Our team

Martin Plambech

Chief Executive Officer

For several years, Martin has worked with global business development within Novozymes, where he was responsible for commercializing new biotech platforms to new markets.

Responsibilities included building global partnerships and strategy development & execution.

Martin has also worked for Boston Consulting Group in both Europe and Australia and on projects involving M&A due diligence, strategy development, operational effectiveness, and PMI management.

Finally, Martin has execution and management experience from roles such as Head of Sales within Hilti Denmark and as a First Lieutenant of the Reserve in the Danish Army.

E-mail: mp(at)biosyntia.com

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Hans Genee

CSO and Co-Founder

Hans did his doctoral and postdoctoral training in biotechnology at the NNF Center for Biosustainability at the Technical University of Denmark with additional training from Harvard University in the group of Professor George Church and UC Berkeley / the Joint Bio-Energy Institute in the group of professor Jay Keasling.

Hans holds personal awards for Exceptional Achievements (McKinsey & Co.), Top 10 European Biotech Entrepreneurs under 30, and has authored numerous scientific papers and patents. Hans co-founded Biosyntia and currently heads the R&D.

E-mail: hjg(at)biosyntia.com

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Joe Power

Sales Director

Joe has previously worked in the food industry for over 8 years. He holds a BSc in Nutraceuticals for Health and Nutrition from the Technical University of Ireland, and a diploma in Business Management from the Irish Management Institute. He worked with Kerry Taste and Nutrition for 8.5 years, initially as an R&D graduate, before later moving into a Key Account Manager role. He has worked across multiple technologies in his career, e.g. flavours, seasonings, yeasts, and with numerous regional and global customers.   His interests are in understanding market trends and helping our customers to launch innovative new solutions to the market.

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Raimo van der Linden

Scale up & Production

Raimo is working for Biosyntia as an external consultant. He is managing our Scale up & Production, supporting the scale up of Biosyntia’s products to the market.

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Daniel Warming

Senior Manager, Finance and Operations

Daniel has a Msc in Applied Economics and Finance from Copenhagen Business School. He specializes in business partnering and business controlling. He comes with finance experience from the consulting firms PwC and Valtech, consumer goods company PVH (Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, etc.) and SOS international.

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Susanne Germann

Principal Scientist, Head of Strain Development

Susanne is a metabolic engineering scientist at Biosyntia and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Copenhagen.

Susanne has more than 10 years of experience in both Academia and Biotech Industry in engineering cell factories for production of both small molecules and secreted proteins.

Susanne is dedicated to developing biosustainable ways of production, and is currently focused on building the strain construction platform for yeast at Biosyntia.

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Joshua Rey Torres

Senior Scientist

Joshua is a vital member of our process development team, specializing in strain development, product recovery, and in-depth analysis of both products and intermediates.

He has a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry form the University of Utah.

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David Lennox-Hvenekilde

Ph.D., Senior Scientist

David holds a M.Sc. Eng. Biotechnology from DTU and an Industrial Ph.D. in Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering from DTU Biosustain, which he carried out in collaboration with Biosyntia. David is currently focused on building up the state-of-the-art strain construction capabilities at Biosyntia.

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Silvia Peri

Research Scientist

Silvia is a Research Scientist in Strain Engineering and screening at Biosyntia. She holds a B. Sc. degree in Biotechnology at the University of Padua and a M. Sc. in Sustainable Biotechnology at Aalborg University. Silvia is enthusiastic about finding microbial solutions to relevant environmental issues. She has experience in the implementation of microbial cell factories for the sustainable production of high value products.

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Periklis Sotiris

Research Scientist

After Periklis completed a Diploma in Chemical Engineering with specialization in Food Technology, he decided to do a MSc in Biotechnology. In that way he can combine his Process Engineering skills with Molecular Biology as he strongly believe that the connection between the two fields is critical for the industry.

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Jonathan Thompson Wood

Research Scientist

Jonathan is a chemistry graduate from University of Manchester, specialising in chromatography and mass spectrometry.

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Ayalah Willumsgaard

Senior Laboratory Technician

Ayalah manages the day-to-day activities within the laboratory, like assuring a safe and comfortable working environment, effective operation of equipment, availability of required supplies and assisting researchers on project-related tasks.

Ayalah is an educated Laboratory Technician from Professionshøjskolen Metropol.

She has over 15 years of microbiology working experience from both Copenhagen University and the private pharmaceutical sector.

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Jon Jensen

Laboratory Technician

Jon is educated as Laboratory Technician from Københavns Professionshøjskole, and passed his final exam with highest marks. He is a part of our Strain and Fermentation Development team.

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Valdemar Kjerulff

Student Assistant

Valdemar is a first-year MSc. of Biotechnology student from the University of Copenhagen with a desire to use his future career to contribute towards a more sustainable global food system. He is at the moment assisting with cleaning and other assignments in our laboratory.

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Maryam Waqar

Laboratory Technician Trainee

Maryam is our Laboratory Technician Trainee, and she is working in our Downstream Process and Analytical Chemistry Teams.

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Lukas Bohne Bovbjerg

Student Assistant

As Student Assistant, Lukas makes sure that our bioreactors are clean and he also helps out with general laboratory related duties.

Lukas finished his bachelor in Biotechnology in 2022.

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Buster Zeilau Jensen

Laboratory Technician Trainee

Buster is our Laboratory Technician Trainee, and he is working in our Fermentation and Analytical Chemistry Teams.

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Magnus Hertz

Student Assistant

Magnus works in the Administration and assist with various office assignments and organising events.

He is a first year student pursuing a Bachelor of Science in International Business at Copenhagen Business School.

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Board

Henrik Dalbøge

Working Chairman

Henrik has through more than 30 years been involved in the establishment and growth of the international biotech and life science industry in Denmark. Henrik has worked in Chr. Hansen, Novozymes, Novo Nordisk, and Nordisk Gentofte, from where he has substantial business, strategy and scientific experience in industries ranging from biopharmaceuticals, food ingredients, animal feed, dietary supplement, and infant nutrition. He has been responsible for development of several commercialized products both within the biopharmaceutical- and the industrial biotechnology area, and he has led the creation of successful business operations with high and very profitable growth rates.

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Joško Bobanović

Board Member

Joško Bobanović joined Sofinnova Partners in 2010 as a partner focused on the industrial biotech strategy. He works on early stage deals in Europe and North America with applications in chemicals, agriculture, food, and materials. Prior to joining Sofinnova Partners, he was part of the investment team at iNovia Capital in Montreal, Canada. Joško sits on the boards of Metgen, Comet Bio, DNA Script, Biosyntia, DMC Biotechnologies, Pyrowave and Protera Biosciences. Before going into venture capital, he created an internet startup and a software company. He is a mentor at BIRD Incubator, which helps entrepreneurs in software, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

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Søren Carlsen

Board member

Søren was CSO of Novozymes/Novo Nordisk Enzyme Business 1994-2000 and Managing Partner of Novo Ventures and Novo Seeds 2000-2015. Søren co-founded “Dansk Biotek” (Danish association of Biotech Companies) in 1987 and was chairman from 1994-2012. He has extensive leadership and operational experience and has for the last 15 years been involved in Board work in various Danish and international companies in the life science sector.

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Thomas Grotkjær

Board Member

Thomas joined Novo Holdings in September 2017 as Principal in Novo Seeds. He focuses on investments in the area of industrial biotechnology, also known as white biotechnology. Prior to joining Novo Seeds, Thomas worked as independent consultant and as Senior Business Development Manager in Novozymes. He has advised startup companies and research institutions on biotechnology and business development. In addition, he introduced advanced yeast technology to the biofuel industry and built a portfolio of biochemical projects in Novozymes. Earlier in his career, Thomas played a leading role in raising venture capital and developing the nutraceutical product portfolio in the metabolic engineering company Fluxome Sciences. He also held positions in biotechnology research and process engineering at Toftejorg (Alfa Laval), Carlsberg and BASF.Thomas obtained his MSc in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Denmark in 2001 and a PhD in metabolic engineering and bioinformatics in 2005 from the same university. He also has two graduate diplomas in business administration from Copenhagen Business School, marketing management in 2007 and finance in 2010.

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Michael Nettersheim

Board Member

Michael Nettersheim is a co-founder and General Partner of the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund, where he focuses on industrial biotechnology, bio-based chemicals and materials. Before co-founding ECBF, Michael served as investment professional at BASF Venture Capital, where he led Bioeconomy and chemistry related investments in companies such as Lanzatech, P2 Science and NanoH2O (all USA). Michael started his investor life at Europe’s largest seed fund, HGTF (Germany). Previously, he held the position as a Director Corporate Finance and Investor Relations at a publicly listed MediGene AG (Germany). Michael holds an MBA from Kellogg-WHU and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Bonn.

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Sara Sande

Board Member

Sara is the Investment Director & Head of AgriFood & Energy at The Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO), where she focuses on finding and developing green start-ups and growth companies. In close collaboration with international investors, she discovers and develops scalable, innovative companies with global ambitions. Before Vækstfonden, Sara served as VP of Global Commercial Development at Cooper Surgical and various positions as Head of Sales at Novozymes. She is also on the Board of Directors of 4 companies. Sara holds a Master in Economics from The University of Copenhagen.

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Graham Ellis

Board Observer

Graham is the Managing Partner of Praesidium’s AgriFoodTech Fund based in St James, London. He is an internationally experienced manager who spent the majority of his career driving the commercialisation of new technologies and products specifically in the areas of human nutrition, animal feed ingredients, aquaculture, renewable fuels and chemicals.

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Jowita Sewerska

Board Observer

Jowita is an Investment Director at European Circular Bioeconomy Fund. Within ECBF, she is involved in particular in the spaces of industrial biotechnology and foodtech. She started the investor adventure in 2014, and since then she engaged with companies across sectors such as food ingredients, consumer goods, chemicals, materials, animal health products. Jowita holds a degree in Computer Science and Econometrics and in Quantitative Finance. She is also a CFA charterholder.

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Advisors

Dr. Hans-Peter Hohmann Industry Expert

Advisor

Has over 30 years of experience with biobased vitamin production from Roche Vitamins and DSM Nutritional products. As a world leading authority on biobased vitamins Dr. Hohmann has developed biobased processes for various compounds, including. vitamin B2 and vitamin C.

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Dr. Bernhard Hauer, Industry Expert

Advisor

Is head of the Institute of Technical Biochemistry and professor at the University of Stuttgart. Prior to his university career he was Vice President of Research and head of the biocatalysis research group at BASF SE, Ludwigshafen. He is active on several advisory boards, editorial boards as well as scientific societies.

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Investors

Novo Holding is a global investor in the Life Science industry and invests at all stages of development. Today, Novo Holdings invests and manages assets valued at more than €47 billion and holds 76 portfolio companies. Working out of Copenhagen, San Francisco, and Boston, Novo Holdings is a world-leading life science investor with a focus on creating long-term value.

Established in 1999, Novo Holdings is the holding company of the Novo Group and manages the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s investment assets. Novo Holdings is the major shareholder in the Novo Group companies Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S.

Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm in life sciences, specializing in healthcare and sustainability. Based in Paris, London and Milan, the firm brings together a team of professionals from all over the world with strong scientific, medical, and business expertise. Sofinnova Partners actively partners with ambitious entrepreneurs as a lead or cornerstone investor to develop transformative innovations that have the potential to positively impact our collective future.

Founded in 1972, Sofinnova Partners is a deeply-established venture capital firm in Europe, with 50 years of experience backing over 500 companies and creating market leaders around the globe. Today, Sofinnova Partners has over €2.5 billion under management. For more information, please visit: www.sofinnovapartners.com/

The European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) invests growth capital in ambitious and visionary entrepreneurs and encourages private and public investors to assist in the development of late-stage bioeconomy companies. The fund aims to make sustainable investments in our future and speed up the shift from a fossil-based to a circular, bio-based economy.

Headquartered in Bonn and with a total fund volume of € 300m, to which the European Investment Bank (EIB) has committed
€100 million, ECBF will be an important financial instrument in achieving the European Green Deal goals of making Europe climate-neutral by 2050.
For more information, please visit: www.ecbf.vc

Vækstfonden is the Danish state's financing fund, and they work to strengthen Danish companies' access to venture capital so that they can create new innovation, growth and jobs. In close partnerships with banks and private investors from home and abroad,

Vækstfonden finance companies in all industries across the country. And they can be with them all the way - from the company's start, through high growth to the journey out onto the global markets and IPOs.The companies
Vækstfonden has co-financed since 1992 have today a total turnover of more than DKK 117 billion. DKK and employs approx. 75,000 employees spread across the country. Read about Vækstfonden here: https://www.vf.dk/en/

Praesidium is a private investment company which invests in the best opportunities in Private Equity, Venture Capital, Private Debt and Infrastructure globally, across the most attractive verticals.
Praesidium draws on one of the most experienced senior teams in Private Markets. Each Senior Investment Committee member has over 30 years experience.

Praesidium was founded in 2016 by a group of highly experienced European and American professionals from international Private Eqity, consulting and banking, with a shared vision to create a truly innovative model for successfully investing "thematically" in Private Markets.
Read more about Praesidium here: https://www.praesidium.eu