President and CEO of Ciblex Corporation, a biotech company developing therapeutic drugs for inflammatory diseases through inhibition of cell-to-cell communication. He has held a number of executive and senior management positions at Cygnus Therapeutic Systems, Genentech and Baxter Travenol. Gary is on the Board of Directors for the University of Southern California, Scientific Advisory Council at the University of Utah, Board of Directors of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, Board of Trustees for the Licensing Executives Society and executive member of the Health Care Committee, and Chairman of Silicon Valley's Technology Convergence Consortium. He received an M.B.A. degree in management from the University of Southern California.
Steve A. Orndorff, Ph.D. | Director
Dr. Orndorff is the founder, President and CEO of Accera, Inc. He has more than 25 years experience in the biotechnology industry. Previously he was President and CEO of Univera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately-held drug discovery company focused on diseases of inflammation and the immune response. During his career he has had responsibility in a broad array of disciplines such as basic research, manufacturing, product development and business development at various biotechnology companies including Genex Corporation, NutraSweet, Inc., and ZeaGen, Inc. Dr. Orndorff is a past President of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and a founding board member of the Colorado BioScience Association. He received a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Maryland.
Wolfgang Reichenberger, Ph.D. | Director
Dr. Reichenberger has many years of financial and executive management experience in the food and nutrition industry. During a 29 year career at the world's largest food company, Nestle SA, he led different functions and overall operations in Europe, Asia, Oceania, and North and South America. Recently he was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Nestle SA, and he served on the governing admission body at the Swiss Stock Exchange. Currently he is Founder and General Partner of Inventages WHealth Management Inc. and IVC Americas SA. Dr. Reichenberger serves on the Board of Directors for several U.S. and European biotechnology companies. He earned a Masters of Business Administration from Hochschule St. Gallen and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Wirtschaftsuniversitaet Wien.
Gunnar Weikert, M.D., Ph.D., MBA | Director
Dr. Weikert is the Chairman, CEO and Founder of Inventages Venture Capital. Prior to the founding of Inventages, he had more than 10 years experience in a broad spectrum of executive functions in the pharmaceutical industry culminating as senior vice president and global head for life sciences transactions at Bayer AG. While at Bayer, he oversaw venture investments in technology companies and collaborations representing some of the largest transactions involving large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the late 1990s. Dr. Weikert received his M.D. from the University of Düsseldorf and his Ph.D. in the field of metabolism from the Diabetes Research Center in Germany. He also holds an MBA.
Thomas Werner, Ph.D. | Director
Dr. Werner was elected as an independent director to the Board of Directors in March, 2009. Since 2001, Dr. Werner has been a managing director and senior vice president of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and has served as CEO of the GSK Foundation until earlier this year. He led the Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) in Germany as its chairman through November 2008. He began his pharmaceutical career with Squibb Pharma Germany where he held sales, marketing and brand management positions from 1983-1989 and later held executive management positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, including Managing Director for Convatec Germany and Bristol Arzneimittel Oncology. Dr. Werner co-founded the Genetic Research Center, a joint venture with the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, both in Munich. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Paul Ehrlich Association and the Robert Koch Foundation. Dr. Werner earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Göttingen in Germany.