ViroGates Management
Jakob Knudsen, Chief Executive Officer
Jakob assumed his role as CEO in April 2011.
Jakob was previously CCO & CFO of Egalet Ltd. a Danish based biotech company focusing on development of pain products. Jakob oversaw all commercial operations including IP and Financing and was responsible for entering into 8 commercial collaborations (licensing and feasibility stage agreements). In addition Jakob closed several rounds of financing and also the transition of the business from a Danish legal entity into the UK legal entity.
Prior to this Jakob was heading the Corporate Business Development function at ALK-Abelló A/S, a Danish biopharmaceutical company. Jakob was responsible for ALK’s deals for its allergy tablet portfolio and over his 9 year tenure, was involved with ALK’s acquisitions made over the years with target companies in Switzerland, France, New York and a joint venture in Germany.
Jakob was responsible for setting up ALK-Abelló’s Chinese subsidiary and he also took part in the processes to independently list ALK on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. Jakob has additionally held responsibility for various sales and marketing functions.
Jakob is a lawyer by training and trained with the law-firm Arup & Hvidt in Copenhagen. He also holds an MBA from Imperial College, UK.
May Britt Dyvelkov, Chief Financial Officer
May Britt assumed her role as CFO in November 2008.
May Britt have been working in finance her entire career. She has been in leading financial positions for several IT companies, most recently as CFO of the Icelandic IT reseller Kerfi A/S (since 2001). Prior to joining Kerfi she held the position of CFO in EET Nordic for 6 years. May has been creating financial systems and implemented them to fit companies growing from 7 to 70 employees, and has been part of several mergers and acquisition.
Helle Fisker, VP Sales & Marketing
Helle assumed her role as Vice President of Sales & Marketing in March 2012.
Helle came from a role as head of European marketing for the histopathology division at Leica Microsystems. Before this she held several positions within Global Product Marketing with Danish based diagnostic legacy Dako, where she provided leadership to the reagent side of the business and was responsible for close to 70% of the turnover of their pathology business.
Originally sales and marketing trained in the pharmaceutical industry where Helle worked within US based companies GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly being responsible for a wide range of products from oncology over vaccines to antipsychotic and ulcer treatments. In her carrier Helle has built a strong international experience in the areas of medical/diagnostic sales and marketing along with product lifecycle management and specifications for new product development for a global audience.
Helle holds a M.Sc. in Biotech Engineering from Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark (1997) and has added a Marketing MBA Diploma from Copenhagen Business School (CBS) (2005).
Claus Berner, Senior Consultant
Claus assumed his role as Management Team Member of ViroGates in September 2008 and has since then mainly focused on strategy formulation, development of the company’s sales and marketing function as well as driving key projects.
Claus has worked within the Life Science sector his entire career. Most recently he held the position as Global Marketing Director at US based Hollister Inc. providing leadership to the global ostomy business in the areas of new product development, business development and global marketing. Prior to joining Hollister, Claus served with Danish Blood Gas pioneer, Radiometer Medical A/S in key international sales and marketing positions in Denmark, the UK and Spain.
Claus holds a M.Sc. in Economics from Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Denmark (1985) and participates actively in various network groups within biotechnology, marketing and management development.
